Saturday, May 10, 2008
# posted by Rich @ 4:42 PM
2008 Formula 1 Petrol Ofisi Turkish Grand Prix: Qualifying
Felipe Massa took a highly predictable pole position in Istanbul, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton. Massa's Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen will line up fourth, ahead of Kubica, Webber, Alonso, Trulli, Heidfeld and Coulthard. After the superb times that the Red Bull cars had set during the morning P3 session, it was anticipated that they would have a good qualifying session, and indeed both Red Bull cars made it through to P3.
Conditions during qualifying were cooler than anticipated - an air temperature of around 17 celcius and a track temperature in the mid 30s. Consequently, it appeared as though some of the drivers were struggling to get heat into their tyres. This was evident in Q1, where several of the drivers on the harder Prime tyres opted to do two flying laps on the one set of tyres, having only sufficiently heated the tyres after one flying lap. With the absence of Super Aguri, Q1 seemed a bit more sedate than usual, but with 5 cars to be eliminated and only 4 "slow" cars - the two Force India cars and the two STR cars - at least one of the cars from the bigger teams was going to be eliminated. In the end there were two - Nakajima and Piquet both failed to progress through to Q2. So, the Q1 eliminees were Nakajima, Piquet, Bourdais, Fisichella, and Sutil.
Q2 saw the rest of the usual suspects eliminated, and in the end there wasn't really a close fight to get into the top ten - Rosberg was the fastest Q2 eliminee, and he missed the cut by 2 tenths. Indeed, it looks as though the gulf between the upper-midfield and the lower-midfield is widening. So, those eliminated were Rosberg, Barrichello, Button, Vettel, and Glock.
There was, however, some drama and intrigue in Q3. The McLarens and the Ferraris were, as usual, the pace setters, and the early pace was set by Kovalainen. His lap time was bettered by Felipe Massa on his first set of tyres, and took provisional pole. Hamilton had a relatively poor lap that would provisionally see him in 6th pace - it would turn out that he had a spectacular slide in the fast and challenging turn 8, and that scuppered his lap. All the drivers (except for David Coulthard, who elected not to run at all in Q3) came in for fresh tyres and another stab at setting a fast time. There was a surprise though - Lewis Hamilton opted to stay on the harder Prime tyre, rather than switch to the softer Option tyre, which was supposedly worth about 3 tenths per lap. The decision was intriguing, and Ron Dennis would later claim that Lewis preferred the balance of the car on the Prime tyres. Nevertheless, his flying lap included yet another nervous moment in turn 8.
Hamilton's time was bettered by team mate Kovalainen, who took provisional pole, but that time was bettered by Felipe Massa, who loves the Istanbul Park track. As it was, Massa took pole position by two tenths from Kovalainen, with team mate Raikkonen in fourth place around 3 tenths adrift. Replays of Raikkonen's lap seemed to indicate that he was baulked by Alonso on his flying lap, but there was no penalty, presumably because they were both on their flying laps.
So, Felipe Massa took pole position ahead of tomorrow's race. He has won in Istanbul the last two times he has come here, and on both occasions won from pole. Can he turn it into glory again on Sunday? We shall have to wait and see.
Qualifying Results
Conditions during qualifying were cooler than anticipated - an air temperature of around 17 celcius and a track temperature in the mid 30s. Consequently, it appeared as though some of the drivers were struggling to get heat into their tyres. This was evident in Q1, where several of the drivers on the harder Prime tyres opted to do two flying laps on the one set of tyres, having only sufficiently heated the tyres after one flying lap. With the absence of Super Aguri, Q1 seemed a bit more sedate than usual, but with 5 cars to be eliminated and only 4 "slow" cars - the two Force India cars and the two STR cars - at least one of the cars from the bigger teams was going to be eliminated. In the end there were two - Nakajima and Piquet both failed to progress through to Q2. So, the Q1 eliminees were Nakajima, Piquet, Bourdais, Fisichella, and Sutil.
Q2 saw the rest of the usual suspects eliminated, and in the end there wasn't really a close fight to get into the top ten - Rosberg was the fastest Q2 eliminee, and he missed the cut by 2 tenths. Indeed, it looks as though the gulf between the upper-midfield and the lower-midfield is widening. So, those eliminated were Rosberg, Barrichello, Button, Vettel, and Glock.
There was, however, some drama and intrigue in Q3. The McLarens and the Ferraris were, as usual, the pace setters, and the early pace was set by Kovalainen. His lap time was bettered by Felipe Massa on his first set of tyres, and took provisional pole. Hamilton had a relatively poor lap that would provisionally see him in 6th pace - it would turn out that he had a spectacular slide in the fast and challenging turn 8, and that scuppered his lap. All the drivers (except for David Coulthard, who elected not to run at all in Q3) came in for fresh tyres and another stab at setting a fast time. There was a surprise though - Lewis Hamilton opted to stay on the harder Prime tyre, rather than switch to the softer Option tyre, which was supposedly worth about 3 tenths per lap. The decision was intriguing, and Ron Dennis would later claim that Lewis preferred the balance of the car on the Prime tyres. Nevertheless, his flying lap included yet another nervous moment in turn 8.
Hamilton's time was bettered by team mate Kovalainen, who took provisional pole, but that time was bettered by Felipe Massa, who loves the Istanbul Park track. As it was, Massa took pole position by two tenths from Kovalainen, with team mate Raikkonen in fourth place around 3 tenths adrift. Replays of Raikkonen's lap seemed to indicate that he was baulked by Alonso on his flying lap, but there was no penalty, presumably because they were both on their flying laps.
So, Felipe Massa took pole position ahead of tomorrow's race. He has won in Istanbul the last two times he has come here, and on both occasions won from pole. Can he turn it into glory again on Sunday? We shall have to wait and see.
Qualifying Results
| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | Driver | Time | Difference | Pos. | Driver | Time | Difference | Pos. | Driver | Time | Difference |
| 1. | Massa | 1:25.994 | 1. | Raikkonen | 1:26.050 | 1. | Massa | 1:27.617 | |||
| 2. | Hamilton | 1:26.192 | + 0.198 | 2. | Kubica | 1:26.129 | + 0.079 | 2. | Kovalainen | 1:27.808 | + 0.191 |
| 3. | Raikkonen | 1:26.457 | + 0.463 | 3. | Massa | 1:26.192 | + 0.142 | 3. | Hamilton | 1:27.923 | + 0.306 |
| 4. | Glock | 1:26.614 | + 0.620 | 4. | Kovalainen | 1:26.290 | + 0.240 | 4. | Raikkonen | 1:27.936 | + 0.319 |
| 5. | Trulli | 1:26.695 | + 0.701 | 5. | Webber | 1:26.466 | + 0.416 | 5. | Kubica | 1:28.390 | + 0.773 |
| 6. | Kovalainen | 1:26.736 | + 0.742 | 6. | Hamilton | 1:26.477 | + 0.427 | 6. | Webber | 1:28.417 | + 0.800 |
| 7. | Kubica | 1:26.761 | + 0.767 | 7. | Coulthard | 1:26.520 | + 0.470 | 7. | Alonso | 1:28.422 | + 0.805 |
| 8. | Webber | 1:26.773 | + 0.779 | 8. | Alonso | 1:26.522 | + 0.472 | 8. | Trulli | 1:28.836 | + 1.219 |
| 9. | Alonso | 1:26.836 | + 0.842 | 9. | Heidfeld | 1:26.607 | + 0.557 | 9. | Heidfeld | 1:28.882 | + 1.265 |
| 10. | Coulthard | 1:26.939 | + 0.945 | 10. | Trulli | 1:26.822 | + 0.772 | 10. | Coulthard | 1:29.959 | + 2.342 |
| 11. | Heidfeld | 1:27.107 | + 1.113 | 11. | Rosberg | 1:27.012 | + 0.962 | ||||
| 12. | Barrichello | 1:27.355 | + 1.361 | 12. | Barrichello | 1:27.219 | + 1.169 | ||||
| 13. | Rosberg | 1:27.367 | + 1.373 | 13. | Button | 1:27.298 | + 1.248 | ||||
| 14. | Button | 1:27.428 | + 1.434 | 14. | Vettel | 1:27.412 | + 1.362 | ||||
| 15. | Vettel | 1:27.442 | + 1.448 | 15. | Glock | 1:27.806 | + 1.756 | ||||
| 16. | Nakajima | 1:27.547 | + 1.553 | ||||||||
| 17. | Piquet | 1:27.568 | + 1.574 | ||||||||
| 18. | Bourdais | 1:27.621 | + 1.627 | ||||||||
| 19. | Fisichella * | 1:27.807 | + 1.813 | ||||||||
| 20. | Sutil | 1:28.325 | + 2.331 | ||||||||
| * Fisichella received a grid penalty for jumping the pit lane red light in P1, and will start from the back of the grid | |||||||||||
Labels: Formula 1, Grand Prix, Turkey
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