Sebastian Vettel has achieved his and the Scuderia Toro Rosso’s first ever pole position, using Bridgestone’s extreme wet tyre to set a time of 1min 37.555secs at a treacherously wet Monza race circuit for the Italian Grand Prix.
Vettel showed his mettle in the difficult conditions and was over seven hundredths of a second faster than the second fastest driver, Heikki Kovalainen (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes). Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) was the third fastest driver whilst Sebastien Bourdais (Scuderia Toro Rosso) qualified infourth.
Nico Rosberg (AT&T Williams) went fifth fastest whilst Felipe Massa (Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro) was the top qualifier of the leading three drivers’ championship contenders with the sixth fastest time. Jarno Trulli (Panasonic Toyota Racing) and Fernando Alonso (ING Renault F1 Team) qualified on the fourth row, whilst Timo Glock (Panasonic Toyota Racing) and Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber F1Team) were the final drivers to qualify in the top ten.
Current drivers’ championship leader Lewis Hamilton (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) qualified in fifteenth position, and was the only driver to use the wet tyre using qualifying. Reigning champion Kimi Raikkonen (Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro) is one place ahead of Hamilton on the grid for tomorrow’s race. Vettel is now the youngest driver to achieve a Formula One pole position.
In the morning practice session Timo Glock topped the times with a 1min 35.464secs lap, set on the extreme wet tyre. Glock was over six tenths faster than Vettel, with Rosberg the third quickest.Today’s fastest lap time, a 1min 35.214secs, was set by Kovalainen using the extreme wet tyre inQ1.
Jun Matsuzaki – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport, said:
“Today was all about reading the weather conditions and using the correct tyre at the correct moment, when the track was at its best. Sebastian Vettel and Toro Rosso did a fantastic job to achieve their first pole position at the team’s home Grand Prix. There were many notable performances today and our extreme wet tyres worked well in the difficult conditions. It is unusual tohave such a wet event in Italy and we will have to see what the weather does tomorrow for the race.If conditions are like today’s it should be a very exciting 53 laps.”
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