Fernando Alonso has secured a surprising pole position for tomorrow’s Hungarian Grand Prix after an action-packed qualifying in Budapest this afternoon. After the final Q3 session was delayed after a high-speed crash for Felipe Massa, a timing system failure threw the final result into confusion before Alonso was eventually confirmed as pole-sitter almost 10 minutes after the end of the session.

Q1 presented few surprises, with both BMW Saubers and both Force Indias joining rookie Jaime Alguersuari at the back of the grid. Unfortunately for the Toro Rosso debutant, he was unable to post a representative time after an engine problem brought a premature end to his session. Ahead of him on the grid will be Nick Heidfeld (1m21.738s), Giancarlo Fisichella (1m21.807s), Adrian Sutil (1m21.868s) and Robert Kubica (1m21.901s), with Sutil having completed just 5 laps after repairs cost him much of the 20-minute session.

Rubens Barrichello was the major surprise scalp from Q2, after a suspension failure meant he was unable to improve on his time of 1m21.222s, putting him 13th. Joining him on the sidelines were Sébastien Buemi (1m21.002s), Jarno Trulli (1m21.082s), Timo Glock (1m21.242s) and Nelson Piquet (1m21.389s).

However, in the dying moments of Q2, Felipe Massa was picked up by the television cameras as having crashed heavily into the barriers at turn 5. Replays later showed the Brazilian had been hit on the head by part of the suspension from Barrichello’s car, before going head-on into the tyre barrier. He was soon attended to by F1 medical staff, before being removed from the car, taken to the medical centre and flown to a Budapest hospital.

More drama was to come in the closing stages of the Q3 session. After setting the early pace, Mark Webber was on provisional pole on a time of 1m22.021s, but just as the final quick laps of the session were being completed, the entire timing system shut down. This left the media, fans, teams and drivers without the final result.

After asking around in parc ferme for his rivals’ laptimes, it soon became clear that Alonso had secured his first pole since the 2007 Italian Grand Prix, confirmed soon after when the timing screens returned. However, these results remain provisional until later this afternoon when the stewards will sign off on the official classification. Until then, the result remains somewhat up in the air.

Alonso’s time of 1m21.569s was less than a tenth quicker than Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel (1m21.607s), with his team-mate Mark Webber a further tenth adrift on 1m21.741s. Lewis Hamilton will start a season-best fourth on 1m21.839, followed closely by Williams’ Nico Rosberg (1m21.890s). Rounding out the rest of the top ten were Heikki Kovalainen (1m22.095s), Kimi Räikkönen (1m22.468s), Jenson Button (1m22.511s) and Kazuki Nakajima (1m22.835s), while Massa will start 10th tomorrow if he is declared fit to race.

Here are the full results;

Here are the car weights declared after the qualifying;

Pos  Driver                             Weight (kg)
 1.  Alonso       Renault                637.5
 2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault       655.0
 3.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault       652.0
 4.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes       650.5
 5.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota        654.0
 6.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes       655.5
 7.  Raikkonen    Ferrari                651.5
 8.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes         664.5
 9.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota        658.0
10.  Massa        Ferrari
11.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari     671.5
12.  Trulli       Toyota                 671.3
13.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes         689.0
14.  Glock        Toyota                 679.2
15.  Piquet       Renault                667.7
16.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber             658.0
17.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes   680.5
18.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes   683.5
19.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber             666.0
20.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari     675.5