Formula 1 News

Brazilian Grand Prix Qualifiers: amazing pole for Felipe Massa 

Felipe Massa beat the title contenders to pole position at Interlagos after an amazing performance in qualifying. Championship leader Lewis Hamilton will join Massa on the front row, with Kimi Raikkonen beating Fernando Alonso to third.

Massa was a comfortable four tenths of a second clear of his rivals after the first runs in Q3, and then improved his time by 0.2 seconds with his second lap. Hamilton managed to go faster in the middle sector, but didn’t quite have enough speed in the final part of the lap and missed pole by a tenth of a second. Alonso had only been fifth quickest behind Red Bull’s Mark Webber at first, but improved on his final run to take fourth, 0.034 seconds slower than third-placed Raikkonen.

Although Webber was unable to hang on to his top four spot, he still finished the session in a superb fifth place, with teammate David Coulthard completed a strong qualifying performance for Red Bull in ninth. The BMWs took sixth and seventh, with Nick Heidfeld out-qualifying Robert Kubica with his last run after trailing the Pole throughout Q1, Q2 and the first Q3 runs.

Jarno Trulli recovered from a poor practice to take eighth, with Nico Rosberg filling the final top ten spot. Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen made a shock early departure from qualifying when he missed the Q1 cut by 0.024 seconds. The Finn will start 17th on the grid after a costly error at the final corner. It was a disappointing session for the team, as Kovalainen’s teammate Giancarlo Fisichella only reached 12th. Rubens Barrichello continued to show good form at home and came within 0.044 seconds of reaching Q3. He had to be content with 11th, but still out-qualified teammate Jenson Button for the first time since the Nurburgring, as the Briton struggled to 16th.

Both Toro Rossos escaped Q1 once again. Sebastian Vettel and Vitantonio Liuzzi will share the seventh row, ahead of Ralf Schumacher in his last start for Toyota. Debutant Kazuki Nakajima had looked well-matched with Williams teammate Rosberg in Friday practice, but the GP2 graduate did not fare so well in his first F1 qualifying session and only managed 19th, between the two Super Aguris. The Spykers completed the back row. Although Adrian Sutil’s car ground to a halt with a fuel pressure problem after his first Q1 flying lap, he still managed to qualify ahead of teammate Sakon Yamamoto.

source: autosport