Ferrari starts first and last tomorrow
By Jay
September 25 2010
Once again Fernando Alonso put his posted the best lap time on his penultimate run that saw his snatch the pole position from Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull.
Alonso posted the fastest time in his second last run, and then what followed was a breathtaking final flying lap by both the drivers, with Vettel going faster in sector-1, while Alonso got better in sector-2.
Surprisingly, both of them however fell short of beating it, even though Alonso was still faster in the final lap.
It was a very special moment for Alonso as the Red Bulls were faster in all the practice session, and this pole positon came as a surprise to many.
"No words, fantastic job today," said Alonso on the Ferrari team radio. "Really well done."
While Vettel sounded upset with how things went, "It was a pretty messy qualifying for us. I never really got into the rhythm. I got a little bit of traffic, just didn't get it into one lap as I did in qualifying. In the first run I misjudged the gap to the car ahead. After four or five corners I was already in the back of Michael. Second run, I had a good lap, in sector two turns 11, 12, 13 I slightly hit the wall in that section and lost some time. I could make it up in sector three, but not enough. I think we had the car to be on pole. But we are on the front row and have a quick car and we should have a strong race. Fernando got the maximum out and this is what we did not do, so we are second."
Lewis Hamilton of Mclaren was third fastest, followed by reigning world champion Jenson Button.
"It was not such a bad qualifying session, I can't really complain. I am on the right side of the grid, the car is working well and hopefully that continues into tomorrow and puts us in a good position," said Hamilton.
The start of the qualifying went bad for Ferrari, as Felipe Massa stalled his car, due to gearbox problem, in first session, while Alonso had a problem with his engine mapping in the second session, which fortunately got sorted.