Raikkonen beats Alonso to Melbourne pole

F1 Grand Prix, GP Australia, Albert Park

Kimi Raikkonen has start 2007 the best way possible by putting his red toy on pole position. He also proved to be confortable ahead of anyone else considering a 0.45 seconds difference with second placed man Alonso. Behind them is the first BMW of Nick Heidfeld and Lewis Hamilton thanks to a solid drive. Kubica is 5th and Giancarlo Fisichella 6th.

The first qualifying session of 2007 starts under sunny skies at around 25°C. The unknown the the new cars always increases the tension for the teams and their fans as most of them still have to discover just how good the cars have adopted to the new tyres.

As soon as the first session of qualifying a few answers can be given. The McLaren are, es expected competing in front and probably slightly slower than Ferrari at this time. In fact it is Kimi Raikkonen who took charge after outrightly beating Massa and putting his Ferrari over the finish line just the few hundreths of a second faster than world champion Alonso.
First out in this session are now both Spyker cars, Toro Rosso and Barrichello. Obviously Albers was the most dissappointed as h got beaten by him rookie teammate Sutil and pretty much by everyone else too. The performance of Super Aguri may not have helped either as those were surprisingly quick.

Rosberg is the first to start Q2. He is followed by Ralf Schumacher who immediately suffered a gearbox problem and completed his lap in second gear. After both McLarens set the fastest time, again with Hamilton ahead of Alonso, more problems were to come. Felipe Massa came to a halt at the track before setting a time. He is therefore knockd out together with both Williams cars, Button, Kovalainen and Davidson.
It's again incredible to see a Super Aguri in the hands of Takuma Sato knock out a works Honda team. A final attempt of Jenson Button was not enough as he was struggling all through his lap with braking and rear grip in the middle and end of the corners.

Contrary to what could have been expected after winter testing, Toyota is in the final session with both their cars. They expressed their feelings beforethe race that it would become a difficult season. A quick fix to Ralf Schumacher's car did the trick and allowed him to put in his car just behind Trulli. The achievement is even more remarkable if you know that only BMW and McLaren are present with 2 cars in the final part of qualifying.

The final session goes ahead with Raikkonen in front of the pack to burn up some fuel. Alonso is at the very back of the group and takes it easy before his first stop. Fisichella continues the longest and puts in a quick lap on hard tyres as proof of what we may expect from Renault during the race. The final times ran straigth forward with Kimi Raikkonen putting his Ferrari firmly on pole. The Finn will be aside of Alonso, possibly the best imaginable front row to start the season.