It didn’t look so good before the break in Q2 because my visor was completely
misted up and that meant I had some excitement during that lap! But then
everything went well in Q3. We were competitive on both the intermediate and
wet tyres, so I would welcome more rain tomorrow.”
You’d never have thought it was July looking at Fernando Alonso:
1151 So with Alonso preparing for his 21st career pole he took the time
yesterday to dedicate it to Maria de Villota as the Marussia test driver
continues to recover from the injuries she sustained in a testing crash.
Earlier this week she lost her right eye after hitting the tailgate of a
service truck at Duxford Airfield. De Villota remains in a stable but
critical state and all week drivers have been sending well wishes her way.
Yesterday, Alonso said:
Yes (this pole position is for Maria), she is having some difficult
moments, her family as well. We had some terrible news at the beginning of
the week from Marussia and anything we do this weekend is for her and
hopefully we can give strength to her and her family and we wish her a very
good recovery.”
11:45 While everyone gets excited about the tennis let’s just remember
that Britain is hosting one of the greatest sporting events there is this
afternoon. Round nine of the 2012 F1 season and we’re at Silverstone where
the rain has been pouring for days on end, several hundred cars have no
doubt been abandoned in the surrounding fields, everyone’s worried about a
repeat of 2000 and that Bernie will take the race away [no really
Bernie this is what we’ve come to expect of a British summer] and
last year’s race winner Fernando Alonso is sitting on pole.
The Ferrari driver is the only man on the grid with two wins under his belt
this season, a further six drivers have already won, but the Spaniard’s
achievement in Valencia a fortnight ago means he now has 29 race wins to his
name putting him fifth in F1 history behind Michael Schumacher (91), Alain
Prost (51), Ayrton Senna (41) and Nigel Mansell (31). Not bad hey for a
driver many were writing off towards the end of last season.
While it was a fantastic day for Alonso 12 months ago, it was not as much fun
for his team-mate Felipe Massa who was edged out of fourth place by Lewis
Hamilton in an incident that became the first of many flash points last
season.
How they start:
1st row
- Fernando Alonso (ESP/Ferrari)
- Mark Webber (AUS/Red Bull-Renault)
2nd row
- Michael Schumacher (GER/Mercedes-AMG)
- Sebastian Vettel (GER/Red Bull-Renault)
3rd row
- Felipe Massa (BRA/Ferrari)
- Kimi Raikkonen (FIN/Lotus-Renault)
4th row
- Pastor Maldonado (VEN/Williams-Renault)
- Lewis Hamilton (GBR/McLaren-Mercedes)
5th row
- Romain Grosjean (FRA/Lotus-Renault)
- Paul di Resta (GBR/Force India-Mercedes)
6th row
- Nico Rosberg (GER/Mercedes-AMG)
- Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/Toro Rosso-Ferrari)
7th row
- Bruno Senna (BRA/Williams-Renault)
- Nico H|lkenberg (GER/Force India-Mercedes)
8th row
- Sergio Perez (MEX/Sauber-Ferrari)
- Jenson Button (GBR/McLaren-Mercedes)
9th row
- Kamui Kobayashi (JPN/Sauber-Ferrari)
- Vitaly Petrov (RUS/Caterham-Renault)
10th row
- Heikki Kovalainen (FIN/Caterham-Renault)
- Timo Glock (GER/Marussia-Cosworth)
11th row
- Pedro de la Rosa (ESP/HRT-Cosworth)
- Narain Karthikeyan (IND/HRT-Cosworth)
12th row
- Jean-Eric Vergne (FRA/Toro Rosso-Ferrari)
- Charles Pic (FRA/Marussia-Cosworth)