Grand Prix of China, Qualifying: Kimi On Front Row Behind Hamilton

| Saturday, Qualifying – Hamilton & Massa in Top 3, Kubica misses out on Top 10

Lewis Hamilton boosted his world championship prospects by grabbing
pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix, two places ahead of his title
rival Felipe Massa.

Kimi Raikkonen will join Hamilton on the front row, while
long-shot title contender Robert Kubica’s championship hopes now look
all but over, as the BMW driver had his worst qualifying session of the
season and ended up 12th.

McLaren driver Hamilton had a poor first flying lap in Q3, going only fifth fastest after a mistake in the middle sector.

But he fought back strongly to beat Raikkonen’s Ferrari to pole by 0.342 seconds.

Massa was ahead of Hamilton after the first Q3 runs but didn’t
make such a large improvement and will start third, half a second
slower than the McLaren on pole.

Fernando Alonso took fourth for Renault, with Heikki Kovalainen
a disappointing fifth in the second McLaren. The Finn had held
provisional pole early in Q3, but barely improved on his second run and
fell four places.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber took sixth, but will lose that place
thanks to an engine change penalty, which will elevate Nick Heidfeld
into the top six for BMW.

Both Toro Rossos made the top ten again, and took eighth and
10th places in Q3 – Sebastian Vettel 1.2 seconds than teammate
Sebastien Bourdais. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli will split them.

Although Kubica had been unhappy with his car in Friday
practice, things looked more promising when he took a close third place
this morning. He slumped back to 12th in qualifying however, and
although he will gain one position when Webber receives his engine
change penalty, that will be little consolation for Kubica, who has
only been eliminated in Q2 twice before in his Formula One career.

Renault’s Nelson Piquet and Toyota’s Timo Glock failed to
emulate their respective teammates’ progression to Q3, taking 11th and
13th places prior to Webber’s penalty…(read full report here)
 

Pos  Driver        Team                     Q1         Q2         Q3      
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:35.566   1:34.947   1:36.303
 2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:35.983   1:35.355   1:36.645
 3.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:35.971   1:35.135   1:36.889
 4.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:35.769   1:35.461   1:36.927
 5.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:35.623   1:35.216   1:36.930
 6.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:36.238   1:35.686   1:37.083
 7.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:36.224   1:35.403   1:37.201
 8.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:35.752   1:35.386   1:37.685
 9.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:36.104   1:35.715   1:37.934
10.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:36.239   1:35.478   1:38.885
11.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:36.029   1:35.722
12.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:36.503   1:35.814
13.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:36.210   1:35.937
14.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:36.640   1:36.079
15.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:36.434   1:36.210
16.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:36.731
17.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:36.863
18.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:37.053
19.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:37.730
20.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:37.73

Hi
everyone! What do you make out of that qualifying then? I ask because I
needed the sleep and missed Q1 and part of Q2. I don’t know how
qualifying started, but it has ended quite good for Kimi as it did at
Fuji. Second on the grid is crucial if Kimi wants to win tomorrow.
It’ll be up to Massa to face the challenge Hamilton will pose and try
to fight Kimi for the win. Kimi was fastest in Q3 before coming in for
the pitstop and he somehow managed to remained on his pace before
stopping, so I have every belief that Kimi is heavier on fuel than
Hamilton. Not only has Kimi improved his qualifying performance with
aid of car development having finally come to his liking, he is a great
qualifier on a substantially higher fuel load compared to the others,
as we’ve seen in 2005. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Massa is indeed heavier his race strategy. Plus, Kimi has made it clear in the press conference (which I’m surprised that ITV actually bothered to show this time!) that the McLaren is really strong here so he may well be lighter than Massa. Kimi will go for the win tomorrow though, so can we expect
another great start off the line as he did in Fuji? Yes. Can we expect
Kimi to block Hamilton from doing any kind of dirty tactics? Perhaps.
ITV are saying Hamilton has ‘crucially’ taken pole, for his
championship lead defense. Well, they said that at Fuji and look what
he did. If we expect Hamilton to take it easy on turn 1, that’s fair
enough. It’s his game and mind to lose and he’s given us more reasons to think he’ll crack again. But let’s admit he did a great job
on focusing for qualifying and nailing pole down. But Kimi is also right
next to you. You can download Kimi’s onboard video of his final qualifying lap below! You can also look at a comparision between Hamilton’s, Kimi’s and Massa’s qualifying laps on YouTube. Clearly, Kimi’s lap was nearest to being perfect. Hamilton locked his wheels twice which is part of his nature and Massa seemed very twitchy.

Everyone’s interested on the start, I’ll laugh when nothing happens. On
Hamilton’s behalf, I mean. Kimi will go for the win as he tried at
Fuji. The only thing he might change in his approach is be more
cautious of Hamilton. As Aragorn says in the LOTR game: Stay alert,
move with caution. Before the big fat troll bashes through the gates
LOL. The troll being Hamilton here. Credit to him for managing to nail
his pole lap down though!

Kimi’s qualifying ‘issues’ seem to
have almost disappeared now. I’m glad. Too late, but still glad they
managed to fix it. It’s been a nightmare. Around France and Silverstone
this year Kimi was fine in qualifying. Mid-season development caused the problem,
on top of him not being 100% comfortable with the tyres, understeer
came in and God knows what else. Since then Massa was able to benefit
from Kimi practically limping in performance as a result. I’m convinced
Massa’s success this season is partly due to the fundamental
development process that hindered Kimi. (Don’t mean to bash Massa here,
just commenting on Kimi’s slightely improved qualy performance in
comparison to rest of the season) For Spa, Ferrari ‘reverted’ the car
to Kimi’s usual liking. And what did we see? Not having utmost
confidence in qualy but we saw the drive of the year, his drive of the
year. It spoke volumes and that’s why how it ended hurt so much.
Anyway, Ferrari after Singapore did something with the rear-end of the
car and it’s helped Kimi. Perhaps it’s affected Massa which shows in
his qualifying. See, it’s all relative. Not Kimi losing his touch or
whatever other crap the media insist. Massa, really, should be leading
into these final races. But we’re seeing Kimi infront. Not exactly the
supporting role he’s ‘supposed’ to be playing. That’s up to Massa to
fix now, just as it was up to Kimi all season.

Er…yeah, so
hopefully the race will be good, we don’t need rain to make it
interesting. But Renault feel they won’t be as strong here, so they’ll
hope for rain or another turn 1 lottery.


Looking at Kubica’s situation, well ITV (Steve Rider) in particular had
no problem in showing their laughably fake concern for the Pole. "Oh
dear, Kubica’s not even in the top 10. Fantastic!". I had the volume
mute button on after since and watched Q3 with no sound. Kubica looked
very disappointed, obviously. What on earth happened? He’s starting
11th anyway now so what matters is that he has a clean start and
manages to pass a handful of cars after the first two corners. It will
be very difficult. But he’s got nothing to lose. Heidfeld drove very "unsportsmanlike" in Coulthard’s view for whatever happened, I missed it, and so he has a three-grid drop penalty. And Kovalainen? ITV
caught him walking back to hs McLaren garage after qualifying and he
looked pissed. I mean, proper pissed off. He’s starting 5th, that’s not
a disaster but seeing his pace before pitting in Q3 I think he has
every right to be pissed. McLaren are having a laugh. It’s not a
coincidence that the competitive pace Kovalainen does actually show
against Hamilton is always diffused in the final run for Q3. Why?
Rhetorical question. Just as well, Hamilton’s got to face Kimi, Massa,
and Alonso. It’ll be fun to watch. Everyone’s heard what Alonso has
said after Fuji, he doesn’t mind helping out Massa or Kubica in the
championship. Let’s see what role he’ll play during the race. Hopefully
not controversially because his two wins this season are a huge
compliment to his talent, to go and ruin it by playing dirty will do
him no good. That’s Hamilton’s job.

Unfortunately for Kovalainen, he’d rather be in the fight too but
McLaren haven’t exactly given him the chance and to say he hasn’t had
the pace is rubbish. In qualifying he has had the pace, more than
enough to challenge Hamilton. But for some reason, whether due to
motivation Kovalainen sinks in race performance. Well, being restrained
all season in qualifying might play a part in that. Lewis Hamilton’s
championship was practically written all over the team’s foreheads at
the start of the season. We can’t complain though. That’s what Ferrari
should have done with Kimi this year, as he’s their world champion at
least. But I admit I’d rather Kimi face equal competition and fight to
beat everyone, including his teammate. This is going completely off on
one now, sorry! I don’t expect anyone to find the pictures above funny either, it’s just my humour at this early time of the morning.

Massa’s in an okay position and I have a feeling he’ll rely on Kimi’s
safe and smooth run into turn 1 and the exit to help him. Apparently
this is what Ferrari were annoyed with Kimi at Fuji having done the
opposite, despite the fact that Hamilton caused the problem for Kimi.
Er, well, maybe Massa should qualify infront of Kimi then. I thought it was Kimi who had to support Massa, not lead him
into the final races. Seeing Massa’s overly emotional family in the
garage isn’t going to help either. No wonder Kimi prefers not to have
family and friends in tears when he’s at work. For us, we can be proud
of Kimi for raising his game and although it’s too late, it’s never too late
to make an impression especially on your teammate.

Okay, that’s enough for now. There’ll be plenty to talk about after the
race tomorrow and maybe I’ll be proven wrong, perhaps Hamilton really
can keep his act together. Can he keep his cool? I still don’t believe
so, this isn’t me wanting him to fail because I dislike him, but I
sincerely feel he’ll do something dodgy tomorrow, even if it’s ‘trying’
to be fair. Kimi will be everywhere hopefully, keeping an eye on him or
flying off into the distance (not while crashing!) Keep flying Kimi!
You’ve got plenty of support out there – they want to see you win. Go
and get it! Oh, how can I forget to mention the weather? That will definately play a part as it did last year. In fact, these top four in qualifying are the exact same as last year’s Chinese GP grid. Hopefully with the same result: Kimi winning! If you’re bored and want some entertainment, you can watch last year’s highlight video of China.

| Qualifying Quotes – Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen – 2nd: "Finally, things seemed to go
right for me in qualifying. It’s too late for the title, but we
definitely learnt a lesson which will be useful for next year. All
weekend we’ve struggled to find the right settings on the car, but then
all the work we put in finally came good in Q3, when the car was pretty
good.

"Certainly, even putting aside what the choices have been in terms
of fuel loads, today it would have been difficult to beat the McLaren,
but I am happy with the overall result for the team. We can count as
usual on being more competitive in the race than in qualifying, so we
can look to tomorrow with confidence, as we try to get the best
possible result for both championships. The weather could be very
changeable so we have to be ready to deal with every eventuality."

Felipe Massa – 3rd: "I can’t deny I’m a bit
disappointed with this qualifying: starting from the front is always
important even if the race is very long, but I will do my utmost to get
a great result. Today, it was hard to find the right balance for the
car, especially in Q3.

"Tomorrow, things could change as the car has shown it is good over
a long run. We will have to attack to make up positions and we believe
we have a good race strategy. Sure, our competitors went well and will
be very competitive: let’s hope we are more competitive than they are!"

Stefano Domenicali: "All in all, this is a
reasonable result. With both drivers on the front two rows, we have
every chance of making the most of our situation in tomorrow’s race. Of
course, in front of us, we have a competitor who has shown himself to
be very strong all weekend.

"Tomorrow’s race will be a very long one and there is also some
doubt about the weather. At the risk of repeating myself, the crucial
elements in getting the right result here will be the usual ones: first
and foremost reliability, then tyre performance, the work of the team
and drivers, strategy and car performance. If all these elements come
through at their best, then we can do it."

Luca Baldisserri: "A very tough qualifying, up
against a very strong rival. I would say the main problem we have at
this track is the inconsistency of our car performance. We worked hard
to get around it but so far, we have not managed to resolve the problem
completely. We must try and do that for tomorrow’s race, but we can
take heart from the fact that, usually, over a long run, we have always
gone better than in qualifying."

Additional Press Conference Quotes

Q. What’s your principal aim tomorrow? Is it quite clear, just to go out there to win?

KR: Yeah, I will definitely try to win the race, see what we
can do in the race. As I say, McLaren have been very fast here and
hopefully tomorrow in the race we can challenge them and try to win. It
can turn out to be a difficult race with the weather and everything but
apart from that, I think we are in pretty good shape.

Q. (Daniel – Oriental Auto) Kimi, if necessary will you let Massa pass you easily?

KR: I know what the team expects. We want to get the best possible results for the team and see what we can do tomorrow.

Q. (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, is qualifying easier for you now?

KR: It’s getting better. It’s not probably exactly what we
want but I’m happier with the car, it’s easier to get the lap now. As I
said, we’re definitely going in the right direction but it’s a bit
late. But anyhow, we’re finding different things and it’s good for next
year, at least.

| Videos: Full Press Conference, Heidfeld/Coulthard Incident, Hamilton Takes Pole From Kimi

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