Ferrari’s Felipe Massa is in a perfect position to repeat last year’s victory. He was on pole position in 2007 and went on to take the chequered flag. Kimi Raikkonen makes it an all-Ferrari front row, and if Heikki or Lewis are going to grab a win for McLaren, they will have to fight for it. Jarno Trulli qualified an excellent fifth, and Timo Glock also made the final qualifying session.
The McLaren drivers though, have been the source of complaints from Nick Heidfeld and Fernando Alonso. Something that’s cropped up this year which we haven’t seen before are these “three-minute laps” that drivers set once they’ve set their qualifying time. They cruise round at very slow speeds to save fuel, and this can pose a risk to drivers approaching at full speed. Nick and Fernando claim their final hot laps were spoiled by the slow-moving McLarens.
Heidfeld: “Before turn four I lost a lot of time because both McLarens were cruising on the racing line. I think this has cost me about two tenths of a second, which would have meant being third instead of seventh.” Footage of Heidfeld being “impeded” can be found here. Judge for yourselves. Nick also claims he couldn’t brake where he wanted to as a result of McLaren’s cruising. If McLaren are ruled to be impeding, they could both face grid penalties.
After Red Bull’s escapade in Friday practice, the stewards have decided to take no further action. Red Bull did face exclusion from the race after David Coulthard’s car fell apart due to a track rod failure, but team boss Christian Horner has called it an “isolated incident”, and after presenting their case to the race stewards, they are free to race. Good job too, as Mark Webber qualified a very handy 8th place.
1. F Massa – 1:35.748
2. K Raikkonen – 1:36.230
3. H Kovalainen – 1:36.613
4. L Hamilton – 1:36.709
5. J Trulli – 1:36.711
6. R Kubica – 1:36.727
7. N Heidfeld – 1:36.753
8. M Webber – 1:37.009
9. F Alonso – 1:38.450
10. T Glock – 1:39.656
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11. J Button – 1:35.208
12. D Coulthard – 1:35.408
13. N Piquet – 1:35.562
14. R Barrichello – 1:35.622
15. S Vettel – 1:35.648
16. N Rosberg – 1:35.670
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17. G Fisichella – 1:36.240
18. K Nakajima – 1:36.388
19. S Bourdais – 1:36.677
20. T Sato – 1:37.087
21. A Sutil – 1:37.101
22. A Davidson – 1:37.481
Filed under: Toro Presso | Tagged: f1, felipe, formula one, hamilton, heidfeld, kimi, lewis, massa, mclaren, nick, raikkonen, red bull
