Qualifying: Alonso 2nd, as Hamilton crashes

By Luke Marc Carlile-Stanton
July 22 2007

Ferrari star Kimi Raikkonen took pole position for the European Grand Prix at the legendary Nurburgring circuit in Germany. Fernando Alonso was 2nd for Mclaren and team mate Lewis Hamilton was tenth.... after a faulty gun caused his tyre to deflate, sending Hamilton flying into the tyre barriers at the newly renamed Schumacher S. Lewis will have his work cut out at maintaining his podium streak.

The Finnish driver ended the session on a time of 1.31.550 ahead of reigning World Champion Fernando Alonso in the Mclaren. Raikkonen's team mate, Brazilian Felipe Massa was third fastest. Three of the four had the top three positions but the fourth was absent. British rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton has a massive off at the newly named 'Michael Schumacher S' in the third session. Qualifying was delayed for half an hour while Lewis was checked out and taken to the medical centre and the wreckage of the MP4-22 was cleared up. Ron Dennis emerged from the medical centre reporting that Hamilton was fine, but it is still up in the air if the British driver will take the start tomorrow. If he does he will start in 10^th place, but if he takes the spare he will be starting from the Pit Lane. Either way he will struggle to continue his amazing run of podiums.

The BMW-Sauber drivers of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica were in 4^th and 5^th places. As well as racing at his home race this weekend, Heidfeld became a father for the second time in the early hours of this morning, congratulations to the Heidfeld family! Red Bull Racing's Australian star Mark Webber finished a season best 6^th just ahead of Renault's Heikki Kovalainen, humbling team mate Giancarlo Fisichella and showing Flavio Briatore why he deserves his place on the 2008 Formula 1 Grid. He just needs to end his run of bad luck and convert another great Qualifying into a race result.

The Toyota duo of Italian Jarno Trulli and home town hero Ralf Schumacher have shown good pace once again here this weekend and the two drivers were 8^th and 9^th respectively, they will be hoping they can convert their pace from free practice and Qualifying into points. Despite his crash, Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top 10.

The Toyota powered Williams' of Nico Rosberg and Alex Wurz were next up in 11^th and 12^th places. The latter finding his feet in Qualifying after some rather embarrassing first session exits of races gone by. Giancarlo Fisichella was shaded by rookie team mate Heikki Kovalainen and will be disappointed with his 13^th place grid position.

Honda announced this weekend that they will be retaining both drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello for the 2008 season. 2008 can't come soon enough though for the team who are still struggling with their earth liveried RA107 car. Brazilian Barrichello, wound-up in 14^th place whilst his British team mate Jenson Button was knocked out in the first session and finished 17^th. Barrichello finished just ahead of the drivers of the Honda 'B-team', Super Aguri. Briton Anthony Davidson getting the upper hand of Japanese team mate Takuma Sato. The pair finishing a creditable 15^th and 16^th respectively.

Scuderia Toro Rosso are allegadly out in the driver supermarket, looking for a whole new team in 2008. Champ Car star Sebastian Bourdais of France is one contender for the seat whilst the other is Red Bull backed driver Sebastian Vettel, currently testing for BMW-Sauber but also stood in place of Robert Kubica in Canada. But in the meantime, the teams current pairing of American Scott Speed and Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi are making do with what hey have. Speed wound up 18^th in the session with Liuzzi right behind in 19^th.

Scottish Red Bull Veteran David Coulthard was majorly upset to have only qualified in 20^th position. He will struggle from there. Spyker recently dropped Dutchman Christijan Albers due to ''financial reasons'' so his replacement this weekend will be the son the late Touring Car ace Manfred Winkelhock. Manfred's son, the 27-year-old German, Markus Winkelhock struggled in his F1 Qualifying debut finishing nearly 5 seocnds off pole man Raikkonen's time. He will start 22^nd and last just behind fellow German and team mate Adrian Sutil who will start 21^st.

It promises to be an exciting race tommorow for the Grand Prix of Europe from the Nurburgring in Germany. Don't Miss it!!