F1 Quals: Abu Dhabi 2009!

A quals session without surprises.  Let's take a look as the grid, shall we?

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:39.873	1:39.695	1:40.948
2	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:40.666	1:39.984	1:41.615
3	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:40.667	1:40.272	1:41.726
4	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	1:40.574	1:40.421	1:41.786
5	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	1:40.378	1:40.148	1:41.892
6	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:40.517	1:40.373	1:41.897
7	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:40.520	1:40.545	1:41.992
8	Grizzly Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:40.558	1:40.635	1:42.343
9	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:40.842	1:40.661	1:42.583
10	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:40.908	1:40.430	1:42.713
11	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:41.100	1:40.726
12	Kamui Kobayashi	Toyota	1:41.035	1:40.777
13	Heikki Kovalaineninnie	McLaren-Mercedes	1:40.808	1:40.983
14	Kazoo Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	1:41.096	1:41.148
15	NKOTT	STR-Ferrari	1:41.503	1:41.689
16	HWMNBN	Renault	1:41.667
17	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1:41.701
18	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:41.863
19	Lettuce Grosjean	Renault	1:41.950
20	Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari	1:42.184

The top five positions are held by five of the six race winners this season, which is exactly how it should be for a race that, effectively, means nothing.  Only Kimi Raikkonen, winner at Belgium, is out of the fun. 

Which, for Ferrari, is a disaster.  One of the few worthwhile things still up for grabs is third place in the Constructor's Championship, between McLaren and the Prancing Horse.  The two teams are separated by one point, and with Lewis Hamilton at the head of the grid, Kimi's 11th is not what they needed.  The only saving grace for the Red Team is that Heikki Kovalaineninninnie, Hamilton's teammate, has to take a five-spot grid penalty after changing his gearbox.  That'll drop him down to Giancarlo Fisichella territory, so they might have a little struggle.  For what it's worth, the financial difference between third and fourth in the Constructor's standings is about $5million... not chump change, not even for a F1 team.

Second in the Driver's Championship is still up for grabs, and other than having Seb Vettel and Rubens Barrichello 1-2 on the grid, this is probably the best way for the two of them to line up.  They're both on the dirty side of the track, neither have any experience with the circuit, and they've both got teammates nearby.  The only difference is that Seb's got more fuel on board, by about 8kg.  That gives him the advantage, but it'll be close either way.

Spare a second and feel bad for HWMNBN: this is his worst qualifying position (pre-penalty) since 2001, when he drove for Minardi.

I take it back.  Don't feel bad for him in the least.  When he was interviewed by Peter (Smarmy) Windsor after he was eliminated in Q1, he sounded exactly like a man who didn't give a damn.  And why should he?  He's going to Ferrari next season for a lot of money.  A demonic convergence, right there... it'll be SO easy to hate them.

And let's talk about our polesitter, Lewis Hamilton.  He pretty much dominated Quals today, setting fast time in all three sessions, and blowing everybody out of the water in Q3.  Hell, he was almost three-quarters of a second faster than second-place Vettel; it was impressive enough that Sebby even made mention of it in the post-qual interview session ("I think both Mark and I were surprised by the gap to Lewis.").  Now, to be fair, he does have less fuel on board, but not THAT much less: 658.5kg to 663kg for Vettel.  Nope, he just had a fantastic lap, simple as that.

Gonna be a fun ending to a bizarro season... see you tomorrow!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:58 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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