Ferrari's Chances Dashed By The Rain
By Dale Calkins
October 8 2005
Ferrari was looking strong this weekend, but extremely bad luck would see them all the way down during qualifying in Japan. Rubens Barrichello just put in a poor lap for 9th but Michael Schumacher had to tackle the river-like track in the rain and was down in 14th.
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Ferrari's Chances Dashed By The Rain |
Dale Calkins |
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Michael
Schumacher Q: 14th - 1'52.676 Michael Schumacher was rather uncertain of how well he and Ferrari would do in the Japanese Grand Prix but early sessions were promising. Unfortunately the rain ruined their chances and they were far down the time sheets. Michael was hit hardest of the two drivers as the rain started to come down extremely hard during his lap. Schumacher was lucky enough to keep his F2005 on the track, let alone beat some drivers, albeit a Minardi and others hurt by the rain. No matter what Schumacher does in the race, it should be extremely exciting. Here is what the 7-Time World Champion had to say about his qualifying run at Suzuka: "The rain arrived just as I had to start my run, which meant it was too late to fit the extreme wet tyres, so basically, all I could do was swim for home! In fact, in the first sector the rain was not so heavy that it would have justified the extreme rain tyres, although it certainly was on the rest of the lap. I think it is fair for to claim I was hit with bad luck today. This morning, we were very competitive, so in my mind, I was aiming for pole position. My accident in the morning was caused by a combination of riding the kerbs and aquaplaning. With a grid like this, it should be an interesting race tomorrow. I am happy for Ralf, who did a great job to take pole." Rubens Barrichello Q: 9th - 1'48.248 Rubens Barrichello did not seem to be trying very hard during his qualifying lap as he was in 9th in far more dry conditions than Schumacher. Here is what the Brazilian had to say after his session: "There are two ways of looking at my qualifying. On the positive side, I was probably one of the last guys to make my run when the track was a little bit better with not too much rain. However, on the negative side, it meant that we were out on track in conditions where our package does not perform as well as it did in the past. On normal wets, the balance of the car felt a lot worse than it did in the morning when we ran with extreme wets." Ross Brawn Technical Director Ferrari's Technical Director Ross Brawn, was not pleased with today's rainy session but remains confident of a decent race. Here is what Ross had to say about the qualifying session: "I don’t know what we could have done today in these conditions. It was just a lottery in which we did not pull out any winning tickets. It’s very frustrating. That was particularly the case with Michael, as the rain really got stronger just as he went out of the pits, which was very frustrating as this morning on extreme wets, before his accident he was very quick. It will be an interesting race tomorrow with the top four guys in the world championship starting at the back of the grid. It could be interesting or it could spoil the race. That is the problem with the current qualifying system when the weather changes like this." |
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October 8, 2005 |
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