Sebastian Vettel, red Bull-Renault
Sebastian Vettel (1:13.791) claimed his third successive pole but his first in Germany by just two thousandths of a second from Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari (1:13.793). Their respective team mates, Felipe Massa (1:14.290) and Mark Webber (1:14.347) share the second row of the Hockenheim grid.
“It would be interesting to calculate just how much two thousandths actually is in terms of distance,” Vettel grinned. “Fernando was very strong and we knew it was going to be difficult. I had to push really hard. Q3 was exciting and you can be easily led into a mistake here. My last run wasn’t 100% but it was just enough. And I think, unlike Silverstone, the clean side of the grid is worth quite a bit here, so hopefully I’ll get a good start.”
Alonso was happy with his first front row start of the year rather than disappointed at missing out so narrowly on the pole. “It’s a big step forward,” he said. “The car has been competitive all weekend and I’m very confident. The points are on Sunday not Saturday, so I will just stay focused — we’re going in the right direction. It’s good to be fighting for a pole after 10 races — a bit longer than I wanted — but good nevertheless.”
The McLarens share the third row with Jenson Button (1:14.427) outqualifying Lewis Hamilton (1:14.566) for the first time since China back in April. After the 2008 champion there was a half second gap to Robert Kubica’s Renault (1:15.079), the Pole just three hundredths quicker than Rubens Barrichello (1:15.109) who put his Cosworth-powered AT&T Williams into the top 10 for the sixth time this season.
Michael Schumacher was a tenth quicker than Nico Rosberg in Q1 but Nico turned the tables to pip Michael by a hundredth in Q2, which was enough to eliminate Schumacher from the Q3 shoot-out. Rosberg (1:15.179) went on to qualify ninth with Nico Hulkenberg (1:15.339) making it both Williams-Cosworths in the top 10 for the third time in 2010.
After Virgin Racing claimed new team honours on the opening day, Lotus Racing was back in the ascendancy in qualifying, with Jarno Trulli (1:17.583) qualifying 18th fastest overall, just 0.9s behind Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso.
