2008 Grand Prix of France, Qualifying – Kimi Takes Ferrari’s 200th Pole!

Kimi Raikkonen claimed Ferrari’s 200th Formula One pole in French Grand Prix qualifying, leading teammate Felipe Massa in a front row sweep.

Lewis Hamilton was third fastest for McLaren, but will drop to 13th on the grid due to his penalty for hitting Raikkonen in the Montreal pits.

That will elevate Fernando Alonso (Renault) to third place, with Jarno Trulli joining him on row two after an impressive effort for Toyota.

Hamilton’s McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen and championship leader Robert Kubica (BMW) will complete the leading three rows.

Although Massa had dominated Q1 and Q2, it was Raikkonen who took charge in Q3, claiming provisional pole on his first run.

When Massa then failed to improve sufficiently to demote his teammate, Raikkonen chose to abandon his second lap, rightly believing he was assured of pole.

Hamilton’s eventual third place was a comparatively successful result after an error at the Nurburgring chicane on his first Q3 run had left him eighth – and facing a potential ninth row start. He managed to vault to third with his second flying lap and minimised the damage.

Behind Alonso, Trulli and Kovalainen, Kubica took sixth place despite struggling in the earlier parts of qualifying… (read full qualifying report here)

Pos  Driver        Team                 Q1        Q2        Q3       Laps
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              1:15.133  1:15.161  1:16.449  16
 2.  Massa         Ferrari              1:15.024  1:15.041  1:16.490  17
 3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     1:15.634  1:15.293  1:16.693  15
 4.  Alonso        Renault              1:15.754  1:15.483  1:16.840  18
 5.  Trulli        Toyota               1:15.521  1:15.362  1:16.920  19
 6.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     1:15.965  1:15.639  1:16.944  18
 7.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           1:15.687  1:15.723  1:17.037  19
 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     1:16.020  1:15.488  1:17.233  18
 9.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     1:15.802  1:15.654  1:17.426  19
10.  Glock         Toyota               1:15.727  1:15.558  1:17.596  24
11.  Piquet        Renault              1:15.848  1:15.770            12
12.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           1:16.006  1:15.786            14
13.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:15.918  1:15.816            17
14.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:16.072  1:16.045            17
15.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      1:16.085  1:16.235            12
16.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      1:16.243                       9
17.  Button        Honda                1:16.306                       9
18.  Barrichello   Honda                1:16.330                       6
19.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari  1:16.971                      10
20.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari  1:17.053                       9

I always knew Kimi would do it here! Yay! High five right back at you Raikko. The fans surely needed this break, but mostly you needed that feeling of being close to winning again. And again, another honoury achievement for the team, Ferrari’s 200th pole. Congratulations!

Today showed a great effort from Alonso, Kubica, Trulli and Coulthard in particular who’s finally managed to qualify near his teammate Webber. All these guys in the top 10 surely will make for an interesting first stint in tomorrow’s race. Vettel’s doing a nice consistant job and keeping his teammate and France’s countryman Bourdais in the dark, but maybe Bourdais will give Vettel trouble into the first corner. Kovalainen was quite disappointing today I reckon, no doubt he is/was McLaren’s best chance for maximum points. News just in that he is penalised for impeding Webber during Q2. So, it’s a bad day for McLaren really!

Someone’s missing from all this talk…what’s his name again? Louis? Louis Houbert? Ah, he did his best and credit to him for making the top 3. He needed it bad. He’ll start the race from 13th and ITV remain hopeful that he can possibly get a podium since Kimi did the same in 2005 here. However, that’s yet another skill Lewis really has to prove to us – staying calm and calculated in the back field to get a good result. He should make the race more exciting from charging through the field. Let’s pray that no other unlucky driver get’s hit in the backside though! Maybe it will be poor Kovalainen…

It will be down to Kimi tomorrow to turn his golden opportunity from pole into 10 full points. I’m sure he’ll take it in his stride during the first stint and then really push for the second, he’s much more mature and wise nowadays. But he can fly just as fast as he used to! Keep Flying Kimi!

| Qualifying Quotes – "I could have gone quicker" – Kimi

"I had quite a bit faster lap on the lap I came in, but the team told me to box it because I was fastest anyhow, there was no point to waste a lap of fuel," said Raikkonen, who has not scored a point in the last two races.

"That last lap I was at least two tenths faster so just at the last moment I turned in when I was at the last chicane, when the team told me to box.

"We had good speed all weekend the car has been working well and it has been a great weekend so far but tomorrow we have to finish and hopefully we can win because we need some points."

He added: "The car is so much different when you have no fuel. We have been working all week with a normal fuel load, so it is not always exactly what you want, but the main thing is to be faster than them so it worked out very well for us.

"The team told me to box it because I was fastest anyhow, no point to waste a lap of fuel. That last lap I was two tenths faster but the team told me to pit."

"I don’t think there is much in it on one lap the soft and hard tyre but over the race I think the harder is definitely the way to go and for us it has been working pretty well both tyres."

Ferrari Team Quotes

Kimi Raikkonen – 1st: "I am very happy with this result, not just for myself but above all for the team. It is a pleasure to have taken Ferrari’s two hundredth pole even if, at the moment, I have only played a small part in the history of Scuderia. So far, the weekend is going really well but of course we have yet to tackle the most important part which is the race, where anything could happen. The car has always been well balanced and, at least as far as the first lap is concerned, the performance of the two tyres is pretty similar, while the harder compound seems to do better over a long distance. If I was not to win, I would obviously be a bit disappointed, but the most important thing is to finish and bring home the maximum number of points, because we really need them."

Felipe Massa – 2nd: "It was a good qualifying, especially the first two parts. In the third one, maybe I went a bit over the limit to try and get out all the potential from the car and I lost enough time to prevent me from doing better…"

Luca Baldisserri: "A great qualifying, with both cars running troublefree throughout. So far, we have tackled this race weekend in the best way possible, but we know what really counts is the race…"

| Qualifying Videos – Last Mins of QLF, Kimi Takes Pole & Parc Ferme Celebration, Full Press Conferencehttp://www.viddler.com/simple/b6d6a467/ http://www.viddler.com/simple/1efff163/ http://www.viddler.com/simple/bf080f4b/