The lost trophy bugged Räikkönen

Small things decide in Formula 1. It's difficult to give form to something like how changing a helmet before the crucial quali-stint could cost you the chance to even drive for a podium position in a race.

This however happened to Kimi Räikkönen.

7th position and 6 WC-points offered after Saturday's disappointment a quite reasonable start to the new season.

– A result like this doesn't change the fact that we had a good car and we would have had chances for a much better result.

– It's good that we scored points, but mostly I'm bugged when knowing for how good positions we could have raced for with this car. When looking from the situation we put ourselves into with stupid mistakes in quali, then the result is okay, but it isn't any comforting story, Räikkönen summed up.

Eric Boullier had to balance a weekend where on Saturday Romain Grosjean got a brilliant 3rd position in qualification and then in the race Räikkönen worked up from 17th to 7th in the race.

Räikkönen who wanted a different visor changed helmet at the end of Q1, which took those few seconds he would have needed to get one extra lap after the car went wide in the 12th corner.

Grosjean again fell asleep in the start and hence Pastor Maldonado crashed into his car on the second lap.

Räikkönen stretched to a fairly good race performance and did what he could from his bad starting positions.

– It's easy to sum up this weekend. Both our cars could have had a good qualification, we have the speed and it doesn't vanish in the race. We only have to screen out mistakes. Malaysia looks very promising from our viewpoint, Boullier noted.

Then what about Räikkönen's performance?

– Kimi had his old speed already this weekend. After this it's only a question of small details so he gets everything to fall in place. The qualification-process in particular is new to him, and Kimi surely needs a bit more time before that also comes naturally, Boullier said.

Räikkönen didn't even try to hide how much the mistakes on Saturday - own driving mistake and failure in estimating the time - still hurts.

– Hopefully we won't make as stupid mistakes anymore. We would have had a car that would have quite easily taken us to Q3. But if you make those mistakes, what can you do, Räikkönen sighed.

Turun Sanomat, Melbourne

HEIKKI KULTA

Courtesy: Nicole

Video: Mark Webber rues disastrous qualifying in China

A disappointed Mark Webber says he could not get enough out of his tyres in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, as he is surprisingly eliminated in Q1 and will start the race in 18th place



Source: FiftyBuckss

Webber: We snookered ourselves

Mark Webber, arguably the most outspoken driver in F1, has refused to heap scorn on his team after dropping out in Q1 in China

The Aussie qualified down in 18th place for the Shanghai race as he team did not send him out on the soft option tyres despite him being in danger of being knocked out.

But, instead of lambasting the team for the decision, Webber appears to have taken it in his stride.

"When any top team goes out in Q1 we can all put the hindsight goggles on go yeah, we should have done this. In the end for sure options would have made life easier, that's completely obvious," he said.

"We could have made that decision, but we didn't, as a team.

"We all thought we were going to get enough laps in on the prime to get the two timed in, but we were a bit late going out, and they were the wrong tyre as well.

"The timing was the problem, not the tyre."

But it wasn't only in qualifying that Webber ran into problems as he also suffered an electrical issue during the final practice, which meant he went into qualifying with just five laps under his belt on Saturday - and only one of those was a flying lap.

"One lap in P3, that doesn't help. We were a little bit on the back foot.

"Obviously the guys did a phenomenal job, we just got the car together minutes before qualifying.

"We went out and my first run was probably half a second shy of where we needed to be, with obviously KERS as well added on top of that.

"We were on the bubble and decided to go for another run on the prime to have a few laps on it, but we never got out quick enough, so we only had one timed lap, and added to that the tyres weren't up to temp. So that second set was a bit more difficult to get the job done.

"I was pretty cool with it, but obviously we all started to panic a bit at the end when we knew we weren't going to get in two laps. The tyre should have been enough, but on one lap it wasn't enough.

"That's where we got squeezed. We snookered ourselves really."

Source: Planet-F1

Trulli hits out at di Grassi

Jarno Trulli hit out at Lucas di Grassi after missing out on the chance to make it through to Q2 in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The pair collided in Q1 when rain started to fall and di Grassi suffered a spin in front of the Lotus driver, with di Grassi also seeing his qualifying session end as a result.

While Heikki Kovalainen was able to make it through to Q2, Trulli had to settle for the 18th quickest time and the Italian was frustrated at not being higher.

“I'm obviously disappointed that I didn't make it into Q2, but congratulations to Heikki and the team for putting in such a good performance,” he said. “It was a pretty crazy session, and it started badly for me when di Grassi lost his car - I was quicker than him, and I couldn't avoid going over him. If he had let me by in the first place when I was much quicker, then it wouldn't have happened.

“It's difficult in changeable conditions, everyone gets surprised, but we're still in a pretty good position tomorrow, so we'll do our best to reward the fans.”

Di Grassi himself was far from happy after he was the slowest driver to set a time during the session.

“A disappointing qualifying session for me because the conditions were perfect for our set-up,” he said. “On the first time lap Trulli hit me and the damage was so great we had to stop. Tomorrow looks like rain again so I'm looking forward to an interesting race.”

Di Grassi's Virgin team-mate Timo Glock – like Kovalainen – made it through to Q2 but was then hit with a five place grid penalty for impeding Sakon Yamamoto during the session.

Source: Crash

Button: A few of us will be angry after Q1

Jenson Button is expecting qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix to culminate in angry scenes and a number of potential penalties.

McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton this week warned the one-lap battle around the tight, twisty, two-mile Monte-Carlo circuit "could be a disaster".

The fear is that, with slow-coach newcomers Lotus, Virgin and Hispania Racing likely to be over seven seconds per lap slower during the initial 20-minute session when all 24 cars could be on track, problems will arise and sparks might fly.

"We've got to hammer it round. I don't think we can back off, we have to stay on it because that might be the quickest lap we do," remarked Button.

"It will be tricky in Q1, but I'm sure we'll cope. A few of us will be angry and unhappy at the end of Q1, but we all have to deal with the same situation.

"It's the same for all of us. Some of us will get lucky, some of us won't. You can't do much about it now. That's the way it is.

"But there are going to be a lot of people asking for penalties I think."

Jarno Trulli, a winner around Monaco in 2004, is now one of those likely to incur the wrath of the quicker guys.

Although in a car that can rightly be hailed as the best of the backmarkers, the Lotus driver is in agreement with Button.

"We're all going to have a lot of traffic," said the veteran Italian.

"It's a question of luck because maybe a quicker car slows down in front of me whilst I'm on a quick lap and I'm hindered.

"On the other hand maybe I'm on a quick lap, but not quick enough for a faster car which is probably four or five seconds (per lap) quicker than me.

"Neither way will work, but we will have to see what we can do to be free of traffic and do our job.

"Anything can happen in Monaco, and it is the place where you can have more chance.

"You can get one good lap by running round and round, and you get your lap in, but for us it's a bit more difficult to do that.

"But we are all in the same boat. I don't have a solution, and I don't care. I will go out and try to get some free space, get my lap in and that's it."

Bruno Senna already has experience of how Saturday will unfold from his days in GP2 when there were 26 cars on track, and like Hamilton he predicts it "will be a mess".

It may even be the case that Hamilton, Button et al, end up at the back of the grid as they are unable to get in a quick lap.

"With so many cars on track and with their difference in pace, I believe some people won't get a lap time," Hispania Racing's Senna said.

"It happens in GP2, with some of the quick cars at the back because they were held up, or there was a queue in Rascasse to start a lap.

"It's going to be quite interesting. We have to make sure we are on the track as much as we can to get a lap in that counts.

"But it's going to be a big mess, and if it's wet it will make it even harder."

As for the race, Senna is already anticipating spending more time looking in his mirrors than at the road ahead.

One backmarker in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix managed only 15 laps out of 66 without being shown a blue flag telling him to allow a quicker car by.

"With that many laps, it's going to be quite interesting to see how many times I will be lapped," added the nephew of Ayrton, the three -times champion who holds the record for most wins at this track with six.

"Monaco is very peculiar. It is unusual to have a straightforward race where you're not stuck behind another car or you don't make a mistake.

Source: Planet F1