Very exciting session!

Very fine drive by Felipe.

Quite glad Hammy is in 2nd on the clean side, though.

Well done to Vettel and the rest of the Toro Rosso team - very good performance indeed

Pole position will have the clean side on the right hand side of the track.

Felipe did an excellent job. Lewis did well to recover the situation and Kubica surprises again.
Kimi and Heikki are slightly behind but may turn up in the race.

Star of qualifying - Vettel!

Three strongest drivers of the season in the first three spots. Game on...

Commentators have said the odd numbers have the dirty side.

Slightly? 0.5 and 0.7 means "slightly" behind?

Good drive by Kubica, I hope his car has the pace to stay with Hamilton & Massa during first stint. Does anyone have a link to F3 Valencia race start?

Changed before qualifying - http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/69984

Both were on prime tyres while everyone else was on the option tyre.

Glad to see ITV have kept up with the changes.

But they were got beaten in all kind of tyres.

True but Vettel failed when it mattered most. His second sector was terrible on his final run and if he is much lighter than Bourdais he could fall into his clutches during the race.

I don't want to put much of a damper on things just saying things could of been much better for the German.

Edit: I was being too harsh he at most appears to have lost 1 position to Heikki which is not too bad after all. Kimi would of beaten him anyway

That's debateable but I'd agree, their teammates were better in qualifying but we will not know the true gap between them due to the differences in fuel and tyre choices.

That means Massa & Kubica are in better position than Hamilton and Raikkonen.

Vettel made an error on his last lap, he was quicker in S1 but lost almost 0.4 seconds rest of the lap.

Kimster is done.

All weight is on Felipe, I cannot see him managing tires or brakes better than Lewis tomorrow. He'll lose to Lewis in the race and the championship. Of course even if Felipe is fast and in the lead the Ferrari will blow up on last lap :\

R.Kube should just aim to finish where he's qualified.

Circuit is better than Monaco and has great potential they need to give finishing touches.

Beaten though they were and this is the very last track (together with Monaco) in which one wants to be in the pack.

Ron Dennis just confirmed Heikki is again heavier than Lewis. The level of bias in that team is just amazing they are just not giving him any chance at all. We never even saw this kind of treatment at ferrari, where Rubens was often lighter than Michael and given chances to qualify at the front. Heikki is completely shut out.

Alonso is actually in a very good position for this race. He will be fueled heavy so he might have some luck for once this year. The car just wasnt fast enough. Their engine is crap. Webber said the Ferrari engine is worth 0.4 a lap and it shows.

Kimi outclassed by Massa again.

Kovalainen will have a good 4 to five laps worth of extra fuel compared to Hamilton if Mclaren's SC policy is unchanged here.

That Ferrari engine is looking incredibly strong here.

after q1 and q2 with the times beeing so close i was hoping for a suprise grid...after q3 we have top 4 drivers in a top 4 position...

I'll keep an eye out on the GP2 race to see what kind of a start those on the dirty side get.

Quite! Martin's finger not on the pulse for once.

Yes, I can see Lewis having to defend from Kubi. And Felipe driving off into the distance, especially with what Rob Smedley was saying about his fuel load, that he didn't even expect pole.

wow, thats pretty extreme beers half full thinking

Well done to Vettel and Bourdais on making the top 10.

Trulli was very impressive given he had no running in this morning's practice on what is a new track.

Vettel did good; Probably unbeatable had he sat in BMW or Ferrari.

He had his chance in BMW and he blew it

well as Kimi is the leading Ferrari its not too bad of a result thou Hekki should have got in front of him.

I expect tomorrow night, Massa will be the leading Ferrari again.

Arrow?

Fourth is a improvement from Raikkonen:blush: Anyways good job Massa. I look forward too the top 3 finishing in the same order

Yeah? It's the damn Valencia parking lot, ruins the mood and makes me depressed

I think the pressure will get to Massa and he'll have a brain fade and crash(just a hunch). I expect at least one safety car tomorrow.

I think it is going to be a chaotic and quite scary race tomorrow, with loads of people going off and lots of safety cars. I think the race could well throw up quite an strange result. Can't really see anyone driving off into the distance, especially not if there is any rain.

Hmm, Kovalainen seems to be suggesting that it wasn't his choice to try the harder tyres which then didn't work at all...

its not like the team are going to give the slower tyre and let Kimi qualify in front of him to just slow him down

One good thing about Monaco is that they are really prompt in dealing with accidents and able to recover cars quickly with so many cranes all around the track.

Tomorrow Valencia is going to be tested. Safety car seems certain.

Oh yes, Craneboy has said that Heikki's car is faster in qualy, McMerc needs to make sure he doesn't qualify ahead of the new Senna.

Wrong tyres+ heavier fuel load.

Most of the incidents will happen at the bridge section or at the final corner.

Following someone into the last corner will be difficult as we saw with Rosberg, you brake as you jink right and following another car causes you to lose front end downforce, get into there too hot and you'll be off.

The GP2 race will start in a few minutes, so I'll keep an eye out on this.

Heavier fuel load is just fine for this track, but putting different tyres in the end is very odd. I hope heikki keeps his head next time.

I noticed Lewis has again done the least amount of Laps

15 compared to Massas 19 and Kimis massive 21

If its so fine why didnt they give it to Hamilton? Why has Hamilton only been heavier twice all season? Funny how being always heavier is fine, but just imagine last year if Hamilton was heavier than Alonso 90% of the time, well you dont have to imagine just look at the cries when he was heavier at Monaco.

This will be an easy Ferrari 1-3 at least. Kimi's good race pace might also be enough to beat Lewis for 2nd. Ferrari have had McLaren covered all weekend. Ferrari look good on both compounds. McLaren look bad on the hard tyre. The smooth surface is much like Magny-Cours and it's perfect for Ferrari. They also have more worldwide track data and it helps when everyone is at a new circuit.

ok...





Even if true, crashes, rain, safety car anything can alter a race, and McLaren looking bad on the hard tyre?

Who is this guy actually? Where did it all start?

I meant if it's a normal and trouble-free race of course.

Yes, they look bad compared to Ferrari. Both teams are closer on the soft compound.

Who cares? Like Alonso was never lighter than Fisico, or would you like to hear he never was?
And maybe the STR new car is faster, and webbo didn't want to say that.

Because heavier fuel loads suit Kovalainen better, who has more difficulties in warming up tyres on light fuel loads and lighter fuel loads suit Hamilton better. I don't hear you complaining that Raikkonen is often heavier than Massa. Of course it would fit your supposed theory that McLaren are risking their chances in the constructors championship just to make Hamilton look better- I however don't believe that for a second- as Kovalainen has said, Hamilton can take care of himself.

Is there a live stream for GP2? Please post a link.


Toro Rosso definitely found something, nice effort by both of their drivers, especially Vettel. That must cause some head scratching at Red Bull.

Massa seems to be in a good position to win (well, obviously) as he confirmed Ferrari pace. Will be interesting to see if Lewis is havier as some comments say. I'd put my money on Massa, he seems to have the dominant pace.

Kubica did great, won with a Ferrari and Mclaren. He didn't improve on the last lap in Q2, so he might be tad heavier then comparison of Q2 and Q3 times suggest.

Kovalainen is heavy, but wasn't on the pace in Q2.

Kimi was disappointing.

Heidfeld was quicker than Kubica in Q2, that's something! He is definitely heavy, and quite lucky to have Rosberg and Vettel behind him. Those three might be one stopping.



It's good that pole position will be on the right side. Start could be pretty interesting, with cars accelerating through T1 to take a good position for T2.

I'm not sure that McLaren are that horrible on the hards, after all Lewis did a competitive Q1 time on the hards. We shall see...

Can't say I have seen Lewis looking bad on the hard compound compared to the Ferraris

Did Kimi make a mistake on his last lap?
Hope he gets past Kubi at the start.

I am curious about the firght between Massa and Ham.
Wonder whether he wants to take revange