Saturday, April 26, 2008
# posted by Rich @ 5:01 PM
2008 Formula 1 Gran Premio De Espana Telefonica: Qualifying
Kimi Raikkonen put in a blistering performance to take pole position ahead of Sunday's race. Hoever, the buzz was that Fernando Alonso took second on the grid, narrowly missing out to Raikkonen.
The buzz going into the session was the pace of the Renaults - could they pull off something spectacular? Q1 saw the elimination of the usual suspects, but a surprise was David Coulthard - he could manage no better than 17th, and would be eliminated early on. The other drivers eliminated were Vettel, Fisichella, Sutil, Davidson, and Sato. Meanwhile, Raikkonen was easily the fastest man on track, with Trulli second fastest and Alonso third - it looked like the pace of the Renaults was genuine. In Q2 it was Felipe Massa's turn to be fastest, just pipping Robert Kubica. In the heat of the competition, the Renaults looked less impressive, but nevertheless they both made it through to Q3 - Piquet squeaked through in 8th place. The eliminees were Barrichello, Nakajima, Button, Glock, Rosberg, and Bourdais. In the end it was a disappointing performance for the Hondas - much had been expected of their new aero package, but it seemed like one-lap pace was still eluding them. So it came down to the Q3 shootout. Felipe Massa put in a solid performance early on, but could not better his time on his second run. However, Fernando Alonso put in a stunning lap to take provisional pole. He was to be disappointed though - Kimi Raikkonen pulled a superb lap out of his hat to take pole position by a tenth of a second, with Massa in third, Kubica fourth, Hamilton fifth, Kovalainen 6th, Webber 7th, followed by Trulli, Heidfeld, and Piquet. The performance of the McLarens looked poor, but there was doubt about the fuel loads they were running.
Again, apologies for the short post - I'm still out of town.
Qualifying Results
The buzz going into the session was the pace of the Renaults - could they pull off something spectacular? Q1 saw the elimination of the usual suspects, but a surprise was David Coulthard - he could manage no better than 17th, and would be eliminated early on. The other drivers eliminated were Vettel, Fisichella, Sutil, Davidson, and Sato. Meanwhile, Raikkonen was easily the fastest man on track, with Trulli second fastest and Alonso third - it looked like the pace of the Renaults was genuine. In Q2 it was Felipe Massa's turn to be fastest, just pipping Robert Kubica. In the heat of the competition, the Renaults looked less impressive, but nevertheless they both made it through to Q3 - Piquet squeaked through in 8th place. The eliminees were Barrichello, Nakajima, Button, Glock, Rosberg, and Bourdais. In the end it was a disappointing performance for the Hondas - much had been expected of their new aero package, but it seemed like one-lap pace was still eluding them. So it came down to the Q3 shootout. Felipe Massa put in a solid performance early on, but could not better his time on his second run. However, Fernando Alonso put in a stunning lap to take provisional pole. He was to be disappointed though - Kimi Raikkonen pulled a superb lap out of his hat to take pole position by a tenth of a second, with Massa in third, Kubica fourth, Hamilton fifth, Kovalainen 6th, Webber 7th, followed by Trulli, Heidfeld, and Piquet. The performance of the McLarens looked poor, but there was doubt about the fuel loads they were running.
Again, apologies for the short post - I'm still out of town.
Qualifying Results
| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | Driver | Time | Difference | Pos. | Driver | Time | Difference | Pos. | Driver | Time | Difference |
| 1. | Räikkönen | 1:20.701 | 1. | Massa | 1:20.584 | 1. | Räikkönen | 1:21.813 | |||
| 2. | Trulli | 1:21.158 | + 0.457 | 2. | Kubica | 1:20.597 | + 0.013 | 2. | Alonso | 1:21.904 | + 0.091 |
| 3. | Alonso | 1:21.347 | + 0.646 | 3. | Räikkönen | 1:20.784 | + 0.200 | 3. | Massa | 1:22.058 | + 0.245 |
| 4. | Hamilton | 1:21.366 | + 0.665 | 4. | Alonso | 1:20.804 | + 0.220 | 4. | Kubica | 1:22.065 | + 0.252 |
| 5. | Piquet | 1:21.409 | + 0.708 | 5. | Heidfeld | 1:20.815 | + 0.231 | 5. | Hamilton | 1:22.096 | + 0.283 |
| 6. | Kubica | 1:21.423 | + 0.722 | 6. | Kovalainen | 1:20.817 | + 0.233 | 6. | Kovalainen | 1:22.231 | + 0.418 |
| 7. | Glock | 1:21.427 | + 0.726 | 7. | Hamilton | 1:20.825 | + 0.241 | 7. | Webber | 1:22.429 | + 0.616 |
| 8. | Kovalainen | 1:21.430 | + 0.729 | 8. | Piquet | 1:20.894 | + 0.310 | 8. | Trulli | 1:22.529 | + 0.716 |
| 9. | Heidfeld | 1:21.466 | + 0.765 | 9. | Trulli | 1:20.907 | + 0.323 | 9. | Heidfeld | 1:22.542 | + 0.729 |
| 10. | Rosberg | 1:21.472 | + 0.771 | 10. | Webber | 1:20.984 | + 0.400 | 10. | Piquet | 1:22.699 | + 0.886 |
| 11. | Webber | 1:21.494 | + 0.793 | 11. | Barrichello | 1:21.049 | + 0.465 | ||||
| 12. | Massa | 1:21.528 | + 0.827 | 12. | Nakajima | 1:21.117 | + 0.533 | ||||
| 13. | Bourdais | 1:21.540 | + 0.839 | 13. | Button | 1:21.211 | + 0.627 | ||||
| 14. | Barrichello | 1:21.548 | + 0.847 | 14. | Glock | 1:21.230 | + 0.646 | ||||
| 15. | Nakajima | 1:21.690 | + 0.989 | 15. | Rosberg | 1:21.349 | + 0.765 | ||||
| 16. | Button | 1:21.757 | + 1.056 | 16. | Bourdais | 1:21.724 | + 1.140 | ||||
| 17. | Coulthard | 1:21.810 | + 1.109 | ||||||||
| 18. | Vettel | 1:22.108 | + 1.407 | ||||||||
| 19. | Fisichella | 1:22.516 | + 1.815 | ||||||||
| 20. | Sutil | 1:23.224 | + 2.523 | ||||||||
| 21. | Davidson | 1:23.318 | + 2.617 | ||||||||
| 22. | Sato | 1:23.496 | + 2.795 | ||||||||
Labels: Formula 1, Grand Prix, Spain
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