Bahrain Qualifying ***warning***spoiler***

Also remember that Ferrari tested in Baharein for 10 days and more than 5000 km, so that should have made for something on this race, isn't it?

I don't think we are going to know what is going on this year until 3 or 4 GPs into the season.

The only thing for sure is that Kimi has started this season with the same fortune than past one.

- Julio.

 

I woke up late but saw the final qual session...

FORZA FERRARI!

It was great to see Michael showing so much emotion as he watched the screen and saw that his qual time held the pole...

And did anybody else laugh when Massa said that Fisi took away his pole position? Looks like nobody will accuse Massa of following team orders this year.

WOOO HOOO FERRARI 1-2!

[/fanboi mode]

 

Quote Montoya "Michael will be fast for the first four laps but then he will pit in for fuel" what a knob Montoya is

 

True on all counts.

If I were on an elevator and Kimi stepped in I would step out...

 

Anyone else catch Massa in the interviews kvetching about traffic? (No style points there.)

I guess what you grow up with is always "the good old days".

(I still like the rodeo ads for esuvee.com: riding the wild and wooly esuvee beast. )

 

Massa and JPM had a little dice several years ago and Massa came out ahead! Probably shocked the heck out of JPM.

Carol

 

That commentator annoys me.

I can never remember his name...

 

Did anyone else notice that Massa posted a lap 3 TENTHS of a SECOND behind Schumi's fastest in the v10 (the lap record)???????? in a V8!!!! the announcer even said "So much for slowing them down, huh?"


Anyone else think Schumi peaked and is going downhill?!

 

That was awsome.

Love the new format. Love the results. Loved seeing schumi's excitement when celebrating with the team coming out of the garage, and in the post race interviews

Best Quote of Quali:

David Hobbs after Kimi's failure: "look at him go on one rear wheel, I think he's going to finish this lap quicker than Ide"

 

It was pretty good, but it wasn't as exciting as the 1 lap ones, imo. I like the do-or-die situations with one shot. In the 3rd quali round, drivers had 2nd and 3rd chances to top others. I think all 3 rounds should have 20 minutes. The first two 15 minute sessions are too short (especially for 22 cars out there). 20 minutes is ample.

 

Hmm yeah MS is totally spent... whos that guy on the pole again? oohhh thats right.


The V8's are all pulling up to 19-20k from what they showed.

 

michael! michael! michael! michael! michael! michael! michael! michael! michael! michael! michael! michael! michael! michael! michael! michael! michael! michael!.............thought of doing it 65 times if it's ok with the mods...andreas...can i can i??
p/s welcome to the scuderia Massa...what a way to kick the new season!

 

Go ahead knock yourself out. 1-2 for the team is a day to celebrate. Let's just not gloat too much about it since refueling took some of the pole's glamour away. And Senna can't fight back, but it is a testament to that man that his record stood so long.

Classic308 summed it up: This years car already matched last year's cars best qualifying result. And we got 16 more to go.

I loved the Hobb's comment as well, but it was a tad unfair. Ide even beat Sato, which really surprised me. Actually thinking about it, as much as Ferrari has to celebrate after this qualifying session I can think of a few people who have to look really hard at their situation: Ralf, Rubens, Sato and DC

 

gosh...i never saw that fact. the part ide beat our kamikaze hero. in a way, i'm actually quite surprised DC struggled. he just seemed helpless. anyways, the red bull was struggling since winter. pity ralf and trulli tho. anyways, at least there won;t be a trulli train...

 

First impression is that the new qualifying rules are much better than last year. The format gets the backmarkers out of the way and allows a little more room for the top 10 to get their laps in.

The only thing that bothers me is that the faster cars have to do more laps than the slower cars because they do all 3 sessions. Sure they can loaf around in session one as long as they are sure they will be out of the bottom six, but they still put more wear and tear on their race car. With the engines still needing to last 2 races, the extra laps could make a difference at some point.

Looks to be an exciting season!

John

 

Looks like the race is MS's to lose, gee, I wonder if there are any 'team orders', LOL

 

Good point, and the reason we saw so little running on friday. Engine components are "lifed" for X miles. The new engines were designed months before the new quali format and then they were told, "oh, by the way, we're adding 160 miles to the distance your engine has to cover with new quali rules."

My solution is to require major engine components to last an entire season. Blocks, cranks, connecting rods, heads, valves etc. The only reason these things last just two races is because they are deliberately designed to last no longer. The performance advantage is small but the cost is large. Designers can life any component for any distance, so force them to life them for 8k miles or whatever distance a car covers in a year of racing. Not only will it reduce costs, but it will make a few miles here and there less critical, and improve reliability. The last because parts will not be at the end of their design life until the end of the year, and frankly, only an idiot would cut it so fine as to risk failure at the end of the season, especially as the difference between a 9K miles part and a 12K miles part is much smaler than the difference between a 550 miles part and a 710 miles part.

[/rant]

 

Awsome results at qualifying....

i didnt get to see the live airing but Im going to try to catch it later on TV. i have a quick question.

since I didnt see the qualifying yet, i am a little confused on how the third part of qualifying occurs....do they just take the best times and use those to determine pole-->10th?

Thanks
Bill

 

I just woke up did I miss any thing?…yawn…
Holy crap Ferrari 1-2 NICE!

 

INCREDIBLE!!! I am angry that I missed the qualifying session, but the result is just outstanding! I am SO looking forward to tomorrow's race, but I guess I should lowere my expectations as we have no idea what the package will be like under racing conditions.

Man, I hope we're back on track this season!!!

Later, MARK

 

Are there any video clips of today's qualifying available online?? MARK

 

i just finished watching qualifying (set the tape this morning before I went to bed).

Amazing results for Ferrari. I was suprised that MS could only barely edge out Massa for pole (and even than he had some help since Massa hit some traffic on his last lap). Regardless it's awesome to see a Ferrari 1-2 again. I hope they dominate tomorrow.

 

great to see F back, and more imortantly, this season looks exciting!!!

 

Forza!! Great to see an all Ferrari front row. Regardless of fuel or anything else, this shows great potential for the season, that our red cars will be right in the mix at the front, YES!!!

I have to say I am pleased with the new format, it definitely succeded at making the entire hour interesting. However, I don't think it shows what the ultimate speed of the cars really is as the really fast cars really only need to place in the first two sessions.

The one thing they definitely need to imporve upon is giving us more timing graphics as the sessons end- at the end of S1 there was a good 18 cars crossing the line, and all we saw was one car's time The format is only as exciting as they can depict it, so if they aren't showing us the times, they might as well not be happening.

 

Hopefully this will get better with time.