Rain luck puts Ralf on pole
Ralf Scumacher will be on pole for tomorrow's Japanese Grand Prix. The German was the quickest of all on changing weather conditions and was lucky that rain started coming down again after his run. Jenson Button will join him on the front row, followed by Giancarlo Fisichella.
When the session began, the track was still very wet from earlier rain but while the sky was still cloudy, no more water fell out of it. The first man on track quite unexpectedly put in a very good lap. David Coulthard, first on track after his starting collision with Pizzonia and Webber in Brazil certainly faced a hard task as the track would dry up as others drivers would put in their flying lap.
The Scot's time remained the fastest for quite some time. Some drivers attempted to run that fast so that they ruined their chances in the race. First there was Pizzonia who missed turn 9 even in his out-lap. He spun but was able to rejoin. Others were less lucky as both Monteiro and Trulli got stuck in the gravel trap in that same corner and will have to start somewhere in the back of the grid. Both of these drivers have rarely made mistakes during qualifying this year but got tricked by the weather this time.
Mark Webber came closest to Coulthard's time as he was 0.6 seconds ahead after the first sector but lost it all in the next two, needing 0.4 seconds more for his lap than Coulthard. Webber is followed by Jacques Villenuve who again beat his teammate Massa. The Canadian seems to be doing a lot better than in the first half of the season but he is however not satisfied by his car's balance yet.
When Takuma Sato was on the roll, all the stands coloured white and red as they saw their countryman set a fastest lap time, merely 0.051s faster than David Coulthard's time. His joy was to be short however as Christian Klien immediately bettered the Japanese's pace. Then Jenson Button and Ralf Schumacher appeared to be quicker also while both Ferraris were vastly slower then expected. It is unclear whether is is a tyre issue but Barrichello and M. Schumacher only managed to sign for 9th and 14th positions respectively. Two weeks ago Michael was saying Brazil would be tough while Japan and China could be better. It may well be the opposite considering his performance today.
With then only both Renaults and the McLarens to come, rain started to fall out of the sky again. Giancarlo Fisichella quickly departed from the pitlane, rushed to the start finish line and was able to consolidate a third place on tomorrow's grid. While it rained, the track was still in relatively good conditions but it is not unthinkable that the Roman would have been faster than Ralf if it had not been for the weather.
The same is valid for the next three drivers: Fernando Alonso still drove as fast as he could but the track was quickly becoming slower. The new world champion will start aside of Robert Doornbos in 16th place. It's been a long time for him to be that far back as he faces a difficult task for the race. Kimi Raikkonen then drove coutiously though his lap, 8 seconds slower than Alonso. The Finn's time wasn't really much of any importance as he will be put back 10 places because of an engine change on friday.
Last out was Juan Pablo Montoya who didn't even bother anymore to drive through the rain and came in again after his out-lap, resulting in a "no time" classification for the Columbian.
The grid is something totally different to what we have been used to see the last few races with McLaren's at the back of the grid and a Toyota on pole position. With Fisichella in third place however it looks set to be a promising race as Renault and McLaren as still fighting for the Constructors' World Championship.
Results are as follows:
1 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:46.106
2 J. Button BAR 1:46.141
3 G. Fisichella Renault 1:46.276
4 C. Klien Red Bull 1:46.464
5 T. Sato BAR 1:46.841
6 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:46.892
7 M. Webber Williams 1:47.233
8 J. Villeneuve Sauber 1:47.440
9 R. Barrichello Ferrari 1:48.248
10 F. Massa Sauber 1:48.278
11 N. Karthikeyan Jordan 1:48.718
12 A. Pizzonia Williams 1:48.898
13 C. Albers Minardi 1:50.843
14 M. Schumacher Ferrari 1:52.676
15 R. Doornbos Minardi 1:52.894
16 F. Alonso Renault 1:54.667
17 K. Räikkönen McLaren 2:02.309
18 T. Monteiro Jordan no time
19 J. Trulli Toyota no time
20 JP. Montoya McLaren no time
