This is hugely and monumentally amazing.

On a drying track of Magny-Cours the first qualifying session for the French GP brought some sort of an "inverted" grid.

Our Jos was fastest, with Justin Wilson second... :eek:

That's entertainment!

Too bad today isn't Saturday... :(

Now how did this happen? Was there 6 cm of rain on the track?

Is this not the big gunners new strategy?

Let all the other runners go out and clean the track on Saturday?

It also helps to hide there true potential, yet through data logging they would have a good idea of what they can/can't do and hope for, yet not showing ones hand till it's too late?

But hats of to Justin, the track time and package he has, he's done okay in my view. I'm sure if you stuck a few of the guys out there in the Ferrari, MErc or BMW then they would be well mixed up, a bit like Touring cars, always nice to see an independant mixing it with a works team. Next FIA step is to level it up a bit, taking TC out IMO is a good step for making starts worth tuning in for again.

They must have knobbled all the other team's cars.

Seriously though, I go with Colin's observation - letting the slower cars clean the track is a common practise, at least when its dry. They often don't come out for half an hour after the start of the session. Its fun when rain threatens because all the cars pile out at once and its a bit more exciting!

That argument doesn't apply, chaps!

The fast guys will go out as track cleaners for the Minardis tomorrow... The way it works now is that the fastest Friday qualifiers may get out last on Saturday. So Jos will be the final man on the track tomorrow.

Not any more, Jason - single lap qualifying now.

Funny thing is, this isn't playing into the hands of the big boys. As Justin and Verstappen are fastest today, they get to go last tomorrow. So Schuey et al will have cleaned the track for them.

Now, I'm not sure of the new rules, but what happens if tomorrow is wet? Do they take the faster times from today or do only their times from tomorrow count.

Could be interesting.

Have to set up the portable on the driveway for the race on Sunday while Mark's busy on the cars

Howard

Darn, Mattijs beat me to it.

Now where's that copy of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.....

:p

Originally posted by Dutch4x4 in this post

Our Jos was fastest, with Justin Wilson second... :eek:

A slight disappointment as Justin's time was disallowed for running 2.5kgs underweight...

Now if there was a moment where bending the rules wasn't necessary to keep up with the big guys!

Apologies, I thought it was as per my note, guess thats why I typed it....still feel the big gunners are playing tricks...

Shame his car was under weight, one would assume this sort of thing was sorted, an expensive exercise otherwise, a bit like leMan and one of the audi's running out of fuel after 28 or so laps...

Well done Minardi! Good to see Jos the Boss doing well , I was at Hockenheim when his Benneton went up in flames , and i swear you could feel the heat in the grandstands!

I'm not sure but I don't think all the teams run during friday practise.

Neil, this wasn't practice, this was qualifying!

Pos      Driver       Team                 T1     T2     Time
1. (19) Verstappen   Minardi Cosworth ( 25.932 54.162 1:20.817
2. (20) Wilson       Minardi Cosworth ( 26.028 54.391 1:20.968 + 0.151
3. (17) Firman       Jordan Ford      ( 26.334 55.259 1:23.496 + 2.679
4. (15) Heidfeld     Sauber Petronas  ( 26.177 55.758 1:24.042 + 3.225
5. (16) Panis        Toyota           (M) 25.963 55.754 1:24.175 + 3.358
6. (18) Pizzonia     Jaguar Cosworth  (M) 26.217 55.799 1:24.642 + 3.825
7. (14) Villeneuve   BAR Honda        ( 26.311 56.340 1:24.651 + 3.834
8. (11) Webber       Jaguar Cosworth  (M) 26.397 56.055 1:25.178 + 4.361
9. (12) Frentzen     Sauber Petronas  ( 27.067 57.478 1:26.151 + 5.334
10. (13) da Matta     Toyota           (M) 26.760 57.169 1:26.975 + 6.158
11.  (6) Barrichello  Ferrari          ( 27.757 58.154 1:27.095 + 6.278
12.  (1) M.Schumacher Ferrari          ( 27.755 58.687 1:27.929 + 7.112
13.  (9) Fisichella   Jordan Ford      ( 27.832 58.948 1:28.502 + 7.685
14.  (7) Coulthard    McLaren Mercedes (M) 27.208 58.826 1:28.937 + 8.120
15.  (4) Montoya      Williams BMW     (M) 27.678 59.081 1:28.988 + 8.171
16.  (8) Trulli       Renault          (M) 27.445 59.088 1:29.024 + 8.207
17.  (2) Raikkonen    McLaren Mercedes (M) 28.468 59.890 1:29.120 + 8.303
18.  (3) R.Schumacher Williams BMW     (M) 28.213 59.539 1:29.327 + 8.510
19.  (5) Alonso       Renault          (M) 28.208 59.432 1:29.455 + 8.638
20. (10) Button       BAR Honda        ( 28.240 60.338 1:30.731 + 9.914

Not to hard on a drying track with the first runners on intermediates and the last ones out on slicks...

edit: I give up! Why doesnt this get displayed like all other images?

:rofl:

Neil, this wasn't practice, this was qualifying!

Yeah I realise now after wacthing todays qualifying:eek:

My money is on Montoya for the race:drive1:

'Monster' is due a race win for sure , but Schumi Jr is flying just now , probably racing in the best form of his career IMO. Hasnt it been nice to see the Williams' up at the top of the timesheets for a change as well recently? On the McClaren front , DC better have a good race sometime soon , coz if I was Ron Dennis I'd be looking for reasons to keep him in the team....

I think if I was Ron Dennis I'd be be looking at reasons for getting Alonso in the team

Very true!!

I have an idea that the fab four will return with identical line-ups for next year.

It's hugely boring, yes, but there is no-one to replace DC, frankly. Webber is the only surprise of the season, apart from Alonso, and he's just resigned with Jaguar to the end of 2006. And why swap a known factor as DC for another Mercedes contractee such as Heidfeld? And at the moment there is no obvious star in the lower categories waiting to be picked.

I have an idea that the fab four will return with identical line-ups for next year.

Very likely .

but there is no-one to replace DC,

Have to disagree with that one , DC is like our Tim Henman - Henman will never win Wimbledon and likewise DC will never be F1 World Champion , Raikkonen isn't having much trouble putting him in the shade so far this year . IMHO Button could do as good a job as DC , but I reckon Alonso could do it even better , but probably won't get the chance .

Both Button and Alonso are signed up long-term with BAR and Briatore.

Yes, I'd say that Jenson would do as good a job as DC, so why change? Alonso would do a better job, but for him it's not a matter of "not getting a chance". He's bound to Renault and will certainly want to await the new, more conservative, less "wide-angle" Renault engine before shredding his Briatore contract to pieces...

Both Button and Alonso are signed up long-term with BAR and Briatore.

If a team wants someone badly enough these long term contracts can be overcome somehow .

I agree, but McLaren doesn't want Button badly enough while Alonso doesn't want McLaren badly enough...

This thread made me watch Saturday qualifying, and a FAT lot of good Friday was, eh? It got the order jumbled up a bit, which was different, but really it was same story as always. I also didn't realise it was the weather that caused Friday's unique outcome. Mother Nature should have been there Saturday too, if anything was going to affect the actual race itself, eh?

Well done to Williams though - are they starting a period of domination like during the Mansell era?