F1 Quals: Singapore 2010

Those must have been some darn interesting emotional swings in the Ferrari pits today.  Let's take a look at the provisional grid for the 2010 Grand Prix of Singapore:

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	HWMNBN	Ferrari	1:46.541	1:45.809	1:45.390
2	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:46.960	1:45.561	1:45.457
3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:48.296	1:46.042	1:45.571
4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:48.032	1:46.490	1:45.944
5	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:47.088	1:45.908	1:45.977
6	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:48.183	1:47.019	1:46.236
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	1:48.554	1:46.783	1:46.443
8	Robert Kubica	Renault	1:47.657	1:46.949	1:46.593
9	Slappy Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1:48.425	1:47.160	1:46.702
10	Gandalf Kobayashi	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:48.908	1:47.599	1:47.884
11	NKOTT	STR-Ferrari	1:48.127	1:47.666
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:47.984	1:47.674
13	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:48.906	1:48.165
14	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:49.063	1:48.502
15	Grizzly Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:48.696	1:48.557
16	Adrian F'n Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:48.496	1:48.899
17	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1:48.988	1:48.961
18	Timo Glockenspiel	Virgin-Cosworth	1:50.721
19	Heikki Kovalaineninnie	Lotus-Cosworth	1:50.915
20	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	1:51.107
21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1:51.641
22	Zoroastrian Klien	HRT-Cosworth	1:52.946
23	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	1:54.174
24	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	No time

One has to wonder when the last time Ferrari qualified on pole and dead last in the same race, without penalties.  You'll note that Massa set no time... either a frozen gearbox or an electronic engine management problem, one of the two (I've seen conflicting reports), brought the Brazilian to a stop out on track, ending whatever hope he had of a good race.  I've also seen reports that he's going to have to change both his gearbox and the engine.  If so, he'll be starting the race from the vicinity of Palembang.  Anyway, Ferrari then had the exciting experience of having HWMNBN call in early in Q2 reporting problems with his engine.  The team brought him in, rebooted the electronics, then sent him back out, all fingers crossed.  Of course the problem disappeared, much like when you restart your computer after it can't find your keyboard.  After that, it became a matter of HWMNBN ripping off ridiculously fast laps in a car that people were saying would stink after Monza, and nobody being able to match him.  His pole lap wasn't even done in the final shootout, but on his first flying lap in Q3.  HWMNBN now has two consecutive poles, and has suddenly catapulted himself into legit discussion for the Driver's Championship.

The rest of the heavy hitters were pretty much as you'd expect.  The big surprises today had to be the two replacement drivers, Grizzly Nick Heidfeld and Taoist Klien.  Remember what happened with Luca Badoer and Ferrari in 2009?  He stepped into the car and was far and away the slowest man on the grid.  Well, Grizzly Nick qualified midpack, a respectable performance indeed.  Over at HRT meanwhile, Jainist Klien simply demolished his teammate Bruno Senna.  He was over a second faster than Senna, which makes me wonder what the HRT might actually be capable of in the hands of someone a) talented and 2) experienced in the car.  Lord knows that DJ DNF, Senna and Cowboy Karun Chandhok haven't exactly covered themselves in glory this season.

So there you have it.  The five drivers in contention for the Driver's Championship are in the top five grid slots, which makes me think that the run to Turn 1 might be somewhat exciting tomorrow.  Of course, F1Update! will be along with the usual coverage... see you then!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 03:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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