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.
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