2012 European GP- Qualifying Thread

[Rob]

we have got 2 sets of the softs saved for tomorrow. Think the way the tyres have been this year, it may just add bit of spice too Valencia'bore tomorrow.

[FANDO]

Ferrari
Fernando Alonso, 1m 38.707s, P11
Felipe Massa, 1m 38.780s, P13

Luca di Montezemolo’s presence chez Ferrari raised pulses, but this was one of those days when the bear got to do the eating. Alonso and Massa were very evenly matched, and missed out on Q3 by the narrowest of margins. Hamilton, for one, however, believes the red cars will be a major threat in the race.

(thats off F1 official website guys) - Me Personally, I am somewhat confident we can replicate gros/perez's charge through the field like in canada & if we add one safety car into this equation then things don't look too bad

[burak karakutuk]

I want to mention a different point guys.Do you think our qualy problem may be due to front suspension,suspension geometry?We ran hard tyres very well but when we moved to hard performance dropped.Not much we gain comparing to others.I wonder what is the reason behind that I heard to do the best lap in qualy you must balance the tyre degration between front tyres and rear tyres

[FrankAlfa]

I think Ferrari got a bit "Stung" at the race in Canada and I think they are looking at only Race pace and preserving tire quality. Both Ferraris have a difficult task getting to the front. If they have GREAT race pace and are able to use the DRS then they can fight at the front. Vettel is fast again and he will be tough to reach when he is in clean air!

Ciao.

Forza Ferrari!!!!

[scuderiafan]

I honestly cannot believe how much Ferraris performances affect me. I have been in a foul mood all day, and got into three pointless arguments

On topic, I hope, and to be honest think that the pace will be a lot better tomorrow. Good start, fantastic pitstops, some good old fashioned McLaren bottling, and it doesn't look too bad. The crazy thing is, I keep on saying, Ferrari were only 2 tenths away in q2 , I mean that would get a 2nd row start most times.

They seem to think they could have done better with the potential, but no matter.
Tomorrow is a whole other thing, and just keep out of trouble will be half the battle (Felipe's luck is just awful in this regard)

But I think the cream will rise to the top, and if the pace is there, then the Ferrari will be up there soon enough in the race.

No need to over think things like upgrades are a fail etc. Pat said they worked well, but I just think other teams may have made a bigger step/circumstances played into their hands. This is still Ferrari, and it is still the team that have made a midfield car fight for victory.

[Alonsomaniac]

I think it will be a tough job to reach the podium, but not impossible if tactics work out well.
But realisticly, I would say we can go for fourth or fifth tomorrow.

[alluri84]

Despite of the poor qualifying session the team is still upbeat.
Alonso on twitter: Fernando Alonso ‏@alo_oficial
Meetings and meetings until tomorrow at 14pm! The start, pit stops, tires,reliability...everything has to be at 100%.. and will be.. ;))

[Naeem]

Our car doesn't deal well in high temperatures, simples I can't wait for the cold european season to start. Silverstone THIS weekend would have been perfect.

[Nova]

Vettel def found some time, but if you look at last race, he led most of it, yet fell back at the end..
Mac is who to watch..you have both of them up there, plus Lotus who will be quick and good on their tires.
If Ferrari can gain some spots at the start, not get held up too much and stay out when pitstops start,
we may be able to get into the top 5 or 6, then hopefully use our new tires to be quick...2nd stop is def going to have to
be carefully planned.

[Chicane]

yah strategy is crucial for tomorrow..and LUCK..SO GOODLUCK FOR FERRARI..

[Cemz85]

top speed data anyone? why didnt we run the new fw?

[Kingdom Hearts]

why didnt we run the new fw?

Not working as expected, they will try again in Silverstone.

[Stormsearcher]

this qualifying was a disaster in terms of result. but wrt to the times, we are not that far off the pace. If this wasnt Valencia, i would say we could still pull off something. Sadly i think P6 might be the highest we can achieve, if things really go our way.

[sav_pap]

You need to take many risks to overtake here so huge doses of luck will be needed.

[vae32]

if we plan on a 2 stop race, we dont have to look after the tires and can be agressive pushing drivers who are trying to conserve tires for a 1 stopper and slower drivers.

Exactly right 100%, thats what the ideal strategy for canada last week should have been, instead we only attack when mecca and redbull was just about to come in because we look after our tyres much better than both of them.. the f2012 is the easiest one with the tyres against mecca and redbull. There's one thing that i want to point out to everyone is on that last race is that neither Vettel or Lewis never really pull away from alonso that day did they, from the first stint to the second ..it was always a controlled cap. Anyway i hope they tell alonso to push hard on the first stint.. that's my opinion.

[vae32]

Quali was a big disappointment. Yes it was close but it is quite visible that F2012 doesn't work well with the Pirellis when it's hot. Lot of lockups, lot of tyresmoke. On the other hand, Lotus, Force India and Williams seem to work much better in hot conditions and the same can be said about Red Bull (the RB that Vettel drives, not the other car).

It should be noted that the odd side of the grid has MUCH more grip that the even side so I'm expecting that it will be VET-MAL-HAM-RAI-GRO after the first corner. Passing on this track is extremely hard, even with the longer DRS zone. Safety Cars are always a possibility, but it might hinder us more than help us.

But don't you think that maybe alot of them are not getting heat into there tyres, that's why they are locking up...because not only the f2012 is the only car out there is getting lock-up's pretty much all of them are doing it, even the commentators are saying the same thing.