F1 News
- June 21, 2008
French Qualifying
The Ferrari’s have taken the front row of the French Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton getting the third spot of the session, so he will start from thirteenth.
Fernando Alonso is the surprise performance of session 3, managing to put the car onto fourth, which means he will start from third tomorrow. The car looks planted, and could be the dark horse in the race.
Jarno Trulli again put in a great lap to take the fifth fastest time of Q3, and starts from fourth in the race, showing that the Toyota is certainly getting quicker, and maintaining the development pace.
Heikki had a bad session, and only managed to get the McLaren into the sixth fastest time, this means that he will struggle to help Lewis out in the race tomorrow. McLaren could have done with him taking a front row at worst, and would have like the car on pole position, so he could try to control the race pace.
The other surprise of the day is the BMW’s. Robert Kubica managed to struggle his car onto 7th spot, but the BMW’s looked to be struggling all qualifying, in all the sessions. Nick Heidfeld will only be starting from 12th after not getting through into Q3.
Mark Webber and David Coulthard both got into the Q3 session, and look to have taken a heavier fuel load than some in front of them, they qualified eight and ninth, so start in seventh and eight tomorrow.
Timo Glock is the last of the Q3 runners, showing that he is certainly improving in the Toyota, and that his finish in Canada has boyed him along a bit. He will start ninth tomorrow.
Nelsinho Piquet will start from the tenth place in the race, having qualified 11th, he looked stronger all weekend than we have seen him so far.
The only thing that Lewis Hamilton will be hoping for is the weather to close in, there are rain storms forcast for race day, and Lewis will certainly be hoping for the rain to bring some carnage to the race.
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:15.133 | 1:15.161 | 1:16.449 | 16 |
| 2 | 2 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:15.024 | 1:15.041 | 1:16.490 | 17 |
| 3 | 22 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:15.634 | 1:15.293 | 1:16.693 | 15 |
| 4 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:15.754 | 1:15.483 | 1:16.840 | 18 |
| 5 | 11 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:15.521 | 1:15.362 | 1:16.920 | 19 |
| 6 | 23 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:15.965 | 1:15.639 | 1:16.944 | 18 |
| 7 | 4 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1:15.687 | 1:15.723 | 1:17.037 | 19 |
| 8 | 10 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1:16.020 | 1:15.488 | 1:17.233 | 18 |
| 9 | 9 | David Coulthard | Red Bull-Renault | 1:15.802 | 1:15.654 | 1:17.426 | 19 |
| 10 | 12 | Timo Glock | Toyota | 1:15.727 | 1:15.558 | 1:17.596 | 24 |
| 11 | 6 | Nelsinho Piquet | Renault | 1:15.848 | 1:15.770 | 12 | |
| 12 | 3 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 1:16.006 | 1:15.786 | 14 | |
| 13 | 15 | Sebastian Vettel | STR-Ferrari | 1:15.918 | 1:15.816 | 17 | |
| 14 | 14 | Sebastien Bourdais | STR-Ferrari | 1:16.072 | 1:16.045 | 17 | |
| 15 | 7 | Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 1:16.085 | 1:16.235 | 12 | |
| 16 | 8 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 1:16.243 | 9 | ||
| 17 | 16 | Jenson Button | Honda | 1:16.306 | 9 | ||
| 18 | 17 | Rubens Barrichello | Honda | 1:16.330 | 6 | ||
| 19 | 21 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India-Ferrari | 1:16.971 | 10 | ||
| 20 | 20 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Ferrari | 1:17.053 | 9 |
