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F1: Kovaleinen grabs his first ever pole position start in F1

Heikki Kovalainen grabbed his first ever Formula One pole position yesterday with a near-flawless qualifying display at the British Grand Prix.

The Finnish McLaren driver produced an inspired final lap of 1 minute, 21.049 seconds, more than half-a-second faster than Red Bull’s Mark Webber who will start from second.

The Finn will have the Ferrari of world champion Kimi Raikkonen and also McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton breathing down his neck from third and fourth on the grid respectively.BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld will start fifth, just ahead of Spanish Renault driver Fernando Alonso. Nelson Piquet steered the other Renault to seventh on the grid, while Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari’s world championship leader Felipe Massa will start eighth and ninth respectively. The BMW of Poland’s Robert Kubica completes the top 10.

Kovalainen led the way in the first mini-session, marginally ahead of Hamilton and Vettel, while at the bottom the slowest five drivers were eliminated from contention. Force India’s Italian veteran Giancarlo Fisichella was the first man to be eliminated and will start on the back row of the grid alongside his German teammate Adrian Sutil. Nico Rosberg spent the session fighting with his Williams and was knocked out at the first stage. He will start from 18th on the grid. The final drivers to go were Honda pair Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello.

Hamilton was quickest in the second mini-session, with Kovalainen and Webber just behind. This time Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima was the first man to be eliminated and will start from 15th, just behind Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais who will start on the seventh row. The last two drivers not to make the top 10 were Trulli’s teammate Timo Glock and Red Bull’s David Coulthard.


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