Saturday, Qualifying
*More photos are up in the album*
Hamilton gets first F1 pole in Canada
Kimi P4!
A better weekend for Kimi though! It definatly is closer than we imagined here in Canada between McLaren and Ferrari, infact, McLaren are the faster car all together! Hamilton gets his first F1 pole position, beating his teammate Alonso who ended up settling for 2nd position. Kimi has had a much better weekend than his previous ones here in Montreal, he qualified 4th ahead of Massa finally. BMW’s Nick Heidfeld put in a great effort for splitting up the McLarens’ and Ferraris’ and it’ll be interesting to see how he plays into the rivals’ race strategies for tomorrow, though he may be much lighter than teammate Kubica further behind.
It’s been a hectic qualifying day for Kovalainen and Coulthard. Heikki had yet another bang against the wall and needed repairs on the rear right tyre section, luckily with no severe suspension damage. He managed to get back out in time thanks to the great work of his mechanics but missed out entering session 2; he qualified 19th. Teammate Fisichella only just got under the top 10. David on the other hand had numerous offs due to braking problems and when Heikki caused the red flag from his accident, DC was able to have enough time to sort things out; he qualified 14th. His teammate Webber did a decent job and got 6th position. 
Anyway, back to the main story, up front! Against Lewis’ hot qualifying lap, Alonso made a little mistake, nothing too great worthy to call an ‘error’, but it forced him to pick up some marbles and lose grip, 3 tenths at most and he took a safer approach to the anticipated final chicane where you can win or lose everything. In his case, he won for reassurance for McLaren, securing a 1-2 qualifying line up. It’s clear though, that he has a seriously competitive and almost flawless rival in Hamilton, so Alonso doesn’t really have anything to be happy about other than he finished qualifying in one piece.
Same goes for Kimi I guess, as he went fastest in session 1 showing he can keep up with the McLarens’ but most importantly he did outpace teammate Massa. He really needed a break from all the doubters and criticisers this weekend and he’s only just found it. He has the race to finish yet. He kept his act together and had a reasonably good qualifying day. So, pat on the back for our Kimi
He only qualified 2 tenths faster than Massa, so longs way to go yet. I’m sure he isn’t too excited. I’m not sure to whether he is about 1/2 laps lighter than Massa, because Kimi’s been working hard just to fix his qualifying performance and his race engineer said he was glad it’s improved. And what happened to the Schumi Syndrome? Michael is here this weekend, again, watching and talking, but it hasn’t bothered Kimi today as some speculated it would!
For the race, he needs to jump that BMW of Heidfeld on the first lap if possible (yes, it is possible, this is racing by the way, not a day stuck in traffic on the M25), and he has to pace himself against the McLarens’. They clearly have the faster package so Kimi needs to make sure his head, heart, hands, feet and car are working flawlessly if he wants any chance to win this race. I may sound too serious but this is the only way. There’s bound to be at least 5 safety car calls tomorrow due to the tricky and slippery track conditions and the soft tyres, but he can’t rely on the safety car totally. He needs to prove the speed he has to the team, to Massa and to everyone, that he is back and will only get stronger. Keep Flying Kimi!!!
P.S It’s not new news that F1 and fans can be fickle, but I’ve been seeing a lot of so called Ferrari fans practically beg Michael Schumacher to come and ‘fix things’ for them. Only he knows how to fix the problems, only he knows how to win races, only he knows how to beat McLaren, right? I’m fed up and sick to the stomach of these people, who disrespect Ferrari’s current drivers like this. I don’t even like the team, yet I thought at least the fans would support their drivers through thick and thin.
Ferrari were basically like Minardi for ages,
but that’s beside the point. I couldn’t care less for a TEAM who think
they can’t move on and develop themselves without one man. Yes, they
worked great together, but even Michael himself should atleast give
them the chance they deserve to move on! And Kimi is in a team
surrounded by minds which only know two words: Michael Schumacher. Kimi
believes in as long as the team is behind him and they work together,
they’ll be fine. I pray this will be the case because it does NOT look
like it right now. If Ferrari and Michael could keep their distance, I
assure you they would be doing a better job, well not straight away but
much sooner. What great deal of help does Michael give being in their
garages and talking? He is NOT the driver anymore, his advice is
irrelevant because Kimi is a completely different racer all together.
GO AWAY MICHAEL SCHUMACHER and let Kimi work with HIS TEAM ALONE.
And I completely despise the whole rally-behind-one-driver-and
shun-the-other mentality they have BECAUSE of Michael Schumacher. Look
at McLaren, they have a great car, and they’re possibly achieving MORE than
Ferrari did with just one great driver, McLaren have two, who have full support from the team.
This is a huge rant, but it just goes how deeply irritated I am about this whole crap,
and I’m just voicing my concerns out after holding them in for a long
time.
It’s hardly unfair to say that Michael should stay retired, not
part-time retired, he should leave the team alone and give them the
opportunity to develop without him holding their hands! They’ll get
over it! This is F1, it doesn’t have time for babies sulking ‘where’s
mummy’.
Maybe he would be doing a better job if he hadn’t retired, well
tough, Luca said go, and he had to go, live goes on, life is NOT
Michael Schumacher in Ferrari, and atleast one person – Montezemolo –
see’s that!!!!! Unfortunatly the driver I’ve been supporting for years,
through thick and thin has to put up with this love affair which he
does NOT deserve! I just want to add one more thing; that we cannot
blame just one person (Kimi) for the way they are under performing,
it’s a damn team effort, and are all the team behind him? I don’t think
so.
Anyway, Ferrari probably underestimated McLaren over the past 2
weeks, but really McLaren just worked much more harder and they’re
getting the rewards, thats F1. If Ferrari want to win again, they have
to work hard too, with THEIR DRIVERS as a TEAM. Not ponder "Michael,
Michael, what does this mean? How should Kimi and Massa handle this?"
Ferrari Saturday quotes: Kimi Raikkonen – 4th: "Of course I would have
preferred to have been further forward on the starting grid, but we
know we have a competitive car when running at race pace and as far as
today’s result is concerned, there is always the unknown factor
concerning the fuel levels of those fighting it out in Q3.
"I didn’t have any particular problems today, but I lacked a bit of
speed when compared to our closest rivals. However, before getting
upset about it, we must wait and see how the race goes. We will do our
utmost to get the best result possible."
| Canada qualifying breakdown
| Session 1 | Session 2 | Session 3 | ||||||||
| Pos | Driver | Team | Pos | Time | Lap | Pos | Time | Lap | Pos | Time | Lap |
| 1. | Hamilton | McLaren | 3. | 1:16.576 | 3 | 2. | 1:15.486 | 3 | 1. | 1:15.707 | 12 |
| 2. | Alonso | McLaren | 2. | 1:16.562 | 3 | 1. | 1:15.522 | 3 | 2. | 1:16.163 | 12 |
| 3. | Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 6. | 1:17.006 | 5 | 6. | 1:15.960 | 6 | 3. | 1:16.266 | 12 |
| 4. | Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1. | 1:16.468 | 6 | 5. | 1:16.592 | 3 | 4. | 1:16.411 | 12 |
| 5. | Massa | Ferrari | 4. | 1:16.756 | 4 | 4. | 1:16.138 | 3 | 5. | 1:16.570 | 12 |
| 6. | Webber | Red Bull | 10. | 1:17.315 | 6 | 9. | 1:16.257 | 6 | 6. | 1:16.913 | 11 |
| 7. | Rosberg | Williams | 8. | 1:17.016 | 6 | 10. | 1:16.190 | 6 | 7. | 1:16.919 | 12 |
| 8. | Kubica | BMW Sauber | 9. | 1:17.267 | 7 | 7. | 1:16.368 | 7 | 8. | 1:16.993 | 12 |
| 9. | Fisichella | Renault | 5. | 1:16.805 | 6 | 3. | 1:16.288 | 6 | 9. | 1:17.229 | 12 |
| 10. | Trulli | Toyota | 11. | 1:17.324 | 8 | 8. | 1:16.600 | 6 | 10. | 1:17.747 | 12 |
| 11. | Sato | Super Aguri | 14. | 1:17.490 | 6 | 11. | 1:16.743 | 6 | |||
| 12. | Liuzzi | Toro Rosso | 16. | 1:17.541 | 6 | 12. | 1:16.760 | 7 | |||
| 13. | Barrichello | Honda | 7. | 1:17.011 | 6 | 13. | 1:17.116 | 6 | |||
| 14. | Coulthard | Red Bull | 13. | 1:17.436 | 7 | 14. | 1:17.304 | 8 | |||
| 15. | Button | Honda | 15. | 1:17.522 | 6 | 15. | 1:17.541 | 6 | |||
| 16. | Speed | Toro Rosso | 12. | 1:17.433 | 6 | 16. | 1:17.571 | 7 | |||
| 17. | Davidson | Super Aguri | 17. | 1:17.542 | 4 | ||||||
| 18. | R.Schumacher | Toyota | 18. | 1:17.634 | 8 | ||||||
| 19. | Kovalainen | Renault | 19. | 1:17.806 | 6 | ||||||
| 20. | Wurz | Williams | 20. | 1:18.089 | 5 | ||||||
| 21. | Sutil | Spyker | 21. | 1:18.536 | 7 | ||||||
| 22. | Albers | Spyker | 22. | 1:19.196 | 7 | ||||||
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