A Close Thing
Qualifying analysis, by Michele Lupini
It's been a hell of a long time since there have been eight cars within a second of each other on a Formula grid. But despite that, it's the same man on pole that's been there all year so far. And Mika Hakkinen had to work for his money again today, pulling out another masterly last section to drag the McLaren-Mercedes up from fifth to his customary pole.
Eddie Irvine smiled at the Ferrari pitwall camp, gesticulating in a typical Italo-Irish hunch when Mika had just pipped his provisional best.
It had been a typically hard session, following a harsh, windy couple of days at Barcelona. But Jean Alesi wasn't phased, setting a stunning time on his first run. It wasn't to be challenged until much later in the session, and he wouldn't repeat it again either. Significantly, Jean wasn't quickest of all in any of the sectors, but the total of three damn good ones saw the Sauber in an unfamiliar position. Did this give credence to predictions that the rest would be closer, following very close times at testing there all through the year?
Despite impressive attempts by Hakkinen, Michael Schumacher, Irvine and David Coulthard, Jean remained on top, albeit by a couple of thousandths of a second, until two-thirds into the session. Schumacher then put the Ferrari ahead, also just by a few thousandths. Then Coulthard pulled one out of the bag, he too pipping Michael by three hundredths of a second, his pace was all hinged around that last sector. His pole never lasted long, before Eddie blasted one in to take provisional pole on his last lap.
But Mika wasn't prepared to break his perfect pole record this year, pulling that mammoth last sector out of the bag to take pole by what was on the day, a big margin of 0.131 seconds.
Well off last year's pole for the first time this year, it's a breath of fresh air to notice that Mika was half a second clear of Coulthard in second last year, and over a second quicker than third placed Schumacher. Suppose one could say the tyres could just be achieving their objectives of closing up the field.
Behind the big four, Alesi's time was good for fifth, from another good session by Jacques Villeneuve in the BAR - it'll be great to see Jacques up front again, especially after his Imola disappointment. Rubens Barrichello clearly had a difficult time in the Stewart, but made up with a late seventh to displace Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Jordan and Ralf Schumacher in the Williams, who rounded off the top ten.
Damon Hill in 11th, Pedro Diniz 12th, Johnny Herbert (14th) and Olivier Panis (15th) couldn't match their respective teammates' top ten performances, but Giancarlo Fisichella in 13th was the leading Benetton, indicating a troubled time for the team. Mika Salo and Alex Zanardi were well off the pace, as was Alex Wurz in 16th, 17th and 18th respectively. The regular tail enders saw the local men leading both teams, Pedro de la Rosa ahead of Tora Takagi at Arrows, and Marc Gene leading Luca Badoer at Minardi
Barcelona will see the regular 1999 pole man, Mika Hakkinen, start from the front again tomorrow, but the fact that he's only a second ahead of the 8th man, and the championship-dominating Ferraris are both under two tenths behind, indicates fireworks tomorrow. With so many cars so close for once, anything can happen...