Japanese Grand Prix – Qualifying

October 7, 2006 by paul
Filed under: Uncategorized

Just one week after the Chinese Grand Prix comes Japan and the distinctive Suzuka circuit with it’s cross-over layout.

When I opened my blog site the random photo was of a McLaren but I don’t think that’s an omen – sorry Kimi

TSN is covering some Canadian/American football game that’s running late, so we join qualifying late – there’s about five and a half minutes of the first session left by the time they finish running their advert/intro thing.

The weather is dry but windy – track temperature 32°C, air temp 24°C, humidity 49%

Qualifying session 1 (Q1):
M.Schumacher 1:31.279 (He set the fastest time in Saturday practice with 1:30.6)
Massa 1:30.112
3mins left; bottom 6 are Monteiro, Trulli, Sato, De la Rosa, Fisichella & Yamamoto
Trulli puts his Toyota in P2!
Chequered flag out
Webber moves from P17 to P10, bumping DC into the bottom 6
Bottom 6 are: P17=Coulthard, 18=Dornboos, 19=Speed, 20=Sato, 21=Monteiro, 22=Yamamoto
Yamamoto gets to walk back to the pits after spinning during his “hot” lap

Qualifying session 2 (Q2):
Liuzzi 1:33.755
Trulli 1:30.204
RS puts the other Toyota on the front row at Honda’s home circuit
MS 1:28.954 – that’s 1.2s faster than Trulli, and the best time in Q1
5mins left; bottom 6 are Barrichello, Kubica, Webber, de la Rosa, Liuzzi & Albers
3mins left; bottom 6 are unchanged
The TSN commentators are getting dumber, if that’s possible – there’s more than 2mins left and they’re saying the bottom 6 drivers must have resigned themselves to being knocked out because they’re not on track … but it only takes ~1min40s to get round, so there’s time enough to start their hot lap before the chequered flag comes out – d’oh!
1min left – bottom 6 unchanged
Chequered flag falls
Button goes to P4
Barrichello takes P10 from Raikkonen
Bottom 6 are: P11=Raikkonen, 12=Kubica, 13=de la Rosa, 14=Webber, 15=Liuzzi, 16=Albers

Qualifying session 3 (Q3):
Fighting for the top spots are M.Schumacher, Massa, Trulli, Button, R.Schumacher, Fisichella, Rosberg, Alonso, Heidfeld & Barrichello
MS & FM line up first at the pit exit, ahead of the Renaults
Heading towards the start of their first hot lap, Massa has let MS pull away and is holding up Alonso – will their be a blocking penalty for the Ferrari?
MS 1:32.729
TSN blatherers (sorry, commentators) are wittering away over Alonso’s pit-car radio call, which I’m sure will be complaints about FM
Oh, and again – what is wrong with this idiots? Clearly they don’t understand the sport
MS 1:32.055
Maybe I’ll watch qualifying for the final race (in Brazil) on Speed – their commentators are annoying too, but TSN has hit an all-time low
Trulli 1:30.916
MS 1:30.245
(FA takes P3)
3.5mins left – final pit stops
Renault release FA from the pit box fractionally ahead of FM
JT seems to struggle to leave the pits but gets going OK
2mins left; order is MS, FM, JT, GF, RS, FA, RB, NH
1min left; looks like MS is set to improve on his provisional pole time
MS 1:29.711
Chequered flag comes out
FA goes P3
FM takes pP1 with 1:29.599 – whoops … or is that deliberate, expecting him to be penalised for blocking Alonso?
JT takes P4 from FA
Final order: pP1=Massa, 2=M.Schumacher, 3=R.Schumacher, 4=Trulli, 5=Alonso, 6=Fisichella, 7=Button, 8=Barrichello, 9=Heidfeld, 10=Rosberg

Provisional Grid:
1=FM, 2=MS, 3=RS, 4=JT, 5=FA, 6=GF, 7=JB, 8=RB, 9=NH, 10=NR, 11=KR, 12=RK, 13=MW, 14=PdlR, 15=VL, 16=CA, 17=DC, 18=RD, 19=SS, 20=TS, 21=TM, 22=SY