Well, the Ferraris are not in the front. In fact they are in the back. Not to worry, we (Ferrari) are driving a one year old car but we have the two best drivers in the world. Bonzi!!! Drive only 12 cylinders on the highways!
1 F. Alonso Renault 1:32.582 2 J. Trulli Toyota 1:32.672 3 G. Fisichella Renault 1:32.765 4 K. Räikkönen McLaren 1:32.839 5 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:33.106 6 M. Webber Williams 1:33.204 7 JP. Montoya McLaren 1:33.333 8 N. Heidfeld Williams 1:33.464 9 J. Button BAR 1:33.616 10 C. Klien Red Bull 1:33.724 11 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:33.809 12 M. Schumacher Ferrari 1:34.072 13 F. Massa Sauber 1:34.151 14 R. Barrichello Ferrari 1:34.162 15 A. Davidson BAR 1:34.866 16 J. Villeneuve Sauber 1:34.887 17 N. Karthikeyan Jordan 1:37.806 18 T. Monteiro Jordan 1:37.856 19 P. Friesacher Minardi 1:39.268 20 C. Albers Minardi 1:40.432
The Ferrari's Bridgestones seem to not work so well with the extreme heat but 12th and 14th is worrying. Hopefully they'll do better in tomorrow's second qualifying. Toyota was a positive surprise, Trulli did a great job. As for Villeneuve it seems that him and Massa continue to run different settings (??) or may be he's just slower.
Hard to say what is going on here with a 124 degree track temp Ferrari may be running super hard Bridgestones that only come up to temp after 5 or 6 laps of hard running. We really just dont know. One thing for sure with the one tire rule you dont see tons of marbles building up off line. Perhaps with the longer straights of The sepang Cir. we may see more and better passing attempts. Only tonight will tell the real story. Rob
Minardi makes me sad to. To bad they can't finance the car into a better performer. It would make things little more interesting. This way they just look to sad
The Bridgestones crumble in this heat. Not much hope for the race itself either I'm afraid. Renault will continue to expand its lead. Makes me wonder how hot it will be in Bahrain? Villeneuve continues to struggle with his setup. Not a good sign for an experienced driver. Also anxious to see the second race on these engines in this heat. I bet we'll see a bunch of kablamos.
It does not matter how much money you give to Minardi... Paul Stoddart is a born retard and would probably blow it all in the casinos anyway. Minardi should quit F1!
I thought Q1 was a great session. It was great to see the raw speed of the cars in a DRY session (that's for you Pete ), without the interferance of fuel strategy. I will be very interested to see if Q2 will change things up at all, or will it be status quo? I agree with you guys, no need to hit the panic button on Ferrari's poor showing. The new car will be ready soon, and judging by the face of the Bridgestone engineer in the Ferrari garage, they will be working hard to get back on track. In the meantime, we get to see Ferrari come from behind, it's more exciting that way! I must say I'm really impressed with Toyota! Where did that come from? Nice work, glad to see they are finally getting somewhere. Imperial, you have to work on this "bonzi" thing... unless you're rooting for the tires, the word is FORZA.
I read that, like Ferrari, they are running a modified version of last year's car, which uses last year's Cosworth engine for the same reason. Since the engine was not designed to last two races, they said they will change engines before every race. This would cost them 10 spots on the starting grid, but since they are always at the back anyway, there is no penalty. The new car is supposed to be ready for Imola and will use the same '05 spec engine as Red Bull.
The Toyota's have tyre wear problems and that's why Trulli finished 9th last GP. If they've fixed the problem, we could see the Toyota' on the podium this sunday. Come on Villeneuve!
Ferrari look to be in a bit of trouble... which I don't mind because its making the racing quite exciting! Ross said the new car is about .5 to 1.0 second faster per lap, but the Ferraris are more than that number off the pace. Whatever happens, one thing is for sure - this year is going to be much more exciting than last year!
I don't think ANY of the people involved in F1 are retards, especially someone who has got there through their own money (he does have his own airline). he one's that give me the ****s are the fortune 500 of F1 (Williams, McLaren ) who get more money than a lot of small countries and have little to nothing to show for it and they have 2 of the whiniest people in F1 (PH and RD), is it any wonder the English get such a bad rep when these idiots (not so much PH but he has his moments) get any mike time.
