Ferrari: Quick, but it's worrying that they have run into a spot of
serious unreliability straight out of the box. It is tough for Massa,
because if Kimi does win tomorrow, he will be playing catch-up from the
off through no fault of his own.

McLaren: It looks like they are close enough to Ferrari to be
challenging for the wins. Alonso should be there or thereabouts
tomorrow. Shame that Hamilton appears to have made a small mistake just
when it mattered, but otherwise it was an assured first qualifying
performance. To be snapping at the World Champion's heels in his first
ever qualifying session is deeply impressive.

BMW: So it's true. They really are playing with the big boys now. This
year, we might finally see if Nick Heidfeld is worth all the hype there
used to be about him, and if Kubica can turn some stunning potential
into a challenge for race wins.

Renault: Is it the car or the drivers? Fisi is a little further back
than he tended to be in qualifying last year, so the car probably is not
quite as good as last year's (relative to others). Kovalainen hasn't
hooked it up yet. Regardless of the car's problems, it should have been
capable of a top ten placing, but he failed to deliver.

Toyota: Better than many expected, but it does not look as if they will
be troubling the front runners just yet.

Red Bull: Was that just Webber getting a bit of "home race" effect, or
is that indicative of what the Red Bull can achieve? DC knows that he
did not get the best from the car, and will obviously be hoping for
better next time out.

Super Aguri: OK, so it was only because of Massa's and Kovalainen's
issues that Sato found himself in the top ten, but even so, that is
quite astonishing. 12th and 13th would still have been an impressive
leap forward. It looks like we can expect to see them in the points at
least a few times this year.

Honda: Given how close everything is, I wasn't even banking on Button
getting out of Q1. Things need to get a lot better very quickly, or they
may find themselves fighting for eighth in the WCC.

Williams: Who? Where?

Toro Rosso and Spyker: Clearly these two are going to be fighting out
the back row of the grid between them, and it looks like Spyker will
lose that battle consistently. So sad to see the old Jordan team, that
H2F once duracelled to 3rd in the WDC, languishing at the back.
--
Richard Miller

On 17 Mar, 16:23, Richard Miller <rich... (AT) seasalter0 (DOT) demon.co.uk>
wrote:
Quick but not out of sight of the others - and a bit of unreliability
from Ferrari will make a refreshing change. But Kimi *was* sandbagging
and just turned it on when he needed to - he's going to win a few this
year. Massa's face, sourly sucking on his Red Bull straw, was a
highlight of today's coverage.

Providing the McLaren has the reliability, it looks like it's going to
be a great battle between their top two drivers this year - with a
couple or three wins for their team-mates. But I think Fernando's just
realised what he's got on his hands - and I don't mean Kimi. I've not
been as excited about a rookie since Fernando came to F1...

First flyaway race always produces a surprise from one of the lower
orders. Today was very impressive but I doubt they can keep it up for
enough of the season to be a real threat. I'd be surprised if they won
a race, unless there was a high rate of attrition. However, they could
bag several podiums, show up a few teams which you'd expect to do
better, and end up in the top 4. If...

It's the drivers mainly, especially Fisichella who will be out on his
arse at the end of the year. He's just not capable of anything more
than the odd flash in the pan. I was more disappointed in Heikki today
- I thought he might have impressed more. Not a patch on Lewis for
rooki of the year on this showing...

But Ralf is one of the top three drivers in the world, donja know. Who
was it who said "at Toyota, maybe" recently? I shall think of that
every time I see him this year and crease up...

Nice neat looking car - unlike the God-awful Renault - which hopefully
will show that Adrian Newey still has it and will produce some good
solid results for DC and Mark at several races this year. I'd like to
see them battling with BMW to be best of the rest behind the Top 3
(assuming Renault will do better than this most weekends)...

Unbelievable! And some impressive stuff from Ant too...

Damon's right. Unless Button gets out of there soon, his talent will
be wasted and he'll remain a one win wonder...

Sad.

Very sad. But will Mike Gascoyne bring about a comeback...?

All in all, a very promising start to the season which has
reincarnated my enthusiasm for F1. Can't wait for the race now!

David

"DC" <dcunliffe (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> writes:
Agreed on almost all points, and in particular that final paragraph.

It was over 6 months ago when I first indicated that I thought
this season would be a vast improvement on last, and I'm glad to
see that prediction is looking accurate.

Go the rookies! LH & AD in particular, both getting almost the max
out of their cars.

Phil
--
"Home taping is killing big business profits. We left this side blank
so you can help." -- Dead Kennedys, written upon the B-side of tapes of
/In God We Trust, Inc./.

"Richard Miller" <richard (AT) seasalter0 (DOT) demon.co.uk> wrote




Very cool qualifying. I like the line up. No Michael Schumacher, the
champ is in another uniform, no Ross Brawn - how refreshing.

Nice to see BMW continue their steady performance from last year and
making
Honda and Toyota look bad. Speaking of Honda - very cool of Sato making it
in the top ten.

I know Williams is crying over this customer car deal. But if it means
having two more cars
in the middle to upper tier (I'm talking about Super Aguri) then I'm all for
it. Otherwise they would be just moving chicanes like 98% of the cars that
are typical in modern F1.

Williams should stop crying and get the chassis sharing thing to work in
their advantage. They know how to make a decent chassis. If F1 would allow
more teams to enter then Williams could sell their chassis to other teams.
They could take that money to improve on THEIR chassis. How else are they
going to make the money to compete without the 110% works deal from a major
manufacturer like VW?

On 17 Mar 2007 09:49:55 -0700, "DC" <dcunliffe (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:

he has come full circle and ready to race like a grown up. I DO hope
that he will give Kimi all the trouble he can.

not at this race. Take a look at the amount of practice laps Ferrari
needed to get that car working. Unless something goes wrong, Kimi will
run away with this one at will and Massa could end up as high as
second, IMO.


Suppose he would also get the special attention from the team, when
here.

role in actual race conditions, so both Williams could get into the
eight.. if they last that long and Nico doesn't throw the bloody car
into a sand trap. :-/

--

Regards, Frank

On 17 Mar, 16:49, "DC" <dcunli... (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:
Unless EJ re-emerges to buy the team.

Last I heard of him he was on the wireless talking neutrally about
himself in the third person. Maybe he's out to do a TagHeurer/Dennis
and recycle some of his cash in the process. Having money is one
thing, knowing what you're doing in life is a bit more important. He
was a good team boss without the firepower. If he bought Honda he'd
have everything.

On 18 Mar, 02:41, a_Frank <f... (AT) notthis (DOT) optushome.com.au> wrote:
I don't dislike him and I agree that two team-mates slugging it out at
Ferrari would make a refreshing change - if it happens (and the
precednets aren't favourable). Maybe I was being a little harsh on the
guy but I just found that shot amusing...

Right about Kimi and you couldn't predict a box full of neutrals for
Massa. Difficult to judge how far the McLarens were away on that
showing. Could Alonso have got closer if he'd not been caught napping
by his team-mate at the start? I think it's pretty close between the
two teams and hope that it will oscillate between them at different
circuits to give us an interesting fight for the DWC.

Cheers

David