Shanghai 2008: Hamilton Takes Pole In Penultimate Race

Shanghai 2008: Hamilton Takes Pole In Penultimate Race

Lewis Hamilton has again stormed to pole position, this time at the Shanghai circuit in China. Beating both Ferraris to the top position, the McLaren driver was fastest in all three qualifying sessions. Kimi Raikkonen will line up alongside the Briton on the front row, just as he did last weekend in Japan. In third is championship rival Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso placed his Renault in fourth. Heikki Kovalainen will start in fifth after a disappointing run in the final stint.

Q1

It was a McLaren one-two in the first stage of qualifying, Hamilton leading his team mate Kovalainen at the top of the timing sheet. The Ferraris appeared to be off-colour, with both Massa and Raikkonen 0.4s off the pace of the McLaren. There were no particularly big dramas in Q1, although David Coulthard felt that Nick Heidfeld had baulked him before entering the pitlane. As a result, Coulthard had some strong words to say about his BMW rival and the Scot failed to get into Q2.

Other drivers to miss the cut were both recently retained Force India drivers, Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil. Fisichella will start at the back with his team mate alongside in nineteenth. Jenson Button also continued his disappointing year with eighteenth, although his team mate Rubens Barrichello managed to haul himself into Q2. Kazuki Nakajima couldn’t improve his time on his final run and stayed in seventeenth while Coulthard languishes in sixteenth.

Q2

Part two of qualifying was much the same, with Lewis Hamilton going fastest and once again 0.4s ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. However, the Ferrari of Felipe Massa was looking a little stronger and the Brazilian managed to close the margin to just 0.2s. Fernando Alonso was once again in the mix and Kovalainen ran well, indicating a possible front-row lockout by the McLaren team.

Those failing to get any further in qualifying were the second Williams of Nico Rosberg, Rubens Barrichello (who will start fourteenth) and Timo Glock in the Toyota. Perhaps surprisingly Robert Kubica did not get any further either, the Polish driver struggling and only getting as far as twelfth. Nelson Piquet Jr did relatively well to get into eleventh, although compared to his team mate the rookie Renault driver is still off the pace. In Q2, Piquet Jr was over 0.3s shy of Fernando Alonso.

Q3

As with Japan, not all the drivers went out early and Lewis Hamilton didn’t leave his garage until a minute had passed. However, with only ten minutes to complete all the runs, it wasn’t long before the track saw some action. Impressively, both Scuderia Toro Rossos represented Red Bull in the most important stage of qualifying again, and Mark Webber was also in the top ten. From the start it was clear that Ferrari had hidden some of their pace, or had made some changes and found their groove. Either way, both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen suddenly looked much stronger and more challenging to McLaren.

Conversely, Heikki Kovalainen seemed to slip down in pace and the Finnish driver eventually ended his day in fifth. With both Ferraris ahead of him, there isn’t much Kovalainen can do to assist his team mate in the fight for the title. Mark Webber qualified sixth, which is actually pretty good for the Red Bull car. However, Webber’s engine expired dramatically during Free Practice Three and the team were forced to replace it. Therefore, Webber will receive a ten grid slot penalty and will start tomorrow’s race in sixteenth, just behind his team mate.

Nick Heidfeld did an okay job for BMW and got himself in seventh, although despite the team saying they will push for the titles, the evidence thus far doesn’t look too promising. Sebastian Vettel lines up in eighth, ahead of Jarno Trulli and team mate Sebastien Bourdais. When the final laps were sung out, it was the Ferraris who looked unbeatable until Hamilton set a quite stunning middle sector and clinched pole by 0.3s.

The drivers championship could be won and lost tomorrow, but with both Ferrari and McLaren looking as strong as each other, it is likely to go on until the final race of the year in Brazil. Lewis Hamilton will be desperate to win and give himself a margin over Felipe Massa, but if the Briton performs like he did in Japan, it could all be over by lap two. Needless to say, the Chinese Grand Prix is going to be interesting and despite a slow start to the weekend for BlogF1, we’ll be there bright and early on Sunday morning.

14 comments

  • Hi Oliver yes this time he stormed the pole! Great effort, amazing performance… and again the same question what do they have in their tanks?

    I foresee a stunning start and I hope nobody will do anything wrong… With Kimi on his side and Fernando and Felipe in his back that might be hot for Lewis… Same for Massa with Fernando on his side and Heikki in his back that is not going to be easy either.

  • I predict …

    (a) … that Kimi will over shot the first corner, blocking Lewis, Massa, protected by the Ferrari Improvement Association will glide into the lead and Alonso will smash into the back of Lewis, knocking him out of the race!

    (b) … Lewis will make a clean start but stewards to give him ten second stop go for driving wrong coloured car (not red)!

    (c) … Stewards will announce new ruling that says no overtaking and Lewis is to start from back of grid!

    (d) … (the most unlikely option) stewards will not interfere and we’ll have a great race!

    I think Bernie has said that stewards are to insure championship should go to last race. Or am I being too synical?

    Lewis did a brilliant job today, lets hope there is no more red mist and all the drivers show why they drive F1 cars.

  • As nobody seems to have noticed I am going to ask a question:

    Did anything surprised you on one of the 2 Ferrari this morning during quali?

    It is something big, impossible to miss. Well… in principle πŸ˜‰

    If there is no good answer within 30mn I’ll come back and tell you πŸ˜‰ I guess that with such a question sombody will find… Let’s wait and see πŸ˜‰

  • Well you might have noticed it, or not, but Kimi Raikkonen has no shark fin cover on his Ferrari… and Massa has kept his’s…

    I have not seen many people mentioning it.. including the “experts”… Is it that insignificant? irrelevant???

  • My apologies to Johnny and Ago. Johnny’s comment went to moderation and I wasn’t paying attention. I can confirm though – as the time does on the comment – that Johnny got the answer before Ago revealed the answer.

    Here’s a couple of pictures from qualifying:

    Good spot, Ago! πŸ™‚

  • No problem Olivier,

    Yes Johnny: the finn is not running the fin! πŸ˜‰

    What does this means??? Any clue guys?

  • the finn is not running the fin!

    You’re on fire tonight, Ago! πŸ˜†

    I can only presume that, as the fin stabilises the car into and through the corners, that Kimi simply prefers not to have it at Shanghai. Kimi ran the fin on Friday, so perhaps he realised that his driving style means he would be better without it. Just a pure guess, of course – I’m as much in the dark as you!

    Hehe, either that or Mosley’s cost-saving plans are already coming into effect! πŸ˜‰

  • Perhaps the fin is a costly item and as Kimi plans on hurtling into Lewis at the first corner, the team want to minimise the cost of broken parts?

    Only joking of course! πŸ˜‰

  • the team want to minimise the cost of broken parts

    Hehe! If that’s the case then why haven’t Red Bull given Coulthard a stripped down car then? πŸ˜‰

    For those who don’t know, I’m pushing my luck with that comment!

  • The Fin helps the air flow during cornering, perhaps Kimi isn`t planning on Him and Lewis going around many corners.

  • No worries Oliver =) Ferrari probably had the intention of running the fins this weekend. But given’s Ferrari’s struggle at China, and their desperation in finding a good setup, they could be just putting their eggs in different baskets.

  • Ollie – that’s right. Kimi likes the car with oversteer and the fin will make the back end work a little better ie induce more understeer. That kimi has dropped it and that the Maccas opt not to have it suggests the benefit is marginal at best

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