Rediscover Formula One : Formula One News, Views and Reviews

Ok, so Ferrari proved they are still a force to reckon with in F1, With Schumi and Massa making it a ferrari 1-2. Kimi had a disastrous start when apparently the suspension of his car broke and he crashed. Mclaren was unable to repair his car in time hence he missed the 15 minutes - 1st qualifying.

The new qualifying rules are exciting and make for a better watch than earlier rules. The only bad thing i thought was that the drivers who had been eliminated earlier will be allowed to have as much fuel on board as possible, but the drivers who qualified for the final session would have to make do with the fuel with which they started the last session.

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Post Qualifying Confrence

Q.Welcome back Michael, your first pole since Hungary ’05.
Michael Schumacher

Micheal Schumacher: " Yeah, I’ve had to wait a long time to get back up here. Hard work in the meantime, an amazing result. All winter we knew that we seemed to have a good package but then you wait, very strongly for the final confirmation and here and now we have the confirmation for all the hard work. Every engineer, every mechanic has been giving everything to put us back up here and it’s the best way to pay back all our guys. There’s such a great feeling and emotion. It’s been too long ago, too long time ago."

Mclaren.com

Juan Pablo Montoya: "I think we did a good job with the new format, and it ran very smoothly for me. I am a little surprised to finish so far up as we had not been looking good in the earlier sessions when I have been suffering from understeer, but that is what the car could do when it counted. I think we have a good strategy for the race, so we will have to wait and see what will happen tomorrow."

Kimi Raikkonen: "There is not much I can say about today. It is very disappointing to not even complete one timed lap as I believe that the team had a good strategy for the new qualifying system, and I could have been amongst the quickest. Although it is far from ideal to start from the back of the grid, there are overtaking opportunities at this track, and I have done this before and still achieved good results. We will just have to see what happens in the race tomorrow."

Toyota

Ralf Schumacher :"It is obviously very disappointing that we just missed out on making it through Session 1 today. I was just starting a flying lap when the red flags came out. Then, when everyone went out for their quick laps I was at the back of the pack. I just lost the temperature in the tyres and I couldn't warm up the tyre again before my lap. That meant that I was sliding around for most of the lap and I was not particularly surprised that I didn't make it through to the other sessions. A disappointing day, then, that confirms that we have hard work ahead to force our way up the grid. But it is very early in the season and the full picture of relative performance will only emerge after the first few races."

All is set for the race tomorrow, lets hope that the start to the F1 season is exciting.

Rumorville --
Renault was on a heavier fuel load, and hence couldn't qualify as fast as Ferrari.