Quali was a scorcher yesterday, Adrian Sutil taking a the fastest time to the applause of Force India fans everywhere - for about 15 seconds. Then his (best) mate Lewis Hamilton took it off him to claim pole at the last minute.
Looking at the fuel loads and relative quali performances we are set for a thrilling race this afternoon. Hamilton, Sutil and P3 man Raikkonen are all stopping twice. It is likely that Sutil will be passed at the start thanks to the Ferrari's KERS. Kimi has aboput three laps more fuel than Hamilton and this could be a great duel - you lose a lot of time in the pits here so if Kimi can bang in three quick laps Schumi style he could leapfrog the Brit.
But the guy on the best strategy is Heikki Kovalainen. He's one-stopping and is P4. His performance was slightly better than The Ham's given their respective fuel loads. The question is, can he keep pushing for a full race distance? Heikki can fade...
Barrichello, in P5, also put in a mega effort and would be a good bet for the win. However, his gearbox is being looked at at the moment and if he does have to change it (after the fire he has in Spa) then it'll cost him five places. Jenson Button is P6 and happy with that, largely because the Red Bulls are 9th and 10th - I don't think they can do anything from there.
Tonio Liuzzi is P7 - a great drive given he's hardly driven an F1 car since March and hasn't qualified since Brazil 2007.
Fernando Alonso is P8 and has KERS so he could conceivably pass Liuzzi and the Brawns and be P5 by the second chicane.
My predictions:
1. Kimi Raikkonen
2. Lewis Hamilton
3. Heikki Kovalainen
Good post, thanks