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It will be
another all-red front row in 2008, this time for this
afternoon's French Grand Prix, with Kimi Raikkonen set
to start from the coveted pole position, his second this
season and the sixteenth of his career, with his
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team-mate, Felipe Massa
alongside him in second place, a mere four hundredths of
a second behind. In fact, while the Finn took pole, it
was the Brazilian who claimed the fastest lap of the day
in the low-fuel configuration used in Q1.
The big statistical story of yesterday also belongs to
the Scuderia as this was pole position number two
hundred for the team: they date back to 1951 and the
second year of the World Championship when Ferrari
drivers started from the number one spot three times.
There was a truly dominant performance in 1974 with the
Prancing Horse galloping to ten poles, while the record
so far is 2004, when the team had twelve to its name.
As usual at this track, the gaps between the cars are
all very close. Third place went to the McLaren-Mercedes
of Lewis Hamilton, followed by Fernando Alonso in the
Renault. Fifth fastest was the Toyota of Jarno Trulli,
ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in the second McLaren-Mercedes.
Championship leaders BMW-Sauber do not seem to be on top
form in France and Canada race winner Robert Kubica is
seventh, with team-mate Nick Heidfeld down in twelfth.
However, while the first row for today's very definitely
a Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro affair, the rest of the top
places on the actual grid bear little relation to the
actual qualifying time sheet. Lewis Hamilton will
actually start from thirteenth, because he takes a ten
place penalty for crashing into the back of Raikkonen's
F2008 in Montreal a fortnight ago in that pit lane
incident. To make matter worse for McLaren-Mercedes, the
Stewards deemed that Kovalainen had impeded another
competitor this afternoon and given him a five place
penalty. The Finn will start from tenth, because he was
technically fifth because of the previous penalty for
his team-mate. So behind Kimi and Felipe, the order is
now Alonso, Trulli, Kubica and Webber rounding off the
top six. If the grid has turned out to be unpredictable,
tomorrow's weather could be the same as the forecast for
race start time at two o'clock is for isolated showers.
There could be
no better way of celebrating Ferrari's two hundredth pole
position than with an all-red front row of the grid in the
French Grand Prix: quickest in Q3 was Kimi Raikkonen, who
thus recorded his second pole of the season and the
sixteenth of his career. Alongside the World Champion will
be Felipe Massa. This means that Ferrari has taken five
poles from the first eight qualifying sessions of the
season: three with Felipe and two with Kimi.
Stefano
Domenicali: "We are very happy with this result. It is
very satisfying to have notched up our two hundredth pole,
but we must not rest on our laurels. It's the championship
points that count and they get handed out after the race.
It's true that this gives us the best possible start, but we
will have to watch every last detail if we want to bring
home maximum points. On top of that, the weather forecast is
very uncertain, with a chance that it could worsen just as
the race is on."
Felipe Massa: "It was a good qualifying, especially
the first two parts. In the third one, maybe I went a bit
over the limit to try and get out all the potential from the
car and I lost enough time to prevent me from doing better.
However, I am happy, because we have everything in place to
pick up important points for the championship. The F2008 is
very competitive on this type of track and we worked in the
right direction in terms of fine tuning it. Tyre choice for
qualifying was not easy but so far, we have been able to be
strong in all conditions. I am happy that the team recorded
its two hundredth pole position today and it's an honour for
me to have made a small contribution to this milestone."
Kimi Raikkonen: "I am very happy with this result,
not just for myself but above all for the team. It is a
pleasure to have taken Ferrari's two hundredth pole even if,
at the moment, I have only played a small part in the
history of Scuderia. So far, the weekend is going really
well but of course we have yet to tackle the most important
part which is the race, where anything could happen. The car
has always been well balanced and, at least as far as the
first lap is concerned, the performance of the two tyres is
pretty similar, while the harder compound seems to do better
over a long distance. If I was not to win, I would obviously
be a bit disappointed, but the most important thing is to
finish and bring home the maximum number of points, because
we really need them."
Luca Baldisserri: "A great qualifying, with both cars
running troublefree throughout. So far, we have tackled this
race weekend in the best way possible, but we know what
really counts is the race. Strategy, tyre performance, the
work of the drivers and team and, above all, reliability:
these will be as usual the key factors. Added to these will
be the weather. If it was to rain, we will need to be sharp
to react to the various situations that could develop during
the race."
Qualifying
session
K. Raikkonen: 1st 1.16.449 5 laps chassis 270
F. Massa: 2nd 1.16.490 6 laps chassis 267
Weather: air temperature 29/31 °C, track temperature 40/43
°C, sunny then covered skies.
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