Rain, rain, rain! That’s pretty much the story from qualifying at the British Grand Prix last night. After a marathon effort Fernando Alonso (1:51.746) put his Ferrari on pole, just edging out Mark Webber (Red Bull, 1:51.793). Michael Schumacher (Mercedes AMG, 1:52.020) showed he’s still quite handy in poor conditions and qualified third.
A lengthy delay interrupted Q2 as the rain became too heavy to continue and the session was red flagged. By then Jenson Button (McLaren), usually quite comfortable in wet weather, had already missed the cut in Q1. A yellow flag in the closing stages of Q1 hindered his late charge and he’ll be one to watch during the race.
It took well over an hour for the rain to ease and when Q2 resumed an almost comical line up of cars were waiting for the green light at the pit exit. With a little over six minutes left in Q2 every driver managed to improve his previous best time. There were no unlucky misses this time and all of the remaining front runners made it through to Q3.
The final qualifying period saw drivers running full wet weather tyres and with improving track conditions times fell by the lap. Soon intermediate tyres were the best option and Alonso claimed provisional pole with three minutes left in the session. Webber quickly raised the bar on Alonso, but the Ferrari ace was good enough, and ballsy enough, to find an extra five hundredths on Webber to claim his first pole position since 2010.
The final qualifying order has been shaken up quite a bit thanks to a mix of penalties for gearbox changes and steward sanctions. The finalised starting order can be seen here.
A full transcript from the post-qualifying press conference can be read below, with thanks to the FIA.
[Pics: Ferrari, Mercedes AMG, Red Bull/Getty Images]
