NewsOnF1 - 2001 Spanish GP - Qualifying Report

Michael Schumacher grabs his 4th Pole position of the season just ahead of Mika Hakkinen. David Coulthard was 3rd 0.434 seconds behind. Rubens Barrichello was 4th ahead of Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli.

While Mika Hakkinen was just 0.085 seconds behind Michael Schumacher, Michael never appeared threatened. In fact Michael only did 3 runs while all the rest did 4 runs.

The session started with the slower cars doing their first run. David Coulthard and Jarno Trulli were the first of the front runners to go out 17 minutes into the session. Coulthard grabbed provisional pole and kept it until the 27th minute when Michael Schumacher went out on his first run and grabbed pole. He kept it till the end. Coulthard never managed to improve on the first time he set while Mika Hakkinen was 3rd for most of the session dropped to 4th for a short time when Barrichello took 3rd but on his final run in typical Hakkinen style he got to writhing 0.085 seconds from grabbing Pole.

Several drivers had trouble in the session, Villeneuve went off on his first flying lap and had to abort his run, Nick Heidfeld had a problem with his car and had to switch to the spare car and only managed to set a time in the 48th minute. Pedro de la Rosa on his first appearance for Jaguar struggled and only managed 20th.

Half a second separates the top 4 while a second separates the top 8. The gap between Ralf Schumacher in 5th and Nick Heidfeld in 10th is just 0.216 seconds.

There were several surprises, the biggest being Luciano Burti out-qualifying his more experienced team-mate Jean Alesi on his first appearance for Prost. Kimi Raikkonen again out-qualified Nick Heidfeld, Enrique Bernoldi again out-qualified Jos Verstappen and Fernando Alonso continues to impress in the Minardi ahead of both Benettons and a Jaguar!.

Disappointments from Juan Pablo Montoya qualifying in 12th while Ralf Schumacher was 5th and Pedro de la Rosa was in 20th whereas Eddie Irvine was in 13th.

Comparing team-mates, the Sauber duo continue to show how closely matched they are. Kimi Raikkonen was just 0.003 seconds ahead of Nick Heidfeld. Luciano Burti was 0.016 seconds ahead of Jean Alesi while Enrique Bernoldi was 0.041 seconds ahead of Jos Verstappen. Jarno Trulli was 0.057 seconds ahead of Heinz Harald Frentzen and in that there is Jacques Villeneuve!.

The worst performing team-mate was again Tarso Marques running 1.485 seconds behind Fernando Alonso. Pedro de la Rosa was 1.012 seconds behind Eddie Irvine. Jenson Button was 0.851 seconds behind Giancarlo Fisichella and Juan Pablo Montoya was 0.644 seconds behind Ralf Schumacher.

We will witness the first test of the launch control systems at the start of the race tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if some drivers elect to start without that aid as the systems cannot yet simulate a perfect start but will guarantee a good start.

It also appears that on this track, it is a Ferrari - McLaren battle with Williams a bit behind but we could still see a number of surprises as the teams decide on their strategies for the race.

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Session	2001			2000
First Friday Practice	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Second Friday Practice	Results	Report	Notes	Results
First Saturday Practice	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Second Saturday Practice	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Qualifying	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Warm-up	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Race	Results	Report	Notes	Results
What the teams and drivers said Friday - Saturday - Sunday
The Heretic's Review		Fan Reviews