Bahrain International Circuit,
Kimi Raikkonen MP4-21 02
Juan Pablo Montoya MP4-21 03
T-car MP4-21 01
BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING
Team McLaren Mercedes driver Juan Pablo Montoya finished
today's qualifying session for the Bahrain Grand Prix in fifth
position on the grid with a time of 1m32.164. Kimi Raikkonen
will start tomorrow's race from the back of the grid after
a right rear suspension failure on his first flying lap which
meant that he failed to set a time. This was the first time
all the teams experienced the three-stage knockout system
introduced for this year. In the first session Juan Pablo
Montoya set a time of 1:33.233 and finished in fifth place
and the second session saw him finish with the second fastest
time of 1m31.487.
Qualifying Session one: Qualifying Session two: Qualifying
Session three:
Juan Pablo: 5 laps, 1:33.233 (5th) 3 laps, 1:31.487 (2nd)
12 laps, 1:32.164 (5th)
Kimi: 1 lap, no time (22nd) no time no time
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA
“I think we did a good job with the new format, and
it ran very smoothly for me. I am a little surprised to finish
so far up as we had not been looking good in the earlier sessions
when I have been suffering from understeer, but that is what
the car could do when it counted. I think we have a good strategy
for the race, so we will have to wait and see what will happen
tomorrow."
KIMI RAIKKONEN
“There is not much I can say about today. It is very
disappointing to not even complete one timed lap as I believe
that the team had a good strategy for the new qualifying system,
and I could have been amongst the quickest. Although it is
far from ideal to start from the back of the grid, there are
overtaking opportunities at this track, and I have done this
before and still achieved good results. We will just have
to see what happens in the race tomorrow.”
RON DENNIS
“A painful first experience of the new qualifying. Our
overall competitiveness is still difficult to judge as the
fuel load used for the final qualifying still plays a significant
role in respect of race strategy. Juan Pablo's set up is still
not perfect and Kimi's car suffered a rear suspension lower
wishbone failure which was caused by a manufacturing fault,
which, after many thousands of kilometres of testing, is difficult
to come to terms with.”
NORBERT HAUG
“It is a shame that Kimi suffered from a rear suspension
failure. In more than 8000km of testing we have not experienced
such a breakdown. We have what we think is a good strategy
and a solid basis for a good performance in the race and our
speed so far looks OK.”
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