Malaysian Grand Prix – Qualifying

March 18, 2006 by paul
Filed under: Uncategorized

I wonder if qualifying for Malaysia will be as eventful as it was for Bahrain last week.

Weather: air temp 37°C, track 48°C, 42% humidity.

Fastest lap time in Friday practice was Wurz’s 1:34.946 in the first practice session. (Fastest in the second session was Anthony Davidson’s 1:35.041 in his Honda.)

As noted in earlier posts, there have been pre-race engine changes for JV, GF, DC and FM.

First session:
DC 1:36.507
RS 1:35.267
Apparently RB has Davidson’s (Friday) engine, so that’s another one getting a 10 grid spot penalty. MS has also had an engine change.
KR 1:34.667
5mins left of this session: JM, NR, JV, MW, NH and FM are yet to set a time.
JM 1:34.536
First six eliminated / bottom six grid spots are: P17=SS, 18=VL, 19=CA, 20=TM, 21=TS, 22=YI. (Of course this is before all the engine-change penalties are applied.)

Second session:
DC 1:34.614
RS 1:34.586 … and then the engine goes bang, so he’ll get a penalty too!
JM 1:34.568
KR 1:34.351
MW 1:34.279
JB 1:33.527
Next six eliminated: P11=DC, 12=RB, 13=JT, 14=JV, 15=NH, 16=FM.

Third session:
RS made it through to the top 10 but doesn’t have a car with which to set a time, so he’ll be P10 … before his penalty.
MW 1:36.692
Even though the TSN commentators really annoy me (“he just posted a 1:33-something”), I have to agree that the 20 minute 3rd session is too long – the cars just tour around for the first half, so why not cut it to a 10 minute session?
Of the 10 cars in this final group, X will be receiving penalties so really it’s down to just JB, MW to battle for pole.
6mins left: JB 1:34.504
Everyone’s pitting for new tyres; time to put in some real lap times at last
3mins left: JB still P1 with 1:34.504
Chequered flag’s out … and GF steals P1 with 1:33.840
Top 10: GF, JB, NR, MS, MW, JM, KR, FA, CK, RS.

JB had the fastest time of all three sessions – 1:33.527 in the 2nd session.

So the pre-penalty grid is: GF, JB, NR, MS, MW, JM, KR, FA, CK, RS, DC, RB, JT, JV, NH, FM, SS, VL, CA, TM, TS, YI.