Kimi
starts tomorrow's French Grand Prix in Magny Cours from the Pole
Position! After a sovereign performance in todays Qualifying he
claimed a historical 200th Formula One pole for the Ferrari team
and the 16th pole of his Formula One career.
Today,
Kimi showed a convincing performance from the first minute of the
Qualifying. In the first two Qualifying sessions he respectively
drove the second fastest lap behind his team mate Felipe Massa.
Kimi set times of 1:15.131 minutes (Q1) and 1:15.161 minutes (Q2)
with a gap of about 0.1 seconds on Felipe Masssa.
In
the decisive third Qualifying, Kimi then could gain the Pole
Position already with his first attempt. His time of 1:16.449
minutes withstood the attacks of all competitors in their
following flying laps. Kimi then even could abondon his second
fast lap and save some fuel for tomorrow's race, what allows him
to stay one more lap on track. Kimi's team mate Felipe Massa
finished second with a gap of 0.041 seconds on the Finn, followed
by Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren Mercedes. But due to his
punishment for the occurrence at the pit lane exit in Canada the
Hamilton has to start from the 13th position in the grid. The
current championship leader Robert Kubica achieved only the
seventh fastest time today.
"I
am very happy with this result, not just for myself but above all
for the team. It is a pleasure to have taken Ferrari's two
hundredth pole even if, at the moment, I have only played a small
part in the history of Scuderia. So far, the weekend is going
really well but of course we have yet to tackle the most important
part which is the race, where anything could happen. The car has
always been well balanced and, at least as far as the first lap is
concerned, the performance of the two tyres is pretty similar,
while the harder compound seems to do better over a long distance.
If I was not to win, I would obviously be a bit disappointed, but
the most important thing is to finish and bring home the maximum
number of points, because we really need them."
Qualifying:
| Pos |
Drver |
Time
Q1 |
Time
Q2 |
Time
Q3 |
Laps |
| 1. |
K.
Raikkonen |
1:15.133 |
1:15.161 |
1:16.449 |
16 |
| 2. |
F.
Massa |
1:15.024 |
1:15.041 |
1:16.490 |
17 |
| 3. |
L.
Hamilton |
1:15.634 |
1:15.293 |
1:16.693 |
15 |
| 4. |
F.
Alonso |
1:15.754 |
1:15.483 |
1:16.840 |
18 |
| 5. |
J.
Trulli |
1:15.521 |
1:15.362 |
1:16.920 |
19 |
| 6. |
H.
Kovalainen |
1:15.965 |
1:15.639 |
1:16.944 |
18 |
| 7. |
R.
Kubica |
1:15.687 |
1:15.723 |
1:17.037 |
19 |
| 8. |
M.
Webber |
1:16.020 |
1:15.488 |
1:17.233 |
18 |
| 9. |
D.
Coulthard |
1:15.802 |
1:15.654 |
1:17.426 |
19 |
| 10. |
T.
Glock |
1:15.727 |
1:15.558 |
1:17.596 |
24 |
| 11. |
N.
Piquet |
1:15.848 |
1:15.770 |
|
12 |
| 12. |
N.
Heidfeld |
1:16.006 |
1:15.786 |
|
14 |
| 13. |
S.
Vettel |
1:15.918 |
1:15.816 |
|
17 |
| 14. |
S.
Bourdais |
1:16.072 |
1:16.045 |
|
17 |
| 15. |
N.
Rosberg |
1:16.085 |
1:16.235 |
|
12 |
| 16. |
K.
Nakajima |
1:16.243 |
|
|
9 |
| 17. |
J.
Button |
1:16.306 |
|
|
9 |
| 18. |
R.
Barrichello |
1:16.330 |
|
|
6 |
| 19. |
G.
Fisichella |
1:16.971 |
|
|
10 |
| 20. |
A.
Sutil |
1:17.053 |
|
|
9 |
|
Qualifying