Ferrari locked out the front row of the grid for only the second time this season at Spa in Saturday's qualifying.
Kimi Raikkonen won the closely fought battle between himself, his team-mate Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. At the end of Q3 the trio were separated by less than a tenth of a second, offering the promise of a fantastic race on Sunday afternoon.
Lewis Hamilton, who is believed to be more heavily fueled, qualified fourth ahead of Robert Kubica. Kubica, however, will drop down the order as his engine was changed prior to qualifying.
Qualifying Report
Though the Ardennes Forest can spring last minute weather surprises, conditions were dry at Spa Francorchamps as F1 returned after a two-year break, with an ambient temperature of just 17C and a the track at 28C.
Robert Kubica, who would suffer a 10-place grid deduction after a Saturday morning engine change, set the first meaningful P1 time for BMW with a 1:47.654. This was soon lowered by team-mate Nick Heidfeld with a 1:46.923. Attention switched away from the track to the back of the Ferrari garage as mechanics scurried to undo Felipe Massa's engine cover and check a rear suspension element. With a 1:45 second lap and a longer outlap, this was the last thing Massa needed with just 7:30 of the session left.
Lewis Hamilton lowered the pole time to 1:46.437, but team-mate Alonso was a lot quicker and took it off him with a 1:46.058. Kimi Raikkonen slotted into P2 as Felipe finally exited the pits in his attempt to get into Q2. In the week he'd gone off on the second lap of first practise and it must have been weighing heavy on his mind as he set off on his hot lap, desperately hoping that the big pack of drivers on outlaps knew he was coming.
It was a very assured lap, stopping the clock just 0.002 shy of Alonso's P1 time. Though all the drivers on the circuit were now recording vastly improved times.
As we headed for the last quick laps, the danger positions were
12. Barrichello
13.Wurz
14.Vettel
15.Button
16.Sutil
17.Coulthard
18.Schumacher
19.Sato
20.Davidson
21.Yamamoto
22.Massa
Massa duly escaped the melee seconds before Adrian Sutil jumped his Spyker up to P12. Times were tumbling fast now as every car crossed the line. Liuzzi came through in P6, Vettel in P7, Ralf Schumacher took P6 pushing both Toro Rossos further down. To prove how hectic it got Ralf would end up in P12 just a minute later.
Coulthard jumped to P7, Wurz grabbed P8, Button took P9, Robert Kubica improved to P5, Nico Rosberg took P7, Sato could only manage P17 and was out, Davidson crossed the line in a disappointing P21 while Kovalainen made sure of his continued participation with P9.
So as the dust settled, the slightly incredulous Sebastien Vettel was informed that his P7 of a few moments earlier had sunk to P17. Out went:
17.Vettel
18.
Barrichello
19.Sato
20.Sutil
21.Davidson
22.Yamamoto
The surprise of the session was how much quicker Mike Gascoyne had made the revised Spyker, with Sutil getting in between the two Super Aguris.
Qualifying 2
Once again cars were reluctant to be first out on track and it was a surprise to see Renault take the lead. Giancarlo Fisichella set the benchmark at 1:46.603 which Heiki Kovalainen immediately undermined with a 1:46.240.
Kimi Raikkonen set an early hot lap and slashed provisional P1 to 1:45.070. Lewis Hamilton followed up with P2, Alonso took P3 (the first time that he'd been slower than Hamilton all weekend) and then Massa eased himself into P3 - no worries with the back of the car this time round.
Robert Kubica was well adrift of the leading times in P5 with a 1:46.2 second lap and as the final laps approached, the bottom 12 of 16 cars took to the track.
The order at this stage was:
7. Heidfeld
8.Webber
9.Rosberg
10.Schumacher
11.Fisichella
12.Coulthard
13.Button
14.Trulli
15.Wurz
16.Liuzzi
Mark Webber didn't get his outlap done in time and crossed the line with the chequered flag already waved. As they came flying across the line it was clear that the big jumps cars had meant between runs in Q1 was not going to happen this time round.
Alex Wurz stayed P15, Fisichella improved to P10, Heidfeld went P5, Button could only manage P13, Trulli did his usual impressive last gasp effort to take P9, Coulthard took P13 off Button, Rosberg jumped to P9 pushing Trulli to P10. Kubica beat his team-mate but didn't push anyone out of the top 10 and Liuzzi came in in P15.
Out went:
11.Fisichella
12.Schumacher
13.Coulthard
14.Button
15.Liuzzi
16.Wurz
More pain for the under-threat Fischella, Schumacher and Wurz losing out to their respective team-mates. Even though Mark Webber didn't have time for a second run his earlier time was good enough to keep P8, while Button and Liuzzi already had the satisfaction of beating their team-mates on the drivers' circuit of the year.
Qualifying 3
Lewis Hamilton won the race to the end of the pitlane as Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen and Mark Webber queued up behind. Lewis was slow through Eau Rouge and Felipe Massa will have enjoyed cruising past his mate up the hill into Les Combes to take away his advantage.
It was therefore the Brazilian who could set the first meaningful time but he ran very wide at La Source hairpin to set a disappointing 1:47.038 that was immediately thumped by a purposeful Kimi Raikkonen who took P1 with a 1:46.533. Lewis Hamilton was nowhere near with a 1:47.128 for P3 and team-mate Alonso managed no lap at all.
The Spaniard locked up going into the Rivage hairpin (where Massa had spent the whole first session on Friday) and was lucky to extract his car from the gravel and keep going. He couldn't set a time, but stayed out on track to complete another lap to get another fuel credit back.
So as the four main protagonists set out on their final hot lap, Alonso hadn't set a proper time at all. Hamilton was losing time in the middle sector, which was a surprise because he'd been fastest of anyone there in Q2.
Out they came, this time Massa followed by Hamilton. Felipe made no mistakes at La Source an altogether more convincing lap as he crossed the line with a 1:46.011. Hamilton had trouble finding space in the traffic and had to trail around behind Kubica and in front of Rosberg. His 1:46.406 was never going to set the grid alight and the pursuing Kimi Raikkonen took P1 with a superb lap of 1:45.994.
Fernando Alonso was last of all and the Spaniard put together a brilliant lap of 1:46.091 which was a lot closer to the Ferraris than his team-mate but still a tenth short of Raikkonen's pole time.
Behind them Kubica took 5th but will be demoted ten places tomorrow, promoting Nico Rosberg to 5th place on the grid - which looks stellar in comparison to team-mate Alex Wurz's 16th. It was a great result for the Williams-Toyota team ahead of one BMW and both Renaults.
However it will be Ferrari who are most satisfied, though there is still a nervousness in the garage about the rear suspension and the performance of the failed damper that retired Felipe Massa from the Italian GP and has failed in testing before. Raikkonen is a fearless driver and Eau Rouge brings the best out of him. Unless we get rain it should be a Ferrari win, but Alonso's target will definitely be second place ahead of Massa.
Frank Hopkinson
Times
01 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:45.994
02 F. Massa Ferrari 1:46.011
03 F. Alonso McLaren 1:46.091
04 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:46.406
05 R. Kubica BMW 1:47.334
06 N. Rosberg Williams 1:47.334
07 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:47.409
08 M. Webber Red Bull 1:47.524
09 J. Trulli Toyota 1:47.798
10 H. Kovalainen Renault 1:48.505
11 G. Fisichella Renault 1:46.603
12 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:46.618
13 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:46.800
14 J. Button Honda 1:46.955
15 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:47.115
16 A. Wurz Williams 1:47.394
17 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:47.581
18 R. Barrichello Honda 1:47.954
19 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:47.980
20 A. Sutil Spyker F1 1:48.044
21 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:48.199
22 S. Yamamoto Spyker F1 1:49.577
