Webber grabs pole at Spa

Mark Webber claimed his fifth pole of the year setting the fastest time in qualifying for today’s Belgian Grand Prix.

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, BELGIUM: Australian Mark Webber claimed his fifth pole of the year after setting the fastest time in qualifying for today’s Belgian Grand Prix.

The 34-year-old Red Bull driver clocked one minute 45.778 seconds towards the end of Q3, less than a tenth of a second quicker than McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

Pole Robert Kubica will start in third for Renault ahead of German Sebastian Vettel in the second Red Bull, with Hamilton’s teammate Jenson Button completing the top five. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was sixth fastest followed by his fellow Brazilian Rubens Barrichello of Williams.

Force India driver Adrian Sutil will start in eighth position ahead of fellow German Nico Hulkenberg of Williams and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

Hulkenberg set the fastest time in the Q1 opening mini-session which saw rookie Russian Vitaly Petrov fail to set a time for Renault after spinning on the exit of turn nine on his opening lap. Sauber drivers Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa joined Petrov on the casualty list after crashing out towards the end of the session.

Despite not making it to Q2, Jarno Trulli of Lotus will start in 16th ahead of Nico Rosberg who has been given a five-place grid penalty owing to a gearbox replacement. Kobayashi will start in 17th ahead of Hispania drivers Bruno Senna and Sakon Yamamoto.

Michael Schumacher’s ten-place grid penalty for the incident involving Barrichello in Hungary means that despite making it to Q2 and finishing 11th fastest, he will start in 21st.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2010.