Mercedes on pole again.

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Fisichella takes shock pole at Spa

By Simon Strang    Saturday, August 29th 2009, 13:04 GMT

Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India, Belgian GPGiancarlo Fisichella took an historic and surprising first pole position for Force India in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.

The 36-year-old Italian veteran took his fourth career pole in an extraordinary session, though the car had looked quick through the weekend.

Fisichella - linked to replace Luca Badoer at Ferrari for Monza ? kept up the tradition of old-timers following Rubens Barrichello's European GP triumph to set a time of 1m46.308s that could not be matched by Jarno Trulli's Toyota or Nick Heidfeld's third-placed BMW.

Barrichello was the top 'front-runner' in fourth position. The Brazilian is well-placed to make up ground on the championship leader and team-mate Jenson Button, who failed to make it out of Q2.

Robert Kubica was fifth fastest in the second BMW, having briefly occupied a front row slot until the final shakedown in the last minute of the session.

The Pole will start just in front of Kimi Raikkonen, who was sixth ahead of Timo Glock, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg, who did well to wrestle the Williams into the top ten.

Several of the big names were knocked out in a curious Q2 session.

Trulli set the early pace in Q2 with an incredible 1m44.865s in the Toyota. He then lowered that to an even more amazing 1m44.766s.

That was good enough for much of the session, until Fisichella thumped in a 1m44.667s in the final moments. But even that was not the fastest time as Trulli managed a 1m44.503s to take the top place back again.

Then Kubica and Vettel pushed the Force India back to fourth.

All this action at the front contributed to those famous names being knocked out of Q3 ? Lewis Hamilton ending up 12th, Fernando Alonso 13th and Button 14th. The Brawn driver in particular was perplexed to have been unable to match Barrichello, who of course did make it through in sixth.

Fisichella had already impressed in Q1, setting the fastest time, 0.38s faster than Trulli's Toyota.

Barrichello meanwhile was third in the opening segment of qualifying, despite running off the track at Fagnes early on, ahead of the second Force of India Sutil and the Red Bulls of Webber and Vettel.

Alonso only made it into Q2 by the skin of his teeth, having ruined his best lap after running wide on the exit of Fagnes.

Button and Hamilton also only just made it through too, in 14th and 15th positions.

Luca Badoer, who needed to find 0.5s on his final run ? having set a personal best of 1m46.957s ? crashed at Les Combes after going wide on the entry on his final attempt. It rendered him last on the grid.

Sebastien Buemi, Jaime Alguersuari, Kazuki Nakajima and Romain Grosjean all also failed to make it beyond the opening 20 minutes.

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3     
 1.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:45.102  1:44.667  1:46.308
 2.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:45.140  1:44.503  1:46.395
 3.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:45.566  1:44.709  1:46.500
 4.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:45.237  1:44.834  1:46.513
 5.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:45.655  1:44.557  1:46.586
 6.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:45.579  1:44.953  1:46.633
 7.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:45.450  1:44.877  1:46.677
 8.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:45.372  1:44.592  1:46.761
 9.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:45.350  1:44.924  1:46.788
10.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:45.486  1:45.047  1:47.362
11.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:45.486  1:45.119
12.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:45.239  1:45.122
13.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:45.767  1:45.136
14.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:45.707  1:45.251
15.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:45.761  1:45.259
16.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:45.705
17.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:45.951
18.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:46.032
19.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:46.307
20.  Badoer       Ferrari               (B)  1:46.359

All Timing Unofficial

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Fisichella celebrates 'unbelievable' pole

By Jonathan Noble and Pablo Elizalde    Saturday, August 29th 2009, 13:27 GMT

Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India, Belgian GPGiancarlo Fisichella celebrated what he labelled as an "unbelievable" pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix, the Italian admitting he never expected such a result.

In a surprising qualifying session, Fisichella gave his Force India team its maiden pole position in Formula 1.

Ironically it was also the first time Fisichella had made it to Q3 with Force India.

The pole position was the fourth of his career for the 36-year-old Italian and the first one since the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix.

"It is unbelievable, I didn't expect pole position, especially after yesterday," said the Roman, who has been linked with a move to Ferrari to replace Luca Badoer at Monza.

"I was quite surprised because there was a lot of understeer and the measures of downforce levels. We went through the problems this morning and the car was much better, an in qualifying it was much better than expected.

"I was quickest in Q1, fourth in Q2, and then pole position. It is fantastic, I am so happy. I didn't expect that result, so I am really happy and looking forward to tomorrow."

He added: "This is one of the my favourite circuits, I did well in the past and I was sure to be competitive this year but I didn't expect to be on pole.

"I am so happy for myself, for the team, my engineers, everybody. They did a fantastic job, and a fantastic step forward, especially from the last race. Considering our budget I didn't expect that.

"We were confident for sure to be top 15, and maybe top 10, but to be on pole position we didn't expect that. In Q1 I was quick, in Q2 fourth quickest so we played to do pole and I am on pole."

Fisichella admitted his team had opted for an aggressive fuel strategy but, after setting the fourth fastest time in the second qualifying segment, the Italian is adamant his car still has strong race pace.

"Actually I think we are a little bit aggressive," he said. "We knew for the top three it was important to do that, but don't forget I was fourth quickest in Q2. We are not so slow."