Pole Turns On Parabolica

His matchless speed into the Monza corner was crucial to Fernando Alonso's second pole position of the season. By MARK HUGHES

The key moment was probably Fernando Alonso's entry into the Parabolica on his first new-tyre run. The McLaren twitched once, twice, small, rapid corrections of opposite lock from Alonso well before the apex. Only then did it settle, at the perfect millisecond, to allow him to let the car run free right out to the edge of the track.

That car was not going to go in there any faster than that. Lewis Hamilton's hadn't a few seconds earlier. Lewis, in fact - nip and tuck with his team-mate after the first two sectors - lost a big chunk of time to Fernando here, despite being fuelled slightly lighter, courtesy of having run his burn-off laps significantly faster.

Into the second runs and Lewis was much cleaner through Parabolica but just failed to match Alonso's first-run benchmark. As Hamilton crossed the line, Alonso was just coming through the Lesmos, having beaten his own first-sector time. He was perfectly placed therefore to make a response had Lewis knocked him off his provisional pole. Informed over the radio that Lewis had failed to do that, Alonso immediately went into fuel-saving mode - with no need to beat his first-run time.

This was only Alonso's second pole this season - his third if you count his penalised Hungary pole. But it was his first resounding one, in that he gained the Monaco pole only as a result of Hamilton being baulked and the Hungary one after 'pitlanegate'. This time there was no argument - Alonso was simply quicker.

It was always an exclusively McLaren battle, with Ferrari not even close. The MP4-22 was devastating over the Monza kerbs, allowing a different league of entry speed into the chicanes and earlier and harder on the power coming out of them. So the pole battle was a straight fight between McLaren's men.

Alonso was just that little bit happier with the balance of his car than Hamilton all weekend, giving him a confidence and assuredness not always visible recently. He was confident enough, in fact, to follow the conventional route on tyre choice here - softs for one-lap pace - rather than trying to do something different in desperation, as has appeared to be the case recently.

Even with a similar fuel level to the McLarens, Felipe Massa in the quicker of the Ferraris was a full 0.5sec adrift, in third place. The Ferrari was losing half of that in the first sector - the one that contains two chicanes where the kerbs have to be whacked hard. The less compliant red car was hurt badly there in comparison to the silver one.

Kimi Raikkonen was in bad shape. Robbed of track time on Friday through a hydraulics failure and suffering a big accident on the approach to Ascari chicane on Saturday morning, he was in the built-up spare car.

The accident, he said, had happened when he locked the left rear under braking, just where the low-downforce car goes light over a bump, turning him sharp right into the barrier. Beginning at not far short of 200mph, it was a scary looking incident, but he insisted he was suffering no ill effects in terms of driving - only that he didn't like the balance of the spare as much.

Knowing he wasn't going to fight for the front row, Ferrari opted to run him with an optimal race strategy - ie with enough fuel for a one-stop race. This left him vulnerable to the BMWs and sure enough Nick Heidfeld, running two-stop light, was able to nip ahead of him with a last-gasp lap to take fourth.

"I made a mistake into Parabolica that cost me a couple of tenths," said Heidfeld, "but the gap to third is 0.6sec, so it didn't really cost me." Robert Kubica in the sister car - heavier than Heidfeld but still 0.1sec slower when weight adjusted - was sixth, just behind the second Ferrari. In Q2 the BMW drivers had again been within hundredths of each other.

Heikki Kovalainen was the sole Renault to make it through to the run-off and put a decent lap together to go seventh, though it was flattered by the cars behind him being on one-stop fuel loads to his two-stop.

He had generally held a small upper hand over team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella through Q1 and the first run in Q2. But it was made decisive when Fisi got caught up with Rubens Barrichello's off at Lesmo 2, spoiling his final Q2 run and leaving him way back in 15th. Fisi was in the spare chassis, having found he preferred its feel to that of his allocated car.

Nico Rosberg was eighth for Williams, having been 0.5sec faster than team-mate Alex Wurz in Q2. The FW28 was working quite well in low-downforce trim, its good straightline speeds making it very raceable. The latest aero upgrades included features that will carry through beyond Monza and appeared to have lifted the car's competitiveness.

The Toyota did not look a good car in low-downforce trim, and was particularly nervous-looking under braking and on corner entry. This left Ralf Schumacher mired in Q1, but Jarno Trulli was able to transcend the car's level, with a neat but committed lap in Q2 to get him into the run-off where, loaded with a lot of fuel, he qualified ninth.

Jenson Button did a great last- gasp lap in Q2 to get his Honda into the run-off, quite a feat with the RA107. Getting through Q1 and Q2 had, however, used up his full allocation of softer tyres, obliging him to run the slower mediums in the run-off.

As such, he was loaded up with a lot of fuel and simply accepted they were going to be last in the run-off. Rubens Barrichello had also been vying to make the run-off and was on the second lap of a two-lap run when he lost it going into Lesmo 2, his gravel trap moment foiling his efforts and leaving him 12th.

Mark Webber just failed to get through to the run-off in the Red Bull and lined up 11th, Webber feeling that was all there was in the car. David Coulthard in the sister machine didn't even make it out of Q1 after suffering another transmission failure. Anthony Davidson again got his Super Aguri into Q2, unlike team-mate Takuma Sato.

Sebastian Vettel was well hooked up all weekend and was the only Toro Rosso to get out of Q1, where his time had been 0.3sec quicker than Tonio Liuzzi's. The B-spec Spyker had a disappointing debut, with Adrian Sutil and Sakon Yamamoto sharing the back row.