FERNANDO ALONSO has the pole for the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai with a time of 1min 44.360secs. His fastest overall time was 1min 43.951secs set in the second qualifying session. It will be a
Renault front row, as his team-mate, GIANCARLO FISICHELLA will start beside him.
It was Alonso's sixth pole this season, the fifteenth in his career, and his second consecutive Chinese Grand Prix P1 starting position. He said he thought he would be strong in either kind of weather conditions, wet or dry. But he felt be would be better in the dry.
RUBENS BARRICHELLO and JENSON BUTTON will start third and fourth, followed by KIMI RAIKKONEN in fifth. Raikkonen lost his mirror in the last qualifying session, and it was run over by both Massa and Button.
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER will start sixth, the only
Bridgestone driver in the top ten. Clearly, the Michelin rain tyres were better in the soggy conditions, which had been declared a 'wet' session.
FELIPE MASSA was thirteenth fastest but moved ten places back due to an engine change. TAKUMA SATO suffered the same fate after qualifying twenty-first, although it was hardly a penalty in his case.
The red flag was thrown in the first of the three qualifying sessions, when TIAGO MONTEIRO stalled in an unsafe position.
American SCOTT SPEED did a high speed but slowing spin in the rain, and glanced off the barrier. However, it appeared not much - if any damage - was done. He was one of more than a few slippery spinners, including the two Renaults, and Barrichello.
Michael Schumacher was fastest in the morning wet practice, followed by Alonso and Button.
The new Spyker
F1 team, formerly Midland, will run
Ferrari V8 engines next season. The newly-signed agreement will have Ferrari supplying engines and technical assistance to the Dutch team, which now run orange and silver livery. MICHAEL GASCOYNE, who had been the chassis technical director for the
Toyota team, is the Spyker MF1 technical director.
