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A Wet Qualifying Shakes Up The Grid In Italy
By Emma Aitken September 13 2008
Sebastian Vettel did a tremendous job in a rain soaked qualifying session today to take his first F1 pole position. Heikki Kovalainen was the only man to save the front runner's blushes to start second. Bad tyre decisions and a big spin resulted in Lewis Hamilton not making it through to Q3. He starts tomorrow in 15th.

A very wet monza turned the pack upside down this afternoon and a jubilant Vettel claimed the first pole position of his F1 career.

The young German did a tremendous job in the horrible conditions to finish nearly one-tenth of a second in front of second on the grid man Heikki Kovalainen, for McLaren.

Heikki always looked more comfortable in the treacherous conditions today than that of his title chasing team mate.

Lewis Hamilton finds himself in relatively unknown territory for tomorrow’s race. He will start 15th on the grid. Although he seemed to struggle through the wet conditions throughout the session, the McLaren team gambled on sending the Brit out on intermediate tyres for Q2, a tactic that backfired massively for them as that was as far as Lewis went. It was immediately clear that the intermediates were the wrong decision. Lewis dived back in to the pits for wets.

The other front runners had by no means sealed the deal themselves but Lewis did not seem happy in his car today and put paid to his final timed lap with a 360 degree spin coming out of the Ascari chicane.

He was not the only big name not to make the final qualifying session though. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and BMW’s Robert Kubica also failed to make the final cut and they will line up 14th and 11th respectively.

Massa only sneaked in to Q3 by the skin of his teeth with a 0.021s margin. His title bid looks healthier this weekend as he lines up sixth on the grid, nine places higher than Lewis.

Honda could not show any heroics in the wet weather with the RA108 looking just as bad in the wet as it does in the dry.

Red Bull Racing had a great day all round. Mark Webber finished the session in third place. Despite a spin Bourdais still managed to secure fourth place on the grid for the sister Toro Rosso team.  

POSDriverTeam
1VettelToro Rosso
2KovalainenMcLaren
3WebberRed Bull Racing
4BourdaisToro Rosso
5RosbergWilliams
6MassaFerrari
7TrulliToyota
8AlonsoRenault
9GlockToyota
10HeidfeldBMW
11KubicaBMW
12FisichellaForce India
13CoulthardRed Bull Racing
14RaikkonenFerrari
15HamiltonMcLaren
16BarrichelloHonda
17PiquetRenault
18NakajimaWilliams
19ButtonHonda
 

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