10/07/2009
NEWS STORY
Nico Hulkenberg grabbed pole position today at the Nurburgring with a strong drive in changeable conditions, taking the top spot by less than a tenth from Roldan Rodriguez and Lucas di Grassi. The German's best lap of 1:38.161 came after a session-long battle with his rivals for the top spot when he found a clear track with just five minutes remaining to edge his way past.
With rain spotting the track as the session opened all of the drivers were immediately out to post a banker lap, but with the weather immediately easing everyone stayed out as long as they could on their first set of tyres to see what they could achieve. Luca Filippi, Javier Villa, di Grassi and Hulkenberg swapped the top spot between them in the opening minutes, but with the Brazilian on top as they returned for fresh rubber it seemed as though the fight was effectively over.
Rodriguez was the first man back on track and was soon pushing hard: a few minutes later he was on top of the timesheets but Hulkenberg was on the attack, claiming the top spot just before Filippi, who was also on a hot lap, went too fast into the chicane and lost the rear of his car, spinning and stopping in the middle of the island and bringing out the yellow flags in the process.
With the difference at the front being just 0.089 the German pushed for more on the final clear lap, but just missed out on improving his time. It was enough, however, with the top three followed by Pastor Maldonado, Villa, Andreas Zuber, Vitaly Petrov and Diego Nunes tomorrow's race promises to bring the heat to a very cold Nurburgring.