Hamilton and Kovalainen were penalized five grid places. Following several hours of deliberation by the stewards about whether or not the McLaren pair had done anything wrong, it was eventually decided that the duo should be punished. Hamilton was penalised for blocking Heidfeld, while Kovalainen got his penalty for blocking both the German and Alonso. It means Kovalainen will now start from eighth place on the grid, with Hamilton one place behind him. A McLaren spokesman confirmed that the team would not appeal the decision.
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Ferrari lock out the front row at Sepang
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.#.
Present and future of Ferrari on front row
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.
Disaster for Schumacher as Raikkonen snatches Pole
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.
Surprise Pole for Raikkonen at Hockenheim
kimi Raikkonen snatched a surprise Pole position from Michael schumacher at Mclaren’s engine partner Mercedes’ home event. Michael Schumacher, Felipe Massa and Ferrari dominated the session right up until Raikkonen’s clocked in the Pole time. Schumacher starts second and is firm favourite to take the win tomorrow while Massa once again did a great job for Ferrari and starts third. The practice form suggested that a third successive Ferrari front row lock out was on the cards, and indeed the Maranello squad had things all its own way in the first two knockout sessions. But come the decisive 15-minute shootout, Schumacher had no answer for Raikkonen’s pace and wound up 0.135s adrift. But the good news is that the rivals, Giancarlo Fisichella is only fifth and world champion Fernando Alonso looking lost in seventh. It was all smiles at Honda who have Jenson Button starting fourth with Rubens Barrichello sixth.
With every one guessing that Raikkonen is undoubtedly light on fuel for the start of the 67-lap race, Ferrari and Micheal Schumacher along with Massa looks strong while Alonso has an uphill task as in Indianapolis to save his lead in the Championship. As usual, I will be posting a complete review of tommorow’s race.
Schumi and Ferrari rocks Indianapolis & ends Alonso’s run
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 is stripped of pole position
I havent watched the qualifying live but read the news and waited for the official announcement from the stewards. According to their report, Michael Schumacher will start from the back of the grid for the Monaco Grandprix after stewards decided that he blocked the track in the final minutes of qualifying, preventing others from beating his time. Schumacher appeared to lock his brakes and then run wide as he entered the final Rascasse corner in the dying moments of the session. The former champion regained control without hitting the barriers, but came to a halt with his stalled car partially blocking the circuit, forcing other drivers to slow down. Schumacher was on provisional pole at that time. (more…)
Can Ferrari win again at Nurburgring
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.
Button stuns with Australian pole
Honda’s Jenson Button beats both Renaults to pole position in Melbourne. Second fastest in qualifying this afternoon was Giancarlo Fisichella followed by teammate and reigning world champion Fernando Alonso. Australia’s Mark Webber will start in seventh place after a personal best lap of Albert Park in his Williams. Most of the session had been about the Renaults and McLarens until Button put that stonking lap time in. Montoya looked most likely to take pole position and set the mark for much of the 20-minute final session. But a spin on one hot lap and then a curious drop in the final sector of what would have been Montoya’s quickest tour rendered him fifth overall.
Ferrari’s World Champion Michael Schumacher failed to make the top 10 for the final shootout as rain ruined Michael Schumacher’s flying lap in the final minutes of the second knock-out session. His team-mate Felipe Massa caused the second red flag of the day when he crashed out at Turn 9. The Ferrari driver lost out on the entry to the chicane and skated across the gravel before smaking the wall and ripping off the right rear corner.
Rubens Barrichello has been knocked out of Australian Grand Prix qualifying after the first 15-minute segment. The Brazilian Honda driver, who has once again been struggling with the handling of his car, left his fast lap very late in the session and was then baulked half way through it by Yuji Ide. Check back for more details.
Fizzy pops up!
Giancarlo Fisichella has had a difficult time so far this season but an engine change after Bahrain, allowed because his car failed to finish for other reasons, meant that the Italian went to steamy Malaysia with the potential to outshine his rivals. And so he did in the final minutes of the qualifying session as he took third career Pole Position away from Jenson Button by two-tenths of a second. The Renault driver’s final lap in the third and final phase of qualifying stopped the clocks in a 1:33.840s, a tenth clear of the field. Jenson button starts a cool second in his Honda while Nico Rosberg did a sensational job in what is his second Grand Prix weekend to qualify his Williams Cosworth third.
It is a great result for me and a great answer after the last race. We made a big mistake in Bahrain, but anyway now the package is fantastic and the reliability and performance is good and I am sure now I will have a chance to do well said Fisichella.