Trulli Takes Pole in Wet Belgian GP Qualifying

Jarno Trulli claimed his second career pole position after a gamble to choose standard rain tyres over extreme wets paid off in a rain-hit qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday.

Italian Trulli, who started from the front in Monaco and went on to claim his maiden victory, set a time of 1:56.232 that the flying World Champion Michael Schumacher just could not beat.

Heavy rain hit the forested circuit on Friday afternoon and continued, with one brief let-up, until the start of the qualifying session to leave a drying track during the early flying laps.

Renault looked to have secured a one-two when Spaniard Fernando Alonso put his car in second place, 0.454 seconds down on Trulli, but Schumacher spoiled the party by claiming a front row place despite worsening conditions.

Heavy rain began again towards the latter part of the session to ensure Trulli’s effort would not be beaten but Schumacher displayed the advantage of his car by finishing just 0.072 seconds slower on a much wetter track.

Scot David Coulthard finished fourth fastest, with a time 1.758 seconds slower than Trulli in his McLaren-Mercedes while Italian Giancarlo Fisichella claimed fifth place for Sauber.

Rubens Barrichello had looked set to better Trulli’s time but made a mistake under braking into the Bus Stop chicane, when he went straight on, and finished down in sixth in the second Ferrari.

Australian Mark Webber put his Jaguar up to seventh, just ahead of the second Sauber of Brazilian Felipe Massa, with Frenchman Olivier Panis, of Toyota, and Finn Kimi Raikkonen, of McLaren, completing the top ten.

Toyota managed to prepare Brazilian Ricardo Zonta’s car in time for him to meet his session-opening run slot after he suffered a high-speed spin in the pre-qualifying session but he only managed a slow lap.

Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia, who crashed at the Rivage corner in the 15-minute practice session on Saturday morning, failed to push as hard as he should and finished 2.718 seconds down on Webber’s effort in his Williams-BMW.

The slippery conditions, which suited neither extreme wet tyres nor the standard wets, made it difficult for the midfield runners and both BAR-Honda drivers Takuma Sato and Jenson Button struggled in the second sector.

Sato finished more than three seconds off Webber’s time and Button was 1.5 seconds off the pace but Trulli, the next man out, chose to go on standard wet tyres and moved to the top of the times.

His teammate Alonso looked set to improve further on Trulli’s time but made a mistake and slotted into second place after losing half a second in the final sector of the lap.

Rain began to fall again as Montoya came out and the Williams driver, who chose to run on standard wet tyres, was severely hampered by the conditions and finished 3.449 seconds off the lead pace. The rain continued but Ferrari showed their class in the end.

Pos Driver Team T1 T2 Time 1. (12) Trulli Renault (M) 31.253 83.992 1:56.232 2. (20) M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 31.249 83.645 1:56.304 + 0.074 3. (13) Alonso Renault (M) 31.091 84.519 1:56.686 + 0.456 4. (14) Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 31.217 85.675 1:57.990 + 1.760 5. (16) Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) 31.708 84.718 1:58.040 + 1.810 6. (19) Barrichello Ferrari (B) 31.280 83.613 1:58.175 + 1.945 7. (8) Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 31.832 85.616 1:58.729 + 2.499 8. (17) Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 31.818 85.372 1:59.008 + 2.778 9. (3) Panis Toyota (M) 31.879 86.204 1:59.552 + 3.322 10. (18) Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) - - 1:59.635 + 3.405 11. (15) Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 31.521 87.134 1:59.681 + 3.451 12. (11) Button BAR-Honda (M) 31.332 87.229 2:00.237 + 4.007 13. (6) Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 32.545 87.422 2:01.246 + 5.016 14. (9) Pizzonia Williams-BMW (M) 31.706 88.146 2:01.447 + 5.217 15. (10) Sato BAR-Honda (M) 31.574 87.710 2:01.813 + 5.583 16. (5) Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 32.652 88.198 2:02.645 + 6.415 17. (2) Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 32.833 88.507 2:02.651 + 6.421 18. (4) Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 32.533 89.502 2:03.303 + 7.073 19. (7) Pantano Jordan-Ford (B) 32.486 89.013 2:03.833 + 7.603 20. (1) Zonta Toyota (M) 32.733 89.827 2:03.895 + 7.665 All timing unofficial