Abu Dhabi GP - No light in the dark
Yas Marina, 31 October 2009
There was no light in the dark skies over the floodlit track for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro in today’s final qualifying session of the season: Kimi Raikkonen only got as far as Q2 and will start from eleventh place on the grid on row 6 and Giancarlo Fisichella was left stranded in Q1, setting the slowest time and lines up at the back of the grid. Trying to look on the bright side, Kimi at least said eleventh was better than tenth in that he will start tomorrow evening’s race from the clean side of the track. Being outside the top ten also means a driver can choose his fuel load to best suit his strategy, rather than start with the weight in the car at the end of Q3.
Tyres have been one of the main talking points this season and again today, they played their part in qualifying. Usually, the softer of the two types of tyre that Bridgestone bring to each race is the ideal choice for qualifying, offering better performance over the first flying lap. However, here in Abu Dhabi, not only did the harder tyre seem to be quicker, but both types of tyre were not usually at their best on that first lap, needing to go longer to be at their optimum.
It’s been something of a Maranello Mantra since it became clear that two teams were dominating the field, that third place in the Constructors’ Championship was the target for this season. At the last race, Ferrari has slipped down to fourth, one point behind McLaren-Mercedes. The job of overtaking the Anglo-German team got considerably harder this evening, as their driver Lewis Hamilton, who has been on sparkling form all weekend, took a convincing pole position, although Kovalainen is down in thirteenth spot. Alongside the reigning world champion on the front row of the grid will be Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull, with team-mate Mark Webber third. Then come the two Championship winning Brawns, with Rubens Barrichello fourth ahead of Jenson Button, who shares the third row with the Toyota of Jarno Trulli.
For both our drivers and the crew in the garage, it will be an emotional end to what has been a very difficult season: Kimi is leaving and Giancarlo Fisichella takes up his new position as third driver for the Scuderia. The team’s 2010 drivers are both here of course, Fernando Alonso starting from sixteenth in the Renault and Felipe Massa watching from the sidelines.
There was no light in the dark skies over the floodlit track for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro in today’s final qualifying session of the season: Kimi Raikkonen only got as far as Q2 and will start from eleventh place on the grid on row 6 and Giancarlo Fisichella was left stranded in Q1, setting the slowest time and lines up at the back of the grid. Trying to look on the bright side, Kimi at least said eleventh was better than tenth in that he will start tomorrow evening’s race from the clean side of the track. Being outside the top ten also means a driver can choose his fuel load to best suit his strategy, rather than start with the weight in the car at the end of Q3.
Tyres have been one of the main talking points this season and again today, they played their part in qualifying. Usually, the softer of the two types of tyre that Bridgestone bring to each race is the ideal choice for qualifying, offering better performance over the first flying lap. However, here in Abu Dhabi, not only did the harder tyre seem to be quicker, but both types of tyre were not usually at their best on that first lap, needing to go longer to be at their optimum.
It’s been something of a Maranello Mantra since it became clear that two teams were dominating the field, that third place in the Constructors’ Championship was the target for this season. At the last race, Ferrari has slipped down to fourth, one point behind McLaren-Mercedes. The job of overtaking the Anglo-German team got considerably harder this evening, as their driver Lewis Hamilton, who has been on sparkling form all weekend, took a convincing pole position, although Kovalainen is down in thirteenth spot. Alongside the reigning world champion on the front row of the grid will be Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull, with team-mate Mark Webber third. Then come the two Championship winning Brawns, with Rubens Barrichello fourth ahead of Jenson Button, who shares the third row with the Toyota of Jarno Trulli.
For both our drivers and the crew in the garage, it will be an emotional end to what has been a very difficult season: Kimi is leaving and Giancarlo Fisichella takes up his new position as third driver for the Scuderia. The team’s 2010 drivers are both here of course, Fernando Alonso starting from sixteenth in the Renault and Felipe Massa watching from the sidelines.
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