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British GP Qualy: Heikki Takes His First F1 Pole

It wasn't quite the very McLaren that the homecrowd were hoping to see on the top of the timesheets during qualifying, but the Woking-based team would take it just as gladly when Heikki Kovalainen took his first F1 career pole position.

The first knockout round saw the Force India and Honda teams as well as William's Nico Rosberg not making the cut surprisingly. There was rainfall towards the end of Q1, but at the start of Q2, the rain was no where to be seen again. Jarno Trulli had some problems with his car and could not make it to Q3 as he always does. His teammate Timo Glock did not fare any better and was eliminated too. David Coulthard, who will be starting his last British GP tomorrow, is only the 11th fastest.

The two Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen were low-keyed throughout the session, although the Finn eventually got down to it during the third session of the qualifying. He would start from the third position tomorrow, behind Red Bull's Mark Webber who put in an amazing display and of course pole-taker Kovalainen. Massa would be on the 9th position, which would be really disappointing for the Ferrari team.

Nick Heidfeld finally did better than his teammate Robert Kubica in qualifying but it was due to the fact that the Polish never left the pit garage in Q3. There seem to be some problems with the car and if he had to change his gearbox or engine he would be penalised 5 grid places tomorrow at the start.

One man whom the crowd expected to perform was Lewis Hamilton. Despite making a statement that he would not be under the pressure of the homecrowd, the Brit failed to put in an impressive performance and was off the track at one moment. It would be interesting to see the start of the race tomorrow, when he will definitely try to get a very good start in hope of ending up on the podium for the British GP.

The starting grid for tomorrow will be as follows:

1. H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:21.049
	2. M. Webber Red Bull 1:21.554
3. K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:21.706
	4. L. Hamilton McLaren 1:21.835
5. N. Heidfeld BMW 1:21.873
	6. F. Alonso Renault 1:22.029
7. N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:22.491
	8. S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:23.251
9. F. Massa Ferrari 1:23.305
	10. R. Kubica BMW no time
11. D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:20.174 *
	12. T. Glock Toyota 1:20.274
13. S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:20.531
	14. J. Trulli Toyota 1:20.601
15. K. Nakajima Williams 1:21.112
	16. R. Barrichello Honda 1:21.512 **
17. J. Button Honda 1:21.631
	18. N. Rosberg Williams 1:21.668
19. A. Sutil Force India F1 1:21.786
	20. G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:21.885

* Timing set during Qualifying 2 run
** Timing set during Qualifying 1 run
-- Starting grid if there are no further changes or penalties incurred by any of the drivers.

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.

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