Raikkonen poleaxes Massa

Felipe's qualifying may have been stymied by an engine change, but Kimi had drawn first blood before the session started.
MARK HUGHES reports

All through Friday and into Saturday morning Felipe Massa was carrying himself with the assurance of someone who knew he had the edge, a guy on the verge of a whole new level of success. Every gesture, every strut through the garage told you that. He'd spent the winter testing what was surely Formula 1's fastest car - the Ferrari F2007 - and driven it consistently faster than new team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. He arrived in Melbourne as The Man.

It can therefore be imagined just what a psychological killer blow Raikkonen's going fastest in the final practice session was, 0.483 seconds faster. It wasn't like-for-like in terms of fuel load, tyres and track temperature.

But it was a bigger margin than it should have been. So, having been faster all through the winter, after all those weeks of assuming he had his team-mate handled, in the very last session before qualifying was due to begin Raikkonen suddenly went a lot faster. Massa was no longer strutting. He was hunched, shoulders up, eyebrows down.

Come qualifying and we never got to find out how this crucial intra-team struggle would have resolved itself. At the end of the practice session Ferrari had found damage to Massa's seventh gear. This is the new seamless shift gearbox that has performed solidly throughout the winter, but which is a major technological step from last year.

The electronic/hydraulic timing is more crucial than ever with these units. One millisecond wrong and you've got a broken gear or shaft. The gear was replaced but worryingly no cause had been established for the failure as they headed into qualifying. Another thing to fill Massa's head, another distraction.

The problem inevitably reoccurred in Q2, denying Massa a representative lap - and Raikkonen duly strolled to a resounding pole. "The car's still not that great," Kimi said before he'd even got out the car, as Massa stood disconsolate in the garage.

Raikkonen didn't like the less alert balance of the car when fitted with new tyres, didn't like how the front didn't respond even though it was grippier. Nonetheless he was the first Ferrari debutant since Fangio in 1956 to secure pole.

As a result of the gearbox glitch, Massa's motor suffered what engine chief Gilles Simon described as "a severe moment", so it was changed as a precaution, dropping him from 15th to the back of the grid.

Yet the Ferrari intra-team dynamics were shaded by those at McLaren where Lewis Hamilton made a remarkable F1 debut. Lap for lap throughout the weekend, at a circuit he'd never seen before, he was every bit as fast - sometimes even faster - than Fernando Alonso and never put a wheel out of place.

Ultimately Fernando qualified second and Hamilton fourth - split by Nick Heidfeld's light BMW - but it was only decided in the champion's favour by a small moment at turn 12 for Lewis on his final run. In Q1 he'd been faster. In Q2 he did just one new tyre run, and it was faster than Alonso's. Fernando bolted on another new set of the Bridgestone softs and eclipsed the time - as if he wasn't prepared to be upstaged. "No, it was planned," said Fernando. "I wanted to compare two different set-ups."

Into Q3 and with his preferred set-up, Alonso finally established a small advantage, quicker than Hamilton in the first new tyre run by 0.1sec and in the second by 0.2sec as Lewis had that small turn 12 moment. "I'm still not getting the best from the car and tyres," said Alonso. "It's been a double job understanding both and sometimes it's got a bit confusing. But it's getting better and this is a great start." Hamilton was positively beaming, understandably so.

Heidfeld did a great, professional job as BMW confirmed its winter testing promise. He slotted the F1.07 less than a tenth behind Alonso, despite being unhappy with the handling balance on new tyres. He was, however, aided by a fuel load around 12kg lighter than Raikkonen's, worth around 0.4sec. Team-mate Robert Kubica's chances of improving were blown when he was sent out 1sec too late for his final new tyre run, preventing him getting to the startline before the chequer. His previous run left him fifth overall.

Renault estimated that getting baulked by Takuma Sato on his final new tyre run cost Giancarlo Fisichella 0.4sec. This wouldn't have moved the Renault up from its sixth place grid position. Getting one-lap pace on new rubber was proving elusive - much the pattern seen in testing. Fisi and team-mate Heikki Kovalainen lost practice track time to fuel pump failures, Heikki particularly stymied as he tried to learn the track.

He never really got the R27 dialled in, and drove like someone who didn't have confidence in what was beneath him. He couldn't commit to high entry speed and was then having to jiggle the steering on entry just to get some feel. He'd found the R27 a handful in the practices too, with lots of grassy moments as he tried to make sense of it. It was a tough break on a day when fellow rookie Hamilton was causing such a sensation. It left him unable to get through to Q3, lining up 13th.

Mark Webber did his usual dynamic qualifying job to get the Red Bull RB3 through to Q3 where he proceeded to go seventh quickest, well adrift of Fisi's Renault but well clear of the Toyotas of Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli. The TF107s had fundamental grip problems, the front ends having to be set so stiff that they gave the drivers no feel and made for a reluctance to turn in.

Fuel weight corrected, they were 2.0sec off the pace and both drivers did well to get into Q3 at all. But at least they were faster than the Hondas - Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello were left floundering in 14th and 17th with a car that couldn't use its tyres consistently over a single lap, moving from understeer through to oversteer as the lap unfolded.

Takuma Sato made it a fairy tale for Super Aguri by getting into Q3 and qualifying 10th. Team-mate Anthony Davidson just lost out, not getting his lap together at the critical time, though he was still quicker than both Williams. Had he repeated his sensational morning practice time, he'd have been comfortably in.