Formula One news

Alonso steals controversial pole from Hamilton

Fernando Alonso stole a controversial pole position from Lewis Hamilton at the Hungaroring this afternoon after he appeared to block his McLaren team-mate from completing a final flying lap. This allowed the Spaniard to take pole ahead of his team mate and Nick Heidfeld in third.

Under sunny skies and hot conditions the first qualifying session got underway. Lewis Hamilton set the early pace with a 1m19.570s to finish clear of the rest of the field while Button, Barrichello, Sato, Vettel, Sutil and Yamamoto all dropped out.

In the second session Massa suffered a technical problem as he tried to leave the pits and his Ferrari just ground to a halt. Mechanics sprinted down to the stricken car and quickly hauled it back to the garage. The team got the Brazilian back out on track with just three minutes remaining, but something still wasn't right and he could only manage a lowly fourteenth, dropping out with Coulthard, Kovalainen, Wurz, Davidson and Liuzzi.

Lewis Hamilton set the early pace in the final pole shoot-out on a 1m19.781s lap but there was quite some drama to come. For the final run, Alonso came in ahead of Hamilton - the British driver waiting behind him. The mechanics lifted Alonso's lollipop, but the reigning champion did not respond. He stood his ground in the pits, holding Hamilton up for several seconds while the McLaren pit wall waved furiously at him.

The net effect was Hamilton could not get out in time to complete another flying lap while Alonso went through to take pole by just over 0.1s. McLaren boss Ron Dennis was furious at the end of the session, collaring Alonso's personal trainer and marching him back to the team's motorhome.

With the fallout to await, Alonso took pole ahead of Hamilton and Heidfeld in third. Kimi Raikkonen couldn't manage better than fourth for Ferrari while Nico Rosberg was a strong fifth for Williams. Ralf Schumacher took sixth ahead of Kubica, Fisichella, Trulli and Webber.

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