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GP - Qualifying:
Michael Schumacher grabs his first ever pole at Silverstone ahead of a revived Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard. Jarno Trulli, Heinz Harald Frentzen and Rubens Barrichello make the top 6. Raikkonen, Montoya, Heidfeld and R Schumacher make the top 10. 60 min: Mika Hakkinen improves but not enough. he ends up 0.082 seconds behind Michael! Coulthard doesn't improve. 60 min: David Coulthard follows. 60 min: Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen have just started their final flying lap! 59 min: Most of the cars are on the track for their final run!. de la Rosa just finished his laps and is in 13th. 58 min: Kimi Raikkonen moves into 7th just behind Ralf Schumacher. He has completed all his laps. 57 min: Tarso Marques is struggling to set a time with the 107% to qualify. 56 min: Top 10 - M Schumacher, Hakkinen, Coulthard, Trulli, Frentzen, Barrichello, Heidfeld, R Schumacher, Raikkonen and Panis. 55 min: Michael Schumacher takes provisional pole with a time of 1:20.447. 54 min: Michael Schumacher on a flyer. This is one of the closest qualifying sessions this season. 54 min: David Coulthard moves into second 53 min: Villeneuve in problems with his car and runs back to the pits to get the spare! 52 min: Hakkinen improves again and sets a time of 1:20.626. 51 min: Hakkinen and Coulthard back on track. 50 min: 10 minutes to go and everyone has put in a timed lap. 48 min: Strong performance from Jordan with Trulli moving into 4th and Frentzen into 6th. 47 min: Top 10 - Hakkinen, M Schumacher, Coulthard, Heidfeld, Barrichello, Villeneuve, R Schumacher, de la Rosa, Raikkonen and Montoya. 46 min: Michael Schumacher takes 2nd with a time of 1:21.024. 46 min: Mika Hakkinen takes it from his with a time of 1:20.897! 45 min: David Coulthard takes provisional pole with a time of 1:21.119. 43 min: Pedro de la Rosa is up in 7th place with a time of 1:23.810. Montoya on the track in the spare. 42 min: Mika Hakkinen goes out on his second run. 40 min: 20 minutes to go and we still have 5 drivers who have yet to qualify. Button moves into 10th. 38 min: Jean Alesi moves up into 9th place! 37 min: A number of drivers are doing 2 flying laps this session. Montoya, Frentzen, Bernoldi, Panis and Trulli have yet to qualify. 36 min: Top 10 - M Schumacher, Hakkinen, Coulthard, Barrichello, Heidfeld, R Schumacher, Raikkonen, Villeneuve, de la Rosa and Burti. 35 min: Nick Heidfeld takes 5th and Ralf Schumacher moves into 6th. 34 min: Rubens Barrichello up in 4th while Villeneuve moves into 6th. 33 min: Michael Schumacher takes provisional pole with a time of 1:21.458 - Stunning! 32 min: David Coulthard is in second with a 1:22.353. 32 min: Mika Hakkinen takes provisional pole with a 1:22.217. 31 min: Top 10 - Raikkonen, de la Rosa, Burti, Alesi, Verstappen, Irvine, Fisichella, Button, Alonso and Marques 30 min: Pedro de la Rosa jumps into 2nd with a time of 1:24.887. 29 min: Kimi Raikkonen stays out for another flying lap and improves to 1:23.819. Hakkinen and Coulthard on track. 28 min: More cars on the track with Alonso, Bernoldi, Fisichella, Alesi and de la Rosa. 28 min: Eddie Irvine takes second with a time of 1:25.626. 27 min: Tarso Marques goes second with a time of 1:29.417. 26 min: Kimi Raikkonen takes provisional pole with a time of 1:25.071. Button and Verstappen on the track too. 25 min: Now expect most of the cars to go out. Marques is next followed by Irvine. 24 min: Kimi Raikkonen is the first to go out on the track. 22 min: Of course the longer it takes a driver to go out the higher the risk as if a driver spins or his car stops they'll have to rush back for the spare car and they could run out of time. In addition they all risk losing time in traffic as each driver will try to do their allocated laps within a shorter period! 20 min: This is the longest it has been into a qualifying session with no cars going out so far this season. 16 min: With a dry track and higher temperature, the Michelin runners should do well. Williams should do better than in practice while Jaguar who are introducing a new floor this weekend should also do well. 14 min: The reason there is no activity is due to the limit of 12 laps per car in qualifying. That means that a car can go out 3 or 4 times (3 or 4 laps each run - out lap, one or two flying laps and an in lap) and so the teams don't want to waste those runs early in the session when the track lacks grip. 10 min: No cars are out yet. Interestingly enough, the weather actually appears to be clearing at the moment. There are even some blue patches! 5 min: No cars are out yet. It appears that the team's weather forecasters don't expect rain during qualifying and hence they are not sending their cars out yet! 3 min: No cars are out yet. At this stage the track is drying however there are still some wet patches on the track. The temperature has risen to 13 degrees. 1 min: It will certainly be very tricky for the teams as the drivers would not want to be the first out as the track is damp but they also want to put a fast lap in just in case it rains again!. Session underway. It is not raining however the track is damp! The Michelin runners appear to be struggling in the wet. The best Michelin runner was Ralf Schumacher and he was 10th fastest. Session starting in 2 minutes The qualifying session will be run under wet conditions. Expect a strange grid for tomorrow's race. Session starting in 5 minutes Qualifying starting at 1:00 PM local time under wet weather conditions. The temperature is 11 degrees |