Another great qualifying and this time its BMW-Sauber’s Robert Kubica grabbing pole on his last flying lap inching ahead of Felipe Massa of Ferrari. As has been the norm lately, BMW-Sauber kept a low profile right up until qualifying and then showed what they really had.For most of the weekend, Felipe Massa was the story as he topped the time charts just about everywhere he could including in qualifying right up to the end only to lose pole to Robert Kubica. So far Kimi Raikkonen is flying under the wire and finishes in 4th outside second row and watching Massa take all the Ferrari glory.
Lewis Hamilton showed no ill effects from yesterdays shunt and managed 3rd best time just over a tenth off Massa. Topping the top 5 is Heikki Kovalainen who still needs to find something extra from himself and his MP4-23 to challenge the new 3 team competition now including BMW-Sauber. However, Nick Heidfeld is frustrated with his car or shall I say his inability to get comfortable with it. He’s not liking the tight and twitchy car as much as Robert Kubica and it showed today with his 6th grid spot behind Kovalainen.
Honda continues to slowly improve as Jenson Button climbed into Q3 for the first time this season. Great drive for him especially since his position is one ahead of Fernando Alonso who will start 10th. For Fernando, that’s got to hurt especially when he was very hopeful of a Q3. Rubens Barichello drove well, but was bumped in the dying seconds of Q2 and will start 12th.
Jarno Trulli for Toyota really outpaced his teammate Timo Glock. Trulli who of course can qualify with the best of them ended up 7th and Timo struggled to only 13th. I think maybe a top 10 for Jarno is achievable.
The same for Williams with Nico Rosberg qualifying in 8th, miles ahead of Kazuki Nakajima who could only manage 16th. Nakajima should be able to do much better than 16th and has a lot of work ahead of him this year. I don’t know about him.
What to say about Red Bull. David Coulthard has got to be making it very difficult for his team as he is never short of criticism of the RB4. It was the same today as he couldn’t get speed out of the corners and wasn’t shy about letting everyone know. He wasn’t even able to get out of Q1 and will start 17th. Mark Webber did much better and just missed Q3 on the last flying laps and starts 11th. Clearly he can handle the car.
Force India still trying for Q2. Giancarlo Fisichella muffed his first flyer and could only grab 18th with Adrian Sutil 20th. Not a good weekend so far for Force India.
The last 2 spots are of course taken by Super Aguri. Anthony Davidson 21st and Takuma Sato who spun into the end of the pit wall 22nd.
Here’s how they stand:
1. Robert Kubica Poland BMW Sauber F1 Team-BMW 1:33.096
2. Felipe Massa Brazil Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro-Ferrari 1:33.123
3. Lewis Hamilton Britain Vodafone McLaren Mercedes-Mercedes 1:33.292
4. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro-Ferrari 1:33.418
5. Heikki Kovalainen Finland Vodafone McLaren Mercedes-Mercedes 1:33.488
6. Nick Heidfeld Germany BMW Sauber F1 Team-BMW 1:33.737
7. Jarno Trulli Italy Panasonic Toyota Racing-Toyota 1:33.994
8. Nico Rosberg Germany AT&T Williams-Toyota 1:34.015
9. Jenson Button Britain Honda Racing F1 Team-Honda 1:35.057
10. Fernando Alonso Spain ING Renault F1 Team-Renault 1:35.115
11. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:32.371
12. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Honda Racing F1 Team-Honda 1:32.508
13. Timo Glock Germany Panasonic Toyota Racing-Toyota 1:32.528
14. Nelson Piquet Jr Brazil ING Renault F1 Team-Renault 1:32.790
15. Sebastien Bourdais France Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:32.915
16. Kazuki Nakajima Japan AT&T Williams-Toyota 1:32.943
17. David Coulthard Britain Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:33.433
18. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Force India F1 Team-Ferrari 1:33.501
19. Sebastian Vettel Germany Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:33.562
20. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India F1 Team-Ferrari 1:33.845
21. Anthony Davidson Britain Super Aguri F1 Team-Honda 1:34.140
22. Takuma Sato Japan Super Aguri F1 Team-Honda 1:35.725
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