F1: Qualy Report: Massa grabs Malaysian pole

[Rory Phoulorie]

Saturday 7th April 2007

A last gasp effort from Felipe Massa saw the Brazilian claim pole position for Sunday's Malaysian GP.

The resurgent Ferrari driver, who dominated Friday's practice at Sepang, was one of the favourites to claim the coveted grid slot, and a flying lap in the dying seconds of qualifying on Saturday saw him do just that.

Massa clocked a 1:35.043 to beat Fernando Alonso to pole position, with the McLaren falling 0.267s short of the mark.

Kimi Raikkonen, meanwhile, will start the race from third place, having escaped the threat of an engine grid-slot penalty.

A disappointed Lewis Hamilton, who was left shaking his head after qualifying, put his car into fourth place ahead of BMW's Nick Heidfeld and Williams' Nico Rosberg.


Qualifying Report

The all-important ambient temperature in Sepang was at 34C with the track touching on 49C as Qualifying got underway. It was a session that was marked by nerves - not from the drivers, but from the teams anxious not to get caught out by a sudden Malaysian shower.

Christian Albers led the cars out. The Spykers looked destined for P.21 and P.22 thanks to their absence from testing here last week. The Toyotas followed right behind with Jarno Trulli setting a slower lap than the Belgian before going on for another lap to jump ahead of him and team-mate Ralf Schumacher.

Nico Rosberg set the first sub 1:37 lap with a 1:36.286, bettered by Tonio Liuzzi to a 1:36.282. Kimi Raikkonen, showing no sign of any engine woes post-Melbourne, eased past with a 1:35.138.

Lewis Hamilton showed the strength of the McLaren by taking P1 with a 1:35.028, a time that Felipe Massa could not better. Hamilton had been fastest in final practice this morning to continue his impressive start to the season.

A Brit not doing so well was Jenson Button who was fourth slowest after the first runs but even he was finding more speed in the car than the seriously demotivated Rubens Barrichello. Rather than wait till the end of the session Jenson went straight out again and set a 1:35.913 for a temporary P6 - some result in that car.

With three and a half minutes left to run the positions at the ugly end of the timesheets were:

13. Speed

14. Davidson

15. Ralf Schumacher

16. Wurz

17. Sato

18. Albers

19. Sutil

20. Barrichello

21. Heidfeld - no time

22. Kubica - no time


Considering the jumpiness about rain, the BMW team were playing it cool by sending their drivers out late. Messrs Kubica and Heidfeld jumped into 4th and 5th places with two minutes left on the clock and could sit back.

Ralf Schumacher improved to P8, but the big shock with only five seconds left on the official timing was that the two Renaults had slumped to 15th and 16th places.

Alex Wurz, who had been a second slower than Nico Rosberg on his first timed run, was then seen touring round the track with a bag of neutrals and he wouldn't be progressing to Session 2. Rubens Barrichello's Honda was not picking up any kind of pace and so he was resigned to starting near the back.

With both Renaults improving it was down to Anthony Davidson to escape the bottom six in his Super Aguri. Unfortunately he came up behind Tonio Liuzzi on his outlap who didn't or wouldn't move over.

After the Felipe Massa farce at Monza last year stewards will only now rule if the blocking is intentional, so let this be a lesson for the future - work the gaps and get your man out in clear air.


The bottom six ended up as

17. Scott Speed

18. Davidson

19. Barrichello

20. Wurz

21. Albers

22. Sutil


Takuma Sato was the last escapee in P.16.


Session 2

It was clear that something was 'up' before Session 2 even started because Fernando Alonso was at the bottom of the pitlane queueing in his McLaren, waiting for the red light to change. We've seen it before in Session 3, but never in Session 2.

That something had to be rain, all the teams flooded out onto the track to get an early run before even the slightest of showers could put them at a disadvantage. Typically it was the BMW team who got Robert Kubica out last.

With 12.44 left all 16 cars were out on track and almost all of them were on the softer Bridgestone.

Alonso set the benchmark time with a 1:34.052, Lewis Hamilton took P2, Raikkonen P3 in what was turning into a McLaren versus Ferrari duel. Then Felipe Massa went P2 to restore some balance.

With everyone going out early, there was a rare silent pause in the middle of the session while everyone analysed data and realised that, actually, it wasn't going to rain.


With three minutes left the back of the grid was:

7. Trulli

8. Rosberg

9. Schumacher

10. Kovalainen

11. Webber

12. Fisichella

13. Coulthard

14. Sato

15. Liuzzi

16. Button


The top five cars all had times in the 1:34 and didn't have to go out again, but the Renaults were clearly worried.

Nico Rosberg went out and improved his time but stayed P8. Trulli took P6 off Heidfeld and then Heidfeld took it back again, but it was Mark Webber jumping up to P9 in the Red Bull that set the fur flying. Because it meant that BOTH Renaults were in danger of dropping out of the final qualifying session, something that had never happened before.

Try as he might Giancarlo Fisichella could do no better than 12th and though Heiki Kovalainen was one place better than his more experienced team-mate it was a sorry performance for the team that had finished fastest in Sepang testing only a week earlier.


Out went:

11. Kovalainen

12. Fisichella

13. Coulthard

14. Sato

15. Button

16. Liuzzi


Session 3

At the start of the final session Lewis Hamilton lined up first in the pitlane but was soon overtaken by team-mate Fernando Alonso who set off at a blistering pace. Though the ITV commentators attributed Alonso's haste to a bit of intra-team fun and games, they hadn't seen the rain falling beyond the circuit just over a mile away.

Ferrari had, and so on the opening lap, Alonso, Raikkonen and Massa all put in very strong times. Massa's was so good that when he went for his first 'official' qualifying run it wasn't as quick.

Nico Rosberg was the first to go for a quick time on new tyres, but such was the earlier pace of the front-runners that it was only good enough for P6. Mark Webber took the Red Bull up to P4 before the Ferrari vs McLaren roadshow got going.

Alonso took provisional pole with a 1:35.682, Massa kept P2 with his earlier time, while Raikkonen took P3 with a 1:36.301 and Hamilton P4 in 1:36.495. The BMWs were now in their familiar P5 and P6 slot.

Nico Rosberg went faster and ultimately separated Heidfeld from Kubica with a titanic lap to grab P5 and while Nick could go faster to reclaim it and demote Rosberg down to P6, Kubica chose to accept P7.

However we had one more instalment of the Ferrai vs McLaren show to come with all four cars lapping within sight of each other.

This time it was Kimi Raikkonen who took pole, followed by Fernando Alonso who took pole back, Lewis Hamiton didn't improve and stayed P4 and then Felipe Massa, with the best lap of the weekend, racked up three purple (fastest) sectors to grab pole.

With Massa and Alonso clearly faster than their team-mates, it looked like both teams had split their strategy - one with more fuel, one with less. Hamilton said no, he'd made an error on his lap, but such is his learning curve that you can't help thinking that was a ruse. Only the race will tell.

It should be quite a race down to Turn 1 when the lights go out tomorrow.

FH


Times


01 F. Massa Ferrari 1:35.043
02 F. Alonso McLaren 1:35.310
03 K. R�ikk�nen Ferrari 1:35.479
04 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:36.045
05 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:36.543
06 N. Rosberg Williams 1:36.829
07 R. Kubica BMW 1:36.896
08 J. Trulli Toyota 1:36.902
09 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:37.078
10 M. Webber Red Bull 1:37.345
11 H. Kovalainen Renault 1:35.630
12 G. Fisichella Renault 1:35.706
13 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:35.766
14 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:35.945
15 J. Button Honda 1:36.088
16 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:36.145
17 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:36.578
18 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:36.816
19 R. Barrichello Honda 1:36.827
20 A. Wurz Williams 1:37.326
21 C. Albers Spyker F1 1:38.279
22 A. Sutil Spyker F1 1:38.415


http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3213_2043341,00.html