Mark Webber secured pole position for today’s German Grand Prix with a blistering performance in yesterday’s tense and competitive qualifying session.
Driving his Red Bull car with great poise and assurance, the 34-year-old Australian demonstrated his liking for the Nurburgring circuit by delivering his second pole in succession, his third this year and the ninth of his career.
Webber clocked a fastest lap of one minute and 30.079 seconds to take the prime starting position ahead of Lewis Hamilton who produced a brilliant effort to take second, less than one-tenth of a second behind him in his McLaren.
“That was a wicked lap,” said Hamilton after relegating defending champion and runaway leader Sebastian Vettel in the second Red Bull to third – and off the front row of the grid for the first time this year.
Vettel was only able to take third place ahead of Fernando Alonso and his Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa who was fifth after a dramatic finale to qualifying.
Nico Rosberg took sixth for Mercedes ahead of Jenson Button in the second McLaren, Adrian Sutil, of Force India, Russian Vitaly Petrov, of Renault, and seven-times champion Michael Schumacher, 42, in the second Mercedes.
On a cold, but dry day in the Eifel mountains, the air temperature was only 14 degrees Celsius and the track temperature was just 22 degrees – the coldest conditions for qualifying this year. The low temperatures meant that it was more difficult for many teams to warm up their tyres.
After a tense opening mini-session in Q1, Massa wound up fastest having used a set of soft tyres, but out went Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber, Heikki Kovalainen of Lotus, Timo Glock of Virgin and Karun Chandhok in the second Lotus.
They filled places 18 to 21 on the grid ahead of 22nd placed Jerome D’Ambrosio, of Virgin, and the two Hispanias of Italian veteran Vitantonio Liuzzi and Australian rookie Daniel Ricciardo.
Liuzzi, given a five-place grid penalty because of a replaced gearbox, will start from 24th.
Hamilton stayed top ahead of Vettel and Alonso in Q2 as the session ended with a flurry of late action that lifted Schumacher, Petrov, Sutil and Rosberg into a top-ten shootout that contained four of the six German drivers.
The grid
1. Webber (Red Bull) - 1:30.079
2. Hamilton (McLaren) - 1:30.134
3. Vettel (Red Bull) - 1:30.216
4. Alonso (Ferrari) - 1:30.442
5. Massa (Ferrari) - 1:30.910
6. Rosberg (Mercedes) - 1:31.263
7. Button (McLaren) - 1:31.288
8. Sutil (Force India) - 1:32.010
9. Petrov (Lotus) - 1:32.187
10. Schumacher (Mercedes) - 1:32.482
11. Heidfeld (Lotus) - 1:32.215
12. Di Resta (Force India) - 1:32.560
13. Maldonado (Williams) - 1:32.635
14. Barrichello (Williams) - 1:33.043
15. Perez (Sauber) - 1:33.176
16. Buemi (T. Rosso) - 1:33.546
17. Alguersuari (T. Rosso) - 1:33.698
18. Kobayashi (Sauber) - 1:33.786
19. Kovalainen (T. Lotus) - 1:35.599
20. Glock (Virgin) - 1:36.400
21. Chandhok (T. Lotus) - 1:36.422
22. D’Ambrosio (Virgin) - 1:36.641
23. Liuzzi (Hispania) - 1:37.011
24. Ricciardo (Hispania) - 1:37.036
Current standings
Drivers
1. Vettel 204, 2. Webber 124, 3. Alonso 112, 4. Hamilton 109, 5. Button 109, 6. Massa 52, 7. Rosberg 40, 8. Heidfeld 34, 9. Petrov 31, 10. Schumacher 28, 11. Kobayashi 25, 12. Sutil 10, 13. Alguersuari 9, 14. Perez 8, 15. Buemi 8, 16. Barrichello 4, 17. Di Resta 2.
Constructors
1. Red Bull 328, 2. McLaren 218, 3. Ferrari 164, 4. Mercedes GP 68, 5. Lotus-Renault 65, 6. Sauber 33, 7. Toro Rosso 17, 8. Force India 12, 9. Williams 4.