Success!!!
I would suggest that the new road course qualifying system was indeed a success.
Helio Castroneves will be the first member of the fan club seeing as he made the
'Fast Six' on his last lap. Conversley Oriol Servia will be calling for it to be abolished
after he lost sixth position to Helio at the death.
The format really seemed to work correctly and it was exciting from the start of the
opening session. The timing of each session is crucial and it is really hard to get a clean
and clear lap while the tires are at their best.
Champ Car refugees can be delighted with their contributions to the whole affair, as
Wilson and Power took positions two and three. Ryan Hunter Reay was on the pace for
all three sessions and will start on the third row cementing my belief that he is the USA's
finest racing driver. Marco Andretti's failure to make the 'Fast Six' woud not have been
expected based on his pace in unofficial practice and he has to be content with 12th.
The performance of Tony Kanaan in grabbing pole was as about as unsuprising as Scott
Dixon's qualifing effort was shocking, he didn't even make it out of his first qualifying group
and will start one place behind Marco in 13th.
The whole system was highly enetertaining and has produced a grid which will ensure
a fair degree of fireworks come Sunday afternoon.
Enjoy.
1 – Tony Kanaan, 1:02.5322
2 – Will Power, 1:02.6096
3 – Justin Wilson, 1:02.6426
4 – Helio Castroneves, 1:02.6462
5 – Ryan Briscoe, 1:02.7071
6 – Ryan Hunter-Reay, 1:03.0077
-----------------------------
7 – Oriol Servia, 1:02.7427
8 – Dan Wheldon, 1:02.7964
9 – ® Graham Rahal, 1:02.8122
10 – ® Franck Perera, 1:02.8749
11 – Darren Manning, 1:03.0136
12 – Marco Andretti, 1:03.2443
-----------------------------
13 – Scott Dixon, 1:03.2365
14 – Hideki Mutoh, 1:03.2757
15 – Ernesto Viso, 1:03.3067
16 – Buddy Rice, 1:03.3591
17 – Vitor Meira, 1:03.4480
18 – ® Enrique Bernoldi, 1:03.4568
19 – Danica Patrick, 1:03.5766
20 – ® Jay Howard, 1:03.7447
21 – Ed Carpenter, 1:03.8007
22 – ® Mario Moraes, 1:04.1590
23 – Townsend Bell, 1:04.3880
24 – A.J. Foyt IV, 1:04.4996
25 – Marty Roth, 1:07.7041
26 – Bruno Junqueira, 1:09.3851
PS - I got four of the 'Fast Six' right, so I'm rather pleased with myself.
"My Response... not brought to you by Goodyear"
ReplyDeleteI think this new system was a great move forward. The only change I would make is to split the initial groups by odds/evens depending on either best practice laps or overall points standing. I prefer the latter. A random draw is not needed, or wanted. It should be equally difficult getting out of either group. Random draw can create one group stronger than another. A weaker driver coming out of a weaker group into the next session will get dumped anyway in the next round and just be a nuisance for the faster drivers from the other group that didn't get out of their round.
And on another note, I think Danica should have her ballast removed. It is not fair. She can't run up front anymore. :)
Cheers,
Doug