Hockenheim, 24 July

If sceptics were unconvinced at Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s claims that the F10 has been a much improved car over the last few races, then they were given clear proof in this afternoon’s qualifying for tomorrow’s German Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa will start the eleventh round of the World Championship from second and third places on the grid and, although pole is pole, whatever the margin, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel only took the coveted number one slot by a mere two thousandths of a second.

Today’s excellent showing, during a very exciting battle in Q3, puts the Scuderia duo in a very strong position to fight for the win or, at the very least, to bring home a big number of points. In the past few races, the F10’s race pace has been excellent, but poor qualifying performances or unusual race situations have prevented the Prancing Horses from galloping at top speed. It seems the time has come for that to change tomorrow.



Mark Webber finished fourth in the second Red Bull, while fifth place went to Jenson Button, who pipped his McLaren team-mate and championship leader, Lewis Hamilton. At only slightly over four and a half kilometres in length, it takes no less than 67 laps of the Hockenheimring to make a race distance, so tomorrow afternoon’s event will be a tough one, where two key elements could play a vital role: the first is not one that even this high-tech sport can influence, namely the weather, which has been so unpredictable this weekend, while the second will be the tyre strategy in terms of how best manage to switch from the super soft to the hard tyre. With the rain affecting much of practice, the track surface is finally producing much more grip, which means predicting tyre behaviour is more complex than usual.