Hamilton claims second successive pole
June 17th 2007 04:13
Hamilton takes another pole
The 22-year old set the fastest time of m:12:331s. two-tenths ahead of his McLaren teammate, Fernando Alonso at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Ferrari duo of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen took the second row of the grid, with third and fourth respectively.
BMW’s Nick Heidfeld again proved himself to be the best non-McLaren or Ferrari driver, as he claimed P5.
Sixth place went to Renault rookie Heikki Kovalainen, who has pur his disappointing start to the season behind him with the fourth place finish at Canada and now his impressive qualifying effort at the brickyard.
Nineteen-year old Sebastian Vettel, making his debut in the absence of Robert Kubica at BMW was another rookie impressing the paddock taking seventh place.
Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Kovalainen’s Renault teammate, Giancarlo Fisichella rounded out the top ten.
Hamilton was unsurprisingly pleased with the result, “to be on pole once again within a week is fantastic, he said, “I like North America!”
With all the gossip surrounding a possible rift between the McLaren teammates, Fernando Alonso was understandably disappointed not to reassert himself over Hamilton.
The Spaniard was quick to point out his speed over the weekend, “I have had a really quick car all weekend and have been fastest in all practice sessions and the first two parts of qualifying” he said.
“As a result I'm extremely confident for the race tomorrow,” added the reining champion.
Further down the grid, other inter-team battles were producing some interesting results.
Honda improved a little, managing to get both cars into the second phase of qualifying, and Jenson Button (13th) managed to outqualify Brazilian teammate, Rubens Barrichello (15th).
Anthony Davidson hit back at Super Aguri stablemate Takuma Sato, who completely overshadowed the Brit last weekend, Davidson took P16, two-tenths quicker Sato in P18.
And Ralf Schumacher managed to put in a decent effort for 12th place on the grid, improving his qualifying performance amidst persistent pressure from the media as to his position at Toyota.
However, his efforts were still jeopardised by his teammate, Jarno Trulli’s regular qualifying brilliance, as the Italian yet again ended the afternoon ahead of Schumacher.
“You can see we are getting closer to where we want to be because today it was possible to get into the top 10,” said Schumacher who missed the O3 cut by less than a tenth of a second.
With another warm, sunny day expected for the race tomorrow, all eyes will be on the duelling McLarens again.
Alonso will still be smarting from his desperate first-corner lunge at Canada, which saw Hamilton streak away for the win, while his number 1 McLaren fumbled about collecting grass and gravel.
But now, with a longer run to the tight first corner, Alonso will be fancying his chances as he tries to put an end to his rookie teammate’s golden run.
Meanwhile, the Ferrari’s of Massa and Raikkonen will have to be wary of Nick Heidfeld, who reckoned his BMW was good enough for P3, ahead of the Scuderia cars, had it not been for tyre graining and a botched final corner.
With the carnage of Montreal in the past, it’s time for F1 to regain some order, and for the big boys to fight it out, fair and square.
2007 US Grand Prix Grid:
1 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:12.331
2 F. Alonso McLaren 1:12.500
3 F. Massa Ferrari 1:12.703
4 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:12.839
5 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:12.847
6 H. Kovalainen Renault 1:13.308
7 S. Vettel BMW 1:13.513
8 J. Trulli Toyota 1:13.789
9 M. Webber Red Bull 1:13.871
10 G. Fisichella Renault 1:13.953
11 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:12.873
12 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:12.920
13 J. Button Honda 1:12.998
14 N. Rosberg Williams 1:13.060
15 R. Barrichello Honda 1:13.201
16 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:13.259
17 A. Wurz Williams 1:13.441
18 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:13.477
19 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:13.484
20 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:13.712
21 A. Sutil Spyker F1 1:14.122
22 C. Albers Spyker F1 1:14.597
| 47 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
