Kimi
Räikkönen was beaten extremely thin only by his team mate Felipe
Massa in today's thrilling Qualifying of the Monaco Grand Prix in
Monte Carlo. Therefore he will start the race on Sunday from the
second position in the grid.
Kimi
still kept to himself a little in the first and second part of the
Qualifying. In Q1 he achieved in 1:15.717 minutes the fourth
fastest time with a gap of 0.527 seconds on Felipe Massa, who was
fastest in 1:15.190 minutes. Kimi then set a time of 1:15.404
minutes in Q2, which was enough for the fifth place. Felipe Massa
was again the fastest man on track with a lead of 0.294 seconds on
Kimi.
Kimi
then finally showed his true performance in the essential third
part of the Qualifying. He temporary took over the first place
after his first fast flying lap with a time of 1:16.112 minutes.
At his second attempt he then lost some time in the first sector.
However, he nevertheless could improve himself with a lap time of
1:15.815 minutes. But within the last seconds of the Qualifying,
Kimi's team mate Felipe Massa snatched the Pole Position in the
principality with an extremely thin lead of 0.028 seconds. Lewis
Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen were place behind the two Ferrari
on the third and fourth position.
"Obviously,
I would have preferred to be on pole and there’s no point
denying it, but two Ferraris ahead of the rest is a great result
for the team. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, so the race could
be a lottery and it might mean more overtaking opportunities,
because in the dry the race risks turning into a boring procession.
Overall, I am happy with the car: we just struggled a bit to get
the best out of the tyres on the first timed lap, so that I was
finding things a bit difficult through the first few corners on my
second run in Q3. We had some doubts about our true potential on
this track before the weekend, but this result confirms we have
worked well and we have made a step forward compared to last year."
Qualifying:
| Pos |
Driver |
Q1 time |
Q2 time
|
Q3 time
|
| 1. |
F.
Massa |
1:15.190 |
1:15.110 |
1:15.787 |
| 2. |
K.
Raikkonen |
1:15.717 |
1:15.404 |
1:15.815 |
| 3. |
L.
Hamilton |
1:15.582 |
1:15.322 |
1:15.839 |
| 4. |
H.
Kovalainen |
1:15.295 |
1:15.389 |
1:16.165 |
| 5. |
R.
Kubica |
1:15.977 |
1:15.483 |
1:16.171 |
| 6. |
N.
Rosberg |
1:15.935 |
1:15.287 |
1:16.548 |
| 7. |
F.
Alonso |
1:16.646 |
1:15.827 |
1:16.852 |
| 8. |
J.
Trulli |
1:16.306 |
1:15.598 |
1:17.203 |
| 9. |
M.
Webber |
1:16.074 |
1:15.745 |
1:17.343 |
| 10. |
D.
Coulthard |
1:16.086 |
1:15.839 |
No
time |
| 11. |
T.
Glock |
1:16.285 |
1:15.907 |
|
| 12. |
J.
Button |
1:16.259 |
1:16.101 |
|
| 13. |
N.
Heidfeld |
1:16.650 |
1:16.455 |
|
| 14. |
K.
Nakajima |
1:16.756 |
1:16.479 |
|
| 15. |
R.
Barrichello |
1:16.208 |
1:16.537 |
|
| 16. |
S.
Bourdais |
1:16.806 |
|
|
| 17. |
N.
Piquet |
1:16.933 |
|
|
| 18. |
S.
Vettel |
1:16.955 |
|
|
| 19. |
A.
Sutil |
1:17.225 |
|
|
| 20. |
G.
Fisichella |
1:17.823 |
|
|
|
Qualifying