Problems continue for Wurz after French Qualifying

With the Williams team finishing the final practice session in seventh and seventeenth positions there was a degree of uncertainty as to how qualifying for the 2007 French Grand Prix would turn out. The opening period would see Alex not set a time until eight minutes into the session and his time was way off the pace necessary to avoid making the top sixteen. His second lap would see little improvement. Alex would pit and with just minutes left would come back out but he would fail o make it into Q2. Alex would again have a poor qualifying performance something that must becoming a frustration for the Williams team. Nico was able to make it through into Q2 finishing with a time of 1m:16.092.

Fastest in Q1 was Hamilton with a time of 1m:14.805 followed by Raikkonen and Massa. Joining Alex in not making the cut were Sutil, Albers, Davidson, Sato, and Liuzzi.

With the start of Q2 there was no rush of drivers coming out but Coulthard was first out. But he would suffer gearbox problems seeing him forced back to his pit. Hamilton would move to the top of the times followed by Raikkonen, Kovalainen, and Fisichella. Massa would move into second. Kubica was now fourth. Nico had moved into fifth and would see the end of the period in eighth with a time of 1m:15.331. Missing the cut were Coulthard, Speed, Webber, Barrichello, Button, and Ralf Schumacher. Hamilton was fastest with a time of 1m:14.795, but once again he was followed by the two Ferrari's.

With the start of Q3 Raikkonen was first to leave the pit lane followed by Massa, Alonso, and Hamilton. But the period would come to a quick end for Alonso who would return to the pit and replays would show smoke coming from the rear of his car. He would remain in his car while mechanics worked on it. While this was happening several drivers would pit taking on soft tyres, including Raikkonen, Massa, and Hamilton. Nico would opt for the harder of the two tyres. Alonso would eventually climb out of his car his qualifying over.

Hamilton was fastest but Massa would move ahead of him by two tenths. Nico was in fourth but Kubica would move ahead of him followed by Heidfeld. Kovalainen and Fisichella followed the Williams driver. The second series of pit stops would start with everyone taking on soft tyres for their final run. Despite Hamilton improving slightly it would not be good enough to secure pole position. Raikkonen was in third. Kubica would retain his fourth but the Renault's of Fisichella and Kovalainen would move into fifth and sixth. Heidfeld was seventh followed by Trulli and Rosberg. Alonso was tenth but had not set a time. If Alonso requires an engine change he will drop to twentieth.

Again qualifying would be turn out to be a disaster for Alex finishing in eighteenth. Looking at the times Alex's Q1 time was a 1m:16.241 which was faster than the time set by Nico in Q3 a 1m:16.328 but Alex's run was done with little fuel. It will be interesting to see how Alex fares come the race but starting from the rear of the grid is certainly going to make it hard from him. Nico is again looking at the prospect of scoring some points come Sunday.