Saturday Qualifying – Button Takes Pole From VettelFull qualifying report can be read here
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1. Button Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:20.707 1:20.192 1:20.527
2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:20.715 1:20.220 1:20.660
3. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:20.808 1:19.954 1:20.762
4. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:20.484 1:20.149 1:20.934
5. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:20.689 1:20.007 1:21.049
6. Glock Toyota (B) 1:20.877 1:20.107 1:21.247
7. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:21.189 1:20.420 1:21.254
8. Alonso Renault (B) 1:21.186 1:20.509 1:21.392
9. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:20.745 1:20.256 1:22.558
10. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:20.931 1:20.408 1:22.685
11. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:20.818 1:20.531
12. Piquet Renault (B) 1:21.128 1:20.604
13. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:21.095 1:20.676
14. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:20.991 1:20.805
15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:21.033 1:21.067
16. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:21.291
17. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:21.300
18. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:21.675
19. Sutil Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:21.742
20. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:22.204
Breaking News & Quotes:
Toyota warns it may not lodge entry
Ecclestone: Formula 1 is Ferrari
Barrichello didn’t expect Button’s pole
Post-qualifying car weights – Spain
Ferrari Team Quotes – Kimi Raikkonen: “We made a stupid mistake. It’s a real
shame because the car was much better than the one we had in the
previous races and we had every chance of getting a good result. I
didn’t get any particularly good laps on my only run in Q1, but we
thought my best time would be enough to make it to Q2 and so I stayed
in the garage. There’s no point in saying whose fault it was, because
we can’t do anything about it now. I certainly wasn’t keen on doing
another run as I was thinking of saving a set of new soft tyres for Q3
and the team reckoned we could make it. Tomorrow’s race will be tough
and we will try and make the best of the situation. The F60 has
improved, maybe not yet to the level of the best, but we’re definitely
getting closer.”
Chris Dyer: “We have worked so hard to bring new
components here for the F60 and the result of those efforts was
confirmed today by Felipe’s performance. Unfortunately, we were unable
to fully exploit this improvement, because we made a serious mistake in
our evaluation of Q1, believing that Kimi’s time would have been good
enough to get him through to the next stage. It was a serious error
which is really regrettable. We will try to make up for it tomorrow in
a race which he will start from way down the order. Felipe is on a good
strategy and although we wait to see the fuel levels of the other
drivers, we can aspire to a podium finish. As usual, reliability will
be the number one priority.”
Raikkonen upbeat despite poor qualifying – "I thought that we were going to get through," Raikkonen said. "It
was maybe a bit tight on the time, but we didn’t want to waste laps. But we didn’t get through. It was a silly mistake because the car was much better here than before. But that’s how it goes."
"I wasn’t keen to go. I knew that the lap wasn’t very good but I
that maybe we should get through still. In the end it
doesn’t matter whose mistake it was, it was just a silly mistake and we
paid the price for it. In the morning we were much faster. I just didn’t get a very good
lap. If I’d done a better lap we wouldn’t be in this situation, but
it’s too late now.
"(The media) can blame me if they want, I don’t mind. It’s a mistake
and we can’t take it away. We’ll just try to do the best job we can
tomorrow and try not to do the same at the next race. I’m more disappointed because the car is much stronger here than
before and we would have had a good chance to fight for a good
position," he said. "But we’ll try to do the best we can.
"Of course here it’s not very easy to overtake so it all depends on
what happens at the start and how the first few laps go. We’ll do what
we can and hopefully we can still score some points."
…Kimi was sandbagging a lot in qualifying, a bit too much I think, hahahahaha. Oh, I can only laugh about it now! I was furious at first of course. I was in complete shock – how can one Ferrari be quickest in Q1 and the other knocked out, especially the upgraded one?! The team obviously haven’t learnt from Malaysia when Massa was knocked out of the first session. But with the F60B, the team had another reason to be optimistic and that’s why their planning went wrong…again.
I thoroughly enjoyed the BBC presenters ripping Kimi to shreds, as usual. "It was Kimi’s fault", "he needs a good talking to" says Eddie Jordan. "Kimi hasn’t got his head in the right place". "His heart isn’t into it". And blah, blah, blah. They just love to find any opportunity to cuss him down. Well, if you call that a ‘job’, Mr Jordan and Mr Coulthard, then even I can be paid to talk rubbish. Mmmm, maybe I’ll apply to the BBC later this year. I was also delighted to see Michael Schumacher at the garage – I wonder what his input will be worth tomorrow!
Just watching this interview with Kimi,
taken on Wednesday when he was in London, you can’t really argue with
what he is saying. I’d really love for any of the public and these
‘experts’ to try and say he is wrong. Kimi is just awesome. He knows there are people who talk a lot of shit about him, and it seems they hate him even more for saying that and he makes them look stupid again, rightly so, by speaking his mind in this interview. You can watch the full interview with Kimi during BBC One’s coverage of the Spanish Grand Prix tomorrow.
Qualifying: The fact is, when they showed an onboard lap of Kimi’s last run, his car wasn’t running very smoothly and that definately wasn’t Kimi on a flying lap. I just don’t get it – the onboard lap they showed was terrible and I’m not sure what that was all about. It wasn’t even as slow as an out lap! It was that bad. Kimi wasn’t driving badly on purpose, like these so called experts like to claim. Kimi wasn’t even accellerating normally, he was also braking early, and the gear shifts sounded really bad at one point too.
Soon after, television coverage showed Kimi leaving the garage with his hat and shades on probably to be briefed and prepared for what to say to the media. Around this time, the BBC’s pit reporter Ted Kravitz comes along and says Chris Dyer and Andrea Stella (Kimi’s race engineers) that they confirmed it was their mistake. Kimi drove fine on his previous lap. Then around 10 minutes later, Kimi is interviewed and he says it’s his fault. Sure. I’ve never trusted the PR talk. Obviously there was a clear manipulation and the blame, originally accepted by his race engineers, is put on Kimi. It doesn’t matter who is to blame, it’s obvious it was a team mistake and Kimi’s part of the team. He isn’t a dummy in the car. Kimi did his lap and it was fine, he thought it was good enough
and so did the team! It wasn’t just his idea not to go out again. The
mistake was with the team for not being safe and telling him to do
another lap. That’s it. Massa did it at Malaysia, Kimi did it here, but
he had the F60B to be this extra confidence.
The fact is they (the team and Kimi) don’t tell us everything. So we don’t have a clue what
really happened to be honest. So yes, we can call Kimi stupid because what happened looked stupid indeed…but it doesn’t
change anything because we don’t know why he was on hard tyres on his lap or whatever. The team and Kimi can’t be that stupid, let’s get a grip now. And let’s turn the page and look to the race…
Tomorrow, Kimi will start 16th on the grid, with Massa starting in 4th. Kimi has Buemi and Hamilton infront of him. The problem is, the race strategy is effectively ruined by the team’s mistake in Q1. All day on Friday and earlier this morning, the team and Kimi were preparing a very important race with this F60B. It was all looking good. Perhaps, they were simply over-confident. Now, whatever they prepared for prior qualifying is ruined because starting 16th on the grid isn’t what they were aiming for. On the bright side, the lighter F60B with the KERS should give him a much better start, than he had in Bahrain (which was fantastic). Kimi should be on a one-stop strategy and he’ll be targetting a finish in the top 10.
And all I’m going to say is: Keep Flying Kimi!
FUCK ISRAEL 
I was so mad at the comments today too! :S I couldn’t believe they would pin it all on Kimi, when it clearly wasn’t his fault! Like you said, it was a team mistake, not Kimi alone, who did this. I’m beginning to get very pissed off and frustrated at Ferrari again… just like I was last year. I know it might sound paranoic, but it almost seems like they do it on purpose, they sabotage Kimi to make Massa look good… you know??Ferrari should go back to like, F1 preschool or something. Have they not learned ANYTHING at all in the past, like, year? :(Anyway, let’s keep our fingers crossed, maybe Kimi has something up his sleeve and he’ll score some points again for the team. 🙂 Keep flying Kimi!!!
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I know it wasn’t that good for Kimi, but we can see, that Ferrari really make a big change. I mean it was just stupid from Kimi, Ferrari…. I don’t know how made the disicions. But Massa was quick and Kimi also in the 3rd Practise. I don’t expect to much from Kimi at the race, because 16th place is really bad and I think it will be hard to catch any points…So my hopes are on Vettel (because he is one of my favorite German drivers) and Massa (Because he is a Ferrari driver 🙂 ).ps. I still hope, that Kimi can do something special tomarrow 😉 I hope it!Keep flying Kimi!!
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I am also furious at Ferrari – when will they ever learn??He was awfully unlucky though, to get pipped by Trulli just at the dying seconds.
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I was also very mad when Q1 ended…..Just 1/2 hour before Q started, I was very happy reading and looking at your latest news/photos, esp when Ferrari ended their Q3 practice with a 1-2 spots…..What went wrong???? Even the Malaysian commentators was surprised when he was knocked out, and have to wait for the exact reason.I completely agree that WHY Ferrari did not learn all the lessons? This happened in Malaysia with Massa and at the same race they also destroyed Kimi’s race with the wrong decision on the tyres, despite this already happened in British GP 2008!!!!Poor Kimi, but as usual, he doesn’t blame others and accepted the fault….as he said before WE WIN AND LOSE AS A TEAM!!!Finger crossed for tomorrow’s race and hope he can bag some points…Keep Flying Kimi…we know you always give your best!
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What you say are always so true to me. Yeah, we don’t have any clues what on earth happened inside the team. We’re just audience.The world is just so complicated and so hard to get what’s happening around. So why should we bother to figure out everything instead of simply supporting our flying man?! 😀 Keep flying Kimi and good luck!!!
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It´s comforting to hear you´re so calm Evenstar! I can´t be like that, I´m hoping for a miracle tomorrow, or what is worse I´m not hoping for anything at all! ;( That´s why I appreciate your focus and objectivity so much…Fingers crossed for tomorrow!
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Just enjoy the race guys…you never know what can happen! (",)
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saima i do not know i feel something strange today ,i feel that we must do something to unlock kimi bad luck .or kimi himself must do something for this situation always there is mistakes and bad moments .i need ,i do not know how to say it but kimi must be on top again ,kimi must do something it is enough problems and mistakes .
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I don have anything to say with ferrari~~Kimi, just do and try your best tomorrow~~Keep flying ~~Support you!!! Go!!!
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i know i shouldn’t still i cannot get rid of the bad feeling i had as i caught sight of schumi… i am NOT superstitious, still i felt it was a bad sign – even the german commentator at RTL said: schumi was a helpless advisor (ein ratloser Berater…) why cannot he disappear from the team??? —- still: if kimi is optimistic we also must be – tha car is good – Keep flying Kimi!
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grrrrrrrrrr!! i hate Stefano Domenicali he should quit..go kimi show them what u got in the race tomorrow ..
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I think Ferrari have definately done good job on the cars though. They’re definately up in game now, pace wise! It’s just a pity Kimi wasn’t able to be part of the good results in qualy…but hopefully the race won’t be so bad 🙂
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Another good performance from Kimi!!!Why do you say only for Ferrari?Kimi is out of the team?Keep flying Kimi(a liitle more higher)
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oooh noo!!! just come back for some minutes to check the result!! what a pity!! i prefer return to the wedding :Phappy me to not have seen that!! that’s incredible!! i can’t believe it! grrrrr…but the only thing i can say is that we have already seen Kimi having good results with such start position so nothing is ended for the moment!! if he’s confident in his car, we may be see something awesome!! :)Keep flying Kimi!!and good evening to all! 😀
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Oh my god, I can’t still believe it. I prayed he stayes on 15 but it didn’t help.But it could be intersting race if the car is as good as it seemed to be in practice 3.Keep flying Kimi, winning from pole position is boring. Good luck for tomorrow.
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I have to say, as soon as i saw Kimi drop to 15th i knew he was not going to be able to scrape through- I was really hoping he would! I was absoloutly gutted. I was already angry- not at Kimi- just angry because the team and Kimi decided not to put in another lap. As soon as they started talking to Eddie and David i knew they were going to slate him. I dont really think David can say anything about Kimi- I mean Kimi has been a world champion and is still capable of being one, and has David- I dont think sooooo. Anyway, on a more positive note, I was really pleased with the car as the alterations have definetly done the trick, so he should be able to get up the field relatively easily.
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Oh I almost forgot…..Goooo Kimi!!! you can do it!
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I hear ya Matt! I was totally expecting that from Jordan and Coulthard too. What I couldn’t believe was how they spent 2 whole minutes on a Kimi/Ferrari bash-fest! Oh my goodness…I’ll be definately writing a complaint if they say anything of the sort again tomorrow before the race.Kimi was still 7th in Q1 with 5 mins to go. Then it just 30 seconds, he dropped from 7th to 16th. I’m sure Kimi & Co weren’t expecting that, I can understand why they didn’t go out looking at it that way. But I can’t understand why they just don’t play it safe instead of being too sure of themselves like they were with Massa – they haven’t learnt from Malaysia and that’s the disappointment.Anyways…as I was saying elsehwere – We’ve had tougher times before, as Kimi fans! Go on Kimi – give ’em hell tomorrow! Man, I just hope he whups everyones asses in the race, especially Hamilton’s at the start! and that there’ll be chaos in the front of the grid! lol! *hysteric dreams*
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Kimi started 16th @ Suzuka ’05… and we all know how that turned out. But also in Australia ’08, when he pushed too hard when battling Kovalainen for 2nd(!). All week I’ve had the feeling this is finally his weekend. I expect to see Raikkonen at his best, fighting thru the pack! One thing is for sure, he has got the pace!
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What in the world was Ferrari thinking??? I don’t understand why Ferrari repeats the same mistakes again & again … they screwed up big time … they were over-cautious about saving the optional tyres for Q3 and they dint send Kimi for another lap … Stefano can take the optional tyre and shove it up his a$$## … Thanks for f*&^ing up Kimi’s race strategy … I am sorry but its so frustrating … I hope Kimi has a good race tomorrow … KERS with a light chassis should help him gain some places in the start … Keep flying Kimi … We know you are the best … Have a blast tomorrow …
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let’s just cross our fingers for kimi n the team so they won’t make a silly mistake again..have believe in our ICEMAN!KEEP FLYING KIMI!
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Evanstar Saima, are best fan! Thank you for photos! Kimi one the best!
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I was awfully disappointed yesterday, but then I started thinking of Suzuka too!! Kimi does best fighting against the odds, so whatever the results were yesterday, I’m crossing my fingers for a brilliant drive today & hoping that he’ll get past the usual first corner mayhem (up at least 6 places!!) unscathed! Forza Kimi!! And good luck to Massa too.
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I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that Kimi was knocked out in Q1 having earlier read that Ferrari topped the Final Practice session. Later when I read what Kimi & the team had to say, it got me thinking about what happened in Bahrain. Wasn’t Kimi safe in both Q1 & Q2 but the team insisted he go out again, leaving him with no more fresh tyres in Q3? It was Kimi who reported that it was the team who wanted him to go out again when he thought his time was good enough. This time around, it appears the priority is reversed – preserve the tyres over banking a safer qualifying time..? I’m wondering if there’s a conspiracy there..?? The onus seemingly rests on Kimi after the Bahrain episode. Fingers crossed Kimi will not be involved in any first corner toussle, just leap frog as many cars as possible. GO KIMI GO!!
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