Fisi bags shock pole in Spa

Giancarlo Fisichella clinched a first pole for Force India in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix as Jenson Button failed to make Q3.

Force India in line for first point in F1 after stunning qualifying

Giancarlo Fisichella clinched a stunning first pole in Formula One for Force India ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix as Jenson Button failed to make Q3 for the first time in 2009. Adrian Sutil had shown the Force Indias had the pace in practice this weekend but it was his 36-year-old team-mate Fisichella who topped the timesheets at Spa as Sutil took 11th on the grid. The Italian claimed his first pole in Malaysia in 2006 when driving for Renault but Saturday's performance was remarkable for a team that has yet to register a single point in 29 F1 races. Toyota and BMW Sauber saw both cars into final qualifying, with Jarno Trulli taking second and Toyota team-mate Timo Glock in seventh, while Nick Heidfeld, who was fastest in morning practice, took third on the grid with fellow Sauber driver Robert Kubica fifth. With Button out of the running down in 14th position, BrawnGP team-mate Rubens Barrichello is in a fine position to narrow the gap on the current championship leader as he takes his place alongside Heidfeld on the second row. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen qualified in sixth while the Red Bulls of Sebastien Vettel and Mark Webber came in eighth and ninth respectively with the Williams of Nico Rosberg completing the Q3 qualifiers. Lewis Hamilton struggled to keep pace with his rivals in the mid-section as he could only manage 12th alongside Sutil, while Fernando Alonso's Renault was another disappointment just ahead of Button, who was worryingly four-tenths of a second off team-mate Barrichello. Hamilton's McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen came in 15th, with the Toro Rossos of Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari starting 16th and 17th. Williams' Kazuki Nakajima is down in 18th, both the team's and the Japanese driver's worst grid position of the year, with Renault's Romain Grosjean also struggling on his second outing in 19th. As for Luca Badoer, he can consider himself out of a job following Sunday's race in the wake of another abysmal performance. Badoer ended the opening 20-minute Q1 in disgrace by braking the rear suspension of his car in careering backwards into a tyre wall after passing Vettel on the approach to Les Combes. Times
01 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:46.308
02 J. Trulli Toyota 1:46.395
03 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:46.500
04 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:46.513
05 R. Kubica BMW 1:46.586
06 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:46.633
07 T. Glock Toyota 1:46.677
08 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:46.761
09 M. Webber Red Bull 1:46.788
10 N. Rosberg Williams 1:47.362
11 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:45.119
12 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:45.122
13 F. Alonso Renault 1:45.136
14 J. Button Brawn GP 1:45.251
15 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:45.259
16 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:45.951
17 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:46.032
18 K. Nakajima Williams 1:46.307
19 R. Grosjean Renault 1:46.359
20 L. Badoer Ferrari 1:46.957