[20/08/05 - 13:16]
Kimi Raikkonen takes Istanbul Pole!
Turkish GP - Qualifying
A dominant performance from Raikkonen
A most entertaining qualifying session ahead of tomorrow’s 58-lap Turkish Grand Prix saw plenty of incident and action, but through it all came Kimi Raikkonen to claim the Pole Position for McLaren Mercedes, just over two-tenths of a second clear of the impressive Giancarlo Fisichella in his Renault.
Raikkonen seemed to have a massive speed advantage mid-way through his qualifying lap, losing a little time in the final corners. But the damage had been done to his rivals early in the lap and he starts ahead of Championship rival Alonso who lines up directly behind him on the grid in the second Renault.
Juan Pablo Montoya did a solid job in the second McLaren Mercedes to qualify fourth. The Colombian was amongst the early runners and lapping just half a second off his team-mate was a good effort.
Jarno Trulli kept his head in the Toyota and did his usual good job in qualifying to start fifth ahead of Nick Heidfeld in the leading BMW Williams. Mark Webber will be one driver who knows he could have had and probably should have qualified better than he did.
As it is he found Takuma Sato making his way back to the pits following his own run. Sato was unaware of Webber approaching as he had no radio contact with the BAR Honda team. As it was Webber was badly held up and has every right to feel aggrieved after qualifying seventh fastest.
Felipe Massa did a reasonable job in his Sauber Petronas to qualify in eighth position while team-mate Jacques Villeneuve was one of many to make an error on his run and starts at the back of the pack.
Turn eight as it is currently known, consists of almost four separate left hand turns all taken at high speed. Villeneuve understeered off track and then as he tried to control the C24, spun and stalled bringing out the red flags.
Another to make an error was Ralf Schumacher, but still the German starts from ninth position in his Toyota. Running reasonable well, Schumacher approached turn nine, turned left and simply understeered off the circuit losing in the region of a second in the process. Were it not for the small mistake, Schumacher would have been right up there with team-mate Trulli.
Christian Klien qualified the leading Red Bull Cosworth in tenth position with an over cautious David Coulthard two positions and eight-tenths back in 12th.
Rubens Barrichello did what he could in the grip-less Bridgestone- shod Ferrari and starts from 11th position while Michael Schumacher was on a pretty good lap when he lost control of the F2005 at turn nine. All in all so far, it has been a weekend to forget for the 2004 Champions.
Jenson Button will be very disappointed to be starting way back in 13th position. The British racer had been second fastest in the morning warmup sessions, but an error in the final part of turn eight saw him nearly lose the 007 and he did a good job to simply keep the car pointing the right direction.
Over-cooked rear brakes for Doornbos!
Team-mate Sato also went off at turn eight as his 007 bottomed out and he lost front end grip, before baulking Mark Webber on his in lap and he was 14th fastest. It remains to be seen whether he will be handed a penalty for his blocking incident.
Tiago Monteiro qualified his Jordan Toyota in 15th position while his team-mate Narain Karthikeyan did not attempt a run after two engine changes while Christijan Albers was the final driver to complete a lap as he set the 16th best time in the Minardi Cosworth.
Robert Doornbos abandoned his qualifying lap and was bringing his Minardi Cosworth into the pits when a rear brake fire broke out, while Villeneuve, Karthikeyan and Michael Schumacher did not set a time.
It was an incident filled session and if this is a pre-cursor as to what to expect in the 58-lap Turkish Grand Prix, then it is going to be one very entertaining Grand Prix.
Aku harap Raikonnen menang race nie besok!
Home 
