2006 Grand Prix of Turkey – Qualifying

An all Ferrari front row in Istanbul but with one small difference. Its the other Ferrari at the head of the field. Felipe Massa claimed the first pole of his Formula 1 career on Saturday at the Istanbul Park. The second row was locked by the two Renaults with Fernando Alonso in third spot.

The Qualifying was not exciting in the beginning, but did keep the interest alive. In the closing stages of each of the sessions, there were some interesting changes in the driver standings. It appeared from the start that it was Michael Schumacher who will take the pole.

The first session was pretty dry. After a fairly long break of 3 weeks, the deserted look of the Istanbul Park circuit did not give a feeling of the glamour formula1 otherwise boasts of. Renaults were out on track pretty early trying to record a competetive lap time as early as possible, but the italian team on the other hand were in no hurry. Michael Schumacher set the fastest lap in this session but was shortly beaten by his team-mate. STR Cosworth and Super Aguri were out at the end of the first session and DC and Monteiro joined in. Fernando Alonso was nearly matching the two Ferraris but never went faster. The first session came to a pretty monotonous end.

The second session started with no real dramas. Robert Kubica showed great commitment in attcking the corners and was much talked about as he muscled his car around the Istanbul Park circuit. The Renault looked pretty unstable without the much talked about mass damping system. Vertical vibrations could be very clearly observed as the cars braked at the corners, thanks to the very bumpy nature of the track. The top 16 drivers looked a lot quicker with more rubber being laid on the track. Michael Schumacher set a scorcher of a lap in the 1 min 25 sec bracket. It was a full 1 second faster than Fernando Alonso. Felipe Massa could not match his team-mate’s performance and was 1.2 seconds slower. The dying stages of the second session was very exciting. With the chequered flag out and some of the drivers still on their flying lap, the lap times were still being recorded. Jenson Button sprung up a little surprise by going second fastest in the session. Mark Webber and Robert Kubica made it to the to 10 and consequently knocked Klein and De La Rosa out. Jarno Trulli, Nico Rosberg and Rubens Barrichello looked off pace in this session and could not get out of the relegation zone inspite of their efforts in the dying minutes of the 15 minute stint.

Final session as always started with the cars lined up on the pit lane exit. Neither Michael Schumacher, nor Alonso was to lead. All eyes were on the Scarlet cars. Michael Schumacher set the early pace but this was the period of burning off fuel. With 8 laps remaining in the session Fernando Alonso dived into the pits for new set of rubber. This ensured that he could have two attempts at recording the best lap time, it also left enough time for coming again into the pits for new set of tyres. All teams were thinking the same way. Most other drivers came into the pits separated by merely 10-15 seconds. On the next lap Michael came in and went out of the pits. He came out on a fairly empty piece of track with some traffic on another part of the track. For some strange problem still unknown, the german went back to the pits without recording any time. It very nearly came down to just one attempt with less time remaining for two runs for the best time. Just one chance to post a time, while currently being at 8th position, best lap time of the session came from Schumacher, but only 23 thousandths of a second faster than the previous best of his team-mate. Fernando Alonso had another go, but could not outpace the german driver. Felipe Massa put up a stunning lap time with only a minute remaining in thr session, and like the first session he went faster than his team-mate. It was Ferrari 1-2 but the Renaults were still on another final run after the chequered flag came out. There was no imporvement in the lap times. Schumacher could have easily gone for another flying lap but he decided otherwise. The Ferraris were separated by only 3 tenths of a second, thats how closely they are matched at Istanbul. Fisico showed concern about his car, which could be heard on the team radio. He was complaining of the non responsiveness of the engine. If there is a change in the engine, a ten place penalty is likely to spoil is race. Kimi Raikkonen would be disappointed with his performance. He lines up alongside the Hungarian GP winner Jenson Button on the 4th row. Ralf Schumacher and Nick Heidfeld would be pretty satisfied with their positions on the grid. Felipe Massa was surely elated. He is enjoying every moment with the Ferrari team, no matter what is the future this young, very talented driver.

My Predictions

First corner is going to be the most interesting as always. Michael followed by championship rival closely. Felipe Massa needs a good start and Michael needs to keep the door shut on the Renaults. Without the mass damping system the things would become a little difficult for the Blue Team. All eyes will be at the front of the grid and the first corner. Michael seems to have used one less set of tyres while qualifying and also run the minimum number of laps on saturday. No predictions for this race, yet again. Its going to be a very exciting race. Lot of drivers and teams to be watched on a dusty track with lots of overtaking opportunities. Its LIVE on Sunday on Star Sports @17.30 IST.

© 2006 Kamal Agarwal