|
The front
row of the grid for tomorrow's penultimate round of the
Formula 1 World Championship is a carbon copy of last
Sunday's race in Fuji, with the McLaren-Mercedes of
Lewis Hamilton on pole and the F2008 of Kimi Raikkonen
alongside him in second place. Whereas in Japan, Felipe
Massa was on row 3, today, he set the third fastest time
in qualifying, to line up behind the Englishman who
leads him by five points in the Drivers' classification.
With the winner of the last two races, Fernando Alonso,
alongside the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver, the
scene is set for a thrilling 56 lap contest which starts
at the later time of 3 pm local time. While Kimi was
pleased that, working with the engineers, he now feels
more comfortable with the car in qualifying trim, Felipe
on the contrary was complaining of somewhat inconsistent
performance from his car, but for both men, one thing is
certain, the F2008 is at its best over a long run and
should show good pace tomorrow.
The third row of the grid is currently made up of the
second McLaren-Mercedes of Heikki Kovalainen and Nick
Heidfeld, sixth in the BMW. The German actually
qualified seventh behind the Red Bull-Renault of Mark
Webber, but the Australian will drop ten places on the
grid as he had to change an engine after the morning
free practice. The situation is further complicated as
Heidfeld is currently under investigation for allegedly
blocking another competitor during Q1. If he was to also
be given a penalty, then sixth spot would go to the Toro
Rosso-Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.
Last week the weather forecast for this weekend was dry
on all three days. However, in recent days the chances
of rain predicted for Sunday have increased, so anything
is possible. No one who was here could fail to remember
the Typhoon that hit the track on Sunday night after the
race, lasting into the following day. Hopefully, this
won't be the case during the race itself, because, as we
have seen in other races this season, a combination of
bad weather, incidents and safety car appearances can
turn a Grand Prix into a Grand Lottery.
"All in all, this is a reasonable result. With both
drivers on the front two rows, we have every chance of
making the most of our situation in tomorrow's race,"
commented Team Principal of the Gestione Sportiva,
Stefano Domenicali. "Of course, in front of us, we have
a competitor who has shown himself to be very strong all
weekend. Tomorrow's race will be a very long one and
there is also some doubt about the weather. At the risk
of repeating myself, the crucial elements in getting the
right result here will be the usual ones: first and
foremost reliability, then tyre performance, the work of
the team and drivers, strategy and car performance. If
all these elements come through at their best, then we
can do it."
Kimi Raikkonen: "Finally, things seemed to go
right for me in qualifying. It's too late for the title,
but we definitely learnt a lesson which will be useful
for next year. All weekend we've struggled to find the
right settings on the car, but then all the work we put
in finally came good in Q3, when the car was pretty
good. Certainly, even putting aside what the choices
have been in terms of fuel loads, today it would have
been difficult to beat the McLaren, but I am happy with
the overall result for the team. We can count as usual
on being more competitive in the race than in
qualifying, so we can look to tomorrow with confidence,
as we try to get the best possible result for both
championships. The weather could be very changeable so
we have to be ready to deal with every eventuality."
Felipe Massa: "I can't deny I'm a bit
disappointed with this qualifying: starting from the
front is always important even if the race is very long,
but I will do my utmost to get a great result. Today, it
was hard to find the right balance for the car,
especially in Q3. Tomorrow, things could change as the
car has shown it is good over a long run. We will have
to attack to make up positions and we believe we have a
good race strategy. Sure, our competitors went well and
will be very competitive: let's hope we are more
competitive than they are!"
Luca Baldisserri: "A very tough qualifying, up
against a very strong rival. I would say the main
problem we have at this track is the inconsistency of
our car performance. We worked hard to get around it but
so far, we have not managed to resolve the problem
completely. We must try and do that for tomorrow's race,
but we can take heart from the fact that, usually, over
a long run, we have always gone better than in
qualifying."
Qualifying session
K. Raikkonen: 2nd 1.36.645 6 laps chassis 270
F. Massa: 3rd 1.36.889 6 laps chassis 269
Weather: air temperature 28/27 °C, track temperature
36/35 °C, partially cloudy.
|
