Final Qualifying Session, San Marino GP at Imola.
A combination of a masterful performance in his qualifying lap by up and coming young British driver Jenson Button, and a mistake by Michael Schumacher in the third segment of his qualifying lap has finally broken the German's total dominance in the 2004 season... (at least as far as qualifying goes, thus far).
Jenson Button put on a perfect lap, with a chassis so well designed that the Imola curbs did little to unsettle his BAR-Honda as it went around 1:19:753 (the only driver to lap under 1:20 in this session.)
The Honda engine itself was no slouch either by performing well in both reliability and speed, elements necessary for an upset and victory over the Italian wonder, which thus far has propelled Michael Schumacher to a perfect record of 3 victories in as many races in 2004.
BAR-Hona team mate Takuma Sato was looking as if he would take somewhere between 3rd or 4th spot, however a small error, (in the same corner as Schumacher), that slowed him enough to put him back down to 7th spot, just behind Spanish star Alonso and ahead of Australian Mark Webber.
Michael Schumacher was beating Jenson's pole time in the first two sectors by slightly more than 2 tenths of a second when he came up on the Variante Alta and over-cooked it having a moment at the exit of that corner nearly losing it as he corrected heis error... This was enough to lose the pole, but as he put it... "lucky enough for second"
Juan Pablo Montoya came in third. However, during the press conference, Juan Pablo was sounded full of confidence remarking that he was "in the game" This leads me to believe that the Willamses were running with greater fuel loads than both the Ferraris and the BARs.
Something also tells me that JP will tuck in behind Jenson at the start, attempting to shut-out Michael Schumacher out of the second spot... an interesting thought and certainly something Schumacher will try to avoid at all costs...
Imola is not an easy circuit to pass (whith the cars these days... only the more modern circuits allow for such possibility), so obviously the positionig in the first laps will be relatively important as to how the race may end... notwithstanding pit-stops for tires & refueling and engine reliability.
Barrichelo and brother Ralf were next in 4th and 5th respectively, which re-inforces my guess that the both Williamses (and Barrichelo's Ferrari) were out with heavier fuel loads....
Fernando Alonso, finally putting a respectable performance and placing the Renault in 6th spot (third row). Now... watch Fernando, he is an ace starter. I would not be surprised to see him catapult ahead of both Ralf Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello.
A big disappointment for Italian Fiscichella who had 6th fastest time on the morining session... something went wrong with his third gear in the gearbox and they could not repair it in time for qualifying.... so it is back of the grid start for Giancarlo.... same as Kimi Raikkonen btw, who chose NOT to qualify due to a detected an engine problem,,, so McLaren chose to end his final run and replace the motor, (which is an automatic ten qualifying places loss on the grid, i.e. the back of it.)
Trulli and da Matta make up the 9th and 10th spots with both drivers focusing on 'finishing' in the points.
The first European race of 2004 may turn to be a closer race than so far in the season... so let's hope for a good [clean] start... i.e. I hope Michael and JP behave]
Tomorrow it will be the 10th anniversary of a terrible weekend, when F-1 ace Ayrton Senna was killed in a strange accident going into the Tamburello corner, (at the time, a flat-out corner), and Austrian Roland Ratzemberger -the day before the race- during qualifying...
autodromoimola.com
Let's hope that tomorrow will be a great day of racing and one of celebration for Honda's first pole position since Ayrton Senna's pole position in 1992 Canadian GP |
