Qualifying was a drmatic event with 3 red flag incidents making the Q2 and Q3 sessions very stop, start affairs. Degner seems to be an area that is affecting car stability as the weight shifts forward the cars are bottomining out and heading off line onto the curbing, as soon as this occurs the car is basically becoming a train using the kerb as it's track and sending the drivers off onto the gravel. (Due to FP1 and 2 being washed out, little setup work has been done, it appears some of the teams have gone to far with their adjustments and set the car too low so when they do come into Degner unstablised in braking they are losing control)
Jaime bought Q2 to a halt as he headed straight off the circuit at Degner head on into the barriers. Q2 resumed with a few drivers venturing back out only to be compromised again by another red flag. This time Timo had headed off circuit and found his Toyota wedged in the tyre wall of the final corner. Timo was flown to hospital with an injured leg. Q2 continued with BGP leaving it to the last minute to re-emmerge only giving Jense and Rube's enough time for 1 flying lap. Both times are now in question by the race stewards as whilst they were putting in these flying laps Sebastian Buemi put his car in the wall just before 130R, he will also be under investigation as he continued to drive the stricken Torro Rosso around the circuit back to the pits with a missing front wing, side damage and a punctured rear tyre. The yellow flags were waving during this time putting into question the 2 BGP drivers times.
Q3 born yet a further red flag with Heikki hitting the tyre wall at Degner in a similar but not so fast accident as Jaime already had. This once again compromised everyone's qualifying strategies and left BGP to do one flying lap once again bringing in a 5th for Rubens and 7th for Jenson.
Tomorrows race is tee'd up to be a fantastic race now, I await the fuel loads to see how the pit stops may play into everyone's strategies. The other things to consider are Jarno in 2nd place will almost certainly be overtaken off the grid by Lewis's KERS enabled McLaren and since for the first time in a while Jarno won't be able to select a fuel load can he keep relative pace? or will the Trulli train have 17 other frustrated passengers behind him whilst he protects his tyres and position? Factor in that due to Parc Ferme rules no height adjustments will occur on the cars could we have further Degner casualties? Prompting the lengthy inclusion of the safety car?
Pos Driver Q1 Q2 Q3
1. Vettel 1:30.883 1:30.341 1:32.160
2. Trulli 1:31.063 1:30.737 1:32.220
3. Hamilton 1:30.917 1:30.627 1:32.395
4. Sutil 1:31.386 1:31.222 1:32.466
5. Barrichello 1:31.272 1:31.055 1:32.660
6. Heidfeld 1:31.501 1:31.260 1:32.945
7. Button 1:31.041 1:30.880 1:32.962
8. Raikkonen 1:31.228 1:31.052 1:32.980
9. Kovalainen 1:31.499 1:31.223
10. Buemi 1:31.196 1:31.103
11. Rosberg 1:31.286 1:31.482
12. Alonso 1:31.401 1:31.638
13. Kubica 1:31.417 1:32.341
14. Glock 1:31.550
15. Alguersuari 1:31.571
16. Fisichella 1:31.704
17. Nakajima 1:31.718
18. Grosjean 1:32.073
19. Liuzzi 1:32.087
20. Webber
All Timing Unofficial
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