HOCKENHEIM (Germany): Ferrari’s Formula 1 championship leader Fernando Alonso defied atrocious conditions to take pole position for the German Grand Prix on Saturday.
The Spaniard was joined on the front row by Red Bull’s double world champion Sebastian Vettel, who will be attempting to win a Grand Prix in his native Germany for the first time.
Vettel’s team mate Mark Webber, second in the championship after nine of the 20 races, was third fastest but the Australian will drop five places after being penalised for an unscheduled gearbox change before qualifying.
Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, fourth fastest for Mercedes in front of his home fans, will therefore move up to third position on the starting grid.
“It was not fun, that’s for sure,” said Alonso of his second pole in a row, with the other coming at a wet Silverstone two weeks ago, and 22nd of his career.
“When you have this type of conditions it’s very difficult to put a clean lap together and very easy to finish in the gravel or in the grass or in the wall.
“It’s a bit of a survival moment. You try to complete the lap and whatever the position is, you are happy,” added the double world champion.
A huge clap of thunder shuddered over the circuit before the start of the second part of qualifying, announcing a deluge which left pools of standing water all over the track.
“In these conditions it’s always a bit of a lottery,” said Vettel, who has yet to win a race in the month of July. “You can lose the car without making any mistake.”
“I think we have shown the car is strong in all conditions,” said Webber. “But it’s never ideal to put ourselves on the back foot by shooting ourselves in the foot
McLaren pair Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, who have had a disappointing last two races, were seventh and eighth fastest after looking quick on Friday with new upgrades but will move up due to Webber’s demotion. Button has out-qualified his team mate for the first time this season.
Germany’s Nico Rosberg, Schumacher’s team mate, and French driver Romain Grosjean for Lotus also have five place penalties for Sunday’s race due to gearbox changes. Neither driver could get into the third qualifying session in the treacherous conditions, anyway.
While the first session was raced in dry conditions, the rain fell just before the start of the second and all teams started out on intermediate tyres.
The rain was only expected to last five minutes, but that forecast proved to be false.
All the drivers went out as soon as the session began, trying to make the best of a bad weather situation. Those who didn’t capitalise on the intermediates were forced to switch to full wet tyres as the rain bucketed down on the track. That left it near impossible to set a quick time, which resulted in top names like Grosjean, Rosberg and Massa being dumped out of Q3.
Q1 almost saw Schumacher relegated as the Mercedes team was determined to run him only on the harder compound tyre even as most others had switched to the faster softer one.
Left with one lap in the dying seconds of the session, Schumacher was down on Jean-Eric Vergne’s time in 17th place (the cut-off for Q2) in the first two sectors, but still managed to pull off something extraordinary to pip the Frenchman by half a second. (Agencies)