NewsOnF1 - 2001 San Marino GP - Qualifying Report

David Coulthard takes pole position for the San Marino Grand Prix ahead of team-mate Mika Hakkinen. Ralf Schumacher was 3rd ahead of Michael Schumacher while Jarno Trulli was 5th ahead of Rubens Barrichello.

David Coulthard's pole is almost 1.7 seconds faster than the pole time last year and is faster than the pole time set in 97 on slick tyres. The top 10 drivers set times that were quicker than pole position last year.

The session was run under dry conditions which were different from all the practice sessions this weekend except for one. The Ferrari dominance disappeared although there is talk that they were using a harder compound tyre compared with the rest of the Bridgestone runners. In any case, it was David Coulthard who broke the winning streak for Michael in Brazil and it was Coulthard again who broke the pole streak for Michael keeping Ayrton Senna's record of 8 consecutive pole positions intact.

The session was very interesting as there were fears that it could rain, all the teams went out early and put in a quick lap. Ferrari decided to go for 2 flying laps per run limiting their runs to just 3 while all the other top teams went for the normal 1 flying lap per run allowing them 4 runs.

Michael Schumacher set the early pace but 45 minutes into the session Mika Hakkinen knocked him off. It remained that way until the final minute when David Coulthard managed to put a very fast lap and took pole. Hakkinen improved but couldn't match Coulthard's time while Michael Schumacher also improved but remained in 3rd. Ralf Schumacher was behind him on the final lap and managed to get a time quicker than his older brother.

Ralf Schumacher is only 0.3 seconds off the pace while Michael Schumacher is over half a second off. Juan Pablo Montoya in 7th place is over a second behind.

Jarno Trulli was impressive as he managed to mix it with the top 3 teams indicating that Honda are not that far behind. Kimi Raikkonen was also a sensation managing to qualify in the top 10 and ahead of his team-mate on his first ever appearance here. Finally Fernando Alonso in the Minardi managed a respectable 18th place ahead of both Benettons and a Prost.

In the battle of the team-mates, several so called "second" drivers have outqualified their team-mates. Trulli over Frentzen by 0.778 seconds. Panis over Villeneuve by 0.556 seconds, Raikkonen over Hiedfeld by 0.336 seconds, Bernoldi over Verstappen by 0.19 seconds and of course Coulthard over Hakkinen by 0.228 seconds.
The biggest gap between team-mates was that of Alesi over Mazzacane with a massive 2.339 seconds. The next biggest gap was between Alonso and Marques with 1.426 seconds between them while Jenson Button was 0.856 seconds behind his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella.
The closest team-mates were Irvine (13th) and Burti (15) with a gap of just 0.18 seconds and given that Burti only had 2 laps in practice today and this is a new track from him, Irvine should be worried!.

The race will be interesting as this track is hard on brakes and if Ferrari are actually using a harder compound then the pit strategies will be different. This track is one of the hardest to overtake on so a good start will be an advantage.

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Session	2001			2000
First Friday Practice	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Second Friday Practice	Results	Report	Notes	Results
First Saturday Practice	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Second Saturday Practice	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Qualifying	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Warm-up	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Race	Results	Report	Notes	Results
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