By Marcel Borsboom, Netherlands
Atlas F1 Magazine Writer

For the fourth year running, Atlas F1 is going to keep an eye on the battle between teammates throughout the season with a simple measurement: we compare the qualifying times of each driver against his teammate's result. After every Grand Prix, we will show how teammates have fared up against each other, and where they are overall since the beginning of the season. At the end of the season, the World Champion of Qualifying Differentials will be elected - the driver who was most beaten by his teammates, in seconds. Only those who participate in at least 15 of the 17 rounds are eligible for the coveted crown; and for those who made the efforts and participated in all 17 races, the best and worst result will be scrapped.

With ten qualifying sessions completed for 2001, the differentials are on a roll! Let's see which drivers deserve bragging rights.

France Notables

• Setting the records straight. Qualifying took a similar pattern in both the last couple of races. In fact, only Ralf Schumacher managed to improve his best ever qualifying position, with a first F1 career pole position at Magny Cours.

• de la Rosa/Irvine. Eddie Irvine had a terrible qualifying session. He barely managed to run a couple of clear timed laps; he spun twice. And yet, he outqualified his talented teammate by over half a second. Where art thou, Pedro?

• Alonso/Schumacher. Fernando Alonso is still leading the differentials table, and he and Michael Schumacher are the only two drivers to have outqualified their teammates in all sessions this year. However, Marques was able to qualify much closer (in relative terms) to his teammate this weekend at France, whereas Rubens Barrichello qualified well behind Michael, putting the Ferrari pair at the top of the weekend differentials chart.

• Changes since Canada: no changes in the pecking order were registered, but watch out for the Villenueve/Panis and Hakkinen/Coulthard pairs - they are likely to change any time soon.

European Differentials              
----------------------              
Slower        Diff.   Faster        
Button      > 1.248 > Fisichella    
de la Rosa  > 1.039 > Irvine        
Burti       > 0.862 > Alesi         
Barrichello > 0.662 > M.Schumacher  
Panis       > 0.433 > Villeneuve    
Montoya     > 0.264 > R.Schumacher  
Frentzen    > 0.238 > Trulli        
Verstappen  > 0.111 > Bernoldi      
Hakkinen    > 0.059 > Coulthard     
Marques     > 0.059 > Alonso        
Heidfeld    > 0.036 > Raikkonen     
                                    
French Differentials                
--------------------                
Slower        Diff.   Faster        
Barrichello > 0.868 > M.Schumacher  
Alesi       > 0.702 > Burti         
Montoya     > 0.636 > R.Schumacher  
de la Rosa  > 0.579 > Irvine        
Frentzen    > 0.505 > Trulli        
Marques     > 0.461 > Alonso        
Raikkonen   > 0.441 > Heidfeld      
Button      > 0.200 > Fisichella    
Bernoldi    > 0.121 > Verstappen    
Panis       > 0.085 > Villeneuve    
Hakkinen    > 0.082 > Coulthard     
                                    
Average Differentials through France
------------------------------------
Slower        Diff.   Faster        
Marques     > 0.936 > Alonso        
de la Rosa  > 0.725 > Irvine        
Montoya     > 0.559 > R.Schumacher  
Button      > 0.556 > Fisichella    
Barrichello > 0.450 > M.Schumacher  
Burti       > 0.424 > Alesi         
Frentzen    > 0.264 > Trulli        
Bernoldi    > 0.127 > Verstappen    
Raikkonen   > 0.109 > Heidfeld      
Villeneuve  > 0.013 > Panis         
Coulthard   > 0.008 > Hakkinen      

The average gap between teammates in France was 0.425 (as opposed to 0.400 last year) and in the Nurburging it was 0.455 (as opposed to 0.546 last year). This, compared to Canada, where the gap was 0.544; or Monaco, where the gap was 0.839s; Austria, where the gap was 0.436; Spain - 0.480s; 0.715s at the San Marino Grand Prix; 0.25s in Brazil; 0.588 in Malaysia; and 0.852 in Australia.