Posted by ashleigh on
October 11, 2008
Japan Qualifying
A good qualifying session, and certainly an interesting one.
Lewis pulled off a great lap in the drying moments of Q3 to take the pole position, but it looked like Kimi, who had seemed to be struggling all qualifying up until Q3 was certainly the man to beat. He pulled a great first Q3 lap out, and then backed it up with a good second lap, but was piped by the Lewis lap.
Heikki did well to take the third spot on the grid, with a decent lap at the end of the session, and the Renault of Alonso was again looking quick, and took fourth.
Massa seemed to struggle when the Ferrari had fuel put on board, after being quick in Q1 and Q2 he struggled with car balance in Q3, so starts fifth.
Behind the title contenders, and their wingmen is Robert Kubica, Jarno and Timo in the Toyota’s and then Vettel and Bourdais in the Toro Rosso’s again outperforming the prime Red Bull team.
Posted by ashleigh on
July 19, 2008
German Qualifying
Some interesting results from earlier’s qualifying session. It seems that the Ferrari of Kimi is miles off the pace, with Massa and Lewis leading the field.
Other interesting results are the Toyota of Jarno up at fourth spot for the start with Fernando wringing a lap out of his Renault to start in fifth, both ahead of Räikkönen’s Ferrari.
Both Red Bull cars made it into the final Q3 session with Webber again getting the better of David Coulthard.
The BMW’s did not do well at home, with only Robert making the final session, and then only managing seventh spot.
But a good drive from Vettel got the Ferrari powered STR into the final session to start in ninth.
Should be a good race tomorrow, as Massa’s Ferrari could be quick in race trim.
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:15.218 | 1:14.603 | 1:15.666 | 13 |
| 2 | 2 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:14.921 | 1:14.747 | 1:15.859 | 16 |
Posted by ashleigh on
July 5, 2008
British Qualifying
Just a quick post, as I don’t have a great connection to the net at the moment.
Well done to both Heikki and Mark who put the McLaren and Red Bull on the first row of the grid.
Other surprises are Lewis making a big pair of mistakes, first overdoing Bridge and not being able to get into Luffields, then not coming into the pits after ruining that lap, and staying out. Also Massa (and Räikkönen to a lesser extent) were both struggling in the Ferrari’s. Lot’s of people up the grid thought they were perhaps sandbagging all weekend, but it seems that they were not.
So a good race awaits us tomorrow, the weather may have something to say about the result’s, but for now a big well done to Red Bull for their first front row start, and Webber for his second.
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 23 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:19.957 | 1:19.597 | 1:21.049 | 15 |
| 2 | 10 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1:20.982 | 1:19.710 | 1:21.554 | 16 |
Posted by ashleigh on
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.
Posted by ashleigh on
June 7, 2008
Canada Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton has taken his second pole position in Canada with a simply stunning lap at the end of Qualifying 3.
Lewis set a laptime 6 tenths of a second faster than Robert Kubica in the BMW-Sauber, and nearly a second faster than Kimi in the Ferrari.
Fernando Alonso had a good set of laps in the Renault to take a spot on the second row of the grid, and Felipe and Heikki are sat on the third row.
Rubens Barrichello got the Honda into the Q3 session, with Button’s car failing with a third gear issue in Q1.
Mark Webber had a good Q2, but was trying to better his time at the end of the session, unfortunately the track surface was starting to break up at the hairpin, and on the exit of turn 7, this caught him out and he bumped the nose into barrier, ending his qualifying session. He starts in tenth position as he could not participate in Q3
