F1 News
- July 15, 2006
France Qualifying
The French GP has brought some strange things to light. The firstone is the lack of performance from the Honda cars. Neither of the Honda cars have shown any performance all weakend, and when I say no performance, I mean MF1 levels almost. Button therefore will be starting from 18th on the grid, with team mate Barrichello starting 13th.
Another shock came from the 'Two Towers' BMW Sauber cars. They have been setting the pace all weekend up untill qualifying, where they just did not perform. Villeneuve will start the race from 17th after falling out in Qualy1 and Heidfeld will start 11th.
Other supprises where the good showing of the Bridgestone tyres, they went well on both the Ferrari (1 and 2 on the grid for Michael and Massa) and Toyota teams, who are the other plesant supprise. They have proved the pace they showed in the USA is a real improvement. Both cars made it through to Q3, with Trulli starting 4th and Ralf starting 5th.
The Michelin tyred cars seemed to stuggle with the increased track temperatures. Alonso showed he is still a talented driver, getting the home car Renault onto 3rd on the grid, with his team mate Fisichella struggling to match the pace in 7th.
The McLaren cars showed a decent pace, De la Rossa showed good pace, getting 8th and Raikonen put his car on the 3rd row in 6th.
Coulthard also drove well to get through to the Q3 session, he starts 9th (after the other Q3 runner Rosberg took a 10 place drop for an engine change). He used the Q3 session to work on the balance of the car, never using a new set of tyres, or setting a 'fast lap'.
That leaves us with a good grid for the race tomorow. Will the Toyota's be able to show race pace in the same area as their qualifying pace? Will the Ferrari's run off and hide? or will the home team win out the day. Only time will tell.
Results
1. M SCHUMACHER Ferrari
2. MASSA Ferrari
3. ALONSO Renault
4. TRULLI Toyota
5. R SCHUMACHER Toyota
6. RAIKKONEN McLaren
7. FISICHELLA Renault
8. DE LA ROSA McLaren
9. COULTHARD Red Bull
10. WEBBER Williams
11. HEIDFELD BMW
12. KLIEN Red Bull
13. BARRICHELLO Honda
14. SPEED Toro Rosso
15. ALBERS Midland
16. LIUZZI Toro Rosso
17. VILLENEUVE BMW
18. BUTTON Honda
19. ROSBERG Williams*
20. MONTEIRO Midland
21. MONTAGNY Super Aguri
22. SATO Super Aguri
* demoted 10 places due to engine change
