F1 Quals: China 2008!

As semi-predicted, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton continued his domination of Shanghai in today's quals session.  Other than a fairly lurid slide in Turn Eight in his first Q3 run, he handily owned the track and his opponents all day, ending up nearly a third of a second better than his nearest competition, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.  Let's look at the provisional grid:

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:35.566	1:34.947	1:36.303
2	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:35.983	1:35.355	1:36.645
3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:35.971	1:35.135	1:36.889
4	HWMNBN	Ferrari (Renault Livery )	1:35.769	1:35.461	1:36.927
5	Heikki Kovalaininnie	McLaren-Mercedes	1:35.623	1:35.216	1:36.930
6	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:36.238	1:35.686	1:37.083
7	Grizzly Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:36.224	1:35.403	1:37.201
8	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	1:35.752	1:35.386	1:37.685
9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:36.104	1:35.715	1:37.934
10	SeaBass	STR-Ferrari	1:36.239	1:35.478	1:38.885
11	Nelson Piquet Jr	Renault	1:36.029	1:35.722
12	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:36.503	1:35.814
13	Timo Glockenspiel	Toyota	1:36.210	1:35.937
14	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:36.640	1:36.079
15	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:36.434	1:36.210
16	David Coulthard's Chin	Red Bull-Renault	1:36.731
17	Kazoo Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	1:36.863
18	Jenson Button	Honda	1:37.053
19	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	1:37.730
20	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	1:37.739

There are two penalties to be assessed.  The first is Mark Webber's 10-spot penalty for an engine change this morning (apparently quite a nice kablammo, too).  The second is a weird three-spot penalty given to BMW's Grizzly Nick Heidfeld for impeding the progress of The Chin in Q1.  The fact that he was penalized isn't weird, but the amount of grid spaces is... three?  Usually a penalty of that sort is either five or 10 spots.  Oh well, just another lovely call by the stewards.

Alas, Robert Kubica's faint championship hopes are pretty much completely gone after qualifying 12th on the grid.  He'd been having problems coming to grips with the car all day, complaining at one point that his BMW wouldn't turn under braking.  That's not good for a racecar.

Up at the top of the timesheet, the three Ferrari drivers are stacked between the McLarens, with Massa right behind Hamilton on the grid, and Kimi next to Lewis.  Considering the speed he's shown all weekend (and the threat of rain), if Hamilton gets a good start, he should run away and hide from the Ferraris.  If he doesn't, however, I fully expect to see him mauled and maimed by the end of Turn 3.

This should be a fun one... see ya Sunday!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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