Valencia, Qualifying: Massa again, Renault stumble

Saturday 23 August 2008, 17:04:59 | RF1 Paddock Pass

Qualifying . Saturday . Valencia

The Brazilian in the Ferrari took pole position for the first race in Valencia, while Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet failed to make it through to Q3.

 

 

First part: Jarno Trulli (Toyota) caused a surprise by setting the best time in Q1 with a 1:37.948s lap. The two Renaults progressed through to Q2 without any problems, while those eliminated were Jenson Button (Honda), David Coulthard (Red Bull), Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India), Rubens Barrichello (Honda) and Adrian Sutil (Force India).

Second part: A few drops of rain fell on the track as the second session got underway, but it was not enough to impact on the session. Sebastian Vettel caused a surprise be setting the fastest time of the weekend with a 1:37.842s. He was followed by Felipe Massa and Nick Heidfeld. Fernando made a mistake in the second sector on his final attempt, running wide just after the bridge. That meant he lost all hope of improving his lap time and he ended the session in 12th. Nelson was also unable to progress to Q3 and will line up in 15th for tomorrow's race. The two Renaults were therefore eliminated, as were Nakajima (Williams), Glock (Toyota) and Webber (Red Bull).

Third part:  McLaren and Ferrari dominated the battle for pole position in the final part of qualifying. Felipe Massa was the fastest man after the first round of quick laps as he went fastest ahead of his teammate. For the second attempts, Lewis Hamilton beat Massa's time, but the Brazilian was able to respond in the final moments to take pole ahead of the Briton, while Robert Kubica finished third ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. Sebastian Vettel, one of the stars of qualifying was 6th behind Heikki Kovalainen.

Comments

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1. Saturday 23 August 2008 at 17:17:40 by Lengskee

Its tough not seeing our drivers in the Top 10.
Just hope they will have a great start tomorrow.
Good Luck Fernando, Nelson and Renault. Anything is possible.

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2. Saturday 23 August 2008 at 17:17:41 by DiStefano

Hope FA and PQ are on a 1 stopper, it could be another Hockenheim, but this time Renault 1-2!

Ok I can dream...

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3. Saturday 23 August 2008 at 17:24:42 by marsiandeneersten

Never give up hope!
We'll see tomorrow.
Go Renault Go

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4. Saturday 23 August 2008 at 17:24:52 by teomolca

Seems we'll have to wait for rain or crashes to move up the order cause the car is not quick enough.

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5. Saturday 23 August 2008 at 17:52:53 by MO1023

Maybe Renault stumbled alittle but really I think we didn't have that much more to give. hopefully our race chances are better and luck is on our side 'ala' safety car scenarios play to our advantage and/or weather fingers crossed and let's bring it home boys

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6. Saturday 23 August 2008 at 21:33:50 by RF1 Paddock Pass

The team was definitely left disappointed today. We’ve all been looking forward to this race for ages and felt we could deliver a competitive showing. And as a home race for Fernando, he so wanted to put on a special showing for his countrymen.

As it was, though, the field was so closely matched that even the smallest mistakes proved to be very costly. That seems to have been the case with Fernando, as his final effort saw him run wide onto the curb at turn 10 after the bridge. It cost him a few tenths and a place in the top 10. But, as Alan says, the weekend is far from over and it’s tomorrow that counts. Anything could happen.

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