Webber storms to Spa pole

Webber: Fifth pole of season

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Mark Webber continued Red Bull's amazing qualifying form by securing pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.

The championship leader set a lap of one minute 45.778 seconds to edge out Lewis Hamilton by under a tenth of a second to secure a 12th pole in 13 races for Red Bull.

Renault's Robert Kubica was the surprise package of the session and will start Sunday's race in third position after an impressive showing.

Webber's team-mate Sebastian Vettel rounded out the second row with Jenson Button fifth and fellow title challenger Fernando Alonso a disappointing 10th.

After an unspectacular showing in the first two parts of qualifying, Webber came alive in the top-10 shootout, setting the benchmark from Kubica after the first round of flying laps.

Rain

Light rain that had been present earlier in the session then returned and drivers struggled to improve their times as the track dampened around La Source at the start of the lap.

Only Lewis Hamilton managed to challenge Webber for provisional pole but his terrific final two sectors could not make up for the forced compromise in the first.

In a frustrating afternoon for Ferrari, Felipe Massa could only manage sixth, with Rubens Barrichello, Adrian Sutil and Nico Hulkenberg all beating Alonso.

Vitaly Petrov spun in the early stages of Q1, nudging the armco barrier on the inside of the track and bringing out the red flag.

Rain threatened to fall during the delay, meaning the pit-lane was gridlocked as the field tried to get the best position on a potentially wet track.

Slow

The rain then started as the session restarted, causing a group of cars to slide of at Stavelot as the rest of the field tiptoed around to set slow lap times.

It was only a fleeting shower and many drivers opted to head back out on slicks at the end of the session. That proved a disastrous decision for Sauber as both cars slid off into the gravel and out at the first stage.

The result was that two unlikely drivers - Timo Glock of Virgin and Lotus' Heikki Kovalainen - progressed at the end of an exciting Q1.

In the second session, Hamilton set the early pace before German duo Michael Schumacher and Vettel eclipsed him as Ferrari struggled, with Massa having an off-track excursion.

Button then went to the top of the timesheets but Hamilton was flying behind, bettering his team-mate's mark by over half a second with a 1:46.211.

Despite promising pace earlier on, Mercedes pair Schumacher and Nico Rosberg - who both have to contend with grid penalties on Sunday - were both dumped out in Q2.

Rosberg collected a five-place penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change after final practice while Schumacher drops 10 places because of his controversial move on Rubens Barrichello at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Two further sanctions were handed out, with Glock later handed a five-place penalty for blocking HRT's Sakon Yamamoto and Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi given a three-place penalty for impeding Rosberg.

The net result sees Schumacher lining up 21st and Rosberg 14th, although Kovalainen now starts 13th - the highest placing managed by any of the new teams this season.

Times
01 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 1:45.778
02 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:45.863
03 Robert Kubica Renault 1:46.100
04 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:46.127
05 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:46.206
06 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:46.314
07 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:46.602
08 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:46.659
09 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:47.053
10 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:47.441
11 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:47.874
12 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:47.885
13 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 1:48.267
14 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:48.680
15 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 1:49.209
16 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:50.980
17 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:52.049
18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 2:01.491
19 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 2:02.284
20 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 2:03.612
21 Sakon Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 2:03.941
22 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 2:05.294
23 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 2:18.754
24 Vitaly Petrov Renault No time