Giancarlo Fisichella pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Formula 1 history by putting minnow Force India on pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix.
In an extraordinary qualifying session which turned the normal F1 form book upside down, Fisichella signalled his intentions by topping Q1, advanced all the way to the pole shootout and then edged out Toyota’s Jarno Trulli by less than 0.1s.
Nick Heidfeld took third on the grid, with team-mate Robert Kubica fifth, as BMW Sauber found pace seemingly from nowhere, while Rubens Barrichello was fastest of the usual ‘big four’ in fourth.
His Brawn GP team-mate Jenson Button was knocked out of the second knockout session and will start a dismal 14th, while Red Bull duo Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were surprisingly far down the order in eighth and ninth respectively.
Fisichella’s pole may have been aided by what he admitted was an “aggressive” fuel strategy, but it was no fluke. It didn’t rain, and the VJM 02 seemed to have a genuine raw pace.
The Roman was quick throughout and secured the fourth pole position of his career on his second flying lap on Bridgestone’s harder compound.
He might have gone even quicker on his third lap, but having set personal bests in the first and second sectors, he appeared slightly distracted by another car at the chicane.
Still, it was enough for Force India’s first pole. Remarkable.
Trulli was another man who was consistently quick. Second in Q1, fastest in Q2, he missed out on pole by less than a tenth.
It was a day for the drivers in the shop window – or, in Fisichella’s case, hopeful of landing a Ferrari seat at Monza.
Heidfeld, fastest in morning practice for BMW Sauber, is renowned for making canny strategy calls, and it was he who appeared to grasp first that a long run on the harder tyres was the way to go.
In contrast, the title challengers struggled. Barrichello was the best of them in fourth, while Vettel and Webber were compromised and unconvincing in eighth and ninth.
It was Button, however, who suffered the disaster.
Complaining of a lack of grip – even though the circuit temperature had cracked the 30C barrier – and rear-end instability on the entry to corners, the Englishman was four-tenths slower than his Brawn GP team-mate and missed Q3 for the first time this season.
Button wasn’t the only big-name casualty, for Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso both failed to make it through to Q3.
The world champion’s McLaren was again fast in the first and third sectors, but its aerodynamic deficiencies came home to roost in the second, and Alonso’s Renault followed exactly the same pattern. They will line up 12th and 13th respectively.
Spa specialist Kimi Räikkönen was the only KERS-equipped driver to make it through to Q3. He qualified sixth, but might have finished higher had he not begun the session as the only man on softs.
With less than four minutes remaining, the Finn’s Ferrari was the only car to have set a time.
His rivals were busy warming up their harder tyres, even aborting fast laps on softs to do so.
Räikkönen made the strategy switch late and missed out on an extra, potentially faster, lap by fractions.
Timo Glock and Adrian Sutil were seventh and 11th, but will be disappointed given the headline-grabbing performances of their Toyota and Force India team-mates.
Sutil was fourth-fastest in Q1, just over a tenth off Fisichella, but could manage only 11th in Q2, this time half a second slower than the Italian.
Sutil’s minor slump threw Nico Rosberg a lifeline.
Tenth-fastest in Q2, it appeared that Williams cranked on more downforce for Q3 because Nico set a stunning fastest time through the second sector yet still rounded out the top 10, more than a second slower than Fisichella.
Others impressively quick through that sector were the Toro Rossos of Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari.
Neither man, however, was able to make it out of Q1, which also claimed Kazuki Nakajima, Romain Grosjean and, unsurprisingly, Luca Badoer.
The latter finished his day against the barriers at Les Combes after moving off-line to pass Vettel’s Red Bull and sailing off under braking.
The tifosi will have to console themselves with an all-Italian front row.
Belgian Grand Prix starting grid
1. FISICHELLA Force India
2. TRULLI Toyota
3. HEIDFELD BMW
4. BARRICHELLO Brawn
5. KUBICA BMW
6. RAIKKONEN Ferrari
7. GLOCK Toyota
8. VETTEL Red Bull
9. WEBBER Red Bull
10. ROSBERG Williams
11. SUTIL Force India
12. HAMILTON McLaren
13. ALONSO Renault
14. BUTTON Brawn
15. KOVALAINEN McLaren
16. BUEMI Toro Rosso
17. ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso
18. NAKAJIMA Williams
19. GROSJEAN Renault
20. BADOER Ferrari
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