Webber keeps his cool to take pole at Spa

Qualifying top three: Robert Kubica (third), Mark Webber (pole position) Red Bull Racing, pole position and Lewis Hamilton (second)

Aug.28 (YallaF1.com) Formula 1 World Championship points leader Mark Webber will start from pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps after overcoming demanding conditions which prevailed throughout the session.

Mark Webber on his way to his fifth pole position of the season

Webber’s pole lap was set on his first run in Q3 when the track was at it’s driest after spells of dry, wet, dry and wet again. The dry and the wet varying in intensity throughout the one hour session, that was briefly interrupted early on.

Most of the heavy hitters were expecting a second run, which they got, but by then rain was spitting down again and in the space of a few minutes the track was over a second slower again.

Thus Webber was boss in the Ardennes with a time of 1 minute 45.778 seconds! That’s 12 out of 13 pole positions and the Aussie’s fifth so far this season.

“It is certainly a nice venue to get pole position. The conditions were difficult and we were all tested,” said Webber afterwards. “It was a good lap but you never know whether it’s going to be enough. Lewis did a pretty good lap to get second when La Source was pretty greasy. But the race won’t be won on the first lap tomorrow.”

Lewis Hamilton will start from the front row

Lewis Hamilton, as is his custom, dug deep to put  the McLaren Mercedes on the front row of the grid with a startling lap right at the end of the session – the only driver to go quicker on his second run when the conditions were fast deteriorating.

He said afterwards, “These conditions are the toughest for racing because you are constantly having to re-evaluate your grip levels. It’s an art and you can get caught out so easily. But the good thing is the car is handling very well and I am excited about the race.”

Heading the second row on the grid will be Renault’s Robert Kubica who looked set for a front row slot, only to be demoted to third by Hamilton’s last gasp flier. Nevertheless Poland’s finest will be extremely happy that his team has managed to effectively plug and play their F-duct system out the box.

Robert Kubica made the most of new F-ducts on his Renault R30

Kubica said, “Third is maybe surprisingly good, but yesterday and this morning we were right there, so it’s a good feeling,. I think Red Bull is out of reach and McLaren is very fast. We will try our best and see.”

Fourth fastest was Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel who was probably relying on a final run to challenge for top spot, but it was not to be for the young German who again sees his older team mate get the better of him in qualifying, this time when it really is starting to matter.

Jenson Button, who has not looked as at ease as his team mate this weekend, was fifth fastest and will head up row three which he will share with the Ferrari of Felipe Massa. The Brazilian coming good after being overshadowed by his title contending team mate Fernando Alonso for most of the weekend.

Felipe Massa got the better of his Ferrari team mate

Ferrari badly miscalculated matters and Alonso fluffed his first run in Q3 and found out to his annoyance that the track was no longer offering the pace to challenge for top spot on the grid when he went out for his second run. They will be disappointed because pole position was a high priority and highly possible for the Maranello boys.

Alonso will start tenth but remained optimistic when speaking to Spanish journalists afterwards, “This was the least important qualifying of the year because of the weather. Anything can happen so our goal is still the podium and victory,”

But Ferrari did not mince their words on Twitter, “Not a good session, it will be a tough race tomorrow.”

The 300 Grand Prix man, Rubens Barrichello, who revels in the conditions that prevailed powered the Williams to seventh on the grid with his rookie team mate impressing with the ninth best time. The Grove squad will be pleased with the performance.

Splitting the Cosworth powered cars was Adrian Sutil who has looked up for it throughout the weekend in his Force India. The German will start from eighth.

Q1: Petrov makes silly mistake and  Saubers fail in chaotic session

Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps got underway with sun shining brightly on the pitlane while clouds cast a gloomy shadow on the far end of the circuit, hence the nature of the Ardennes.

Teams were expecting rain around mid-way in the session but it came earlier – who pays those weather prediction guys? They always get it wrong!

Shortly after being unleashed on to the track with drivers no doubt keen to make use of the dry time, Russian rookie Vitaly Petrov did himself no favours by getting onto the painted lines exiting Turn 9, spinning and tapping the barrier. Prompting a five red flag period as the stricken and slightly damaged Renault was removed from harms way.

Petrov explained his error, “I just tried to check out the curb and it was just too wet. But we have a good car and plenty of straight speed with the ‘F-duct’ so we will stay positive for the weekend. I would prefer to qualify top 10 though. It is better to fight from a front position.”

The incident providing a sign of what was to come as with 14 minutes into the session with rain spitting, mayhem erupted in Turn 15 when a batch of the new team drivers, including Jarno Trulli and Lucas di Grassi, tripped over one another causing mass simultaneous avoidance chain reaction with cars all over the place. Fortunately no damage resulted, but it was a very bizarre moment.

When the most chaotic of Q1 sessions ended their were invariably some suprises. Both Saubers did not progress. Kamui Kobayashi missing out in 19th and Pedro de la Rosa going off on slicks at Fagnes and his session ending on the spot, the Spanish veteran will start 22nd.

Jarno Trulli (Lotus) will start from 18th ahead of both the Hispania Racing cars of Bruno Senna and Sakon Yamamoto, but they will not be starting the race from the back row but rather from 20th and 21st respectively.

Di Grassi Virgin racing VR-01 was the worse for wear after colliding with Trulli and the Brazilian rookie will start from 23rd. Petrov failed to do a lap and was classified last.

On the positive side for the new teams both the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen and Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock progressed to Q2 for the first time!

Q2: Early shower for Schumacher and Rosberg

Despite the track drying at a hefty rate (getting about 1 second quicker every couple of minutes at one stage) it was a tricky session as drivers hustled to make the most of the fast drying track.

The tension has been palpable throughout the weekend in the Mercedes GP pit garage. The team are struggling and both their drivers failed to make it into Q1 with Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg only managing 11th and 12th best times respectively. Not good enough!

Both Toro Rosso’s also failed to make it beyond Q2 with Jaime Alguersuari 13th and Sebastien Buemi 15th. The duo were split by Vitantonio Liuzzi who will start the race from 14th has been comprehensively out performed by his Force India team mate Adrian Sutil who was almost a second and a half quicker in the session.

Glock was best of the new team drivers and will head row nine on the grid which he will share with Trulli.

Topping the timing screens at this stage were the McLaren Mercedes pair of Hamilton and Button followed Vettel, Webber, Sutil, Kubica, Massa, Alonso, Barrichello and Hulkenberg.

Penalties:

• Michael Schumacher will drop 10 grid places (his Hungarian GP penalty coming into effect) and thus will start from 21st on the grid. Every driver between 11th and 21st will move up a slot.
• Timo Glock has lost his impressive 17th on the Belgian GP grid with a five-place penalty for impeding HRT’s Sakon Yamamoto in qualifying.

Qualifying – 28 August 2010