Saturday, April 05, 2008
# posted by Rich @ 1:08 PM
2008 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix: Qualifying
There were huge smiles on the BMW pit wall as Robert Kubica stormed to his, and BMW Sauber F1's, first ever pole position ahead of tomorrow's F1 Bahrain Grand Prix. The Pole edged out Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton for the top spot. Kimi Raikkonen will line up fourth, ahead of Kovalainen, Heidfeld, Trulli, Rosberg, Button, and Alonso.
The story of the weekend thus far had been that the Ferraris, especially Massa, had been fastest. Indeed, it looked as though there weren't going to be too many surprises in qualifying, but qualifying always generates surprises.
Q1 saw a few wayward moments. Early on Fisichella ran far too deep into turn 8 with locked tyres, but easily gathered the car up. Lewis Hamilton looked as though he had a few lock ups as well. Indeed, there was a little smoke coming from the back of his car under braking for turn 1. Although it was theorised that this was oil smoke, it was probably rear tyre smoke - the exact same phenomenon (at the exact same place) was seen throughout last year's race on Hamilton's car, with no ill effects whatsoever.
Towards the end of the Q1 session, with around 6 minutes to go, Takuma Sato ran wide out of the final corner, and spun to the inside of the circuit, connecting with the barrier with the right-rear of his car. The incident was somewhat similar to Hamilton's accident in P2. Sato managed to limp his car off line, but the session was red-flagged nonetheless. Before then, though, there was a minor controversy - Felipe Massa was on a hot lap and blew through a waved yellow flag (for the Sato incident) at full speed, setting the fastest time of the session in the process. However, there would be no penalty, and really that was sensible - given where Sato's car was, a stationary yellow flag should have sufficed.
So, Q1 restarted, and there was a scramble out on the track, but really it was the usual suspects who were eliminated. One surprise though was Coulthard, who admitted that he basically made a mistake and didn't do a good lap time. Those left in the basement were Coulthard, Fisichella, Vettel, Sutil, Davidson, and Sato.
Q2 was less dramatic than Q1. Most of the drivers went out on the softer Option tyres in an effort to set the ultimate lap time. Several drivvers were trying very hard, including Nelsinho Piquet, who locked up his tyres into turns 8 and 9/10. Sadly his efforts weren't good enough to enable him to progress to Q3. Neither were the efforts of Mark Webber, who was just edged out of the top ten in the last moments of the session. Sebastien Bourdais discussed with his engineer whether to make only one run on the Option tyres in Q2, reasoning that the best they could hope for was P12 anyway, so why waste the tyres. In the event, he did two runs but would end up 15th. The men stuck in the lobby, therefore, were Webber, Barrichello, Glock, Piquet, Bourdais, and Nakajima. Felipe Massa was the fastest man, as expected - he set a blistering time of 1:31.188.
Incredibly, Jenson Button had worked his way into Q3 - something that he only achieved four times last year. The Hondas are definitely improving! Nico Rosberg also continued to impress, and worked his way into Q3 as well, along with Alonso.
In Q3, all the drivers were out in the Option tyres again, and the showdown began. After everyone had done their first run, Massa was the fastest man, but Robert Kubica was only a shade slower. With fresh tyres on, everybody attempted another run. Hamilton was the first to challenge, and set a new provisional pole time. But then came Robert Kubica - he eclipsed Hamilton's time by 2 tenths, and was the new provisional pole sitter. What could the Ferraris do about that? Raikkonen crossed the line but couldn't best Hamilton's time. It was down to Massa, but he looked in trouble - he lost three tenths in the middle sector, and it was going to be close coming to the line. He swept down the start/finish straight and broke the tape - he was slower than Kubica by 27/1000ths of a second. Robert Kubica had secured his and BMW's first pole position. The giant smile on Mario Theissen's face on the pit wall said it all. They were delighted. Kubica later thought that he could have gone faster because he locked up and flat spotted his tyres at one point on the lap. Elsewhere, Kovalainen was fifth, Heidfeld was sixth, followed by Trulli, Rosberg, Button, and Alonso - the latter two's times were dismal, which suggests that they are on heavy fuel for the race tomorrow. Furthermore, both had done two runs each in Q1 and Q2 and had therefore presumably used up their allocation of Option tyres.
So, it's a Pole on pole - the headlines write themselves. However, with the likes of Massa and Hamilton surrounding him, he'll have a tough task converting that into glory in the race.
Qualifying Results
The story of the weekend thus far had been that the Ferraris, especially Massa, had been fastest. Indeed, it looked as though there weren't going to be too many surprises in qualifying, but qualifying always generates surprises.
Q1 saw a few wayward moments. Early on Fisichella ran far too deep into turn 8 with locked tyres, but easily gathered the car up. Lewis Hamilton looked as though he had a few lock ups as well. Indeed, there was a little smoke coming from the back of his car under braking for turn 1. Although it was theorised that this was oil smoke, it was probably rear tyre smoke - the exact same phenomenon (at the exact same place) was seen throughout last year's race on Hamilton's car, with no ill effects whatsoever.
Towards the end of the Q1 session, with around 6 minutes to go, Takuma Sato ran wide out of the final corner, and spun to the inside of the circuit, connecting with the barrier with the right-rear of his car. The incident was somewhat similar to Hamilton's accident in P2. Sato managed to limp his car off line, but the session was red-flagged nonetheless. Before then, though, there was a minor controversy - Felipe Massa was on a hot lap and blew through a waved yellow flag (for the Sato incident) at full speed, setting the fastest time of the session in the process. However, there would be no penalty, and really that was sensible - given where Sato's car was, a stationary yellow flag should have sufficed.
So, Q1 restarted, and there was a scramble out on the track, but really it was the usual suspects who were eliminated. One surprise though was Coulthard, who admitted that he basically made a mistake and didn't do a good lap time. Those left in the basement were Coulthard, Fisichella, Vettel, Sutil, Davidson, and Sato.
Q2 was less dramatic than Q1. Most of the drivers went out on the softer Option tyres in an effort to set the ultimate lap time. Several drivvers were trying very hard, including Nelsinho Piquet, who locked up his tyres into turns 8 and 9/10. Sadly his efforts weren't good enough to enable him to progress to Q3. Neither were the efforts of Mark Webber, who was just edged out of the top ten in the last moments of the session. Sebastien Bourdais discussed with his engineer whether to make only one run on the Option tyres in Q2, reasoning that the best they could hope for was P12 anyway, so why waste the tyres. In the event, he did two runs but would end up 15th. The men stuck in the lobby, therefore, were Webber, Barrichello, Glock, Piquet, Bourdais, and Nakajima. Felipe Massa was the fastest man, as expected - he set a blistering time of 1:31.188.
Incredibly, Jenson Button had worked his way into Q3 - something that he only achieved four times last year. The Hondas are definitely improving! Nico Rosberg also continued to impress, and worked his way into Q3 as well, along with Alonso.
In Q3, all the drivers were out in the Option tyres again, and the showdown began. After everyone had done their first run, Massa was the fastest man, but Robert Kubica was only a shade slower. With fresh tyres on, everybody attempted another run. Hamilton was the first to challenge, and set a new provisional pole time. But then came Robert Kubica - he eclipsed Hamilton's time by 2 tenths, and was the new provisional pole sitter. What could the Ferraris do about that? Raikkonen crossed the line but couldn't best Hamilton's time. It was down to Massa, but he looked in trouble - he lost three tenths in the middle sector, and it was going to be close coming to the line. He swept down the start/finish straight and broke the tape - he was slower than Kubica by 27/1000ths of a second. Robert Kubica had secured his and BMW's first pole position. The giant smile on Mario Theissen's face on the pit wall said it all. They were delighted. Kubica later thought that he could have gone faster because he locked up and flat spotted his tyres at one point on the lap. Elsewhere, Kovalainen was fifth, Heidfeld was sixth, followed by Trulli, Rosberg, Button, and Alonso - the latter two's times were dismal, which suggests that they are on heavy fuel for the race tomorrow. Furthermore, both had done two runs each in Q1 and Q2 and had therefore presumably used up their allocation of Option tyres.
So, it's a Pole on pole - the headlines write themselves. However, with the likes of Massa and Hamilton surrounding him, he'll have a tough task converting that into glory in the race.
Qualifying Results
| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | Driver | Time | Difference | Laps | Pos. | Driver | Time | Difference | Laps | Pos. | Driver | Time | Difference | Laps |
| 1. | Massa | 1:31.937 | 3 | 1. | Massa | 1:31.188 | 3 | 1. | Kubica | 1:33.096 | 6 | |||
| 2. | Trulli | 1:32.493 | + 0.556 | 7 | 2. | Kovalainen | 1:31.718 | + 0.530 | 3 | 2. | Massa | 1:33.123 | + 0.027 | 6 |
| 3. | Raikkonen | 1:32.652 | + 0.715 | 3 | 3. | Kubica | 1:31.745 | + 0.557 | 3 | 3. | Hamilton | 1:33.292 | + 0.196 | 6 |
| 4. | Hamilton | 1:32.750 | + 0.813 | 4 | 4. | Heidfeld | 1:31.909 | + 0.721 | 6 | 4. | Raikkonen | 1:33.418 | + 0.322 | 6 |
| 5. | Button | 1:32.793 | + 0.856 | 6 | 5. | Hamilton | 1:31.922 | + 0.734 | 3 | 5. | Kovalainen | 1:33.488 | + 0.392 | 6 |
| 6. | Glock | 1:32.800 | + 0.863 | 9 | 6. | Raikkonen | 1:32.933 | + 0.745 | 3 | 6. | Heidfeld | 1:33.737 | + 0.641 | 6 |
| 7. | Kubica | 1:32.893 | + 0.956 | 3 | 7. | Trulli | 1:32.159 | + 0.971 | 6 | 7. | Trulli | 1:33.994 | + 0.898 | 6 |
| 8. | Rosberg | 1:32.903 | + 0.966 | 9 | 8. | Rosberg | 1:32.185 | + 0.997 | 7 | 8. | Rosberg | 1:34.015 | + 0.919 | 6 |
| 9. | Barrichello | 1:32.944 | + 1.007 | 6 | 9. | Alonso | 1:32.345 | + 1.157 | 6 | 9. | Button | 1:35.057 | + 2.411 | 5 |
| 10. | Alonso | 1:32.947 | + 1.010 | 6 | 10. | Button | 1:32.362 | + 1.174 | 6 | 10. | Alonso | 1:35.115 | + 2.019 | 5 |
| 11. | Piquet | 1:32.975 | + 1.038 | 9 | 11. | Webber | 1:32.371 | + 1.183 | 6 | |||||
| 12. | Kovalainen | 1:33.057 | + 1.120 | 3 | 12. | Barrichello | 1:32.508 | + 1.320 | 6 | |||||
| 13. | Heidfeld | 1:33.137 | + 1.200 | 3 | 13. | Glock | 1:32.528 | + 1.340 | 6 | |||||
| 14. | Webber | 1:33.194 | + 1.257 | 6 | 14. | Piquet | 1:32.790 | + 1.602 | 6 | |||||
| 15. | Nakajima | 1:33.386 | + 1.449 | 9 | 15. | Bourdais | 1:32.915 | + 1.727 | 6 | |||||
| 16. | Bourdais | 1:33.415 | + 1.478 | 9 | 16. | Nakajima | 1:32.943 | + 1.755 | 6 | |||||
| 17. | Coulthard | 1:33.433 | + 1.496 | 7 | ||||||||||
| 18. | Fisichella | 1:33.501 | + 1.564 | 5 | ||||||||||
| 19. | Vettel | 1:33.562 | + 1.625 | 9 | ||||||||||
| 20. | Sutil | 1:33.845 | + 1.908 | 6 | ||||||||||
| 21. | Davidson | 1:34.140 | + 2.203 | 9 | ||||||||||
| 22. | Sato | 1:35.725 | + 3.788 | 5 | ||||||||||
Labels: Bahrain, Formula 1, Grand Prix
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