Spanish GP: Qualifying ***Spoiler***

Nah it needs rain otherwise it's a boring race there, and since I'm not there this year.. I don't care..
The rain in spain falls mainly on the plain..

 

Jeez that Mclaren is not looking good LH is light

Vettel n Webber on the same load

Kimi can make up some time quite heavy

 

I wanted to go but the new dwelling demands otherwise

 

Nice to see that Vettel's and Massa's cars are heavy compared to the Brawns. Are the fuel loads for a) all drivers fixed after qualy or b) only for the top 10? Hamilton is very light, which tells us that in case a) the MCL is freakin slow or b) he's on a "plough through the field" strategy.

 

But that's their choice, not as a result of qualifying - Very short first stint to get the "bad" tires out of the way maybe?

 

KIMI: BLAME ME, I DON'T MIND
Saturday 9th May 2009 - PlanetF1.com


Kimi Raikkonen admits he was as much to blame as anyone else at Ferrari for the decision that left him sitting in the garage while his dropped out of Q1.

Not for the first time this season Ferrari have sat back and watch while one of their drivers failed to make it through Q1 due to an error in judgement. The last time it was Felipe Massa in Malaysia, this time round it was Kimi Raikkonen in Spain.

"I thought that we were going to get through," the Finn admitted. "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."

He added: "(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."

The Finn, though, can draw some encouragement from team-mate Massa's performance as the Brazilian put Ferrari's upgraded F60 to good use by qualifying in fourth place for the race.

"We are still a bit behind, I would say, but it's much stronger than it was before," Raikkonen said.

"It's more or less what we expected, but other people have also gone forward. It's only the first step, so we can get some more for the next races. After that, for sure we can catch them up even if it takes a little while.

"If we just look at what happened today, for sure the car now has the potential to score much better results and we're going in the right direction.

"So we still have a little way to go to catch up to the front guys, but we can catch them and definitely challenge them.

"I don't know if we can tomorrow or not, but in the later races we can definitely fight for wins, podiums and good positions."

** A poster at PlanetF1.com says this about Kimi....I agree they need an overhaul of management. Kimi got a title so for him the goal was attained, but I can see why the poster feels the way he does.

"Ferrari's upper management needs to look at a complete overhaul the Scuderia's chain of command; Domenicali and company are embarrassing the team. Kimi needs to start shopping himself around if he wants to stay in F1; his stint at Ferrari has been one of the worst cases I've ever seen of unfulfilled potential."

 

+1 [Only the top 10 btw]

 

Yup sounds a good idea to me Ian.

 

Felipe is looking good as long as the car is RELIABLE

Kimi should be able to move into the points if the car goes for him as it does for Felipe.

 

Thanks Ian.

It will be very interesting to see the performance of Kimi and Hamilton. We might have a bit of an advantage as the Ferrari seems to be a lot faster than the McLaren this weekend, but the strategy will even be a bigger factor.

 

I'am more interested to see Massa to show us what he has got, from his position with KERS, lets see if he can do what LH did the last race.

 

There was a mistake for Hamilton its 683kg:

Pos. Pilote Poids
1 J. Button 646.0 kg
2 S. Vettel 651.5 kg
3 R. Barrichello 649.5 kg
4 F. Massa 655.0 kg
5 M. Webber 651.5 kg
6 T. Glock 646.5 kg
7 J. Trulli 655.5 kg
8 F. Alonso 645.0 kg
9 N. Rosberg 668.0 kg
10 R. Kubica 660.0 kg
11 K. Nakajima 676.6 kg
12 N. Piquet 677.4 kg
13 N. Heidfeld 676.3 kg
14 L. Hamilton 683.0 kg
15 S. Buemi 678.0 kg
16 K. Räikkönen 673.0 kg
17 S. Bourdais 669.0 kg
18 H. Kovalainen 657.0 kg
19 A. Sutil 675.0 kg
20 G.Fisichella 656.0 kg
----

Laps prediction


Pos. Pilote 1er arrêt (tour)
1 J. Button 13
2 S. Vettel 16
3 R. Barrichello 15
4 F. Massa 17
5 M. Webber 16
6 T. Glock 14
7 J. Trulli 17
8 F. Alonso 13
9 N. Rosberg 23
10 R. Kubica 19
11 K. Nakajima 27
12 N. Piquet 27
13 N. Heidfeld 26
14 L. Hamilton 29
15 S. Buemi 27
16 K. Räikkönen 25
17 S. Bourdais 23
18 H. Kovalainen 18
19 A. Sutil 26
20 G.Fisichella 18

 

-------------

Truth is, a number of people including Kimi need to be fired!

 

That makes a difference he is now the heaviest

 

That fits their qualifying speed better. There's little sense in having a slow car and then starting from the back with low fuel.

 

Interesting that the Wiliams are looking at a long first stint. Given their poor strategy this year probably not the way to go.
McLaren is using a different approach for H.K. than for L.H.
These figures would be more meaningful if we knew the initial tire choices as well.

 

I seriously can't believe how we all watched Kimi and Ferrari fall to pieces, with the team making a second same mistakes in just 2-3 races? It's really pathetic. Spain has one of the most boring races, and barely any overtaking, and Kimi would probably need a miracle just to snatch a point tomoro.

I guess we're back in a way, provided no reliability issues haunt Massa.

 

let's hope kers makes some difference ...

Massa has a good chance to take the first place from the start.

 

Isn't it the first time we are qualifying in the top 5?

 

Why should he be fired? He admitted that both he and the team made a mistake, there's a reason why he wasnt keen to go out again and thats because that way his second set of green tires would be destroyed, leaving him none for Q3.
then the (as always) 'brilliant' ferrari strategist calculated that he would be fine and needn't to go out (they probably forgot to carry the 1).

 

I tend to agree, the problem is with Kimi is he just doesn't appear to give a rats ass, but its his way whether you like it or not, personally I don't mind him/it. IF he produces results its not a problem, when he doesn't well his attitude is just asking for the critics to slam him, all in IMO

 

Let's hope KERS is reliable THIS TIME and can get Massa out in front!

I think Kimi and Massa are worthy drivers, though perhaps most of the Ferrari F1 team management need to be sent packing.

 

Understatement of the day. It's not Kimi's job to decide race strategy, so I flatly reject the notion that he had a say in the latest issue of "Embarrassing Ferrari Miscues". Even Schumacher relied (heavily!) on Brawn & Co. for race strategy...he just was perfect at executing it. (well, not perfect, but...)

 

It's Domenicali that needs to go (or demoted and replaced), besides the absence of Todt and Brawn, this is still (essentially) the same group of guys that ran the squad during the Schumi era, no?

 

Kimi obviously has a lot of talent but I have to question his desire to compete at the highest levels at this point. He has achieved the holy grail of WDC, so maybe someone else who is more hungry needs to fill his spot now. He just doesn't seem much like a team player or on fire to be at the top again.