Kimi takes first pole for Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen got his Ferrari debut off to a flying start with pole position for the Australian Grand Prix.

The Finn, who joined Ferrari from McLaren at the end of last season, effortlessly stepped into Michael Schumacher's shoes to drive his Ferrari around the Albert Park circuit and right into pole position in a time of 1:26.072.

And although double World Champion, and Raikkonen's replacement at McLaren, Fernando Alonso tried to seize the advantage, he fell short by 0.42 seconds.

Third place on the grid went to BMW's Nick Heidfeld, who put in a strong final lap to take P3 off McLaren rookie Lewis Hamilton who had an almost perfect start to his F1 career.

Robert Kubica ensured both BMW's got into the top five, while 2005 Australian Grand Prix winner, Giancarlo Fisichella, qualified in sixth place.

Qualifying Report

Qualifying 1

Though there had been rain in the morning practice, by the time the teams lined up for Session 1 of Qualifying, the circuit was dry with an ambient temperature of 21C and a track temperature of 38C. The big factor was the strong wind slanting across the circuit, making the ill-handling cars even more difficult to drive.

Though Ferrari had continued their occupancy of the P1 slot in morning practice, the sensation of the morning practice was Anthony Davidson posting a genuine P4 in his Super Aguri. The speed of both Super Aguris made it increasingly likely that both Williams and Spyker would contest the eligibility of the "customer cars" run by Scuderia Toro Rosso and the Super Aguri team, which use an update of last year's Honda. However this wouldn't interfere with the progess of the GP weekend or the running of the cars.

Christian Albers started the season off for Spyker with the very first timed lap. It was the first time in five seasons that F1 has started with the previous season's qualifying format and Albers put in an atrocious 1:32.305, the wind not helping the car's oversteer in some corners.

Davidson then lowered this to 1:29.211, which Toyota driver Ralf Schumacher couldn't beat, though team-mate Jarno Trulli could with a 1:28.709. David Coulthard lowered this to 1:28.579 for Red Bull and then his new team-mate Mark Webber sliced that down to 1:27.799.

Lewis Hamilton showed no signs of nerves on his first run with three purple (fastest) sectors and a 1:26.674, the lap was so good that Fernando Alonso could only manage P2 behind him.

Kimi Raikkonen came out before Felipe Massa took to the track and despite a mistake in Turn 15 took the P1 slot with a 1:26.644, while Massa could only manage P4 behind the two McLarens.

With three minutes to run the bottom of the timesheet looked like:

15. Davidson - Super Aguri

16. Liuzzi - STR

17. Sato - Super Aguri

18. Button - Honda

19. Sutil - Spyker

20. Albers - Spyker

21. Heidfeld (no timed lap yet) - BMW

22. Kubica (no timed lap yet) - BMW

In the closing minutes the two BMWs jumped into the top five, and a fast lap from Davidson pushed the two Toyotas into the bottom six and they would quite clearly have to run again. Takuma Sato then joined him in the safe zone, pushing both the Hondas into deeper trouble.

A heroic lap from Jenson Button got him a (very temporary) P11 place and pushed Alex Wurz into the dropzone in his Williams-Toyota. Wurz then improved as did the two Toyotas, which put David Coulthard's Red Bull in danger. Despite two good early sectors, a slow final sector meant the Scot couldn't escape in time.

Rubens Barrichello didn't have the speed of Button and sank with the tailenders. The last six would be:

17. Barrichello

18. Speed

19. Coulthard

20. Liuzzi

21. Sutil

22. Albers

Just escaping the drop were Button in 15th and the Williams-Toyota of Nico Rosberg in 16th. The Super Aguris had 8th and 12th, the Hondas 15th and 17th, and the Ferraris 1st and 5th. Barrichello and Coulthard were the major casualties.

Qualifying 2

There was silence for the first two and a half minutes of the second session until Nico Rosberg roared down the pitlane.

Toyota then nominated themselves for P-F1's much discussed race-by-race award (see Winners and Losers feature on Sunday) by letting Jarno Trulli out of the pits with his rear jack still attached at the back of the car. It detached itself near the pitlane exit but is bound to make all the TV highlights. A timed lap with it on the back would have given the FIA an interesting quandry as it doesn't conform to F1 aero rules.

No harm was done, although that clearly wasn't the case with Ralf Schumacher who took 95 seconds to crawl round the first sector in his Toyota and then 75 seconds to complete the second. The FIA timing actually registered Ralf as a 'STOP' on the timing displays but quite evidently he made it back to the pits and wasn't stopped out on the circuit.

Rosberg took the first pole, lowered by Davidson to 1:27.228, reduced by Webber to 1:26.623 ( clearly showing DC what the car was capable of). Giancarlo Fisichella took it down to 1:26.545 and then Robert Kubica took a chunk off to make it 1:25.882.

Lewis Hamilton created more purple sectors to take P1 with 1:25.577 and yet again Alonso had to settle for P2 behind him.

With four minutes left to run the positions were:

9. Davidson

10. Kovalainen

11. Wurz

12. Button

13. Rosberg

14. Raikkonen (no timed lap yet)

15. Massa (no timed lap yet)

16. Ralf Schumacher

Raikkonen then put himself in an easy P3, but all eyes switched to Felipe Massa's car. On his hot lap Massa had a slow first sector, only 29.2 compared to Raikkonen's 28.5 and way off the pace - and the car then slowed to a stop and Massa got out. A dreadful start to his F1 season.

Ralf Schumacher jumped into P9, while Jenson Button improved his time with another un-Button like lap, throwing the car around as if it were last year's Midland. All he got for his troubles was a doomed P14, but even then Jenson was pleasantly surprised compared to the pace he had imagined he'd be going.

Kovalainen didn't manage to improve his time despite going out again and so the cars to be eliminated were:

11. Davidson

12. Rosberg

13. Kovalainen

14. Button

15. Wurz

16. Massa

Massa's demise meant that 10th placed Takuma Sato had put a Super Aguri into the final shoot-out for the first time in their history (none too surprising since it is the 06 Honda that Jenson Button put on the 06 Melbourne pole). Mark Webber had got his Red Bull into P7 making DC's effort even more shabby, though he did have the inspiration of his Aussie home support.

Felipe Massa was the major casualty of qualifying, while Heiki Kovalainen's poor effort was similarly unexpected.

In the latter stages of the session Fernando Alonso (with no apparent danger or need) went out and bettered Hamilton's time for P1, and Nick Heidfeld took P2. Interesting to note that only Hamilton and Raikkonen had used the minimum number of laps to get to Q3 - both needed just six.

Qualifying 3

Raikkonen maintained the Ferrari tradition of leading the field out for the final session. The cars cruised until Fisichella led off the pole-grabbing attempts. He was closely followed by the two McLarens. These cars, Raikkonen and the two BMWs would all make two attempts at pole.

Fisichella took provisional pole with a 1:27.925, which was whisked off him by Lewis Hamilton's 1:27.190 and this time Alonso was quicker on his first run and took P1 with a 1:27.050. However their efforts were put in place by Raikkonen's superb 1:26.072 and he looked like he'd claimed pole by a mile for Ferrari.

Felipe Massa saw the time go up on screen and chose not to give his team-mate a celebratory cheer - instead he kept on staring glumly at the monitor. It was a tell-tale image.

Meanwhile the BMWs were reinforcing Dr Mario Theissen's views that they were a top three team with Heidfeld taking P2 and Kubica P5.

On Fisi's second run he was badly held up by a Toyota and if consistency is going to be the watchword of FIA stewards then we'll find one of them in P10 tomorrow as a result. Fisi had no chance of improving his time, though Lewis Hamilton did and he grabbed back P2 and then immediately lost it to Alonso.

Despite being a long way ahead of the field Raikkonen went out for a second lap but didn't improve his time, however Nick Heidfeld snatched P3 in the last few seconds.

It was a fascinating end to a session that had clear winners and losers. McLaren's Ron Dennis was all smiles. His gamble on putting Lewis Hamilton in the second car had clearly started well. Pedro de la Rosa would not have been able to match Hamilton's performance and the young Brit made only one small mistake in the middle sector of his final lap that was the difference between P3 and P4.

BMW will be pleased to have taken 3rd and 5th, Toyota will be mightily relieved to have got their cars into 8th and 9th, and home boy Mark Webber can make a real fight of it from P7.

However Ferrari will be confident that they have the pace to score the opening win of the 2007 season.

The ultimate test will come when the reliability is put to the test in the race on Sunday. On a track where the attrition rate is high the Super Aguri team could well be looking at their first ever points finish, Lewis Hamilton at a possible first podium and Kimi Raikkonen at his first win since Japan 2005.

Report: FH

Times

01 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:26.072

02 F. Alonso McLaren 1:26.493

03 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:26.556

04 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:26.755

05 R. Kubica BMW 1:27.347

06 G. Fisichella Renault 1:27.634

07 M. Webber Red Bull 1:27.934

08 J. Trulli Toyota 1:28.404

09 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:28.692

10 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:28.871

11 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:26.909

12 N. Rosberg Williams 1:26.914

13 H. Kovalainen Renault 1:26.964

14 J. Button Honda 1:27.264

15 A. Wurz Williams 1:27.393

16 F. Massa Ferrari 1:26.712

17 R. Barrichello Honda 1:27.596

18 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:28.305

19 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:28.579

20 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:29.267

21 A. Sutil Spyker F1 1:29.339

22 C. Albers Spyker F1 1:31.932