Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella snatched pole position in an unpredictable qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday.
The 36-year-old Italian earned the Indian team its maiden Formula One pole after producing a quickest lap of 1 minute, 46.308 seconds around the high speed circuit.
Fisichella, whose previous best grid slot this year was thirteenth, was unable to explain his improvement.
Formula 1: Belgian Grand Prix - Race Line-Up
“Pole position is amazing, fantastic,” he said. “I’m so happy and thanks to the team who have done a great job. It’s a remarkable result. I’ve shown what I can do. This is one of my favourite circuits, but I didn’t expect to be on pole, in particular considering the budget of our team.”
Toyota’s Jarno Trulli starts second ahead of BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld for Sunday’s 44-lap race. Times Online
Rubens Barrichello was the first of the four championship contenders in a fourth place for Brawn (1m 46.513s) which showed how much trouble team mate Jenson Button was in down in 14th. Robert Kubica put the second BMW Sauber into fifth with 1m 46.586s, followed by Kimi Raikkonen on 1m 46.633s for Ferrari. Then came Toyota’s Timo Glock (1m 46.677s), Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in their Red Bulls (1m 46.761s and 1m 46.788s respectively), and Williams’ Nico Rosberg (1m 47.362s). Formual 1
“I’m a little bit worried because something is seriously not right,” said Button, who won six of the first seven races of this season but has not been on the podium in the last four.
Even more remarkable than the relative failures is underdogs Force India leapfrogging a host of teams who would not usually consider them rivals, but may now have to revise that opinion at Spa.
Into their second season, the team have yet to win an F1 point. BBC Sport
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