The rain threatened to be a factor this afternoon in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix but never materialised as expected allowing Ferrari to show its raw speed around the 5.543km Sepang circuit. Felipe Massa claimed pole position, the tenth of his career, with a lap almost half a second clear of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. The F2008 has run flawlessly today and the team dominated qualifying leaving Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton very much second best on the second row of the grid.#.
Kimi Raikkonen, who is going to be announced as Ferrari driver for the next season claimed the Pole Position from Michael Schumacher by just two-thousandths of a second at Monza. The crucial thing is though Alonso’s position, who qualified on 5th position. With two men between Schumi and Alonso and one of them being Massa, it’s gonna be an interesting race for Ferrari and Schumi. And with everyone waiting for Schumi’s future decision and Ferrari’s driver line up for 2007 and beyond, Ferrari has a big day ahead infront of Tifosi. It will be a shock if Schumi retires. Lets wait and see.
Massa has done it, the first pole position of his Formula One carrer at Turkish GrandPrix. Michael Schumacher dominated saturday’s third and final practice session of the Turkish Grand Prix weekend, but his team mate Massa was the man who beat him in the Qualifying. It looked all day that no one can stop Schumacher and Ferrari this weekend, but Schumacher who was up all the time in Qualifying went mysteriously slow in his final lap of the session to claim 2nd behind his teammate. With Alonso and Fisichella behind Ferrari in the second row, its looks all good for Ferrari and schumacher. Mclaren who looked strong in the previous 3 races had a difficult session with Raikkonen 8th and his team mate in 12th. Ferrari lock out the front row and with their title rivals Renault behind them, it looks like the Race is going to be a fascinating one. As usual, I will try to review the complete Race tommorow.
Raikkonen snatched his second straight Pole position for tommorow’s Hungary Grand Prix with a stunning last minute lap. It was heartbreak for Massa as he was the fastest driver all day behind Michael Schumacher. Meanwhile Schumacher was given an identical penalty as Alonso for overtaking two cars after the red flags had been deployed to halt the final practice session. Jenson Button’s Honda engine had expired, putting oil down on the circuit. That means that both Alonso and Schumacher came into qualifying with two sec time penalties to be added to their best lap times. As a result Michael and Alonso were out of the final shootout lying in 12th and 15th place respectively. But as Button drops 10 places down from 4th to 14th, Schumacher starts from 11th while Alonso will be pushed back to 16th and his team mate Fisichella will start from 7th place.
Michael Schumacher will have to do everything he can to get the maximum points from 11th on the grid, but it is worth noting that Nigel Mansell started one place lower in 1989 in his Ferrari and won the race. Well Schumi, I cant think of anyone else who can do that as the Ferrari dominated all the weekend so far. As usual I will be posting the complete review of tommorow’s race, which should be an interesting one.
Michael Schumacher and Ferrari secured the pole position and front row in United States Grand Prix Qualifying with a scintillating performance. Schumacher and Massa dominated all saturday finishing 1-2 in the third and final practice and finally securing the front row in qualifying. Its one of the dominating performances by Ferrari after a long time with Alonso managing only 5th place. Schumi trails Fernando Alonso by 25 points in the championship but enjoys a formidable record at Indianapolis and hinted at another successful weekend today.
World champion Alonso, who has NEVER finished a race at Indianapolis was down in 5th and anything can happen in the race but IMO Schumi will take away minimum of 4 points from Alonso’s lead in this race. Ferrari really looks to have got their strategy right here at Indianapolis, so lets wait and see what happens tommorow. (more…)
Schumacher and Ferrari, dominant all weekend to date swept the second row while Renault secures the front row at Circuit de Catalunya. Alonso celebrated his second successive Pole position and first at his home race with his team mate Fisi grabbing the second spot on the front row. Schumacher now has a real fight in his hands, but his 248 F1 does seem to have a straight line speed advantage here in 2006 Spanish Grand Prix. So, the scene is set for another epic duel between Ferrari and Renault.
In other news Schumacher announced on Thursday that he could delay his decision to continue with Ferrari or quit the sport until the end of the year and Ferrari is quite happy to wait until the end of the season. Technical director Ross Brawn thinks someone of the magnitude of Michael gets as much time as he wants and we have to work around it. This news could mean that Schumacher is still considering retiring, and after two-straight wins he has the form to win this year’s championship. What will be better than for the Ferrari legend to go out than by securing an eighth title?.
Michael Schumacher and Felippe Massa are 2nd and 3rd in Nurburgring Qualifying, the European Grandprix. While Alonso grabbed the pole position, the Ferraris certianly look stronger here. Schumi was the fastest in the morning practice and looked all set to grab the pole untill the final laps. Looks like championship leader Fernando Alonso has urged Renault to give him a pole-winning strategy and got it while his team mate, Fisichella was out of final ten for the second succesive race. Unlike Alonso, however, Schumacher does not overly prize Pole Position and said strategy is so much more important. So, if Alonso is on less fuel, Ferrari and Schumi will have a good chance of winning the European Grandprix at Nurburgring. Schumi has already won 4 times at his home grandprix, Nurburgring and I hope he will do it again.
Michael Schumacher made F1 history on Saturday when he broke Ayrton Senna’s pole position record in Imola, the scene of Ayrton Senna’s tragic death 12 years ago. Schumacher, who has won this race six times in the past not only achieved this feat at the very track where the Brazilian claimed his final P1 slot but also infront of Tifosi at Ferrari‘s home. Michael Schumacher became statistically the greatest qualifier, who now has 66 poles to his name, clocked a 1:22.795 to beat Jenson Button to the P1 slot. Barrichello is third in his Honda, ahead of Felipe Massa and Alonso is only 5th in his Renault. More about qualifying soon..
Source : Ferrari.com
Michael Schumacher stuns with his 64th career pole position on Saturday afternoon in Hungary. Schumi’s pole was Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s first pole this season since the final round of 2004 and Schumi’s first since the penultimate round last year, in Japan. The Pole position is a tremendous result for the Ferrari after such a struggle in recent races. We have to wait for the Race day to know if Ferrari is back to winning ways or it’s just a case of the F2005-Bridgestone tyre package being particularly well suited to the demands of the Hungaroring circuit. Whatever happens on Race day, it’s a great performance by Ferrari and Schumi in the Qualifying
Well done Ferrari and Schumi.