European GP Qualifying-SPOILERS

Generally agreed but it aint over till the fat lady signs: This is the 2nd race for the Ferrari engine. Lets see how good those pistons really are.

 

I think the light fuel strategy might have worked, if schumi were to get stuck defending his 2nd place, slowing him down a bit.

But with Massa in third, the real question is whether Massa and Rubens will take each other out in turn 1.

With Ruben's history of being a bit slow off the line, it might be a matter of how long Massa can keep Kimi from blowing past. If Kimi is chewing on Schumi's rear wing, then Alonso might get a chance to pull out.

Tomorrow will tell if Ferrari has gotten back on pace. So far, they've had "Bridgestone" weather.

If nothing else, there might be a few good laps to watch.
(I'm glad it's not one of the CBS races. Even SpeedTV is better.)

 

heres the result from qualifying

Code:

Pos  	 	No  	 	Driver  	Team  	 	First  	Second  	Third
									
1 		1 		Fernando Alonso 	Renault 		1:31.138	1:30.336	1:29.819
									
2 		5 		Michael Schumacher 	Ferrari 		1:31.235	1:30.013	1:30.028
									
3 		6 		Felipe Massa 	Ferrari 		1:31.921	1:30.732	1:30.407
									
4 		11 		Rubens Barrichello 	Honda 		1:31.671	1:30.469	1:30.754
									
5 		3 		Kimi Räikkönen 	McLaren-Mercedes 		1:31.263	1:30.203	1:30.933
									
6 		12 		Jenson Button 	Honda 		1:31.420	1:30.755	1:30.940
									
7 		8 		Jarno Trulli 	Toyota 		1:31.809	1:30.733	1:31.419
									
8 		17 		Jacques Villeneuve 	Sauber-BMW 		1:31.545	1:30.865	1:31.542
									
9 		4 		Juan Pablo Montoya 	McLaren-Mercedes 		1:31.774	1:30.671	1:31.880
									
10 		9 		Mark Webber 	Williams-Cosworth 		1:31.712	1:30.892	1:33.405
									
11 		7 		Ralf Schumacher 	Toyota 		1:31.470	1:30.944	
									
12 		10 		Nico Rosberg 	Williams-Cosworth 		1:32.053	1:31.194	
									
13 		2 		Giancarlo Fisichella 	Renault 		1:31.574	1:31.197	
									
14 		14 		David Coulthard 	RBR-Ferrari 		1:31.742	1:31.227	
									
15 		16 		Nick Heidfeld 	Sauber-BMW 		1:31.457	1:31.422	
									
16 		20 		Vitantonio Liuzzi 	STR-Cosworth 		1:32.621	1:31.728	
									
17 		15 		Christian Klien 	RBR-Ferrari 		1:32.901		
									
18 		19 		Christijan Albers 	MF1-Toyota 		1:32.936		
									
19 		21 		Scott Speed 	STR-Cosworth 		1:32.992		
									
20 		18 		Tiago Monteiro 	MF1-Toyota 		1:33.658		
									
21 		22 		Takuma Sato 	Super Aguri-Honda 		1:35.239		
									
22 		23 		Franck Montagny 	Super Aguri-Honda 		1:46.505		

 

So instead of having Ide be about five seconds slower than Sato the new guy is eleven seconds slower than Sato? That's promising...

 

Montagny: (qualifying)
"But we encountered many problems during the Qualifying session. Firstly, when I had to stop at the FIA weight scales, there was a problem with the starter so during this time my tyres were out of the blankets and were getting cold.

"When I re-started and put on new tyres five minutes later, the red flag situation came up, so I could not make a lap time. It is a little disappointing as this was my first Qualifying with the team, but there were no major problems with the car and I am looking forward to the race tomorrow."

FP1: Montagny was 0.1 slower than Sato. (first time in the SA car.)
FP2: Around 0.4 slower.
FP3: Around 0.2 faster than Sato!!

First time ever in the Super Aguri! He beat Sato in FP3 but had some problems in qualifying.

Anyone who follows F1 knows there's no comparaison between Montagny and Ide. Orange and apple...

 

Finnish tabloid Iltasanomat has information that Toyota wants Nico and is willing to give major discount over engines if they get him. Keke refuses to comment.

 

Toyota is such a hopeless and sad case in F1: I'm sure they'll replace both drivers at the end of the year thinking that'll make things different.

In reality they should crawl on their knees back to Gascoyne and get him back. And then sort out their Cologne vs Tokyo management issues.

Nico is great, but neither Trullin or Ralf is their problem right now.

 

I see JPM at either Honda or Toyota next year, seriously.

 

I can imagine that, not that I care nor that it will change anything with Toyota.