March 16, 2007

F1 Quals: Australia!

1115pm: Both SuperAguris make it into Q2. Ant was 9th, Suicide was 12th. Rubens Barrichello in the factory Honda was 17th, meaning that he's not advancing to Q2! Jensen Button just barely made it in, he was 16th.

That sound of something sharp cutting into meat would be hundreds of Honda executives killing themselves.

More to come after Q2.

1135pm: TAKUMA SATO IS INTO Q3!!! Ant was 11th, just missing moving on. Jensen Button was 14th, so he's not moving on. Umpty-ump million dollars to make your car 1.5 seconds slower ain't no way to go through life, Honda.

Felipe Massa had a breakdown (gearbox), and he's dead in Q2 as well. Other than him, the usual suspects (Renault, McLaren, the other Ferrari, both Toyotas {which is something of a surprise}, Kubica in the BMW, Webber in the RedBull, and ~TAKU!~)have made it on.

Can you tell that I'm enjoying life right now? More after Q3!

1201am: Was it good for you, too? Okay, SuperSato was last in Q3, which means he'll be starting 10th... ahead of 12 other cars; far and away the best grid position a SuperAguri has ever had.

Felipe Massa has gotta be wondering what could have been. His teammate, Kimi Raikonnen, is on pole (in his first race for Ferrari... the first time since St. Fangio the Quick that a Ferrari driver in his first race with the team is on pole), but Massa is 16th. Fernando Alonso is 2nd, and BMW-Sauber gets its best grid position ever with Nick Heidfeld in 3rd.

Rookie Lewis Hamilton is 4th in his McLaren, then Robert Kubica was 5th in the second BMW-Sauber... that piece of pitlane has got to be rockin' right now. Giancarlo Fisichella pops his head up in 6th, which has got to be a surprise, and not a good one.

7th is RedBull's Mark Webber, giving his home crowd a thrill. 8th and 9th are The Engineer, Jarno Trulli, and The 2nd Best Schumacher still in racing, Ralf.

Did I mention that SuperSato is 10th? The SA pitcrew carried him out on their shoulders after Q3. Too frickin' cool! Of course, Ant is 11th, so they've both got a lot to celebrate tonight.

Other thoughts: Honda is certainly showing their devotion to being eco-friendly... they saved 90kg of fuel by Rubens not advancing out of Q1 and Jensen not getting out of Q2. *rimshot, snark*

Don't be surprised if we find out that the lawyers are out in force in the morning. The Legendary Announce Team said that Williams will be protesting THREE teams: SA, Toro Rosso and RedBull. SA because they're driving a clone of Honda's 2006 car, Toro Rosso because they're in a car not designed by their team, and in a shocker, RedBull because THEY'RE not driving a car designed by themselves either! It seems that Adrian Newey isn't the Team Designer for either company; instead, he's contracted to 'Red Bull Technologies,' which is NOT RedBull Racing F1 or Scuderia Toro Rosso. Oops, someone might have out-cuted themselves.

But all that is in the future, and almost assuredly the legal games will NOT affect tomorrow's race a whit. Y'see, the FIA, where the complaints have got to be filed, is located in Paris... more than a few hours off the time of Melbourne, and on a Sunday to boot.

On with the race! Woo-yay!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 04:16 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 I just saw the results at itv-f1.com. Well... Not many surprises (aside from those which were known before, from Q2). I can see Williams lawers getting very busy just about now.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at March 16, 2007 05:01 PM (9imyF)

2 I dunno; I think BMW-Sauber's performance is pretty shocking, and Fisi's 6th place has got to be a huge disappointment.

Both Toyotas making it into Q3 is another one, particularly considering the problems both had: Ralf had a gearbox problem, and Trulli drove away with the rear jack still attached. In fact, I'm wondering why he wasn't penalized, considering that the jack wound up ON THE TRACK after it shook itself free.

But never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that SuperSato would make it into Q3! To be honest, I DID predict that at least one SA car would outqual both factory Hondas in a Fark thread earlier today; I just didn't expect that ~TAKU!~ was be in Q3.

Posted by: Wonderduck at March 16, 2007 05:28 PM (86QII)

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