Planet-F1

Qualy: Wrong Ferrari joins Lewis at the front

Saturday 11th October 2008

Lewis Hamilton is in pole position for Sunday's Japanese GP where he'll be joined by an unfamiliar Ferrari on the front row.

Hamilton put in a blistering 1:18.404 to take his 12th career pole position, putting him in prime position to take the victory on Sunday afternoon and extend his lead in the Drivers' standings.

The McLaren driver, though, will be joined by a Ferrari on the front row of the grid, however, it was the wrong one as Kimi Raikkonen took second place ahead of Heikki Kovalainen and Fernando Alonso.

As for Felipe Massa, the driver the Scuderia did want on the front row, he'll be starting the grand prix from fifth place with Ferrari hoping he has more fuel on board than his title rival.

Qualifying Report
After showers in the morning, the track was still in its last drying phase before the cars took to the circuit in pale sunshine - the ambient air temperature 21C and the tarmac at 22C.

Nelson Piquet Junior was first to set a meaningful time with the new Bridgestone green-grooved tyres and a 1:19.286. Jarno Trulli edged it down to 1:19.191 and then Timo Glock, who'd run near the top of the timesheets in all practices at Toyota's home track, needed two laps before beating it with a 1:19.010.

Felipe Massa signalled his intent with a first hot lap of 1:18.727 which he then reduced to 1:18.523, but not before Lewis Hamilton had grabbed P1 with a 1:18.232.

As the order shuffled behind the two World Championship contenders - Kimi Raikkonen's time falling back to P7 - it was Piquet Junior who launched himself up to P2 with an amazingly good 1:18.300 - better than Fernando Alonso who he hadn't outqualified all season.

To prove that the track was ramping up speed in the closing stages, David Coulthard put his Red Bull up to P4 with six minutes left of the session to run - and he would still need to go out again.

Glock then took P1 with a 1:18.138 and Heikki Kovalainen elevated himself into P2. At which point Lewis Hamilton - now down to third place - realised he couldn't risk not going out in the final rush for places.

With four minutes of the session to run the danger positions were: 12.Kubica, 13.Button, 14.Bourdais, 15.Heidfeld, 16.Vettel, 17.Rosberg, 18.Webber, 19.Sutil, 20.Fisichella

Apart from Kovalainen, everyone headed out again. Massa took P1 with a 1:18.110, Hamilton took it off him with a 1:18.071 and then Glock squeezed himself into P1 with a 1:17.945.

As the cars streamed across the line Bourdais improved to P10, Rosberg moved up to P13, Alonso jumped to P6, Nakajima managed P13, but Button could only stay P18 and Barrichello P17. Biggest surprise of all was Nick Heidfeld's failure to improve.

So out went:
16. Heidfeld
17. Barrichello
18.Button
19.Sutil
20.Fisichella

Heidfeld's departure was surprising, but team-mate Kubica could only manage P14 having been quickest in morning practice. Though he was never going to get into Q2, Force India's Adrian Sutil was only a few tenths shy of Button's Honda.

Qualifying 2
The two Ferraris of Raikkonen and Massa were first onto the track in Q2 and while Raikkonen's P1 time of 1:17.733 was good, Felipe Massa buried it with a 1:17.287.

Timo Glock joined in the fun in P3 but Lewis Hamilton could only put his McLaren into P2 and, significantly, was two tenths slower than Massa.

Fernando Alonso risked the wrath of the stewards (and his bank account) by seemingly giving up on a flying lap, heading into the pitlane and then suddenly rejoining the track again, crossing many white lines in the process.

In Q2 the time improvement throughout the session failed to show such a dramatic reduction and so in the closing stages both Massa and Hamilton felt confident enough to stick with their times. With five minutes to run the danger positions were: 7.Kubica, 8.Glock, 9.Bourdais, 10.Alonso, 11.Coulthard, 12.Webber, 13.Nakajima, 14.Rosberg, 15.Piquet (yet to set a time).

Heikki Kovalainen took P2, Nelson Piquet attempting only one run managed P12, Alonso jumped to P7, Mark Webber couldn't get a lap in, Rosberg stayed P15 and Nakajima P14, Raikkonen stayed in P7, Glock jumped to P5 and David Coulthard came in at P11.

So out went:
11. Coulthard
12. Piquet
13. Webber
14.Nakajima
15.Rosberg

Coulthard had done well to outqualify Webber for only the second time in the year, while Nakajima was able to use local knowledge to get ahead of Nico Rosberg. Piquet's qualifying battle with Alonso now stands at 0 to 16, while both Toro Rossos made it into the top 10.

Qualifying 3
With a short lap at Mount Fuji everyone was reluctant to be first on track in the final session and for the first minute nobody moved. It was the Toyotas and Ferraris who finally broke the silence and Timo Glock set the provisional pole time at 1:19.673. Seconds later it was eclipsed by Raikkonen steaming through in an impressive 1:18.890

Just how impressive this was was underlined by Felipe Massa who could only manage 1:19.137 and P2 on his opening lap, and Lewis Hamilton whose 1:19.163 put him back in P3.

After the first runs the order was: Raikkonen, Massa, Hamilton, Kovalainen, Kubica, Glock and Alonso.

Having been almost half a second adrift of team-mate Massa in Q1, Raikkonen showed that he had suddenly found a lot more speed (or a lot less fuel) with a 1:18.644 on his second run to reinforce his pole. Felipe Massa was able to improve with a 1:18.874 that put him P2.

Out came Lewis Hamilton and the McLaren sent the timing screens purple in all three sectors as he delivered what Ron Dennis subsequently described as "the pole position of his life" a 1:18.404. What's more it was done with a "sensible level of fuel".

Massa's afternoon then got worse when Alonso grabbed P3 and then Kovalainen took P3 off him, relegating the Brazilian to P5 to battle it out with Trulli and Kubica off the line tomorrow.

Rain or no rain, it had been a fantastic qualifying session for the Mclaren team and one with which they will want to take maximum advantage tomorrow. Ferrari's hopes of a decisive 1-2 look a faint hope unless they can make a barnstorming start to the race.

FH

Times
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:18.404
02 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:18.644
03 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:18.821
04 F. Alonso Renault 1:18.852
05 F. Massa Ferrari 1:18.874
06 R. Kubica BMW 1:18.979
07 J. Trulli Toyota 1:19.026
08 T. Glock Toyota 1:19.118
09 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:19.638
10 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:20.167
11 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:18.187
12 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:18.274
13 M. Webber Red Bull 1:18.354
14 K. Nakajima Williams 1:18.594
15 N. Rosberg Williams 1:18.672
16 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:18.835
17 R. Barrichello Honda 1:18.882
18 J. Button Honda 1:19.100
19 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:19.163
20 G.