Alonso takes French pole
Fernando Alonso showed his world championship credentials by snatching pole position for the French Grand Prix on Renault’s home ground at Magny-Cours today.
The Spaniard, who leads the championship by 22 points, continued his team’s strong practice form by posting the fastest time today.
His lap of one minute 14.412 seconds was 0.109secs faster than his nearest challenger, with Jarno Trulli, who was on pole position two weeks ago in Indianapolis, lining up alongside the Renault driver on the front row.
Alonso’s title rival Kimi Raikkonen, however, saw his pole position chances ruined before qualifying even began today. The Finn’s McLaren blew its Mercedes engine yesterday and he was docked 10 places on the grid as a result.
Raikkonen was the pre-race favourite and despite his penalty he demonstrated McLaren’s current form by setting the third-fastest time, putting him 13th on the grid.
World champion Michael Schumacher showed more signs of a revival at Ferrari but was unable to break onto the front row, setting the fourth-fastest time but moving up one spot on the grid as Raikkonen drops back.
Takuma Sato produced a stunning lap to hit the top of the timing sheets midway through the session, slicing three-quarters of a second off the previous best.
That was not good enough for pole position, with Alonso immediately improving to set the fastest time of the weekend, but it did put the former British Formula Three champion in fifth, giving him fourth on the grid.
Jenson Button clocked up an unwanted first by being outqualified by team-mate Sato for the first time this season.
The Englishman was nearly half a second slower than his Japanese colleague in posting the eighth-fastest time, although with the drivers qualifying on race fuel comparisons are notoriously difficult. With Raikkonen’s penalty, he will start seventh.
Rubens Barrichello threatened to take pole early in his lap before losing half a second in the final sector to slump to sixth, fifth on the starting grid. Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella starts sixth.
Ralf Schumacher returned to competitive action having missed the Indianapolis debacle following his high-speed practice crash.
The Toyota driver did not enjoy the cleanest of laps, locking a brake and losing time on his way to 11th on the grid.
That was good enough to see off the immediate competition, with Scotland’s David Coulthard falling well short in his Red Bull when he followed the German onto the circuit. Coulthard will start 15th.
Schumacher’s time was finally bettered by former world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who is benefiting from a more relaxed weekend than was on offer in his home continent of North America last month.
The Sauber driver will line up 10th tomorrow but despite his impressive effort, he still found himself behind team-mate Felipe Massa, who starts ninth.
For Jordan, Narain Karthikeyan starts from 17th, while Tiago Monteiro is 19th on the grid.
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