Australian GP - Mixed fortunes in Melbourne
Melbourne, 17th March 2007
If you know that fifteen places separate the two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers on the grid for tomorrow's curtain-raising Australian Grand Prix, then you also know that something went wrong with the team's assault on qualifying this afternoon. To deal with the negative side first, Felipe Massa will start the first of this year's races from sixteenth place on the eighth row of the grid, after a gearbox problem saw the Brazilian fail to complete the second part of qualifying. But the good news also has an historic element as it sees Kimi Raikkonen take his first ever pole position for Ferrari in his debut event for the team.
Our Finnish driver shares the front row with the reigning world champion, Fernando Alonso, who has of course taken the coveted "Number 1" to McLaren-Mercedes. With Nick Heidfeld third for BMW, reigning GP2 champion Lewis Hamilton an impressive fourth on his F1 debut with McLaren-Mercedes, Robert Kubica fifth for BMW with Giancarlo Fisichella completing the front three rows for Renault, these positions were a very accurate reflection of the pecking order seen throughout winter pre-season testing. There were a few surprises however, starting with the inside of row four where we find Mark Webber in seventh spot for Red Bull Racing, despite the fact the car was one of the last to be ready and had struggled a bit in testing. Most surprising though was the performance of the Super Aguri team, who were the undoubted tail-enders last year and have run consistently well all this weekend to end up with Takuma Sato tenth and Anthony Davidson eleventh.
Tomorrow will be the first race to see all cars running on Bridgestone since 2000. However, there is still an element of choice involved as each driver must at some point use his second choice of tyre during the race. Within Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, we might see Kimi and Felipe adopting different tyre strategies given the gap between them on the grid. The Scuderia's hoped for scenario for tomorrow afternoon in Albert Park is very straightforward: Raikkonen to have a straightforward race from the front, with Massa fighting through the field.
If you know that fifteen places separate the two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers on the grid for tomorrow's curtain-raising Australian Grand Prix, then you also know that something went wrong with the team's assault on qualifying this afternoon. To deal with the negative side first, Felipe Massa will start the first of this year's races from sixteenth place on the eighth row of the grid, after a gearbox problem saw the Brazilian fail to complete the second part of qualifying. But the good news also has an historic element as it sees Kimi Raikkonen take his first ever pole position for Ferrari in his debut event for the team.
Our Finnish driver shares the front row with the reigning world champion, Fernando Alonso, who has of course taken the coveted "Number 1" to McLaren-Mercedes. With Nick Heidfeld third for BMW, reigning GP2 champion Lewis Hamilton an impressive fourth on his F1 debut with McLaren-Mercedes, Robert Kubica fifth for BMW with Giancarlo Fisichella completing the front three rows for Renault, these positions were a very accurate reflection of the pecking order seen throughout winter pre-season testing. There were a few surprises however, starting with the inside of row four where we find Mark Webber in seventh spot for Red Bull Racing, despite the fact the car was one of the last to be ready and had struggled a bit in testing. Most surprising though was the performance of the Super Aguri team, who were the undoubted tail-enders last year and have run consistently well all this weekend to end up with Takuma Sato tenth and Anthony Davidson eleventh.
Tomorrow will be the first race to see all cars running on Bridgestone since 2000. However, there is still an element of choice involved as each driver must at some point use his second choice of tyre during the race. Within Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, we might see Kimi and Felipe adopting different tyre strategies given the gap between them on the grid. The Scuderia's hoped for scenario for tomorrow afternoon in Albert Park is very straightforward: Raikkonen to have a straightforward race from the front, with Massa fighting through the field.
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