Lewis Hamilton Spa 2008

Lewis Hamilton will start the Belgian GP from pole position. Next to him on P2 will be Felipe Massa. Heikki Kovalainen and Kimi Raikkonen will form all Finnish row 2. The qualifying times suggest that Raikkonen and Kovalainen carry quite a bit more fuel than their team mates on the front row.

Nick Heidfeld handled the increasing pressure well this time and secured the best of the rest position - P5, ahead of Alonso, Webber, Kubica, Bourdais and Vettel. For the second race in a row both Toro Rosso cars made it to Q3 and look to be quite heavily fueled for the race.

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Join us for Live Blog debate following the qualifying session of 2008 Belgian F1 GP.

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Felipe Massa

It was great day at the track with awesome free practice, great F1 qualifying and exciting GP2 race. Unfortunately the Holiday Inn hotel I am staying at forgot that this is 21st century and so, no internet connection. (Unless I consider getting one page open after an hour of trying as a working internet …)

Perhaps tomorrow it will work better and I will be able to post some of the pictures…

The home fans were left disapointed after Fernando Alonso failed to make it to Q3 but they (and me with them) still cheered Massa when he claimed the pole (as I predicted ). Not sure if it had anything to do with the fact that Massa pole meant Hamilton’s relegation to P2. Alonso however did not sound too disapointed on the radio - he expects some Safety Car action tomorrow and then anything can happen …

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McLarens confirmed their strong form from free practice sessions and booked the front row all for themselves. Lewis Hamilton will start the Hungarian GP from pole position for the second time in a row, Heikki Kovalainen will line up next to him.

Felipe Massa blamed traffic on his outlap for the slower pace. But after rather week showing on Friday afternoon and this morning the Ferrari, at least Massa’s, seems to be on the pace. Robert Kubica was only about a tenth slower then Massa. Toyota’s package looks strong in Hungary, both their cars made it to top 10, Glock P5 and Trulli P9. Nelson Piquet was again outqualified by his team mate Alonso, but he made it to Q3 and I suspect he is rather heavily fueled. Mark Webber, te usual member of Q3 club, claimed P8.

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Lewis Hamilton will start the German GP from pole position after beating Felipe Massa by 0.02s in dry qualifying session. Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli will occupy row 2. Fernando Alonso recovered from a Q1 elimination scare and will start from P5, just ahead of disappointing Kimi Raikkonen. Robert Kubica who suffered technical problems in free practice and was also on a brink of elimination in Q1 will on P7. Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel and David Coulthard complete the top 10.

Q1 was very even, only about half second separated 4th from 16th. Nelson Piquet missed out on Q2 fourth time this season and I wonder for much longer will the team remain patient with him … Kazuki Nakajima and Rubens Barrichello were the other 2 higher profile casualties of Q1.

Qualifying Results:

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Qualifying performance is one of the important benchmarks used to evaluate relative performance of team mates. Here is an overview of qualifying results in 2008 Formula 1 season. The table displays the results as achieved in qualifying, not the final position on the starting grid - grid penalties are not reflected in this table. I included this table also in the 2008 season stats.

2008 Formula 1 Qualifying - Team Mates Head to Head

Please do let me know if you spot any errors.

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Kimi Raikkonen will start the French GP from pole position, his second of the season and 200th for Ferrari in F1. Felipe Massa will line up alongside him after being only few hundreds slower. There will be unusual second row - Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli. Alonso will sure fancy his podium chances now …

With Hamilton dropping 10 places from his P3 McLaren will have to do with Kovalainen’s P5 and Kovalainen’s 5 place penalty for impeding Webber, McLaren are in for some tough time. This was not the best of qualifying sessions for BMW Sauber - Kubica will be on P6, Heidfeld did not even make the cut to Q3 … Timo Glock and both Red Bulls make up the rest of the top ten. Well, almost, Nelson Piquet will take up P10 P9 after Hamilton’s and Kovalainen’s penalties …

Toro Rosso did well for most of the weekend but not when it mattered the most and both cars got elimitaned in Q2. They still did better than the Hondas though … Nico Rosberg just about made it to Q2 but P15 combined with his 10 place grid penalty will see him starting from the very back of the grid …

French GP Qualifying Results:

1. K. Raikkonen - Ferrari - 1:16.449
2. F. Massa - Ferrari - 1:16.490
3. L. Hamilton - McLaren - 1:16.693 (will be demoted 10 places)
4. F. Alonso - Renault - 1:16.840
5. J. Trulli - Toyota - 1:16.840
6. H. Kovalainen - McLaren - 1:16.944 (will be demoted 5 places)
7. R. Kubica - BMW Sauber - 1:17.037
8. M. Webber - Red Bull - 1:17.233
9. D. Coulthard - Red Bull - 1:17.426
10. T. Glock - Toyota - 1:17.596

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