Heidfeld takes maiden pole
German driver Nick Heidfeld was the fastest today with a time of 1:30.081. Quick Nick took his first pole ever in Formula One and did it in front of his home fans. He will be joined on the front row by Kimi Raikkonen while championship leader Alonso did not get further than a 6th place on tomorrow's starting grid.
It should however be noted that this is the first race that includes only one qualifying session, meaning that the cars are driving on new tires with the fuel load they will start the race with. The final qualifying result is therefore a little more influenced by race strategy (namely the length of the first stint) than before.
On the second row are the second Williams of Mark Webber and Jarno Trulli, who was in provisional pole during the session for quite a long time. Behind them is McLaren's Columbian and Fernando Alonso. It may be a difficult race for Alonso towards the champioship. He has both McLarens in front of him with 4 places splitting him and Kimi.
In seventh is Rubens Barrichello who beats tenth placed Michael Schumacher by 3 tenths of a second. In between the two Ferrari's are R. Schumacher and Fisichella, half a second slower than his Spanish teammate.
Jenson Button only managed a 13th time and may have expected more from his return to the racing circuit. The team earlier this weekend requested to use new Honda engines without a penalty this weekend but was rejected by the FIA. The 5 week old Honda engines are of an older specification than currently available from Honda and are turned down to make them last the race.
Here are the complete results:
Pos. Driver Team Time
1 N. Heidfeld Williams 1:30.081
2 K. Räikkönen McLaren 1:30.197
3 M. Webber Williams 1:30.368
4 J. Trulli Toyota 1:30.700
5 JP. Montoya McLaren 1:30.890
6 F. Alonso Renault 1:31.056
7 R. Barrichello Ferrari 1:31.249
8 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:31.392
9 G. Fisichella Renault 1:31.566
10 M. Schumacher Ferrari 1:31.585
11 F. Massa Sauber 1:32.305
12 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:32.553
13 J. Button BAR 1:32.594
14 V. Liuzzi Red Bull 1:32.642
15 J. Villeneuve Sauber 1:32.891
16 T. Sato BAR 1:32.936
17 T. Monteiro Jordan 1:35.047
18 P. Friesacher Minardi 1:35.954
19 N. Karthikeyan Jordan 1:36.192
20 C. Albers Minardi 1:36.239
