18/10/2008
NEWS STORY
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Ahead of today's all-important qualifying session, the air temperature is 28 degrees C, while the track temperature is 36 degrees.
On Friday, Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets in both sessions, the only driver to break the 1:35s barrier. However, this morning, the McLaren driver was out-paced by BMW's Nick Heidfeld.
Having been on the pace yesterday, it was noticeable that the Ferraris and Fernando Alonso were well down the timesheets this morning. However, with rain widely predicted for tomorrow perhaps they are thinking in the long-term. Certainly, over the three sessions, the Ferraris and Alonso are up there, but almost 0.4s off Hamilton's extraordinary pace.
While McLaren, mindful of what happened in Japan last week, is calling on Hamilton to adopt a softly-softly approach, the Englishman has been pushing for much of the weekend so far. However, while he has clearly been the quickest here, there have been a number of mistakes, most notably his pitlane gaffe this morning.
The bad news for Red Bull is that following his spectacular engine failure this morning, Mark Webber will receive a 10-place grid penalty.
First out is Piquet, one of several drivers yet to confirm a drive for 2009, and therefore eager to deliver this weekend. Seven other drivers, including the Williams, Force Indias and Hondas, join him.
Tyre options are hard and medium, which we will refer to as hard (hard) and soft (medium). For much of the weekend, thus far, the hard tyre has been the favoured option.
Piquet posts the benchmark, crossing the line at 37.511, however, moments later he is elbowed out by Glock, who posts 37.369. Barrichello, repeating his surprising pace of this morning, goes third (37.550).
Raikkonen is the first of the big guns to leave the pits, followed by Massa, Hamilton and Kovalainen.
Vettel (softs) goes quickest with a 36.318, but Massa (hard) and Kovalainen are both on hot laps. The Brazilian crosses the line at 36.089, as Bourdais goes second. Kovalainen goes third (36.181), but Hamilton posts 35.566 to take the top spot.
Massa improves with a 35.971, only the second driver to break the 1:35s barrier this weekend. Raikkonen (36.669) drops to eighth. Webber is seventh as teammate Coulthard goes ninth.
All eyes on Alonso, who crosses the line at 36.285 to take seventh. Teammate Piquet goes third with a 36.029.
Kubica, still down in seventeenth, is struggling with understeer. One has to wonder if BMW has repeated the strategic mistake it made in Japan. That said, teammate Heidfeld is sixth (36.224).
With less than five minutes remaining, Kubica is in the danger zone, while Trulli, Coulthard and Raikkonen are thereabouts. While Hamilton has settled for his time, as has Piquet, Massa and the rest are back on track.
A 35.623 sees Kovalainen go second, while Raikkonen moves up to fourth (35.983). Teammate Massa fails to improve.
Kubica is out on softs while Heidfeld is using the hard option.
Vettel goes third with a 35.752, having gone quickest in the third sector. Kubica can only manage thirteenth, as Coulthard fails to improve and thereby misses the cut. Elsewhere, a 35.769 sees Alonso go fourth, ahead of the two Ferraris.
At the first hurdle, we lose Coulthard, Nakajima, Button, Sutil and Fisichella.
Quickest was Hamilton, ahead of Kovalainen, Vettel, Alonso, Massa, Raikkonen, Piquet, Trulli, Glock and Heidfeld.
After the first phase the McLarens are looking good, while the pace of the Ferraris continues to mystify. The Renaults are also looking useful, as is Vettel, as ever.
The lights go green, signalling the start of phase two, however, as is so often the case, nobody seems particularly eager to get to work. After two minutes, however, it is Raikkonen (softs) who gets proceedings underway.
As Raikkonen begins his first flying lap, Hamilton (hards) leaves the pits, leaving the BMW duo as the only 'no show'.
Raikkonen crosses the line at 35.355, one of the quickest laps of the weekend, with Glock going second. However, Kovalainen (softs) goes quickest in the first and second sectors, crossing the line at 35.216.
Vettel is third, having been demoted by Kovalainen, however, he drops to fourth when Massa (softs) posts 35.135. Hamilton (hard) goes fifth with a 35.402.
With seven minutes remaining, all but the BMWs have posted times. With most of their rivals in the pits, the Munich duo begin their flying lap, both on softs. Kubica goes a disappointing tenth with a 35.814, while Heidfeld takes sixth (35.403).
While Kovalainen appears to be settling for his time, Hamilton is coming out again on softs. With less than three minutes remaining, only the top four - Massa, Kovalainen, Raikkonen and Vettel - are not coming out to play.
Trulli and Bourdais look set to improve, unlike Hamilton. That said, the Englishman goes quickest in the second sector, crossing the line at 34.947, the quickest lap of the weekend.
Kubica misses the cut, the Pole finishing twelfth with a 35.814, thus giving his title hopes a severe knock. Piquet, Glock, Barrichello and Rosberg also miss the cut.
Quickest was Hamilton, ahead of Massa, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Vettel, Heidfeld, Alonso, Bourdais, Webber and Trulli.
The lights go green for the final, all-important, phase, and while Hamilton looks good, he appeared to struggle, just a little, in phase two. What's more, the Ferraris have improved significantly. Kovalainen did well to finish third, and McLaren will be hoping he can go one, or two, better in this final phase.
Almost a full minute into the final phase, Vettel is first down the pitlane, followed by Trulli. Raikkonen is another early riser, as is Hamilton. Both are on softs.
All eyes on Raikkonen, the first of the big guns to begin a flying lap in this phase. Vettel takes the top spot with a 38.053, however, this is soon beaten by Hamilton, who crosses the line at 36.989. Hamilton can only manage 37.514, which puts him fourth, behind Webber and Massa.
Kovalainen takes provisional pole with a 36.978, forcing his teammate down to fifth. However, the Englishman will move up a place as a result of Webber's grid penalty.
The final phase gets underway, Hamilton advised by his crew that it is in the middle sector where he's losing out.
All ten drivers are on track as Raikkonen begins his final flying lap of the day. The Finn posts a personal best in the first sector, before going quickest in the second. However, Hamilton goes quickest in the second sector, the McLaren driver refusing to give up.
A 36.645 sees Raikkonen take provisional pole, but Hamilton beats it with a 36.303. Massa takes third (36.989) as Alonso goes fourth. A mistake in the final sector sees Kovalainen fail to improve, consequently, though his teammate has pole, he is surrounded by drivers friendly to the Massa cause.
An excellent performance from Hamilton, while the Ferraris have demonstrated that, contrary to what we saw earlier this morning, they do have the pace to keep the Englishman honest. With Kovalainen only managing fourth, Hamilton will be under intense pressure tomorrow, especially with Alonso added to the mix.
Webber drops ten places, which means that Heidfeld starts from sixth, ahead of Vettel, Trulli and Bourdais, as Toro Rosso yet again get both carts into the Top Ten.
The weather forecasters are predicting rain tomorrow, indeed, they are predicting a thunderstorm, consequently, at this stage it would be pointless to start making our own predictions as to what will happen.
That said, Hamilton has the all-important pole position, but then again, he started from pole in 2007 also, and we all know what happened.
It would be wrong to further speculate as to how the World Championship leader will handle the pressure. Despite the headlines, some of them outrageous, he's on pole, and convincingly so.
However, the fact that he has the Ferraris and Alonso sitting on his red and silver tail, not to mention uncertainty regarding the weather, means we could be in for a good 'un.
Let's hope so.
And let's hope that the Race Stewards realise that these guys are racing drivers, they race, and sometimes that mean overtaking. Whilst we don't want to see bully boy tactics we do not want to see a repeat of the sort of nonsense that got Sebastien Bourdais penalised. A decision that we have yet to hear anybody condone.