Alonso is back with a vengeance in Hungary
Alonso took a surprising pole in qualifying for the Hungarian grand prix
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By Adam Leveridge. |  |
Saturday, 25, Jul 2009 05:00
By Adam Leveridge.
In a frenetic qualifying session at the Hungaroring, Fernando Alonso clinched pole ahead of the Red Bull pairing of Sebastien Vettel and Mark Webber.
Lewis Hamilton with his KERS button will pose a threat to the leading three at the start of tomorrow's grand prix, as he starts from fourth, ahead of Nico Rosberg in the Williams Toyota and his McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen.
Championship leader Jenson Button could only manage eighth behind Kimi Raikkonen, while Rubens Barrichello failed to get through to Q3 and will start from 13th on the grid.
In Q1 Sebastien Buemi set the early pace in his heavily revised Toro Rosso, as he was the first to break into the 1:21s.
Vettel was the first of the championship contenders to set a relatively quick time with a 1:21:590 - his team-mate Webber clocked an identical time just seconds later.
Kimi Raikkonen then went quickest and held on to the top spot for most of the session, but fell down the order when all the runners switched on to super-soft tyres.
Nico Rosberg was the first to set a fully representative time in his Williams, clocking in at 1:20:793.
The German remained at the top of the times at the end of Q1 and Hamilton managed to slot in to second with a last ditch attempt, ahead of the two Red Bulls of Webber and Vettel and Jenson Button's newly upgraded Brawn.
As always Q2 was the first opportunity of the weekend for teams and drivers to directly compare their outright pace against their competitors, with all cars running with a minimal fuel load in an attempt to squeeze through to the top-ten shootout.
Not surprisingly the Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber appeared to have good outright pace as they both set blisteringly quick times right out of the box.
Hamilton found good speed too but didn't make an impression on the two Red Bulls early on.
Rosberg then pulled a quick lap out of the bag with a 1m20.895, but he quickly lost his grip on the top of the times when Fernando Alonso put together a very impressive lap.
A quick lap from Kimi Raikkonen moved last year's Hungarian grand prix winner Kovalainen into the drop-zone, but the McLaren driver got through to the final part of qualifying with another run in the dying seconds of the session.
Hamilton in the other McLaren demonstrated that the pace he showed during practice was no fluke, by setting the second quickest time of the session behind the Red Bull of Vettel who clocked a time of 1m20.358.
Button made it up into sixth place on his final run, but his team-mate Barrichello failed to make it through, ending the session in 13th , after Felipe Massa - who was quick enough to progress into the final phase of qualifying - slammed into the barriers, bringing out the yellow flags.
The start of Q3 was delayed while the medical team stabilised Massa after his collision with the barriers, which was reportedly caused when the Brazilian was hit on the head by a piece of flying debris, just one week after Henry Surtees was killed in a similar accident.
Massa was eventually airlifted to hospital as a precaution after his accident, which meant the final part of qualifying could get underway.
As always, Q3 was frenetic. Rosberg was the first to set a lap in his Williams, but he was followed over the line by Alonso who, perhaps light on fuel, set a time of 1:22.717 and then followed that up with a 1m22:293; a lap time which would eventually clinch pole position for tomorrow's race.
Vettel and Webber set the second and third quickest times in Q3, but will have the fast starting McLaren of Hamilton directly behind them on the grid.
Rosberg will start from fifth position alongside Hamilton, and Kovalainen in the second McLaren finds himself on the third row of the grid in sixth.
We have yet to receive confirmation on Massa's condition, but he is said to be stable and talking.
Adam Leveridge