2012 GERMAN GP: WHEN ITS RAINING, ALONSO IS ON POLE !!!

Championship leader Fernando Alonso secured pole position for the German Grand Prix by displaying his skill in the wet for the second race running. Alonso was able to find more time than anyone else on full wet tyres and beat the Red Bull pair of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber at a sodden Hockenheim. Michael Schumacher was fourth and Nico Hulkenberg fifth, with Webber's five-place grid penalty puts Schumi into the top three on the grid on home ground. The German legend was on provisional pole for a while before ending up fourth quickest for Mercedes.

Three of the top four places on the grid will go to German drivers, as Force India's Nico Hulkenberg delivered a spectacular fifth-fastest time to give himself a season-best starting spot on row two. His team-mate Paul di Resta also reached Q3 and was ninth. Pastor Maldonado completed the top six in his Williams, ahead of the two McLarens. Jenson Button was quicker than Lewis Hamilton, as the 2009 champion delivered his best qualifying performance since Bahrain in April. Kimi Raikkonen was the final Q3 qualifier and rounds off the top 10 for Lotus.

Pos     Driver               Team                Time       Gap   
 1.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1:40.621
 2.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1:41.026  + 0.405
 3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1:41.496  + 1.838
 4.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1:42.459  + 2.880
 5.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1:43.501  + 3.329
 6.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1:43.950  + 3.492
 7.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1:44.113  + 3.565
 8.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1:44.186  + 0.875
 9.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1:44.889  + 4.268
10.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1:45.811  + 5.190
Q2 Fastest time: L.Hamiltot 1:37.365                        Gap
11.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:39.789  + 2.424
12.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1:39.933  + 2.568
13.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1:39.985  + 2.620
14.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1:40.212  + 2.847
15.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1:40.574  + 3.209
16.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1:40.752  + 3.387
17.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1:41.551  + 4.186
Q1 Fastest time: K.Raikkonen 1:15.693                       Gap
18.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:16.741  + 1.048
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1:17.620  + 1.927
20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1:18.531  + 2.838
21.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1:19.220  + 3.527
22.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1:19.291  + 3.598
23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1:19.912  + 4.219
24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1:20.230  + 4.537
107% time: 1:20.991