Montoya fastest in French GP Pre-Qualifying


Montoya
By Andrew Hooper
July 3 2004

BMW WilliamsF1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya would be fastest in French GP Pre-Qualifying session. Team-mate Gene was down in ninth. It was now down to whether or not Juan pablo could repeat this in final qualifying.

   
French GP Saturday Pre-Qualifying
 
Qualifying would see Michael Schumacher out first on the circuit. Rubens Barrichello would be second and Marc Gene, who didn't compete in the event, will be out last. Michael would et an a sensational time of 1m:13.541. Rubens would not make it out the pit lane so didn't record a time. BAR's Takuma Sato was half a second down on Schumacher, with a time of 1m:14.130.

Marc GeneA 1m:13.949 would see Trulli move into second. Toyota's Olivier Panis would start his lap and finish with a 1m:14.540 to move into fourth. With a very quick third sector Kimi Raikkonen would finish second with a time of 1m:13.736. Next came McLaren team-mate David Coulthard and
he would cross the line with a time of 1m:13.649. Minardi's Zsolt Baumgartner was the eighth driver out and with a 1m:18.108 would be seventh. Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella would push the Minardi down the times as he crossed the line with a 1m:15.793 to be seventh.

Jaguar's Mark Webber was next out and after losing time through the second sector he would finish with a time of 1m:15.332. Jordan's Nick Heidfeld would start his lap, losing a second in sector two, to finish with a 1m:16.366. BAR's Jenson Button would drop down the order to be fourth with a time of 1m:13.772.

Now for Toyota's Cristiano da Matta and he could only manage a time good enough for seventh, but he was three tenths quicker than his team-mate. Fernando Alonso would start his lap setting the fastest final sector time to finish fourth with a time of 1m:13.750. Jaguar's Christian Klien was out and his lap would see him finish in tenth with a time of 1m:15.205, to lead his team-mate Webber.

For Sauber's Felipe Massa his time of 1:14.627 would see him in tenth. Jordan's Giorgio Pantano was next. He would lose a full second through the second sector to finish with a 1m:15.913 to be fourteenth. Minardi's Gianmaria Bruni would set a time of 1:18.070 to go sixteenth.

Now it was the turn of Juan Pablo Montoya and he would start his lap in his FW26, setting a fastest first sector time of 23.6 seconds, a dn finish his lap with a sensational time of 1m:13.377 to go fastest. The final driver was Marc Gene. He would cross the line with a time of 1:14.133 to move into ninth.

The final qualifying would see Rubens Barrichello the first driver out onto the circuit after he failed to leave the pit lane in his Ferrari.
 
Pos Driver Team Time Gap

1. Montoya WilliamsF1-BMW (M) 1:13.377
2. M. Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:13.541 + 0.164
3. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:13.649 + 0.272
4. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:13.736 + 0.359
5. Alonso Renault (M) 1:13.750 + 0.373
6. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:13.772 + 0.395
7. Trulli Renault (M) 1:13.949 + 0.572
8. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:14.130 + 0.753
9. Gene WilliamsF1-BMW (M) 1:14.133 + 0.756
10. da Matta Toyota (M) 1:14.245 + 0.868
11. Panis Toyota (M) 1:14.540 + 1.163
12. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:14.627 + 1.250
13. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:15.205 + 1.828
14. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:15.332 + 1.955
15. Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:15.793 + 2.416
16. Pantano Jordan-Ford (B) 1:15.913 + 2.536
17. Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 1:16.366 + 2.989
18. Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:18.070 + 4.693
19. Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:18.108 + 4.731
20. Barrichello Ferrari (B) No Time
 
 
Message Board
 
HP Formula One 2004
Click image for HP F1 Site