Kovalainen pole as Hamilton misfires

Eurosport - Sun, 06 Jul 15:03:00 2008

Heikki Kovalainen claimed his first Formula One pole position at the British GP while McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton struggled to fourth.

2008 British GP McLaren Heikki Kovalainen - 0

The 26-year-old Finn left his rivals trailing with a lap of 1:21.049, more than half a second quicker than second-placed Australian Mark Webber in gusty conditions at Silverstone.

"Well done, you're on pole by a mile," he was told on the team radio as he crossed the line right at the end of the qualifying session to deprive Red Bull's Webber of what would have been his first pole.

Ferrari's world champion Kimi Raikkonen qualified third with Hamilton unable to match his 2007 Silverstone pole after making a big error on his first flying lap and being told not to overdrive by his race engineer.

Championship leader Felipe Massa was only ninth for Ferrari, the Brazilian's worst showing of the season, with his closest rival Robert Kubica 10th for BMW-Sauber after being sidelined by handling problems.

Massa has 48 points after eight races to Kubica's 46 and Raikkonen's 43 with Hamilton on 38.

"I've been spending time around this Silverstone area for many years of my life, and I know a lot of families and friends around here, so it's great to make the first pole here," said Kovalainen, whose previous best in qualifying was second place in Turkey in May.

"There is a still a long way to go...tomorrow is going to be tough and a hard race with the guys around us but I think we have a good opportunity."

Webber played down Red Bull's first front row start by joking that he had enough fuel on board for only three laps and had put £200 on Kovalainen to win at 23-1.

"It's a bit of a surprise," he said of his first front row start since qualifying second with Williams at the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix.

"We've been pretty strong most of the weekend but we didn't realise how strong I suppose until we got into Q2 (the second qualifying session).

"It's a bit of a home grand prix for all the Red Bull Racing guys, it's proud moment for them but only five percent of the job is done," he added.

Raikkonen, who qualified on pole at the previous race in France only to lose out to Massa when his car's exhaust broke, was happy with his position.

"We are not exactly where we want to be...but third position is still okay if you look at where the others are in the championship ahead of me," said last year's British Grand Prix winner.

Kubica failed to complete a flying lap in the final session and was outqualified for the first time this season by German team mate Nick Heidfeld in fifth place.

Renault's double world champion Fernando Alonso will start sixth while Brazilian team mate Nelson Piquet built on his first points scoring race in France with his best qualifying to date in seventh place.

Toro Rosso's German Sebastian Vettel, the likely replacement for retiring Briton David Coulthard at Red Bull next year, qualified a strong eighth in his team's best qualifying performance to date.

Coulthard will start 11th in his last home appearance.

Reuters

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  1. well david, maybe next time if not to be i wish you all the best on your retirement
    and hope you keep intouch with forular 1

    From marywhite1951, on Sun 6 Jul 3:46PM

  2. yes,¡¡go on Alonso!!

    From sofia, on Sun 6 Jul 2:30PM

  3. Cannot believe all the trash talk about Hamilton. Anyone got anything to say about my man Webber grabbing the front row

    From mor_dtaw, on Sun 6 Jul 11:24AM

  4. i can place a bet on tht he wont win........

    From ogagaodibo, on Sun 6 Jul 11:23AM

  5. Wow Schumi came 20th in yesterdays 1st Stage of the Tour de France, Rumpur has it that his stratergy is to wait for all his opponents to fall of while eating Banana's for lunch. Sam as when he was in F1 winnning while his opponents were in the pits.

    Soon to be announced WHUFC star Michael Ballack has not entered this years TdF but Hamilton and Button are considering entering next year given poor performances in recent British GPs :-)

    From Art T, on Sun 6 Jul 10:46AM

  6. More over people lets not forget that the Grand Prix brings loads of revenue to local villages which have relied on this income to survive, It has history here and now we have lost it to Nottinghamshire ,im not happy in the least, silverstone and the BRDA should be ashamed and knew this was coming for five years and did nothing about it.

    From JEFF F, on Sun 6 Jul 8:40AM

  7. czechfan GO BOIL YOUR HEAD AND WAKE UP... LH WILL PREVAIL AND WIPE THAT SILLY LOOK OFF YOUR CZECH FACE YOU NUMBNUTS , GO AWAY...

    From JEFF F, on Sun 6 Jul 8:17AM

  8. 2 SEPARATE HOURLY BOOKINGS???? FOR WHAT .... SOME PIG IN KNICKERS TO PARADE IN SUSSIES.... ANYONE GOT CHANGE OF A POUND TO COMPENSATE HER....??

    From JEFF F, on Sun 6 Jul 8:13AM

  9. MOTOGP KNOB ROT WIT ..GO AWAY THEN AND DONT COME TO THIS PAGE YOU @#$%

    From JEFF F, on Sun 6 Jul 8:10AM

  10. Mikael Andrei, what a @#$%!! you dont know what your talking about and debbie an paul get a life, so the roads are closed everybody else manages and everybody was notified for the last week with signs newspaper motorway signs ect if you was to get out of somebodies bed or everybodies bed then you might have known you hoe!!
    i wouldnt give you 3 quid let alone 300 ! YOU WISH.
    aND FOR ALL THOSE DISSING hAMILTON get a life we know you feel threatened by superior drivers and OF COURSE MCLAREN MERCEDES THE BEST THERE IS.... WAS...AND EVER WILL BE!!!

    From JEFF F, on Sun 6 Jul 8:05AM

  11. Of course Hamilton is a LOSER. Who is Lewis Hamilton anyway?

    From mikaelgaraygay, on Sun 6 Jul 7:12AM

  12. Hello Loud Mouth I mean LH. This is called poetic justice. You spoke too soon and too much. You virtually put you foot in your mouth as you always tend to. You have plan lucky in your maiden year. Let us complete the full circle and see how you perform.

    I appreciate the remarks of Heikki. How modest he sounded? Can he not train his teammate to be polite and nice?

    From Ravi A, on Sun 6 Jul 5:36AM

  13. I lost £300 for 2 seperate hourly bookings - any one of you racing fans going to compensate me??? I doubt it - probably you are all skint now after your day at the racing - btw I work 6 days a week - usually monday off but tomorrow I am having to cancel even more bookings cos I cant get to them ..... I dont think roads should be shut just for the sake of motor racing - I pay my road tax and I didnt get an official notification that the A43 was being shut to through traffic - someone is going to pay!!

    From Debbie n Paul, on Sat 5 Jul 9:14PM

  14. Debbie n Paul Ref get a life, who works on Saturdays anymore ?

    From Art T, on Sat 5 Jul 8:21PM

  15. Is it true that Bruno Signed a deal with Ron Dennis on Friday ?

    Most peeps seem to Agree that Big Boy Ballack is moving ti WHUFC after falling out with Big Phil Scolari a couple of games ago :-)

    From Art T, on Sat 5 Jul 8:20PM

  16. Why the hell is the A43 closed to through traffic - and most of the area totally gridlocked - just so a few people can pay mega £££ to watch a few cars waste thousands of £££ of petrol while advertising rubbish!!

    The Grand Prix's should be banned in the fuel crisis - I had to divert miles to get to work today and that cost me £££ in wasted fuel.

    Get a life and ban the races!!!

    From Debbie n Paul, on Sat 5 Jul 6:42PM

  17. And yeah... pls eurosport.yahoo, stop protecting Hamilton, it is annoying and it will make more people who hate him as protected Dennis boy... hey guys in Britain wake up, he is not superman, and not even exceptional pilot.

    From czechfan, on Sat 5 Jul 6:03PM

  18. Hamilton is mentaly weak. This year I can hardly imagine him as champion... It is gonna be decided between Ferrari drivers, I hope so much it would be Kimi again, he is the most consistent and the fastest driver in the field, no doubt !! It´s a shame that Heikki was so unlucky, I guess he could be a real threat, when championchip would start now.

    From czechfan, on Sat 5 Jul 6:00PM

  19. Hamilton is rubbish he is like Murray in tennis.......

    From lee a, on Sat 5 Jul 5:56PM

  20. BBU what do you expect, Yahoo has the worst coloumnists of all.

    From Asdfaf A, on Sat 5 Jul 5:49PM
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