F1: Switched-on Lewis Hamilton’s pole

Published on 09/09/2012 02:44

Lewis Hamilton took pole position for today’s Italian Grand Prix after finishing fastest in qualifying, while team-mate Jenson Button made it a McLaren one-two.

As speculation about his future and a possible switch to Mercedes continued, Hamilton took his fourth pole of the season in a time of 
1 minute, 24.010 seconds, just over a tenth of a second faster than Button.

Ferrari driver Felipe Massa was third, but championship leader Fernando Alonso had another disappointing day. The Spaniard, who was just a thousandth of a second behind Hamilton in the final practice, will start way back in tenth position.

Bathgate’s Paul Di Resta conjured up the best qualifying performance of his career with fourth but, sadly, had to take a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change to his Force India, so will start ninth.

Hamilton barely showed a glimmer of emotion after completing the team’s third all front row for McLaren this season.

He said: “Congratulations to the team. I managed to get a half-decent lap at the end of Q3, and it’s great to have me and Jenson on the front.”

Asked as to the distractions this week, with speculation linking him with a move to Mercedes, Hamilton was dismissive.

“I haven’t had any distractions this weekend, so it’s been quite positive, enjoying the support of my family and friends,” added Hamilton.

Button, winner six days ago in Spa, echoed Hamilton’s sentiments with regard to the front row as he said: “It’s great. The last few races shows our strength. But even being on the front row it’s not going to be an easy race, but it’s the best place to be.”

Massa, meanwhile, had no answer as to what went wrong with team-mate Alonso as he said: “I think he had a problem in Q3. I don’t know what, but I’m happy with the lap I did. I always took care of the tow, but then on my last lap I was out of the tow and I did my best lap.”

Michael Schumacher in his Mercedes and Sebastian Vettel for Red Bull will move up a place to fourth and fifth. The same applies to Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, Kimi Raikkonen in his Lotus and Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi who will start sixth, seventh and eighth, with Di Resta ninth and Alonso tenth.

For the second time in three races Mark Webber failed to qualify for the top-ten shoot-out, and for the third consecutive race Red Bull failed to get both cars into Q3, such has been their drop in pace of late. Webber will start 11th after missing out on a top-ten shot by 0.067secs to Raikkonen in Q2. Williams’ Pastor Maldonado qualified 12th, but the Venezuelan faces a ten-place grid penalty for two separate incidents in last Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, so will start 22nd.

From Q2, it means Sauber’s Sergio Perez, Bruno Senna in his Williams, Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo, Jerome D’Ambrosio for Lotus and the second Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne will all move up a place from their qualifying positions of 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th.

D’Ambrosio, standing in this weekend for Romain Grosjean who was handed a one-race ban for causing a first corner pile-up at Spa, finished 0.7secs shy of Raikkonen in Q2.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg ground to a halt at the first chicane just two minutes into the session. It means he will start at the back of the grid, albeit the team will have to apply to the stewards for permission to do so given he failed to set a time.

Ahead of Hulkenberg in 17th and 18th, will be the Caterham duo of Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov. Timo Glock and Charles Pic will start 19th and 20th for Marussia, with Narain Karthikeyan 21st ahead of Maldonado.