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| July 10, 2005 | Sunday | Jumadi-us-Sani 2, 1426 |
Alonso secures second successive pole
SILVERSTONE (England), July 9: Championship leader Fernando Alonso secured his second consecutive pole position here Saturday as title rival Kimi Raikkonen lost out a front row start for the British Grand Prix because of a penalty.
Spaniard Alonso, who leads Raikkonen by 24 points, put in a stunning lap in his Renault to beat Raikkonen to top spot in the session as sunshine broke through the clouds here at Silverstone.
Finn Raikkonen, the original race favourite, finished second and will have to start from 12th on the grid after he dropped 10 positions as penalty for an engine change made on his McLaren on Saturday morning.
Raikkonen had parked up at Club corner just seven minutes into second morning practice session and his team confirmed an oil pump failure had caused the stoppage and forced them to change the engine on safety grounds.
Raikkonen’s misfortune was good news for Jenson Button and his home fans as the Briton secured himself a front row grid position for only the second time this season, his first on home soil, with a strong lap in his BAR-Honda.
McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya, of Colombia, and Italian Jarno Trulli, of Toyota, will start from the second row of the grid after finishing fourth and fifth fastest respectively.
Rubens Barrichello out-qualified team-mate Michael Schumacher to put his Ferrari fifth on the grid with the sixth fastest time of the session, and he will start alongside Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, the other Renault driver.
Japanese driver Takuma Sato finished eighth fastest in the second BAR-Honda with German Ralf Schumacher ninth for Toyota and Michael Schumacher completing the top ten runners in his Ferrari.
The session was run in temperatures of 21 degrees but mostly overcast skies covered the circuit as Red Bull Racing driver Christian Klien, of Austria, got the qualifying runs underway.
Montoya, out fifth in the session, was the first to set a strong time with a lap of 1:20.382 and he remained on top as first Sato and then Barrichello slotted into second and Fisichella then claimed third.
Trulli then finished just 0.077 seconds off Montoya’s pace, but out came Button, to a cacophony of claxon horns, who drew cheers from the crowd as he moved into provisional pole.
Raikkonen disappointed the crowd by going faster, but his penalty meant Button would still be on the top spot, but Alonso then claimed the pole for the fourth time this season.
Raikkonen’s victory hopes in last weekend’s French Grand Prix were crushed when he was penalised for an engine failure, but after starting 13th on the grid he still managed to fight his way back to finish second behind winner Alonso.
Grid:
First row: 1. Fernando Alonso (SPA) Renault 1:19.905, 2. Jenson Button (GBR) BAR-Honda 1:20.207,
Second row: 3. Juan Pablo Montoya (COL) McLaren-Mercedes 1:20.382, 4. Jarno Trulli (ITA) Toyota 1:20.459
Third row: 5. Rubens Barrichello (BRA) Ferrari 1:20.906, 6. Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA) Renault 1:21.010
Fourth row: 7. Takuma Sato (JPN) BAR-Honda 1:21.114, 8. Ralf Schumacher (GER) Toyota 1:21.191
Fifth row: 9. Michael Schumacher (GER) Ferrari 1:21.275, 10. Jacques Villeneuve (CAN) Sauber-Petronas 1:21.352
Sixth row: 11. Mark Webber (AUS) Williams-BMW 1:21.997, 12. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) McLaren-Mercedes
Seventh row: 13. David Coulthard (GBR) Red Bull 1:22.108, 14. Nick Heidfeld (GER) Williams-BMW 1:22.117
Eight row: 15. Christian Klien (AUT) Red Bull 1:22.207, 16. Felipe Massa (BRA) Sauber-Petronas 1:22.495
Ninth row: 17. Narain Karthikeyan (IND) Jordan 1:23.583, 18. Christijan Albers (NED) Minardi 1:24.576
Tenth row: 19. Patrick Friesacher (AUT) Minardi 1:25.566, 20. Tiago Monteiro (POR) Jordan.—AFP
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