Alonso on pole after dubious pitstop

F1 Grand Prix, GP Hungary, Hungaroring

Ron Dennis was visibly furious after Alonso apparently ruined his teammate's final flying lap after waiting too long in the pitlane. Hamilton was therefore unable to complete another flying lap, effectively putting him in 2nd place behind the Spanish World Champion. In between the fuss, Heidfeld is third, ahead of Raikkonen.

As the beginning of qualifying showed, this Grand Prix may well be decided by the temperatures and the use of the tyres during the race. In fact, with 25°C ambient temperature and 40°C on the track surface, it appears as if the harder tyre is the better one. Hamilton set his fastest lap on the harder compound in 1:19.570 and was a full second faster than Massa on the super soft compound.

Newcomer Vettel in the Toro Rosso is still adapting to his new car after having had no private tests with the car before coming to Hungary. Two identical mistakes in the first chicane of the circuit eventually knock him out. He will be 20th. Behind him are the Spykers of Sutil and Yamamoto. Also out are again both Honda's and Takuma Sato who went wide in the last corner and missed the chance to improve on his lap at that time.

Meanwhile during the break it is announced that an incident between Fisichella and Yamamoto is under investigation. Fisichella was about to start a flying lap but in the event held up the Spyker driver in the last corner.

Session 2 is a troubled one for Felipe Massa. He is out with Raikkonen but messes up his last corner and puts in the 14th time, leaving him 6 minutes for another attempt. 2 minutes later he leaves his pitcrew onto the pitlane exit but stalls at the end of the pitlane. 8 Ferrari men rush to the exit to roll the car back and restart it so that Massa can finally put in a top 10 lap. Surprisingly, he is even unable to do so and fails to improve on his time, even without any visible hindrance from other cars.

Heidfeld on the other hand was also suffering a bit of time trouble but he did manage to get through to the final stage. Knocked out are therefore Coulthard, Kovalainen, Wurz, Massa, Davidson and Liuzzi.

At the start of Q3, Hamilton is waiting in the line ahead of Alonso and Raikkonen. The difference between them in Q2 was in fact surprisingly big as 0.4 seconds split each of them.

The session continues to be an incredible surprise as Alonso was visibly unhappy with the events going on in his first stop and consequently made himself angry. The second stop which McLaren handle just ahead of the finish flag falling, Alonso was again held into the pitlane to get out just ahead of Hamilton and in time. Alonso however didn't like the idea and remained in the pitbox for at least 5 more seconds while Hamilton was simply waiting behind him. As a result, Hamilton crossed the finish line just too late and was unable to complete another flying lap. Alonso on the other hand put the throttle down as hard as he could and grabbed pole position.

McLaren chief Ron Dennis was visibly furious about the happenings and threw his headphones onto the screens at his pitwall. There is for sure going to be a serious discussion to decide whose error it really was, although at first sight it looks to be a deliberate move from Alonso to get the pole position.