New qualifying format gets thumbs up

A red flag incident caused by Kimi Raikkonen's crash in the first session, some surprises including Ralf Schumacher getting knocked out in the first run, and a close fight for overall pole delivered the excitement that so many in the sport had hoped for.

Honda Racing boss Nick Fry said: "My heart is still running at 120bpm. The first part for us was nerve-wracking, but overall it was fantastic.

"Kimi having his problems sent us into a panic trying to read just the strategy, but that is the fun of it. I am sure it will happen many times, but that is exactly what the qualifying system is designed for.

"You must remember this is the first try. I think we might want to make some small adjustments, and maybe the television companies can think of ways to improve it."

Frank Williams added: "It was pretty good. There were more cars on the track than we have seen for years.

"Even the last 20 minutes were good. It was a mental test for people to understand who was doing exactly what.

"And perhaps it gave the engineers around the place a bit of an insight to time the gas going in at other teams and try and work out what sort of fuel strategy people are running."

Williams believed the one area that may need tweaking is the final 20-minute session, where drivers spent much of the time lapping slowly in a bid to burn off fuel.

"It depends what reaction you get to seeing the last 10 cars going around eight seconds off the pace with no attempt to overtake. It is, despite the mantra to save money, rather wasteful.  

"It is not a direct criticism but it is rather wasteful. But if it is the end game that qualifying succeeds then it doesn't matter."

Renault director of engineering Pat Symonds believed that teams were likely to alter their qualifying strategies for the next race - especially with Raikkonen's red flag moment indicating the dangers of not setting a banker lap early in the session.

"We did a complete simulation of qualifying in Barcelona recently and we probably learned about 1,000 lessons there and another 500 today," he said.

"We have been discussing about whether to put in a banker lap, but the truth is you have got a limitation on engine mileage. So, if you put in that lap, then you have to take it off somewhere else because you are limited with the running we do on Friday and Saturday morning.

"I really need to do all the analysis at the end of the weekend but I think at the end of the day we are going to have to lose a bit of running on Friday or Saturday for Q2 but not necessarily for Q1."