Lewis Hamilton took his third pole position of the season after dominating the unique twilight qualifying session at the Yas Marina circuit. The McLaren driver set the fastest time in all three sessions and proved unbeatable in Q3 with a margin of 0.7 seconds over his Red Bull Racing rivals.
It would have been an all-McLaren front row following the team’s impressive practice pace but alas the poor luck that hampered Heikki Kovalainen’s season continued with the Finn forced to pull out in Q2 with a transmission fault. At one point he was third but come the end, he slipped down to P13.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and team-mate Mark Webber will start the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in second and third respectively with the constructors’ champion Brawn GP next up.
The new world champion Jenson Button could only manage fifth and was once again out-qualified by his team-mate Rubens Barrichello.
Toyota’s Jarno Trulli was a contender for pole in the early stages of Q3 but found himself demoted down to sixth by the end. At least the Italian will be satisfied to start the race ahead of the BMW Sauber pair of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld. The team will be taking part in its final Grand Prix from the fourth row.
Nico Rosberg lines up in ninth position in his last appearance as a Williams driver with Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi completing the top ten.
Neither Ferrari made it into the top ten – making 2009 the first season since 1993 that the team has not managed a single pole position. Kimi Raikkonen will start his final race as a Scuderia driver in P11 way ahead of his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella, who was the slowest of all in Abu Dhabi. The Italian team will have a tough situation to finish third in the constructors’ championship with only a two- point advantage over rival McLaren.
But if you thought Ferrari had a bad session, it was a nightmare for Renault. Fernando Alonso could only manage P16, which was not the ideal position to sign off his seven-year stint at the team. His team-mate Romain Grosjean also struggled and will start in a lowly P19, behind the disappointing Force Indias.
Qualifying times from Yas Marina:
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:40.948
2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:41.615
3. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:41.726
4. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 1:41.786
5. Button Brawn-Mercedes 1:41.892
6. Trulli Toyota 1:41.897
7. Kubica BMW-Sauber 1:41.992
8. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 1:42.343
9. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:42.583
10. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:42.713
11. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:40.726
12. Kobayashi Toyota 1:40.777
13. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:40.983
14. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:41.148
15. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:41.689
16. Alonso Renault 1:41.667
17. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:41.701
18. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:41.863
19. Grosjean Renault 1:41.950
20. Fisichella Ferrari 1:42.184
The top three drivers’ views after qualifying at the new Abu Dhabi venue. As taken from Autosport.com.
Lewis Hamilton downplayed the easiness with which he grabbed pole position for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday.
The McLaren driver stormed to his third pole position of the 2009 season at the Yas Marina circuit, where the Briton finished over six tenths of a second ahead of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.
Hamilton claimed it was not as comfortable as it looked but, given his gap, the former world champion admitted he should have opted for a heavier fuel load.
“Like I always say it was never easy but definitely as fun as it looked,” said Hamilton. “The car has probably been best it has been all year. It seems to feel quite comfortable on this circuit.
“What they have done here is incredible and a it’s a pleasure to drive here. When you have a good car here it is a great drive.
“With that lap for sure we should have thought about going longer, but I don’t think we were too aggressive [on fuel]. That lap felt like it was getting better and better.”
He added: “Anything could have happened. Clearly we have been very competitive all weekend, and car has felt great. I didn’t have doubts in my mind about what we have done it. It was easy to make mistakes but fortunately I didn’t, so I’m happy with my lap.”
Hamilton again praised the circuit, which he reckons should provide an entertaining race tomorrow.
“We are always trying to improve other circuits and say kerbs should be good here, but honestly I think they have almost done a perfect job at this track with the layout,” he added.
“It’s really smooth, the kerbs are nice and in the right places. For racing it is very safe. There’s quite a few opportunities to overtake so should be a good race.”
Red Bull Racing pairing Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have admitted that they were surprised by Lewis Hamilton’s qualifying pace after the McLaren driver took pole by over six tenths of a second.
Vettel and Webber will start second and third despite heading into the weekend as favourites to take top spot on the grid.
“Both of us were surprised by the gap,” said Vettel. “Lewis has been strong all weekend and McLaren are strong here – we saw in Q1 and Q2 that they were strong – so let’s see the strategies.
“It was maximum we could do, car is working well here but KERS button, which we have on steering wheel, is not working! The car has good race pace, so I am looking forward to tomorrow.”
Webber is hopeful that Red Bull will be able to take the fight to the McLaren driver in tomorrow’s race as the team seeks to end the season with a sixth win.
“No doubt McLaren are quick. I am surprised by Lewis’s time. This is a reflection of the second half of the season, but it was a good job by the team and we want to finish on a high.
“Lewis has been strong at a lot of venues, Seb and I pushing as hard as we can, very much a message of how the second part of the championship has gone, I am happy considering how I did the lap.”
Webber is also hopeful that the new Yas Marina circuit will allow overtaking, even though it isn’t the easiest track to pass at on the calendar.
“There’s a very long straight, but everyone is running similar wing levels on their car,” said Webber. “I think it is not going to be Interlagos, but it might be better than Barcelona.”
World champion Jenson Button said he was frustrated to be unable to fight for a place on the front row of the grid ahead of tomorrow’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The Brawn driver, who secured his first F1 crown in the previous race in Brazil, had been very strong in the practice sessions, but then had to settle for fifth position in the grid-deciding segment.
Button said his car’s handling had changed drastically in Q3, and was disappointed not to have achieved a better result.
“The car has felt good here all weekend and the first two sessions went well in qualifying today,” he said. “Unfortunately in Q3 when we were running with high fuel and new tyres, I started to get massive vibrations every time that I hit the brakes which made the steering wheel shudder.
“With such a smooth circuit any kind of vibration just leads to understeer which made the car quite a handful to drive.
“It’s frustrating as we had the potential for a better performance today and should have been challenging for the first row behind Lewis. Hopefully we can solve the issue before the race and I’m looking forward to a good fight tomorrow.”
Team-mate Rubens Barrichello, on the other hand, was happy with his performance after qualifying in fourth position.
“It was a good qualifying session for us today and I’m quite happy with fourth position and what we have achieved,” Barrichello said. “The car is still very competitive but the Red Bulls and McLarens seem to be ahead of us here.
“It’s been challenging to get the right set-up throughout the weekend as the sessions are taking place in very different track and ambient conditions. The car seems to improve towards the end of the day with the cooler temperatures so we can hope that the track comes towards us tomorrow.
“It’s very close with Sebastian for second position in the Championship and I’ll be going to be flat out for the best result.”
Source: Autosport.com
Nico Rosberg thinks both he and Williams should be able to hang on to their current championship positions in tomorrow’s season finale in Abu Dhabi after he put his car ninth on the grid.
Rosberg is seventh in the drivers’ standings, four points ahead of Jarno Trulli – who has qualified sixth – while Williams holds sixth in the constructors’, 2.5 points clear of BMW Sauber, which occupies row four.
But despite being behind his and the team’s main rivals on the grid, Rosberg is sure he can do enough in the race to avoid losing ground in the standings.
“I think ninth was around the best we could get out of today, we are definitely struggling on the open sections of this circuit, but points are definitely possible here and very important for us this weekend,” he said.
“From the fifth row and with a good strategy tomorrow, we can stay ahead of BMW in the constructors and I can hold seventh position ahead of Trulli in the drivers’ championship. It’s a good track, not easy and very hot but this is also the last race for me with Williams and I want to do the best for this great team.”
The team’s chief operations engineer Rod Nelson agreed that qualifying behind the BMWs was not ideal, but remained optimistic for the race.
“We hoped that Nico had another couple of tenths in him to get among the BMWs just in front, but he starts from the clean side of the grid and he should have a competitive race,” Nelson said.
Kazuki Nakajima was only 14th in the second Williams after making a mistake on his last Q2 lap – although he was not sure if it really made too much difference to his position.
“I’m a bit disappointed because I didn’t manage to put everything together in Q2, but there was still a reasonable gap to the first ten, so maybe I wouldn’t have made it into the final qualifying session anyway,” said Nakajima.
“The track demands that you are precise all the time and one mistake here is costly, which makes it pretty difficult.
“I don’t think it will be easy to overtake tomorrow, but because of the nature of sectors one and two, we could have a pretty crazy first lap tomorrow, so I still believe anything is possible.”
Source: Autosport.com
Jarno Trulli is looking forward to a hard-fought battle in what could be his final race for Toyota after qualifying sixth for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The Italian, who is out of contract at the end of the season but still has an outside chance of remaining with the team he joined in late 2004, needs to finish at least fifth to have a chance of taking seventh in the championship ahead of Nico Rosberg.
“The car feels strong and I think we are looking pretty good for the race, so I’m looking forward to the fight,” said Trulli.
“It was a difficult session because it was an extremely hard fight in hot conditions; the laptimes were really close despite it being a long circuit. I felt I got it right in each session and I am happy with sixth place.
“It’s fun to be fighting at the front of the grid so it was a nice experience again for me. Obviously you always want to be even higher but we have done a good job so far this weekend and we deserved to be in the top six.”
Kamui Kobayashi, who is filling in for Timo Glock in the second Toyota, was disappointed to miss out on making Q3, but is confident of getting into contention for a points finish from 12th on the grid.
“I was hoping to be in the top 10 here but it was my first time in Formula 1 to qualify in dry conditions, so I needed to get used to it,” said the Japanese after the second qualifying session of his grand prix career.
“Free practice has gone well all weekend and the car felt good. Qualifying wasn’t easy but in the end I was only a tenth or so away from the top 10 so for my first time qualifying in the dry it’s not bad.
“I have been trying to focus on my race pace this weekend so I am quite confident for tomorrow. I will try my best and I hope to fight for the points again; we’ll see what we can do.”
Source: Autosport.com
Robert Kubica was pleased with his effort in qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but the Pole was still lamenting his lack of running in Friday practice.
“Unfortunately I missed yesterday’s second free practice session,” said the BMW Sauber driver, who suffered an engine failure after just 13 laps in yesterday’s second practice.
“As a result I had no experience of the track conditions at this time of day. The conditions were completely different compared to the third free practice session.
“The lower temperatures had quite a big effect on the car’s balance. In the end qualifying in seventh is quite okay and I am optimistic that we can fight for points tomorrow.”
Team-mate Nick Heidfeld was also satisfied after qualifying in eighth position, although he felt he could have gone faster had he not found traffic in his final run.
“I think my eighth position is alright,” said Heidfeld. “On the last lap there was a small chance to improve, but I had traffic with Mark Webber in front of me, and anyway there is no guarantee this lap would have been faster.
“If I take the fuel load into account, I’m happy with my grid position although I only really know the fuel load for our cars. The tyres seem to last here remarkably well, which means it could pay off if you stay out for longer.
“The light from the setting sun was a bit brighter than yesterday, but the circuit is built in such a way that you have to deal with it in only one corner, which anyway is flat. For our last race tomorrow I hope for all of us we can achieve a good result with points for both cars.”
Source: Autosport.com
Heikki Kovalainen will lose five places on the grid of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after needing a gearbox change after qualifying.
The McLaren driver, quickest in yesterday’s practice, stopped on track with a mechanical problem during the second segment of qualifying and was unable to complete more than a flying run.
As a result, he qualified down in 13th.
However, the team needed to replace Kovalainen’s gearbox, meaning the Finn will get a five-place grid penalty.
“What a disappointing outcome to my qualifying,” he said. “I got stuck in second gear during Q2 and that was it. I already had minor problems with the gearbox yesterday when it jumped out of gear, so it’s frustrating when you have a car you can easily take into Q3.
“But I’m looking at the positives: the balance of my car has been good throughout the entire weekend, and it’s been great to drive on this fantastic circuit. You can absolutely guarantee I’ll be giving it my all in the race tomorrow and I’ll be fighting from the first lap to the very last.”
Source: Autosport.com
Eleventh place on the grid was the maximum that could have been achieved with the Ferrari F60, according to former world champion Kimi Raikkonen.
The Finn missed out on a place in the Q3 top 10 shootout by just over six hundredths of a second, but believes that it was not possible to have broken into the front five rows.
“Today we got the most out of the car, but we did not have the necessary performance to make it into Q3,” said Raikkonen.
“Already yesterday, we realised that it would be tough, so this result is definitely not a surprise. Tomorrow, we will try to do our best, but it’s certainly not going to be an easy race, even though we should definitely be more competitive in the race than in qualifying.”
Raikkonen added that he considered his grid slot to be better than 10th, as he will have the chance to choose his race fuel load unlike the runners in Q3.
“What I can say is that eleventh place is better than tenth, given that I will start from the clean side of the track and can choose the ideal fuel load,” he said.
With team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella last on the grid in what is set to be his final race appearance for Ferrari, McLaren is now in a strong position to beat the Scuderia to third in the Constructors’ Championship.
But team principal Stefano Domenicali is still hopeful that his team can defeat its old rivals.
“It would be nice to end such a difficult year in a good way, which would mean securing our goal of third place in the Constructors’ classification, but tomorrow, we will be facing a steep climb all through the race,” said Domenicali.
“The situation is further complicated by the grid positions of our main opponents. All the same, the race still has to be run and in this sport, we have seen so often that nothing can be taken for granted. What we can be sure of is that we will give it our all.”
Source: Autosport.com
From the 2009 season, the FIA is making public the weights of the cars, with their fuel load included, following Saturday’s qualifying session.
Below is the weight of each car following qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, sorted by qualifying position.
Pos Driver Weight (kg)
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 658.5
2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 663.0
3. Webber Red Bull-Renault 660.0
4. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 655.0
5. Button Brawn-Mercedes 657.0
6. Trulli Toyota 661.0
7. Kubica BMW-Sauber 654.5
8. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 664.0
9. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 665.0
10. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 661.5
11. Raikkonen Ferrari 692.0*
12. Kobayashi Toyota 694.3*
13. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 697.0*
14. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 704.0*
15. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 696.5*
16. Alonso Renault 708.3*
17. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 695.0*
18. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 696.0*
19. Grosjean Renault 710.8*
20. Fisichella Ferrari 692.5*
* Declared weight