2008 Grand Prix of Brazil, Qualifying – Kimi’s P2 Hijacked By Trulli! | Videos

| Saturday, Qualifying – Massa Takes Home Glory, Hamilton in 4th

Felipe Massa took a crucial pole position for the Brazilian Grand Prix, as championship leader Lewis Hamilton had to settle for fourth position behind Jarno Trulli and Kimi Raikkonen.

Hamilton improved his time after a poor first Q3 run, but could not
get any higher than the second row, as his championship opponent Massa
dominated the crucial part of qualifying.

Prior to Q3, the title contenders had been extremely closely matched.

Massa had led a Ferrari one-two in Q1, but the results were slightly
deceptive as the Italian team went out for a second run whereas
Hamilton went top on his first flying lap and then sat out the rest of
the segment. He had been three tenths of a second quicker than Massa at
that stage, before the Brazilian gained 0.7 seconds on his second shot.

Both limited themselves to a single run in Q2, where Hamilton beat
Massa by a scant 0.019 seconds as rapid laps from Heikki Kovalainen and
the surprising Sebastian Vettel pushed them back to third and fourth.

But Massa then pulled clear at the start of Q3, with a first flying
lap half a second faster than the rest of the field, while Hamilton
made several errors and languished in sixth place – 0.799 seconds
behind his title rival.

Hamilton produced a tidier lap at the second attempt, but remained
half a second slower than Massa, who found a small improvement to set a
pole time of 1:12.368.

Toyota driver Trulli then grabbed a shock front row position, ahead of Massa’s Ferrari teammate Raikkonen.

Hamilton’s teammate Heikki Kovalainen will support his title bid from fifth place, alongside Renault’s Fernando Alonso…(read full report here)

Pos  Driver        Team                 Q1        Q2        Q3       Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari              1:11.830  1:11.875  1:12.368  17
 2.  Trulli        Toyota               1:12.226  1:12.107  1:12.737  15
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              1:12.083  1:11.950  1:12.825  19
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     1:12.213  1:11.856  1:12.830  14
 5.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     1:12.366  1:11.768  1:12.917  17
 6.  Alonso        Renault              1:12.214  1:12.090  1:12.967  18
 7.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:12.390  1:11.845  1:13.082  20
 8.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           1:12.371  1:12.026  1:13.297  18
 9.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:12.498  1:12.075  1:14.105  16
10.  Glock         Toyota               1:12.223  1:11.909  1:14.230  24
11.  Piquet        Renault              1:12.348  1:12.137            13
12.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     1:12.409  1:12.289            13
13.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           1:12.381  1:12.300            13
14.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     1:12.690  1:12.717            16
15.  Barrichello   Honda                1:12.548  1:13.139            14
16.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      1:12.800                       9
17.  Button        Honda                1:12.810                       9
18.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      1:13.002                       8
19.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari  1:13.426                       9
20.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari  1:13.508                       9

Yay!
That was exciting! A great set up for the race. Kimi did his job coming
second but Trulli interfered. I wonder if the Trulli Train will allow
Massa to run off into the distance. Kimi has to get past Trulli for
that matter, and I’m sure he will as starting on the outside is better
as Kimi himself has said in the press conference (read the full press
conference and extra questions here).
Kovalainen was again quicker than Hamilton throughout all of
qualifying. But for Q3, it was Hamilton put into priority again yet he
failed (download the video of his first lap below.) He could have been
on third, if not on the front row. His second to last qualifying lap
showed he’s still not quite getting the point. Which is to keep his
cool. The crowds in Brazil are amazing and their taunting got to him I
guess. The man behind Hamilton though – Fernando Alonso – will be his
main worry tomorrow. Kovalainen too, as I suspect he won’t be so
compromising at the start. I could see that Hamilton looked slightely
worried when speaking to ITV’s Louise Goodman.
Those slow eye blinks. Butterflies in the stomach. (Even the British
media are worried and struggle to spell correctly in that article with
the word ‘focused’.) Oh dear. I can’t help but feel sorry for him, with
the amount of pressure on his shoulders. I wouldn’t like to be in his
shoes. Or his father’s ,being booed by the Brazilian fans.

But
I would like to be in Massa’s shoes! I thought he’d cry with all the
emotion the fans have brought in support for him. He must be feeling
pretty good right now. Although his gap to Trulli and Kimi might
indicate lower fuel, I don’t think he’s neccessarily lighter – that was
a great lap. Kimi had understeer throughout today but he came above it
and did a good job too. Well done Raikko! Now let’s just all relax and
pace ourselves for a stonking good Grand Prix. Keep Flying!

| Qualifying Quotes – Kimi: Third is better, Ferrari Team Quotes

Felipe Massa – 1st: "It’s fantastic to have taken a
third consecutive pole on this track and it’s an incredible emotion to
see everyone celebrating in the grandstands. I got a great lap on my
first run in Q3 and I could have even not bothered to finish the second
one, but you never know what might happen: I was the first to take the
chequered flag and I would have looked stupid if someone had improved
on my time.

Anyway, I know I can count on a good strategy for tomorrow. The car
is working very well and now I’m in the best possible position for the
start. I will try and win: that is my aim. I’m not thinking about the
rest, because it doesn’t just depend on me or even on the team. I feel
calm: there is so much expectation around me, but all this attention
gives me a very positive energy which I will try and exploit tomorrow."

Kimi Raikkonen – 3rd: "It wasn’t a perfect
qualifying but I am satisfied with my grid position, which puts me in a
good position for the race. Starting from third is better than being
second on this track. I am very confident for the race: we have a great
car and the understeer that I suffered with today in Q3 should not be a
problem tomorrow.

We are well aware of what we have to do so that the team can reach
its goals. We will try and get away in the lead and then run our race,
as we did in 2007 and then we’ll see where we are. Of course, we will
need a bit of luck. The tyres are on the limit here in Interlagos and
it will be important to manage them well: from this aspect we are in
good shape."

Stefano Domenicali: "This is definitely a great
result, which puts us in a good position for tomorrow’s race. However,
we are well aware it’s the race that counts and so there is still a
long way to go. I am very happy for Felipe, who put in very strong
qualifying performance.

This result, along with the incredible enthusiasm of the Brazilian
crowd will give him even more motivation for tomorrow, if indeed any
more is needed. It will be a tough race with a further unknown hanging
on the weather. Our aim is very simple: get both our cars ahead of the
rest and then do the maths in both championships. It will be very
tough, but we will give it our best shot."

Luca Baldisserri: "A great qualifying with a
fantastic performance from Felipe. We have taken a step in the right
direction but the most important part of the job comes tomorrow and we
know how this track can produce a difficult and incident packed race.
On top of that, there’s the threat of a sudden worsening of the
weather, which would introduce another variable in terms of managing
such a crucial race. Today, the F2008 showed itself to be very
competitive, even in decidedly higher temperatures compared to
yesterday’s free practice."

Full Post-Qualifying Press Conference

Capture: JJ | Duration: 12.27mins | Size: 93.6MB
Download via Mediafire

Press Conference Cut: Massa Needs Lucky Kimi

Capture: Echti | Duration: 0.22mins | Size: 3.8MB

Download via Mediafire