The 2008 Turkish Formula 1 Grand Prix Thread
Moderators: cmlean, Ed, The Qualiflyer, The Heretic
Here is the team by team summary following Qualifying in Turkey (GMM)
FERRARI
Felipe Massa truly is the master of the Istanbul Park layout, capturing his third straight pole position here and targeting a trio of Turkish wins. After a less than perfect lap, Kimi Raikkonen qualified fourth, behind both McLarens. "There's a question mark over fuel loads," the Finn noted.
MCLAREN-MERCEDES
Lewis Hamilton, at the wheel of a few scruffy laps on Saturday, said in the FIA press conference that choosing hard tyres rather than soft ones for his final Q3 assault was in hindsight the "wrong decision", as he qualified just behind his teammate Heikki Kovalainen. The Finn's front row berth is the first of his career.
BMW-SAUBER
The BMWs were worryingly off the pace in all three practice sessions this weekend, but Robert Kubica ultimately qualified fifth, behind the four faster Ferraris and McLarens. "We were expecting a little bit more after finishing P2 in Q2," said Kubica. Nick Heidfeld made the Q3 cut, but he starts just ninth as he continues to struggle to meet his Polish teammate's speed.
RED BULL-RENAULT
Mark Webber and David Coulthard were spectacularly P1 and P3 respectively in morning practice, and ultimately settled in solid sixth and tenth places within 'Q3' in qualifying.
RENAULT
Fernando Alonso's deceiving P2 in the damp morning became P7 on the grid. Nelson Piquet has been off the Spaniard's pace all weekend; the gap was six tenths in the morning, and seven tenths when he failed even to progress through Q1. "I am extremely disappointed today," he said.
TOYOTA
Eighth on the grid for Jarno Trulli, but teammate Timo Glock - despite being on the pace all weekend - had a front wheel problem and ultimately qualified a full second behind Trulli, at the tail of the 'Q2' pack (15th).
WILLIAMS-TOYOTA
Nico Rosberg was fourth in the now customary topsy-turvy Saturday morning practice, but he couldn't squeeze into 'Q3' in the qualifying hour. Kazuki Nakajima languished near the backmarkers all day and was the fastest runner to miss even the 'Q1' cut. "We expected him to be slightly behind as we didn't have some recent aero updates available for him," technical director Sam Michael said.
HONDA
Neither made it through to 'Q3', but Rubens Barrichello at least narrowly pipped teammate Jenson Button to twelfth place on the grid for his historic 257th official start. "It's a long way forward to get points from here," said Button.
TORO ROSSO-FERRARI
After a bad Spanish outing, Sebastian Vettel is back on song in Turkey, and he even made the 'Q2' cut, unlike his teammate Sebastien Bourdais, who criticised the Force India drivers for holding him up. "I don't know what those guys were doing on their out lap," he said, angrily lamenting his eighteenth grid spot.
FORCE INDIA-FERRARI
Despite previously waging legal action against Super Aguri's use of customer cars, Force India must now be ruing the team's collapse after qualifying clearly on the last row of the grid in Turkey. Adrian Sutil is still struggling to keep up with Giancarlo Fisichella, but the veteran Roman will line up dead last due to his three-position grid penalty for jumping the red light on Friday.
FERRARI
Felipe Massa truly is the master of the Istanbul Park layout, capturing his third straight pole position here and targeting a trio of Turkish wins. After a less than perfect lap, Kimi Raikkonen qualified fourth, behind both McLarens. "There's a question mark over fuel loads," the Finn noted.
MCLAREN-MERCEDES
Lewis Hamilton, at the wheel of a few scruffy laps on Saturday, said in the FIA press conference that choosing hard tyres rather than soft ones for his final Q3 assault was in hindsight the "wrong decision", as he qualified just behind his teammate Heikki Kovalainen. The Finn's front row berth is the first of his career.
BMW-SAUBER
The BMWs were worryingly off the pace in all three practice sessions this weekend, but Robert Kubica ultimately qualified fifth, behind the four faster Ferraris and McLarens. "We were expecting a little bit more after finishing P2 in Q2," said Kubica. Nick Heidfeld made the Q3 cut, but he starts just ninth as he continues to struggle to meet his Polish teammate's speed.
RED BULL-RENAULT
Mark Webber and David Coulthard were spectacularly P1 and P3 respectively in morning practice, and ultimately settled in solid sixth and tenth places within 'Q3' in qualifying.
RENAULT
Fernando Alonso's deceiving P2 in the damp morning became P7 on the grid. Nelson Piquet has been off the Spaniard's pace all weekend; the gap was six tenths in the morning, and seven tenths when he failed even to progress through Q1. "I am extremely disappointed today," he said.
TOYOTA
Eighth on the grid for Jarno Trulli, but teammate Timo Glock - despite being on the pace all weekend - had a front wheel problem and ultimately qualified a full second behind Trulli, at the tail of the 'Q2' pack (15th).
WILLIAMS-TOYOTA
Nico Rosberg was fourth in the now customary topsy-turvy Saturday morning practice, but he couldn't squeeze into 'Q3' in the qualifying hour. Kazuki Nakajima languished near the backmarkers all day and was the fastest runner to miss even the 'Q1' cut. "We expected him to be slightly behind as we didn't have some recent aero updates available for him," technical director Sam Michael said.
HONDA
Neither made it through to 'Q3', but Rubens Barrichello at least narrowly pipped teammate Jenson Button to twelfth place on the grid for his historic 257th official start. "It's a long way forward to get points from here," said Button.
TORO ROSSO-FERRARI
After a bad Spanish outing, Sebastian Vettel is back on song in Turkey, and he even made the 'Q2' cut, unlike his teammate Sebastien Bourdais, who criticised the Force India drivers for holding him up. "I don't know what those guys were doing on their out lap," he said, angrily lamenting his eighteenth grid spot.
FORCE INDIA-FERRARI
Despite previously waging legal action against Super Aguri's use of customer cars, Force India must now be ruing the team's collapse after qualifying clearly on the last row of the grid in Turkey. Adrian Sutil is still struggling to keep up with Giancarlo Fisichella, but the veteran Roman will line up dead last due to his three-position grid penalty for jumping the red light on Friday.
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Southernman
- 2004 Top 10
- Posts: 801
- Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2005 6:18 am
- Location: New Zealand
Good to see Kovalainen do so well in qualifying. I do suspect that he is lighter than Hamilton on fuel and that it just wasn't the strange tyre choice the Hamilton had to get in front of him. My guess is also that Massa will be lighter on fuel than Kimi. Massa is the kind of driver that is good at holding a lead.
It should be a good race.
It should be a good race.