Saturday, March 15, 2008
# posted by Rich @ 4:25 AM
2008 Formula 1 ING Australian Grand Prix: Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the first race of the 2008 season, in what turned out to be a surprising qualifying session. Polish sensation robert Kubica will line up alongside Hamilton on the grid, after having put in a stunning time in Q3 and who could have taken pole position but for a small mistake at the exit of turn 12. Heikki Kovalainen in the second McLaren will be third on the grid. The highest placed Ferrari is Felipe Massa in fourth place.
Q1 saw the elimination of what would be considered the usual suspects, however there was one surprise early on - the rookie Renault driver Nelson Piquet could manage no better than 21st place on the grid with a woeful time of 1:28.330, some one-and-a-half seconds slower than his teammate Fernando Alonso. The drivers eliminated in Q1 were Fisichella, Bourdais (whose admirable performances of the weekend so far didn't amount to much, especially considering his teammate's performance - more on that later), Sutil, Sato, Piquet, and Anthony Davidson. But the big surprise of Q1 was Kimi Raikkonen. Whilst downshifting on the approach to turn 15, after having set a time that would see him through to Q2, Raikkonen's Ferrari cut out. The problem was apparently fuel pressure - a problem that had manifested itself earlier in the weekend, and which the Ferrari team thought they had fixed. Sadly not. Raikkonen coasted up the pit lane, but could not make it past the pit entry line. The Ferrari mechanics trotted to his aid, but because he had effectively stopped out on track, he would not be allowed to take any further part in qualifying. It looked as though he would be mired down in 16th place.
Further surprises came after Q2 actually started. Mark Webber, who had wowed his home crowd all weekend, suffered a right-front brake failure, which pitched him off the circuit at turn 7, ending his day. This incident precipitated a red flag, with just under 9 minutes of the 15 minute Q2 session remaining.
The rest of Q2 was a hard fought battle, and at one point it looked as though one of the Honda cars might actually make it into Q3. Alas, it was not to be, but there were more surprises - Fernando Alonso could not make it through to Q3. His best time was only good enough for 12th place. Alonso tried to temper this by claiming that the Renault does not have good 1-lap pace, but he will have a lot of work to do to in the race. Perhaps the biggest (and most welcome) surprise was that Sebastian Vettel cruised through into Q3. In fact he set the 6th fastest time in Q2. So, the eliminees from Q2 were Barrichello, Alonso, Button, Nakajima, Webber, and Raikkonen.
It all came down to Q3 then. The new format of qualifying has shortened Q3 to just ten minutes (and lengthened Q1 to 20 minutes), and has eliminated the fuel credit system, ie the "fuel burn phase". The cars would qualify on their race fuel, and whatever fuel they ended qualifying with, that would be what they would start the race with. Sebastian Vettel, after shining so brightly in Q2, opted to step out of his car - it would transpire that he had a technical problem, although Toro Rosso wouldn't confirm what the problem was. It always looked as though it would come down to a fight between McLaren and Ferrari. Surprisingly, it did not. The pace was set initially by Kovalainen, then Hamilton, then by Robert Kubica. However, the young pole ran very wide at the exit of turn 12 and although he kept his foot in it, he surely lost at least a tenth of a second. Thus, on Hamilton's final flying lap, he was able to steal pole position by a tenth and a half. Felipe Massa was left to fly the flag for Ferrari, but came up short - he had to abandon his last flying run due to traffic, and later complained that he just could not get the heat into his tyres.
So, it looked like the grid was set. However, after qualifying Timo Glock received two separate 5 grid slot penalties - one for a gearbox change, and one for baulking Mark Webber on an early run. This would drop the German from 9th to 19th on the grid. So, the final grid would be as follows:
Q1 saw the elimination of what would be considered the usual suspects, however there was one surprise early on - the rookie Renault driver Nelson Piquet could manage no better than 21st place on the grid with a woeful time of 1:28.330, some one-and-a-half seconds slower than his teammate Fernando Alonso. The drivers eliminated in Q1 were Fisichella, Bourdais (whose admirable performances of the weekend so far didn't amount to much, especially considering his teammate's performance - more on that later), Sutil, Sato, Piquet, and Anthony Davidson. But the big surprise of Q1 was Kimi Raikkonen. Whilst downshifting on the approach to turn 15, after having set a time that would see him through to Q2, Raikkonen's Ferrari cut out. The problem was apparently fuel pressure - a problem that had manifested itself earlier in the weekend, and which the Ferrari team thought they had fixed. Sadly not. Raikkonen coasted up the pit lane, but could not make it past the pit entry line. The Ferrari mechanics trotted to his aid, but because he had effectively stopped out on track, he would not be allowed to take any further part in qualifying. It looked as though he would be mired down in 16th place.
Further surprises came after Q2 actually started. Mark Webber, who had wowed his home crowd all weekend, suffered a right-front brake failure, which pitched him off the circuit at turn 7, ending his day. This incident precipitated a red flag, with just under 9 minutes of the 15 minute Q2 session remaining.
The rest of Q2 was a hard fought battle, and at one point it looked as though one of the Honda cars might actually make it into Q3. Alas, it was not to be, but there were more surprises - Fernando Alonso could not make it through to Q3. His best time was only good enough for 12th place. Alonso tried to temper this by claiming that the Renault does not have good 1-lap pace, but he will have a lot of work to do to in the race. Perhaps the biggest (and most welcome) surprise was that Sebastian Vettel cruised through into Q3. In fact he set the 6th fastest time in Q2. So, the eliminees from Q2 were Barrichello, Alonso, Button, Nakajima, Webber, and Raikkonen.
It all came down to Q3 then. The new format of qualifying has shortened Q3 to just ten minutes (and lengthened Q1 to 20 minutes), and has eliminated the fuel credit system, ie the "fuel burn phase". The cars would qualify on their race fuel, and whatever fuel they ended qualifying with, that would be what they would start the race with. Sebastian Vettel, after shining so brightly in Q2, opted to step out of his car - it would transpire that he had a technical problem, although Toro Rosso wouldn't confirm what the problem was. It always looked as though it would come down to a fight between McLaren and Ferrari. Surprisingly, it did not. The pace was set initially by Kovalainen, then Hamilton, then by Robert Kubica. However, the young pole ran very wide at the exit of turn 12 and although he kept his foot in it, he surely lost at least a tenth of a second. Thus, on Hamilton's final flying lap, he was able to steal pole position by a tenth and a half. Felipe Massa was left to fly the flag for Ferrari, but came up short - he had to abandon his last flying run due to traffic, and later complained that he just could not get the heat into his tyres.
So, it looked like the grid was set. However, after qualifying Timo Glock received two separate 5 grid slot penalties - one for a gearbox change, and one for baulking Mark Webber on an early run. This would drop the German from 9th to 19th on the grid. So, the final grid would be as follows:
| 1. Hamilton | 2. Kubica |
| 3. Kovalainen | 4. Massa |
| 5. Heidfeld | 6. Trulli |
| 7. Rosberg | 8. Coulthard |
| 9. Vettel | 10. Barrichello |
| 11. Aonso | 12. Button |
| 13. Nakajima | 14. Webber |
| 15. Raikkonen | 16. Fisichella |
| 17. Bourdais | 18. Sutil |
| 19. Glock | 20. Sato |
| 21. Piquet | 22. Davidson |
Labels: Australia, Formula 1, Grand Prix
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