| Bahrain GP Qualifying Web Report |
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| 11.03.2006 |
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Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher will start the inaugural race of the new
Formula 1 season from 14th and 17th positions on the grid in Bahrain, after the
first experience of Grand Prix racing’s new qualifying system.
Gone is single-car qualifying, replaced by a new format that sees the slowest
six cars eliminated after 15 minutes, then the next six slowest removed after
another 15 minutes, leaving the quickest 10 to fight a shoot-out for the premier
grid positions. Ralf unfortunately found himself caught out by a red flag following
an accident to Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren in the very first session. It meant
that he was unable to get through to the later stages of qualifying. The timing
of Raikkonen’s incident meant that the field were all left with effectively
one lap to set a quick time, all at the same time, and finding a clear circuit
became a lottery.
“When the red flag came out to stop the session
after Kimi’s incident, I was about to start my lap,” Ralf said, “so
by the time I returned to the pits I found myself at the back of the pack. I then
found that I could not go quickly enough to generate enough tyre temperature because
of the traffic and so when I started my hot lap the car was still sliding. In
the circumstances I was not really surprised that I didn’t get through.
We were unlucky.”
Ralf’s 1m 34.702s lap missed out on the next session by 0.27s. Team mate
Trulli, meanwhile, lapped in 1m 33.066s in session two, which was slightly slower
than the Italian managed in Saturday morning free practice.
“The
new qualifying system is different but it doesn’t change all that much for
us,” he explained. “You still have to put in a quick lap without making
a mistake but you also have the traffic to cope with. I think we still have some
more work to do as a team, but with high winds and quite a dusty surface the track
was getting quicker and quicker as qualifying progressed. The timing of your lap
became quite important.”
The honour of taking the first pole position under the new system fell to seven-time
world champion Michael Schumacher, with a lap in 1m 31.431s, just 0.04s quicker
than new Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team mate Felipe Massa. It was the German ace’s
65th career pole, equalling the all-time record of late, great Brazilian Ayrton
Senna. Jenson Button (1m 31.549s) was third quickest for Lucky Strike Honda Racing
F1 Team, ahead of reigning champion Fernando Alonso’s Mild Seven Renault
(1m 31.702s), Juan Pablo Montoya’s Team McLaren Mercedes (1m 32.164s) and
Rubens Barrichello (1m 32.579s) in the second Honda. Toyota’s Technical
Director Chassis, Mike Gascoyne, said: “Performance-wise we looked stronger
in morning practice and so it was disappointing when Ralf got caught up in traffic
after Raikkonen’s incident. We expected that Jarno would make it into the
top 10 but with the track getting quicker we did not seem able to improve our
performance level as much as some of our rivals, which we will need to investigate.”
The new 2006 rules allow those teams that qualify outside the top 10 to have freedom
of race strategy in terms of fuel load, whereas those in the top 10 positions
are only permitted to replace the fuel used in the final session.
“That,”
Gascoyne added, “allows us to have a good think about the best method of
trying to ensure that we get both cars home in the points in tomorrow’s
race.” |
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| 1 |
M. Schumacher
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Ferrari |
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| 2 |
F. Massa
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Ferrari |
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| 3 |
J. Button
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Honda |
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| 4 |
F. Alonso
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Renault |
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| 5 |
J. Montoya
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McLaren |
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| 6 |
R. Barrichello
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Honda |
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| 7 |
M. Webber
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Williams |
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| 8 |
C. Klien
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Red Bull |
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more.. |
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