The Hindu : Sport : Raikkonen edges Alonso to lead qualifying

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Sunday, Apr 24, 2005

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Raikkonen edges Alonso to lead qualifying

— Photo: AP

TURNAROUND FOR A TITAN? Michael Schumacher is hoping for a stronger performance at Imola than in the last three races.

IMOLA: Kimi Raikkonen edged championship leader Fernando Alonso by just 3 one-thousandths of a second to lead Saturday's qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix.

Seven-time World champion Michael Schumacher was 0.374 seconds back in third for Ferrari.

A second qualifying session will be held on Sunday, with times from both runs combined to determine the starting grid.

``There are a lot of teams involved in these podium positions and it will be a very interesting race,'' said Alonso, who won the past two races from pole. ``We are second but we are still competitive. We're still fighting for the pole position.''

``The car overall is much better than it was in Bahrain,'' the McLaren-Mercedes driver said. ``I'm pretty happy with it.''

Renault's Alonso leads the driver's standings with 26 points, while Schumacher has scored just two points and finished just one race in the worst start of his career.

Having stopped after just 12 laps in Bahrain, Schumacher was the fifth starter in the opening qualifying session.

Setting the fastest time to that point, Schumacher's lead held up to the challenge of 12 more drivers until Raikkonen beat him.

Narain's show

Narain Karthikeyan clocked almost two seconds faster than his team-mate Tiago Monteiro but could manage only a 17th place finish.

Narain, who had finished 17th in the final practice session as well, was a bit slower than his practice session timings but Monteiro as well as the two Minardi drivers, Patrick Friesacher and Christijan Albers, who hit the track with their new PSO5 cars, failed to better Narain's timing. But Narain was satisfied with his 17th place finish. "Considering I had no prior racing experience here unlike Tiago, who has driven here before, I think I drove a pretty good lap, quick and aggressive. I also think I managed to make good use of the kerbs. I finished two seconds ahead of Tiago, so that's a huge positive.

"Jordan has obviously improved tremendously, but so have the other teams; so we'll have to keep at it. I was just behind (Red Bull's David) Coulthard today, let's see how it goes tomorrow."

The Midland group, which bought Jordan Grand Prix at the start of the year, also acquired Jordan's wind tunnel recently; and Narain revealed the team would have a new car design by July, in time for the Silverstone GP.

On the new Minardi cars that made their debut, Narain said, "There was a bit of pressure initially with Minardi saying they would be able to get ahead, but I don't think the new car will make a serious difference."

Schumacher confident

``We have been showing a consistently strong performance over the weekend,'' Schumacher said. ``It's going to be tight and tough but I think we have an opportunity.''

Alonso was the last driver out and fell behind Raikkonen at the first two splits, with his disadvantage increasing between the first and second checkpoints. The Spaniard made up ground in the final section of the Enzo and Dino Ferrari circuit, however, and nearly caught the Finn.

Discussion on qualifying

The Formula One qualifying could take on a knock-out format under one proposal being discussed by team bosses.

The teams met at the San Marino Grand Prix on Friday and will have further talks after widespread rejection of a system under which pole position is decided only on race morning.

BAR boss Nick Fry has suggested a format divided into three sections on Saturday. All cars would run for 15 minutes, after which the slowest five drivers are knocked out and interviewed during a five-minute break.

The remaining 15 then run again with a further five deleted. The last 10 then have 20 minutes to fight for pole.

The results (first qualifying session): 1. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin, 1 min 19.886 sec); 2. Fernando Alonso (Spa, 1:19.889); 3. M. Schumacher (Ger, 1:20.260); 4. Mark Webber (Aus, 1:20.442); 5. Jenson Button (GBR, 1:20.464); 6. Jarno Trulli (Ita, 1:20.492); 7. Felipe Massa (Bra, 1:20.593);

8. Alexander Wurz (Aut, 1:20.632); 9. Nick Heidfeld (Ger, 1:20.807); 10. Takuma Sato (Jap, 1:20.851); 11. Rubens Barrichello (Bra, 1:20.892);

12. R. Schumacher (Ger, 1:20.994); 13. Jacques Villeneuve (Can, 1:20.999); 14. David Coulthard (GBR, 1:21.632); 15. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita, 1:21.708); 16. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita, 1:21.804); 17. Narain Karthikeyan (Ind, 1:23.123); 18. Tiego Monteiro (Por, 1:25.100); 19. Christijan Albers (Ned, 1:25.921); 20. Patrick Friesacher (Aut, 1:26.484). — AP & Reuters

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