Schumacher back to old form with a 1 second blast.

By Parminio
March 21 2003

With the wildness and wierdness of the Australian Grand Prix, all eyes were on Fridays qualifying to see what would happen...and more importantly, how close it would be. It wasn't close.

McLaren and Williams, as I predicted earlier, came up short today in qualifying by a second. The first qualifying of the year in Australia showed us down less than two tenths to the Ferrari, but Australia being a very dirty track, that is understandable. Ferrari’s one second lead does not bode well for a good finish at Malaysia. Taking into account that they also set the fastest speed of the day at 305+kph, it appears that even Williams is down on power to the Ferrari.

The big test will be: Who qualifies on what fuel load. This is going to be interesting. Should Ferrari get the pole, there is little doubt that they will walk away with the race…unless of course some odd accident happens or we get a couple of safety cars to help us out once more.

McLaren are still in good shape for a podium however, with Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard right behind Juan Pablo Montoya’s BMW. One slip from Montoya, and a McLaren gets 3rd.

We’ll see how qualifying goes, but one thing is certain: We can NOT afford to start this race from 11th and 15th on the grid.

Friday’s Qualifying Times:
1. 1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari B 1'34"980 210.095 Km/h 3
2. 2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari B 1'35"681 + 0'00"701 3
3. 3 MONTOYA Williams BMW M 1'35"939 + 0'00"959 3
4. 6 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes M 1'36"038 + 0'01"058 3
5. 5 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes M 1'36"297 + 0'01"317 3
6. 7 TRULLI Renault M 1'36"301 + 0'01"321 3
7. 9 HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas B 1'36"407 + 0'01"427 3
8. 10 FRENTZEN Sauber Petronas B 1'36"615 + 0'01"635 3
9. 17 BUTTON BAR Honda B 1'36"632 + 0'01"652 3
10. 8 ALONSO Renault M 1'36"693 + 0'01"713 3
11. 21 DA MATTA Toyota M 1'36"706 + 0'01"726 3
12. 11 FISICHELLA Jordan Ford B 1'36"759 + 0'01"779 3
13. 4 R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW M 1'36"805 + 0'01"825 3
14. 20 PANIS Toyota M 1'36"995 + 0'02"015 3
15. 16 VILLENEUVE BAR Honda B 1'37"585 + 0'02"605 3
16. 14 WEBBER Jaguar Cosworth M 1'37"669 + 0'02"689 3
17. 12 FIRMAN Jordan Ford B 1'38"240 + 0'03"260 3
18. 19 VERSTAPPEN Minardi Cosworth B 1'38"904 + 0'03"924 3
19. 18 WILSON Minardi Cosworth B 1'39"354 + 0'04"374 3
20. 15 PIZZONIA Jaguar Cosworth M 1 lap(s) 1