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Fernando Alonso
(Renault/Michelin) blitzed his rivals during final qualifying for the
Hungarian Grand Prix. The 22-year-old Spaniard lapped in 1m 21.688s to
take pole by 0.256 seconds. It is the second time this season that he will
start from the front of
the grid, and he has done it at a track on which overtaking is
traditionally difficult. This season, however, circuit changes have been
implemented in an effort to spice up the racing.
Alonso's lap was the cream on a dominant qualifying session for Michelin,
whose drivers took nine of the top 12 places. "it is a great feeling to
get my second position. Our car has been competitive since the start of
the week-end and I don't see any reason why that should change. There is
nothing special to say about Michelin tyres, they are working very well
and I hope it will be the same until the end of the season." said the
Spanish.
Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya (BMW WilliamsF1 Team) were second
and fourth respectively. The Colombian admits this is not his favourite
circuit: he has failed to score points here during each of the previous
two seasons and this has been his best performance so far in Hungary.
"The car felt really goof during today's qualifying. I could have gone
quicker than I actually did but after being very fast in sector one I took
the conservative way and really paces myself because I wanted to make sure
to get a good lap in. I am fighting for the championship especially with
Michael, of course, and the most important thing is starting ahead of him,
tomorrow." said Juan-Pablo.
Jaguar star Mark Webber will line up third for the second time this year,
despite running slightly wide and kicking up the dirt in Turn 11. " His
team-mate Justin Wilson secured the best qualifying position of his
Formula One career to date. The Englishman bounced back from a problematic
opening day -- when he clipped a kerb and ruined his lap -- to post the
12th best time.
Alonso's team-mate Jarno Trulli (sixth) was fastest in the opening session
but made a couple of small errors today. Kimi Räikkönen and David
Coulthard were seventh and ninth for McLaren-Mercedes. Olivier Panis
(Toyota/Michelin) rounded out the top 10, but
his team-mate Cristiano da Matta has had a difficult time. After spinning
during his first qualifying run, he slid off again during this morning's
free practice session and then lost control for a third time during the
pre-qualifying warm-up. He put together a clean lap this afternoon but was
only 15th.
British driver Ralph Firman won't take part in the race. His Jordan-Ford
suffered a rear wing failure in this morning's free practice session and
Firman crashed at high speed. He hit the barriers with a force estimated
at 46g and suffered bruising and mild concussion. He will remain in
hospital overnight but is expected to return to the track in time to watch
the race. Local driver Zsolt Baumgartner, an FIA F3000 racer who has been
testing for Jordan, will take his place. Baumgartner is the first
Hungarian to contest a world championship grand prix and he starts 19th.
Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin Motorsport Director, commented on various
topics.
SPANISH STROLL
Spaniard Fernando Alonso (Renault) secured Michelin's seventh pole
position of the season during qualifying for tomorrow's Hungarian Grand
Prix. As has become customary in recent Formula One races, Michelin teams
dominated the session and took nine of the top 12 grid positions. Ralf
Schumacher (BMW WilliamsF1 Team, second), Mark Webber (Jaguar, third),
Juan Pablo Montoya (BMW WilliamsF1 Team, fourth), Jarno Trulli (Renault,
sixth), Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren-Mercedes, seventh), David Coulthard
(McLaren-Mercedes, ninth), Olivier Panis (Toyota, 10th) and Justin Wilson
(Jaguar, 12th) are all well placed to challenge for points tomorrow.
Michelin motorsport director Pierre Dupasquier said: "It is very
satisfying to see all five of our partner teams in the top 10. Once again
this reflects how well our tyres are performing. When things are going
very well, as they did yesterday, you are always concerned that your
rivals might have something up their sleeves, but today's result confirms
that we have the upper hand."
FAST AND CONSISTENT WITH IT
Alonso praised the performance of his tyres as he sped to the second pole
position of his young Formula One career -- and Michelin F1 programme
manager Pascal Vasselon emphasised that consistency had been foremost in
his engineers' minds as they prepared for Budapest.
He said: "This race is a bit like Monaco, because it has always been very
difficult to overtake. That makes it vital to qualify at the front, but
while you would tend to run an ultra-soft tyre compound you cannot really
do that here. A tyre would not survive even a single lap. We initially
thought that we might have taken a slightly too conservative approach, but
qualifying indicates that our calculations were correct."
SOME LIKE IT HOT
So far, we have no worries in term of wear rate with our two dry-weather
compounds but most of our competitors will concentrated on one of them.
Pierre Dupasquier said: "You must never be complacent in Formula One and
we will be keeping a close eye on trac k conditions. The circuit evolved
substantially between this morning's two free practice sessions but has
been reasonably stable since. That said, lots of rubber has now gone down
and in track temperatures approaching 50 degrees this can turn into a kind
o f rubberised jam. It is conceivable that the track will change again
tomorrow, but I am confident that we will be in good shape whatever the
conditions." |
