For the first time in just over 12 months, the front row of a Formula One grid will have an all-silver gleam after Lewis Hamilton took pole position after dominating qualifying – though Heikki Kovalainen nearly took it away from him in the dying seconds.
Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel starts on the second row, recovering well from the engine blow up that curtailed his practice session this morning, but Mark Webber is going to struggle from ninth on the grid. Further back, STR’s Sébastien Buemi did good work to get into Q2, while Jaime Alguersuari will start alongside Luca Badoer on row 10.
First Session
Q1 began with Badoer nosing his way out of the pits for his first competitive run in an F1 car since the late 1990s. Having looked badly off the pace all weekend, the Italian needed as much running as possible. His first full lap was marginally slower than he’d gone in the morning practice session and he was soon beaten.
As the track filled up, Hamilton went fastest, only to be replaced by Kovalainen. Renault rookie Romain Grosjean had a brief off-track moment, but recovered nicely. At the halfway point Williams’ Nico Rosberg was in top spot, but his team-mate Kazuki Nakajima ground to a halt with an engine malfunction.
With five minutes remaining, both Toyotas were in danger of elimination as was, oddly, Mark Webber. The Australian found some speed and leapt up to fifth, only to be eclipsed by Buemi, who went third. Jarno Trulli couldn’t improve, neither could Giancarlo Fisichella and they went out along with Alguersuari and Badoer.
Second Session
Q2 saw Brawn GP on top, with Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello first and second before McLaren re-established their dominance. Grosjean, who had done been doing well to stay close to Fernando Alonso, couldn’t maintain the pace and began to struggle. So too did Sutil who, after going fastest in the morning practice session might have expected better. Both went out, as did Timo Glock and Sébastien Buemi, both of whom had done well to get into Q2 in the first place. Unluckiest was Nick Heidfeld, who will start 11th for a sixth time this year.
Getty Images/RB Photofiles
Third Session
Q3 was curiously anticlimactic: assuming everyone had a sensible fuel load (not always a given in the case of Renault and Alonso) McLaren and their KERS boost looked to have an advantage which dampened the excitement that has surrounded qualifying in recent races.
Barrichello looked the most likely challenger to the McLarens, but going into the final stages it was Hamilton who led. As he and Kovalainen came around for their final lap, the Finn was setting fastest sector times and looked a good bet for his second career pole, but as has been the case with many this weekend, he arrived at the final corner with spent tyres and slithered wide. He had to settle for second.
With P1 in the bag, Hamilton aborted his lap to save fuel for the race. Sebastian Vettel took P4, splitting the Brawns, and Räikkönen will start in sixth.
With considerably more weight than either McLaren or Vettel’s Red Bull, Brawn have obviously decided on a strategy to negate McLaren’s KERS advantage: rather than see the KERS cars leap past at the start, they’ll hope to stay in touch until the first round of pitstops where the extra fuel might allow them to sneak ahead. With Webber struggling, Red Bull Racing will have to hope Vettel can conjure up something spectacular. If not, the momentum may swing back in favour of Brawn.
| Position | Driver | Car | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | 1 | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:39.498 |
| 2 | Heikki Kovalainen | 2 | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:39.532 |
| 3 | Rubens Barrichello | 23 | Brawn-Mercedes | 1:39.563 |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | 15 | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:39.789 |
| 5 | Jenson Button | 22 | Brawn-Mercedes | 1:39.821 |
| 6 | Kimi Raikkonen | 4 | Ferrari | 1:40.144 |
| 7 | Nico Rosberg | 16 | Williams-Toyota | 1:40.185 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | 7 | Renault | 1:40.236 |
| 9 | Mark Webber | 14 | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:40.239 |
| 10 | Robert Kubica | 5 | BMW-Sauber | 1:40.185 |
| 11 | Nick Heidfeld | 6 | BMW-Sauber | 1:38.826 |
| 12 | Adrian Sutil | 20 | Force India-Mercedes | 1:38.846 |
| 13 | Timo Glock | 10 | Toyota | 1:38.991 |
| 14 | Romain Grosjean | 8 | Renault | 1:39.040 |
| 15 | Sébastien Buemi | 12 | Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:39.514 |
| 16 | Giancarlo Fisichella | 21 | Force India-Mercedes | 1:39.531 |
| 17 | Kazuki Nakajima | 17 | Williams-Toyota | 1:39.795 |
| 18 | Jarno Trulli | 9 | Toyota | 1:39.807 |
| 19 | Jaime Alguersuari | 11 | Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:39.925 |
| 20 | Luca Badoer | 3 | Ferrari | 1:41.413 |
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