Britain: Qually - Mixed fortunes for both drivers
By Luke Marc Carlile-Stanton
June 10 2006
It was a tale of mixed fortunes for the Toyota drivers of Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli at today's British Grand Prix qualifying at Silverstone.
Ralf will start in 7th place but Jarno had an engine problem in knockout 1 which meant he didn’t set a time and he starts at the back of the grid tomorrow. Meanwhile it Was World Champion Fernando Alonso in Renault who took pole position ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher.
Knockout 1
The British Grand Prix, one of the most thrilling races on the Grand Prix calendar returns in an un-traditional June slot, but good weather greeted the teams, drivers and fans as Silverstone got its first taste of Knockout qualifying.
Midland F1 is one the local teams to Silverstone and it was their Dutch driver Christijan Albers who became the first driver out on track followed by reigning World Champion Fernando Alonso, wanting to get a good baker lap in to avoid first session embarrassment. Albers set the first time of the day a 1.24.372 but Fernando Alonso rather predictably displaced the MF1 driver with a 1.23.511, but compared to the morning times that was rather a slow effort.
With ten minutes to go smoke could be seen coming from the pit lane and unfortunately it was from the Toyota camp. It was Jarno, his season just gets worse, really bad luck for him after the disappointment of losing a podium place in Monaco with five laps to go.
Meanwhile Ralf was trying to lift Toyota spirits by putting in a few good laps he was 9th. With eight minutes to go the American Scuderia Toro Rosso driver, Scott Speed was fastest but where was still ten drivers who had not set a time and with no laps being counted after the flag comes down they needed to put a lap in. Ferrari's Felipe Massa went fastest.
Along with Jarno's blow up their was more bad news for Toyota as Ralf fell down into the drop out zone and even worse it was Twenty-First, the two Toyotas occupied the two bottom places very embarrassing.
The second Midland of Tiago Monteiro was absolutely flying the Portuguese driver moved into thirteenth place and knocked home favorite Jenson Button into the drop zone as the Honda driver was on the weigh bridge and running out of the time to save himself.
Thankfully for Toyota Ralf did save himself, only just though going into fourteenth place, but that knocked Williams’ Mark Webber into the drop zone. Three big names were out in the first session, Jarno will start at the back, Button in nineteenth and Webber seventeenth.
An absolutely shocking outcome.
Top 6: Alonso, Villeneuve, Massa, Raikkonen, Heidfeld, M.Schumacher
Bottom 6: Webber, Albers, Button, Sato, Montagny, Trulli.
Knockout 2
After the shocks of Knockout 1 there were some unusual names in the mix; Monteiro in the Midland and the two Toro Rosso’s of Speed and Liuzzi stand out.
Unfortunately for Toyota there was only one driver still in but Ralf would try and restore a bit of pride, even if he was through he wasn’t particularly fast, but that would just spur him on to make it through to the pole shoot-out. And it was Ralf who became the first driver to go out on track followed by French-Canadian Jacques Villeneuve in the BMW-Sauber who absolutely flew in the first session and ended up second behind Alonso.
Ralf set the first time of the knock out with a 1.21.681 but Villeneuve absolutely continued with his stunning pace going fastest with a 1.20.672. Alonso stamped down his authority as World Champion and went fastest with Renault team mate Ginacarlo Fisichella in second position.
Meanwhile Ralf was holding his own in 8th place. Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari went 4thfastest and Montoya fifth with dropped Ralf down to eleventh and in serious danger of joining Jarno on the side lines. Ralf then went tenth, in the safe zone- just but Red Bulls David Coutlhard was on a lap and trying to reclaim the tenth place Ralf took away from him, but he couldn’t do it. DC stayed 11th.
But DC was upset, he felt that Mclaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya had held him up, Coulthard gestured angrililly at the Mclaren pit and then put forward a complaint to the FIA trying to get Montoya demoted, like he did with Fisichella in Monaco.
Meanwhile Rosberg, Klien and even Scott Speed were lining themselves up to get into the top 10 shoot out but none of them could do it, Ralf was safe and into the all important pole shoot out.
Top 6: Alonso, Raikkonen, Fisichella, Heidfeld, M.Schumacher, Villeneuve
Bottom 6: Coulthard, Rosberg, Liuzzi, Klien, Speed, Monteiro
Pole shoot-out
So Ralf had just made it through to the pole shoot out and was ready to gun for pole but even though he was trough the TF106B hadn’t looked that quick compared to main rivals Honda and in particular BMW-Sauber this would be an interesting phase of qualifying for Toyota.
As usual the first 5-10 minutes of the session brought the banker fuel burning laps. But regardless it was Michael Schumacher who is still the centre of attention after his controversial "accident" Monaco set the first time of the session- a 1.23.172., whilst Ralf was in 9th place just ahead of BMW-Saubers Nick Heidfeld.
With just under 9 minutes in the session to go nobody had yet set a proper lap time - the drivers were still circulating with their fuel burning laps. But with 7 minutes to go it was BMW-Sauber who blinked first, Jacques Villeneuve getting ready for the pole battle. Schumacher and Alonso were first of the front runners to blink and get ready for the pole battle.
BMW-Saubers stunning Silverstone pace continued with Jacques Villeneuve throwing down the gauntlet to everyone, he went fastest with a time of 1.22.353, but Schumacher soon blitzed it doing a 1.20.815. But now it was really getting close up front as Fernando Alonso went second but he missed on pole by the smallest of margins four-hundreths of a second the gap, meanwhile Villeneuve had sank to P8, he rectified that by going P5.
But the main question was, who was going to get pole? Schumacher lowered the bar even more to a 1.20.5 but at the sudden death Alonso took away from the German with a time of 1.20.253, it was another pole for the World Champion.
Pole was decided but everything behind was to play for. Ralf moved up to 5th but had it taken away from Honda driver Rubens Barrichello, but the action STILL wasn’t over, Kimi Raikkonen put in a time of 1m20.397s to go P2 ahead of Michael Schumacher. Ralf ended up in 7th place in what was a mixed bag of results for Toyota.
A thrilling end to a thrilling session with Alonso on pole, Raikkonen second, Schumacher third ahead of team mate Massa, Fisichella in the second Renault, Barrichello, Ralf, Heidfled and Villeneuve. BMW-Sauber fading in the final few moments.
Top 10 : Alonso, Raikkonen, M.Schumacher, Massa, Fisichella, Barrichello, R.Schuamcher, Heidfeld, Villeneuve.