FORMULA 1

Qualifying analysis - how costly was Massa’s mistake?


Saturday’s early morning rain at the Fuji Speedway hampered some teams more than others as it washed away the rubber laid down on Friday, but most of them had their set-ups decided after the first two sessions and had also made their tyre choices, so with a dry track for qualifying it was not as disruptive as it might have been. There was disruption, however, in Ferrari’s recent qualifying form book. Kimi Raikkonen rediscovered his Saturday speed, while Felipe Massa’s deserted him, with mistakes that could prove highly costly to his title chances. We take a team-by-team look at the Japanese Grand Prix grid…

McLaren
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 25.901s, P11/1m 18.404s, P1
Heikki Kovalainen, 1m 26.239s, P15/1m 18.821s, P3
Hamilton said he was reasonably happy with his McLaren in Q1 and Q2, less happy with it on his first run in Q3, and then very happy with his final run which yielded pole position just when his championship campaign needs it most. Kovalainen said he was also content with his final performance in Q3, and that he got the maximum out of his MP4-23. Both drivers are expecting a tough race, however.

Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen, 1m 26.277s, P16/1m 18.644s, P2
Felipe Massa, 1m 25.709s, P7/1m 18.874s, P5
Raikkonen said he was unhappy still with his Ferrari’s performance, but that he liked it better with a race fuel load than without and that he expects to be strong in the race. Massa, meanwhile, fell from third to fifth in the closing minutes, beaten by fractions of a second, and rued the fact that he was the fastest man on the track, but at the wrong moment. He said he made a mistake, but also lost a little grip when he most needed it.

What do you think?