By Marcel Borsboom, Netherlands
Atlas F1 Magazine Writer

For the entire season, Atlas F1 kept an eye on the battle between teammates with a simple measurement: comparing the qualifying times of each driver against his teammate's. Now that the season is over it's time to see who's hot and who's not...

So let's see who is the absolute king, the champion of champions, the driver who trashed his teammate to the ground! And the winner is...

Averages through the Japanese Grand Prix ---------------------------------------- Slower Diff. Faster Yoong > 1.446 > Alonso Enge > 1.438 > Frentzen Barrichello > 0.600 > M.Schumacher Alesi > 0.513 > Trulli Button > 0.504 > Fisichella de la Rosa > 0.291 > Irvine Montoya > 0.290 > R.Schumacher Bernoldi > 0.137 > Verstappen Coulthard > 0.109 > Hakkinen Raikkonen > 0.104 > Heidfeld Panis > 0.100 > Villeneuve

Now hang on a minute there, Fernando! Sorry, you can't have the Mumm's Champagne, and not just because you're underaged. Considering Alex Yoong only participated in three qualifying sessions, the result for Alonso-Yoong is disqualified, since the rules of the Atlas F1 QD state that only those who participate in at least 15 of the 17 rounds are eligible for the contest. And 2001 had many, too many partial-participants:

Partial Season Participants --------------------------- Slower Diff. Faster Burti > 2.855 > Frentzen Mazzacane > 1.482 > Alesi Yoong > 1.446 > Alonso Enge > 1.438 > Frentzen Zonta > 1.100 > Trulli Marques > 1.047 > Alonso Burti > 0.817 > Irvine Alesi > 0.513 > Trulli Burti > 0.420 > Alesi Frentzen > 0.266 > Trulli

So who is the winner? Well, taking into account only those pairs who fought against each other for the entire year, and scrapping the best and the worst result to weed out the freak occurences, we now give you the 2001 Qualifying Differentials Champion:

Best and worst results not counted ---------------------------------- Slower Diff. Faster Barrichello > 0.521 > M.Schumacher Button > 0.403 > Fisichella Montoya > 0.283 > R.Schumacher Bernoldi > 0.097 > Verstappen Coulthard > 0.085 > Hakkinen Raikkonen > 0.076 > Heidfeld Panis > 0.046 > Villeneuve

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Kid from Kerpen has notched up yet another title - Michael Schumacher, Formula One World Champion, has made the double and is now the 2001 Qualifying Differentials Champion as well.

To emphasise just how dominant Schumacher was this year in the intra-team competition, take a look at the Qualifying Duel:

The Qualfying Duel ------------------ M.Schumacher 16 1 Barrichello Fisichella 13 4 Button R.Schumacher 11 6 Montoya Villeneuve 11 6 Panis Alonso 11 3 Marques Bernoldi 10 7 Verstappen Heidfeld 10 7 Raikkonen Hakkinen 9 8 Coulthard Trulli 9 1 Frentzen Irvine 7 6 de la Rosa Alesi 5 3 Burti Alesi 4 0 Mazzacane Irvine 4 0 Burti Trulli 4 1 Alesi Alonso 3 0 Yoong Frentzen 3 0 Enge Trulli 2 0 Zonta Frentzen 2 0 Burti

So there you have it, folks, the Qualifying Differentials for 2001. And, just quickly before we close the book on the season that was, here's a last look at the average differentials for each Grand Prix:

Average Differences ------------------- Belgium 1.434 Australia 0.852 Monaco 0.839 San Marino 0.715 Hungary 0.664 Japan 0.640 Italy 0.607 Malaysia 0.588 Canada 0.544 Britain 0.521 USA 0.507 Spain 0.480 Europe 0.455 Austria 0.436 France 0.425 Germany 0.402 Brazil 0.250

See you in 2002!