Ferrari front row as Schumacher grabs pole
In a very sensational qualifying session, Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa proved that Ferrari is back in there. While the other Bridgestone teams are left suffering, Ferrari showed its pace on a sandy Bahrain track. Jenson Button is in third place, ahead of world champion Alonso and McLaren driver Montoya. Alonso did not seem very happy with his run and certainly hoped for more after the good winter testing pace.
The qualifying system is new, completely changed but therefore also very complicated. As a result, Charlie Whiting held a briefing for the teams and press to inform them about the new system. While it is complicated, the first session proved to be spectacular and fer more interesting to watch that the one-lap system that was there in previous years. Obviously interesting, lots of cars are on track the same time which makes it difficult to follow progress from time to time.
Not afraid from these things, Yuji Ide started his run as a first qualifier of 2006 but even before the start was quite sure of a position on the back row. Soon lots of cars were on track, amongst them Heidfeld, Liuzzi, both Midland cars and several others. Tonio Liuzzi quickly proved that the V10 still has n advantage over the new 8's. As Heidfeld put in the fastest time in front of Liuzzi and Barrichello, Raikkonen suffered a suspension failure on the right rear wheel, causing the session to be red flagged with 4:34 to go. As Kimi did not set a timed lap at that time and reparation in 4 minutes was impossible, Raikkonen wil start 2006 from the back of the grid.
Once the session relaunched, nearly all cars came out with Fernando Alonso setting the fastest time in front of Button and Fisichella. Of course these times are of almost no importance as they al get scraced before he second session. After session one therefore, the most important fallouts are Ralf Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen.
Klien quickly took the lead of the times in Q2 as boh Red Bull cars came out as son as the session started. With 7 minutes to go only half of the cars that are allowed to drive had driven. Villeneuve and Heidfeld put theselves in 2nd and 3rd place. Just two minutes later, Montoya sliced seven tenths off Klien's time while Michael Schumacher was 0.1s slower than the Columbian. Meanwhile Heidfeld is having a pitstop as engineers fit his BMW Sauber with new tyres in order to improve on his time and be sure to be with the last 10.
As in Q1, both Renaults came out very late in the Q2 session, giving their drivers only one chance to put in a good time, while others drive several laps to be sure of a good time. With Barrichello recording the 10th time, Jacques Villeneuve falls out for the superpole (Q3), together with Rosberg, Coulthard, Trulli, Liuzzi, Speed.
Contrary to both previous sesions, the remaining ten cars drive wih the same amount of fuel with which they are to start the race. All used fuel during the runs may be refuelled in between qualifying and race. While previous qualifyings were more like a one hot lap system for teams like Ferrari and Renault, he last session proved to be a minirace. All cars were imediately on track and drove several laps one after another to try to empty their fuel levels. 10 minutes in the session, Massa and Barrichello entered for new laps. They are however not allowed refuelling as that is prohibited during Q3. With 4 minutes to go, all except those that already changed tyres made a stop to change tyres in order to put in one last flying lap with low fuel levels.
Just before that, Massa is in front with a time of 1:31.523. 2 minutes to go and Scumacher snatches provisional pole from Massa and will hold it until the end of the session. The late attacks of the Honda and Renault drivers were not sufficient to beat the Scuderia Ferrari.
With all this sensation, tomorrow's Bahrain grid will look like this:
1 M. Schumacher Ferrari 1:31.431
2 F. Massa Ferrari 1:31.478
3 J. Button Honda 1:31.549
4 F. Alonso Renault 1:31.702
5 JP. Montoya McLaren 1:32.164
6 R. Barrichello Honda 1:32.579
7 M. Webber Williams 1:33.006
8 C. Klien Red Bull 1:33.112
9 G. Fisichella Renault 1:33.496
10 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:33.926
11 J. Villeneuve BMW 1:32.456
12 N. Rosberg Williams 1:32.620
13 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:32.850
14 J. Trulli Toyota 1:33.066
15 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:33.416
16 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:34.606
17 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:34.702
18 C. Albers Midland F1 1:35.724
19 T. Monteiro Midland F1 1:35.900
20 Y. Ide Super Aguri 1:37.411
21 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:38.868
22 K. Räikkönen McLaren no time
