First Valencia pole belongs to Massa

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Felipe Massa made history on Saturday when he became the very first F1 driver to take pole position at the new Valencia street circuit.

The Brazilian continued his good run of form when he clocked a 1:38.989 during Q3 to take pole position away from Lewis Hamilton.

The McLaren driver posted a 1:39.199 to fall 0.210s short of Massa's time while Robert Kubica was third quickest for BMW.

Kimi Raikkonen was the only other driver to get within half a second of Massa's P1 time while fifth place on the grid goes to Heikki Kovalainen.

Qualifying Report
The temperatures at Valencia's new dockside circuit were unusually low as the first ever qualifying session got underway. The ambient temperature was just 26C and the track at 30C with the potential for slight showers to come in from the south-east and the grey skies making teams very attentive to their weather radars.

Nelson Piquet set a slow benchmark P1 time of 1:40.044, hitting a seagull in the process. Jarno Trulli, who'd had successive engine problems in the morning practice and managed just two laps, was next to set P1 at 1:39.792, while team-mate Timo Glock lowered it to 1:39.178. Robert Kubica reduced it to 1:38.935 in his BMW.

Felipe Massa was just 6th on his first lap, but Championship rival Lewis Hamilton took provisional P1 with a 1:38.464. Kimi Raikkonen was only just faster than Massa and the Ferrari drivers went on to set second laps to improve their times, though only marginally.

Sebastien Bourdais demonstrated the consistent pace of the Toro Rossos this weekend with P2 on his first hot lap. Fernando Alonso entertained his passionate home fans with P2 before Nico Rosberg took it off him.

As the session progressed the times improved considerably but with four laps left the danger positions were: 12.Massa, 13.Coulthard, 14.Webber, 15.Nakajima, 16.Piquet, 17.Heidfeld, 18.Fisichella, 19.Sutil, 20.Barrichello

Massa went out and grabbed a decisive P1 with a 1:38.176, though team-mate Raikkonen could only manage 8th place. Nick Heidfeld was held up by Timo Glock's Toyota and tried to overtake him, lost control, went straight on at a turn and cut a corner. He still managed to post a P9 time, but as Kovalainen found out at the French GP when he impeded Mark Webber, (who also qualified for the next session despite the hold-up), he is likely to face a five-place grid penalty tomorrow.

Vettel then stunned the pundits with P1, Kubica grabbed P4, Piquet elevated himself to P13 on his third run, Nakajima leapt forward to P10 and Jarno Trulli seized P1 in the final seconds.

As the dust settled, out went:
16. Button
17.Coulthard
18.Fisichella
19.Barrichello
20.Sutil

Jenson Button was clearly disappointed not to make it into Q2 having been put on the slower tyre for his final run, though Rubens Barrichello had been consistently slow.

Qualifying 2
There were light rain drops on Kimi Raikkonen's roll hoop camera as the Ferrari took to the track first in Session 2. He duly set P1 at 1:38.276, Robert Kubica reduced it to 1:38.050 and Sebastian Vettel showed that Toro Rosso meant business when he dipped into the 1:37s at 1:37.842.

Lewis Hamilton could only go P2, which he lost to Jarno Trulli's Toyota as the Roman set two purple sectors on his way to P2.

McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen set the P5 time ahead of the two Ferraris which had now been demoted to P6 and P7 - Massa being the slower of the two.

Going into the last three minutes the danger positions were: 7.Massa, 8.Rosberg, 9.Bourdais, 10.Nakajima, 11.Alonso, 12.Glock, 13.Heidfeld, 14.Piquet, 15.Webber

Hamilton was in third place, but such was the improvement in times in the final runs of Session 1 that the McLaren team were taking no chances. In the end 1st to 15th place was covered by just 0.8 of a second, so it was a sensible move.

As the cars finished their final runs Kovalainen stayed in P5, Massa jumped up to P2. Raikkonen slipped to P7, Bourdais stayed P9, Rosberg jumped to P9, Hamilton stayed P4, Alonso couldn't improve and finished P12 while Heidfeld jumpd up to P3.

So out went:
11.Nakajima
12.Alonso
13.Glock
14.Webber
15.Piquet

The great disappointment was that home boy Fernando Alonso failed to get his car into Q3, while the great joy was that both Toro Rossos had made it into the Top 10.

Qualifying 3
The big question going into Q3 was - could the Toro Rossos and Jarno Trulli's Toyota upset the Ferrari/McLaren domination of the front two rows? After the previous two sessions it looked possible.

Jarno Trulli set a benchmark pole time of 1:40.309 which Vettel reduced to 1:40.142. Lewis Hamilton took P1 from the German, but only just, his lap included a mistake going into the penultimate corner that sent him way offline. His 1:40.040 was soon eclipsed by Kimi Raikkonen and then by 0.6 of a second by Felipe Massa with a stellar 1:39.371.

Going into the final runs it was Massa, Raikkonen, Kubica, Hamilton and Vettel in the top five places.

Hamilton took another set of the softer tyres for his second run and there was no mistake this time as he grabbed P1 with a 1:39.199. Raikkonen couldn't beat it, but a final burst from Massa saw him take an impressive pole with a 1:38.989, while BMW's Robert Kubica slotted ahead of Raikkonen and Kovalainen climbed into P5.

It was another great lap from Massa and the body language in the press conference showed a Felipe brimming with confidence and a totally subdued Lewis Hamilton. With Safety Cars expected on the fast street circuit the race is still wide open, and with a grid that could favour P2 over P1, the opening lap could be spectacular and packed with incident.

FH

Times
01 F. Massa Ferrari 1:38.989
02 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:39.199
03 R. Kubica BMW 1:39.392
04 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:39.488
05 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:39.937
06 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:40.142
07 J. Trulli Toyota 1:40.309
08 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:40.631
09 N. Rosberg Williams 1:40.721
10 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:40.750
11 K. Nakajima Williams 1:38.428
12 F. Alonso Renault 1:38.435
13 T. Glock Toyota 1:38.499
14 M. Webber Red Bull 1:38.515
15 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:38.744
16 J. Button Honda 1:38.880
17 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:39.235
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:39.268
19 R. Barrichello Honda 1:39.811
20 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:39.943

Friday analysis - Ferrari lead Valencia learning curve

The first day of running on Valencia’s new track was a matter of letting conditions improve as more rubber went down, tuning the set-ups, and avoiding the offline dust as everyone developed baselines to compare against their simulations. At the end of it all, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen led the way, but only by a whisker from Renault’s Fernando Alonso and Honda’s Jenson Button. We take a team-by-team look at progress…

Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen, 1m 41.317s, P7/1m 39.477s, P1
Felipe Massa, 1m 40.654s, P2/1m 39.678s, P4
Both drivers loved the track, and said they were completely happy with what they achieved in terms of set-up and balance as a baseline for Saturday.

Renault
Fernando Alonso, 1m 41.385s, P9/1m 39.497s, P2
Nelson Piquet, 1m 42.107s, P15/1m 40.439s, P9
On the face of it, not a bad day for Renault, with Alonso second and Piquet ninth in the second session. They had no significant problems, but the duff note for Alonso was being reprimanded and fined €10,000 for crossing the white line on the entrance to the pits during the afternoon session.

Honda
Jenson Button, 1m 42.460s, P17/1m 39.546s, P3
Rubens Barrichello, 1m 41.830s, P11/1m 41.377s, P20
Button had his best start to a Grand Prix weekend this year with third fastest time in the afternoon, when he reported that major set-up changes had made his Honda really good to drive. Barrichello had a better morning, but went backwards on set-up and found his car much worse later on.

McLaren
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 40.822s, P3/1m 39.712s, P5
Heikki Kovalainen, 1m 41.163s, P5/1m 39.954s, P6
Hamilton was very happy with the baseline McLaren established very quickly in the morning, but said that heavy traffic on his afternoon runs prevented him from confirming it fully. Kovalainen reported similar sentiments after starting with a great front end on his MP4-23 and gradually dialling in the rear. Both drivers, like their Ferrari rivals, are feeling very confident.

Toyota
Timo Glock, 1m 42.036s, P14/1m 39.967s, P7
Jarno Trulli, 1m 41.930s, P12/1m 40.877s, P15
Toyota got off to a great start, courtesy of Glock in the morning, and the young German set the seventh fastest time in the afternoon. He relied on his Champ Car experience of fast street courses and said he had a productive day. In contrast, Trulli struggled to get his TF108 well balanced and was much less happy with the consistency of his car.

BMW Sauber
Robert Kubica, 1m 41.281s, P6/1m 40.149s, P8
Nick Heidfeld, 1m 42.453s, P16/1m 41.084s, P18
As usual, BMW Sauber focused on tyre evaluation and set-up work rather than lap times. Kubica was relatively happy, but Heidfeld had little explanation for his slow lap times.

Force India
Giancarlo Fisichella, 1m 43.075s, P18/1m 40.500s, P10
Adrian Sutil, 1m 41.951s, P13/1m 40.999s, P17
Both Force Indias were running their seamless-shift transmissions again, and they will be retained for the whole weekend this time. Fisichella had a small brake problem which was quickly sorted, otherwise both drivers completed their programmes without interruption.

Red Bull
Mark Webber, 1m 43.524s, P20/1m 40.585s, P11
David Coulthard, 1m 43.312s, P19/1m 40.696s, P13
Webber had what he described as a ‘testing’ morning, but got going better in the afternoon. He was lucky to avoid being clobbered at one stage by a spinning Nico Rosberg in Turn 25, and wound up 11th. Coulthard likewise improved in that session.

Williams
Nico Rosberg, 1m 41.706s, P10/1m 40.607s, P12
Kazuki Nakajima, 1m 41.329s, P8/1m 40.742s, P14
Rosberg nearly picked up Webber after losing control braking into Turn 25 in the afternoon, but had an otherwise undramatic day. Both he and Nakajima completed their planned programmes with any significant problems.

Toro Rosso
Sebastian Vettel, 1m 40.496s, P1/40.982s, P16
Sebastien Bourdais, 1m 41.099s, P4/1m 41.246s, P19
Vettel was very happy with his fastest time in the morning, but predictably lost ground in the afternoon. Bourdais had traction problems and struggled with rear-end stability under braking.


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F1 Hungary 2008 Qualifying

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F1 Hungary 2008 Qualifying
1. Hamilton
2. Kovalainen
3. Massa

Raikkonen leads home Ferrari clean sweep - French GP - Qualifying

Ferrari utterly dominated qualifying for Sunday’s 70-lap French Grand Prix with Kimi Raikkonen taking the pole position from team-mate Felipe Massa and in doing so recorded a historic 200th pole for the Italian champions.

While Raikkonen celebrates the pole, Massa will be disappointed to lose out on the top position by just five-hundredths of a second, especially as the Brazilian topped the timesheets in both Q1 and Q2. His final run in Q3 saw two minor errors and the time was lost.

McLaren Mercedes had no answer to the pace of Ferrari with Lewis Hamilton making gains on his final run to set the third fastest time. However, with his ten position penalty applied due to his Montreal misdemeanour, Hamilton lines up a distant 13th on the grid.

Fernando Alonso shined once again in qualifying trim in the Renault and will start the race from third position on the grid and with Hamilton taking his penalty, has a realistic chance at a podium position on home soil for Renault.

Jarno Trulli suffered a spin on his penultimate qualifying lap but got the job done as usual for Toyota and starts an impressive fourth position on a weekend the Toyota team mourn the passing of former Team Principal Ove Andersson. Timo Glock starts ninth in the second TF108.

Heikki Kovalainen was unable to challenge the front-runners again in his McLaren and lines up fifth* on the grid ahead of Canadian Grand Prix winner Robert Kubica.

BMW Sauber really struggled in qualifying trim and a third row start will be seen as a good result for Kubica. Team-mate Nick Heidfeld was just six-hundredths of a second slower than Kubica in Q2 but did not make it into the top ten and starts a disappointed 11th.

The Red Bull Renault duo of Mark Webber and David Coulthard have been closely matched all weekend long at Magny Cours. Qualifying was no exception as they line up in seventh and eighth positions respectively.

With Glock starting ninth in the second Toyota, Nelson Piquet is promoted into tenth position courtesy of Hamilton’s grid position penalty. The Brazilian topped the morning practice session in his Renault but just missed out on making it into Q3 this afternoon. Still, it was a much better performance from the Renault rookie.

Sebastian Vettel had been firmly in the top ten throughout practice in his Toro Rosso Ferrari and will therefore be slightly disappointed to line up 12th ahead of the demoted Hamilton. Sebastien Bourdais proved much closer to Vettel in qualifying trim and starts 14th.

Qualifying would prove a major disappointment for the Williams Toyota team. Nico Rosberg set the 15th best time having only just escaped elimination in Q1 but his grid position penalty for his Montreal pit lane infringement drops him to the back of the field. Kazuki Nakajima therefore inherits 15th position on the grid after a poor run and traffic on his final qualifying laps of the day.

Honda has shown little pace all weekend and it is therefore no surprise to see Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello starting 16th and 17th respectively ahead of Force India Ferrari duo Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil.

Weather aside, Ferrari look set to run away with the French Grand Prix.

* It was later announced that Heikki Kovalainen would be demoted five positions on the grid for blocking in qualifying.

Earl ALEXANDER
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Massa and Raikkonen upbeat - French Practice

A lot of work completed by Ferrari in these three hours of free practice on the first day of the French Grand Prix. Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa covered around 500 kilometres and the Italian team now has plenty of data to work on with a view to qualifying and especially French Sunday's Grand Prix.

Felipe Massa set the fastest lap of the day with a 1:15.306s in the morning session and was second fastest in the afternoon despite a stiff neck. Raikkonen was third in the morning and fourth in the afternoon.

Felipe Massa
"It was a good day, apart from a slightly tight neck which I began to feel this morning: so as not to take any risks, I chose to avoid doing too many runs of several laps. I therefore concentrated on the car's set-up, working with both types of tyre. On the softer ones, it seems to be a little bit harder to find the right balance, but we must take into account that today, as usual on a Friday, the track is still dirty. Everyone suffered a bit with graining on the front tyres, but tomorrow the situation should improve. We must study all the data we have gathered to prepare as well as possible for qualifying and the race."

Kimi Raikkonen
"I am happy with the way things went during these two free practice sessions. We got through all our usual Friday job list, working mainly towards the race. Of course we don't know how much fuel our main rivals were running, but I get the impression we are very competitive. Maybe I did not get the most out of the first lap, but I am happy with the balance of the car.

We tried out this new system for a Safety Car period and I think it could be a good solution because it puts everyone in the same situation and that way, you can't be penalised just by unfortunate circumstances."

Stefano Domenicali, Team Principal
"Overall, it was a good start to this race weekend. Both drivers declared themselves pleased with the handling of the F2008 on this track. In evaluating the results, the usual unknowns come into consideration, these being the fuel taken on by the other teams and their work schedule, but we can say we are confident for the rest of the weekend. Coming off the back of two negative results, having not fulfilled our potential, it's time to get back to our usual standards."

Luca Baldisserri
"Because Felipe was suffering with a stiff neck this morning, we slightly modified the two drivers' programmes from the usual ones. The Brazilian concentrated on defining the best set-up on the car, while Kimi also had to tackle the task of evaluating the behaviour of both types of Bridgestone tyre available to us. We are happy with the work we did today: the F2008 seemed to be going well on this track and that means we can be cautiously confident for the rest of the weekend."

E.A. © CAPSIS International

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