2008 Grand Prix of Britain, Qualifying – Kimi 3rd

Heikki Kovalainen claimed his first Formula One pole position with a commanding performance at Silverstone.

The McLaren driver beat surprise qualifying star, Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber, to the top spot in British Grand Prix qualifying, while McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton only managed fourth on home ground behind Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Kovalainen, who scored the first pole of his car racing career at Silverstone in Formula Renault seven years ago, took provisional pole with his first Q3 run, and although that time was beaten by Webber, Raikkonen and Hamilton, the Finn responded with a 1:21.049 – reclaiming pole position by over half a second.

Behind Kovalainen, the remarkable Webber beat Raikkonen to the outside front row spot, securing Red Bull’s best ever qualifying position.

Hamilton went off the road at Priory on his first Q3 lap and was then nearly 0.8 seconds slower than Kovalainen on his next attempt, leaving him in a disappointing fourth place.

Championship leader Felipe Massa also had a troubled qualifying, with a mistake in Q3 leaving him only ninth on the grid….(read full qualifying report here)

Pos  Driver        Team                 Q1        Q2        Q3       Laps
 1.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     1:19.957  1:19.597  1:21.049  15
 2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     1:20.982  1:19.710  1:21.554  16
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              1:20.370  1:19.971  1:21.706  18
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     1:20.288  1:19.537  1:21.835  13
 5.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           1:21.022  1:19.802  1:21.873  16
 6.  Alonso        Renault              1:20.998  1:19.992  1:22.029  15
 7.  Piquet        Renault              1:20.818  1:20.115  1:22.491  19
 8.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:20.318  1:20.109  1:23.251  16
 9.  Massa         Ferrari              1:20.676  1:20.086  1:23.305  16
10.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           1:20.444  1:19.788            12
11.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     1:21.224  1:20.174            14
12.  Glock         Toyota               1:20.893  1:20.274            14
13.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:20.584  1:20.531            16
14.  Trulli        Toyota               1:21.145  1:20.601            13
15.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      1:21.407  1:21.112            14
16.  Barrichello   Honda                1:21.512                       9
17.  Button        Honda                1:21.631                      11
18.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      1:21.668                       6
19.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari  1:21.786                       9
20.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari  1:21.885                       8

Yay!!!! Kimi No.1! Kimi No.1! Well, he isn’t on pole but his effort was enough to make me cheer out loud. What a session! And what a mess from Lewis, dear oh dear. Forget that, well done to the Finns! Heikki did a superb, clean and quick job all day and was rewarded with a well deserved pole position. Kimi was indeed struggling with something, supposedly the cross winds however it seems he is a few laps heavier on fuel than those infront of him. But, he did his homework and managed to overcome the majority of his issues by going fastest for a brief moment. I threw my fist in the air in celebration because I knew it was a result of hard work. He really gave his best shot, so that’s all we can ask for. The Ferraris, surprisingly, aren’t as competitive as we all thought and poor Massa is lingering in 9th place on the grid. The McLarens were stronger in qualifying last year too, but it’s clear that they’ve closed the gap and perhaps are even stronger all together on qualifying pace again. BMW and Toyota also aren’t as quick here, but Renault and the Red Bulls with their Renault engines are doing much better. What a great result for Mark Webber, a pity though that his teammate Coulthard is down in 11th, but that too looks good for tomorrow. I assume Kimi will be ahead of Webber by the first round of pitstops anyway, if not the first few laps.

In the press conference, Kimi said that his first attempt in Q3 wasn’t good because of the cross winds then it became much better for his second go luckily and he pushed as much as he could. He also said the car felt much better then than it did all weekend. So this is very promising for tomorrow!

I can’t wait for the race and feel even more guilty that I won’t be at the track tomorrow, but Kimi’s looking in a strong position so whatever happens, enjoy it! I’m sure Lewis will keep the crowds at Silverstone entertained, he might even give them a closer look in the gravel tomorrow, you never know. And on that bombshell, I’ll let my arrogance and dislike for him end here because it can alway turn around, especially with the weather intruding on things like it did earlier today. But I’m sure those clouds won’t get in the way of our Iceman…Keep Flying Kimi!

| Qualifying Quotes – Kimi Happy Despite Missing Out On Front Row

"Comparing to yesterday it has been much better," said Raikkonen. "Yesterday was really difficult so we put quite a lot of effort to try and sort my car out, and it seems to have worked okay. We are not exactly where we want to be, but nobody knows how much fuel everyone is running. Tomorrow we will only know how fast we were today.

"It was pretty good today. I was happy with the car. The last run in Q3 was quite difficult but the second one was much better. P3 is still okay if you look where the other are in terms of who is ahead of me in the championship."

"From the test the car was good and yesterday was difficult for some reason. We changed the car a bit today. In last qualifying there was a lot of wind and it made it tricky in some places. You can expect that, sometimes it hurts you more, and if you can get it right in those moments it can pay off. I am happy with car and in race we should have a pretty good car."

Kimi Raikkonen – 3rd: "Third is not the result we were hoping for, but it’s not to be sneezed at, as we always have to take into consideration that the final score only comes tomorrow, when we have worked out what fuel loads the other drivers have. Compared to yesterday, the situation is definitely better.

"We worked a lot on the car set-up and, especially in Q3 the balance wasn’t bad. There was a lot of wind, which made it hard to fully understand the track because the conditions were changing all the time. In race trim, we have a good car and I think tomorrow I can get a good result. The rain? We saw this morning that we are also competitive in the wet, so we are ready for any eventuality. Well done to Heikki for his first pole position."

Felipe Massa – 9th: "It’s a real shame ending up ninth on the grid because of a problem with my pit stop. I lost so much time as the mechanics had trouble changing the right rear wheel and I was unable to start my second run. I think I could have done a good time, maybe not enough to take pole but at least good enough for a place on the front two rows…Tomorrow I can definitely expect to be fighting all race long to move up the order and I will do all I can to bring home a good result: but it won’t be easy."

Luca Baldisserri: "This is definitely not a pleasing result, both in terms of performance and of the work of the team. What happened at Felipe’s pit stop, which incidentally has nothing in common with what happened on the grid at the Monaco Grand Prix, will have to be investigated thoroughly as we cannot let it happen again…

Extra Press Conference Quotes

Q. Kimi, how happy were you after testing. What sort of mood were you in when you came here?

KR: I think we were pretty happy with the car but coming here, after the test, yesterday the morning started well and then in the afternoon I was nowhere, so it was a bit of a mystery, how we lost all the speed but we managed to find it back. We worked pretty hard with the guys on the set-up and got it back more or less where we wanted to be. We would rather be in first place but I would say that qualifying has not been our strongest point, especially the first and second ones. I thought that we had pretty good speed in the third qualifying. It depends a lot on everybody’s fuel levels but I think it’s going to be OK.

Q. Are you therefore suggesting that the car will be better on full tanks or is it better on fuller tanks?

KR: For me it’s been (that) all year. I’m pretty happy every time we get into the last qualifying when I put in more fuel because we always seem to find more grip and the balance seems to get better. Maybe that’s why we don’t get the best out of the tyres in first and second qualifying but as long as you get through those it doesn’t really matter where you are.

Q. Are you quite confident for wet or dry tomorrow?

KR: Yeah, this morning we seemed to be fast in either condition. I think our car is normally pretty strong over the race distance, so it’s a bit of a similar situation as to what it was here last year. Hopefully we are OK. I’m not sure but I think we should be.

Q. (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, there is a McLaren in front of you. Does it make any difference that it’s Heikki instead of Lewis?

KR: It’s better for me. Point-wise Heikki is a bit far away, so even if he cannot beat him, it’s not such a big thing, so it’s good for him and better for me that it’s Heikki than the other guy.

| Video – Full Qualifying Press Conference, Italian TV Interview with Kimi, Hamilton Goes Off & Ruins Chance, Kovalainen Takes Pole
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