Rosberg Storms to Pole
Nico Rosberg crushed the competition in qualifying at the Hungaroring, finishing one second ahead of second placed driver Neel Jani and another two tenths in front of Heikki Kovalainen at the conclusion of the session
Rosberg set a time of 1:31.459 just four minutes into the session, and no one was able to come close, allowing the German to run just four laps in the half hour and handing him the advantage of an extra set of new tyres for tomorrow's race.
With track temperatures reaching fifty degrees at the Budapest track tempers were reaching boiling point in the pitlane, after a number of drivers had off-track excursions.
Mathias Lauda, Sergio Hernandez, and Nelson Piquet all spun in the first half of the session, while Adam Carroll beached himself in the gravel, Ferdinando Monfardini found the wall just next to him, and Piquet spun on his second hot lap but managed to hold his car off the wall in the second half.
Jani's fastest lap came with seven minutes to go, with the Swiss driver giving his all to put his car on the front row for tomorrow's race, a big boost for his Racing Engineering team after a lot of bad luck in recent races.
Three minutes from the end of the session new driver Giorgio Mondini's engine let go on the front straight, forcing the Italo-Swiss driver to coast to a halt and stopping him from moving off the bottom of the timesheets, 4.5 seconds off Rosberg's pace.
The first eleven drivers were split by just two seconds, but with a one second gap between first and second Rosberg will have a clear advantage for race one.Pos Driver Team Time
1. Rosberg ART 1:31.459
2. Jani Racing Engineering 1:32.457 + 0.998
3. Kovalainen Arden 1:32.652 + 1.193
4. Pantano Super Nova 1:32.666 + 1.207
5. Speed iSport 1:32.707 + 1.248
6. Premat ART 1:32.908 + 1.449
7. Yoshimoto BCN Competicion 1:33.005 + 1.546
8. Viso BCN Competicion 1:33.102 + 1.643
9. Bruni Coloni 1:33.119 + 1.660
10. Pla DPR 1:33.172 + 1.713
11. Lapierre Arden 1:33.359 + 1.900
12. Garcia Racing Engineering 1:33.602 + 2.143
13. Alvarez Campos Racing 1:33.632 + 2.173
14. Piccione Durango 1:33.634 + 2.175
15. Monfardini Durango 1:33.828 + 2.369
16. Hernandez Campos Racing 1:34.131 + 2.672
17. Lopez DAMS 1:34.192 + 2.733
18. Piquet Hitech Piquet 1:34.256 + 2.797
19. Fauzy DAMS 1:34.608 + 3.149
20. Negrao Hitech Piquet 1:34.685 + 3.226
21. Carroll Super Nova 1:35.029 + 3.570
22. Artam iSport 1:35.123 + 3.664
23. Lauda Coloni 1:35.186 + 3.727
24. Mondini DPR 1:35.916 + 4.457
All timing unofficial
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