Germany's Nick Heidfeld delighted his home crowd at the Nuerburgring circuit with the fastest time in yesterday's qualifying session, taking pole position for the European Grand Prix.
The pole for Sunday's race was the first of Heidfeld's career and the first under Formula One's revamped qualifying procedures.
"If you could choose a place to get your first pole position, this would be it," Heidfeld said. "It is great to be on pole position but what really counts is the race."
On a hot, cloudless day with track temperatures around 50 Celsius (112 Fahrenheit) in the woodlands south of Cologne, Heidfeld in a Williams-BMW did 1 minute, 30.081 seconds on the 5.148km Nuerburgring circuit.
"It was a good lap, not perfect, but I am definitely satisfied with it," Heidfeld said.
Heidfeld's success ended Kimi Raikkonen's run of three straight first-place starts. The McLaren-Mercedes driver -- winner of the past two races -- was second quickest in 1:30.197.
Third fastest was Heidfeld's Williams-BMW teammate, Mark Webber, in 1:30.368. Webber was third at the Monaco GP last weekend, behind Raikkonen and Heidfeld.
The starting grid positions for today's 60-lap race were decided by a single-lap session, with the cars heading out in reverse order from their finish in the previous race.
The teams are not allowed to change tires or add fuel after the qualifying.
Heidfeld refused to say what size fuel load the Williams-BMWs were carrying.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
INTER AWAIT: Superb saves by PSG ’keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma inspired the victory, as Arsenal were punished for misses, including one by Bukayo Saka Arsenal on Wednesday fell short on the big stage again as their painful UEFA Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain left Mikel Arteta to rue his club’s failure to provide him with enough attacking options. Arteta’s side were unable to reach the Champions League final for the first time in 19 years as PSG clinched a tense 2-1 win at Parc des Princes. Trailing 1-0 from last week’s first leg in London, the Gunners made a blistering start to the second leg, but could not convert their chances as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s superb saves inspired PSG’s 3-1 aggregate victory. Arsenal were punished for
Taiwanese e-sports veteran Lin “ET” Chia-hung yesterday successfully defended his King of Fighters XV title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan), securing his second consecutive championship. Lin claimed victory with a 3-1 win over Japanese pro gamer “mok” in the grand final, repeating his earlier 3-1 win against the same opponent in the winners’ final. The 40-year-old earned a ￥1 million (US$6,897) cash prize at the two-day tournament, which drew 294 competitors. Mok, Lin’s toughest rival in the bracket, took home ￥400,000 as runner-up. Lin remains undefeated in match sets against mok in King of Fighters XV, holding a 10-0 record,
RSS