Gosh I was more than happy when this weekend finally arrived and the massive 4-week summer break was over at last! And there´s always some extra anticipation in the air from a Finnish point of view as Kimi has clinched victory four times at Spa Francorchamps :) Though I have to admit that this is a weekend with mixed emotions. My father has just been diagnosed with cancer so it´s these moments that remind that although Formula 1 means a world to me there´re also things more important than that... Today I drove to my parents´ house with my three sons and watched the qualifying together with my father, who is a huge Formula 1 fan as well.
Luckily the weather was sunny and the track was dry today. The surprise name eliminated after Q1 was Mercedes´s Nico Rosberg who was left in P18. Lotus´s Grosjean was right on the edge as well as there were only 55 thousandths of a second that separated Rosberg and Grosjean in P17! Kimi´s pace seemed a lot more promising although Lotus had decided not to use the brand new "double DRS" at Spa due to the lack of testing. Such a shame that it had been pouring rain the whole Friday because I´d have been sooo eager to know how fast the new system would have made the E20...
From my point of view Q2 was disappointing! Kimi seemed to be flying and everything seemed fantastic for the Iceman but Sebastian at the wheel of his RB8 didn´t make it to the top 10! What makes me really worried about his situation is that he didn´t actually make any clear mistakes on his flying laps and the car had felt quite good in his opinion... Seb told that he simply wasn´t quick enough. Doesn´t sound comfortable at all! It´s hard to know what to fix in the car if there isn´t any clear issue in the car... I just keep my fingers crossed that Red Bull will be able to come up with some magical solution tomorrow... Massa, Schumacher and Senna were out of Q3 as well.
Q3 was surprising. I hoped from the bottom of my heart that Kimi would be quick enough to fight for pole but not this time unfortunately. Button in his McLaren "came from nowhere" and clinched pole after a disappointing and difficult first half of the season! Kobayashi completed the first row which was a huge surprise as well. Maldonado in his Williams qualified 3rd but after the quali he was handed a 3-place grid penalty due to impeding Hulkenberg in Q1. Kimi was 4th fastest but he´ll start the race in P3 on the clean side of the track due to Maldonado´s penalty. Kimi was also investigated by the stewards for shortcutting at Eau Rouge but no penalties were given for the Iceman -thank God! Perez will start in P4 and Alonso in P5. Hamilton qualified 7th and Grosjean 8th. McLaren has brought a new rear wing to Spa but after this morning´s P3 Hamilton decided not to use the new wing at qualifying. That obviously turned out to be a wrong call as Button seemed to be flying!
Webber and Rosberg have both got 5-place grid penalties for a gear-box change. Webber will start in P12 so Red Bull have a lot of work to do tomorrow! Luckily Maldonado got a penalty, I mean to be honest, I was VERY worried about Kimi starting right behind Kobayashi and Maldonado who both have a reputation of causing collisions... Kimi has an excellent chance to win tomorrow. He has snatched victory starting from P10 so tomorrow´s race should be like a walk in a park :) SHOULD be... But you never know what will happen and how scaringly fast Button will be with his new rear wing! But Lotus´s race pace has been consistent and superb throughout the whole season and with Kimi behind the wheel... There´s something magical about Kimi and Spa. Even the Finnish Formula 1 commentator and ex F1 driver Mika Salo said that he was amazed by Kimi´s brave driving today. Kimi drove through the Blancimont corner with his DRS open which not every driver is brave enough to do! So Kimi is capable of doing miracles tomorrow, that´s for sure!
Sebastian has every opprtunity to fight for the podium places tomorrow. His clear target is to finish ahead of Alonso. The more further ahead of the Spaniard the better!
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