Bahrain Qualifying Prediction

[DazzlaF1]

OK I know qualifying is as unpredictable as anything but looking at pre-season testing, how do you think the grid will shape up

Here's my prediction

ROW 1: 1. Alonso, 2. Hamilton
ROW 2: 3. Vettel, 4. Button
ROW 3: 5. Webber, 6. Massa
ROW 4: 7. Rosberg, 8. Kobayashi
ROW 5: 9. Barrichello, 10. Schumacher
ROW 6: 11. Hulkenberg, 12. Sutil
ROW 7: 13. Kubica, 14. Buemi
ROW 8: 15. de la Rosa, 16. Liuzzi
ROW 9: 17. Trulli, 18. Alguersuari
ROW 10: 19. Petrov, 20. Glock
ROW 11: 21. Kovalainen, 22. di Grassi
ROW 12: 23. Senna, 24. Chandhok

[Sonic]

Well I haven't got a clue for most of the grid but I'm gonna predict two saubers in Q3. From reports they are the only team who appear able to run a long first stint on the softer compounds so they may be one of the only "top teams" to go for the softer tyres in final Qualifying.

[V12]

Here's my stab:

ROW 1: 1. Hamilton, 2. Massa
ROW 2: 3. Alonso, 4. Vettel
ROW 3: 5. de la Rosa, 6. Button
ROW 4: 7. Schumacher, 8. Rosberg
ROW 5: 9. Kubica, 10. Hulkenberg
ROW 6: 11. Sutil, 12. Barrichello
ROW 7: 13. Kobayashi, 14. Buemi
ROW 8: 15. Alguersuari, 16. Liuzzi
ROW 9: 17. Trulli, 18. Petrov
ROW 10: 19. Kovalainen, 20. Glock
ROW 11: 21. di Grassi, 22. Senna
ROW 12: 23. Chandhok, 24. Webber

I have a feeling someone who you would expect to be towards the front to have mechanical problems, fail to set a representative time and not make it out of Q1, I'm going to go with Webber for no other reason than his "unlucky" reputation.

All the new teams will be clearly off the pace of the slowest of the established teams, (without being embarrassingly or dangerously so as some have suggested though), but Trulli will probably stick it past one of them. Pre-BMW, Sauber always used to stick someone unexpectedly high up the grid first time out, then fade as the year went on, I'm having a guess that this little tradition will resume :)

[steveaki13]

ROW 1: 1. Hamilton 2. Alonso
ROW 2: 3. Massa 4. Vettel
ROW 3: 5. Button 6. Rosberg
ROW 4: 7. Schumacher 8. Barrichello
ROW 5: 9. Webber 10. Kobayashi
ROW 6: 11. De La Rosa 12. Buemi
ROW 7: 13. Hulkenberg 14. Kubica
ROW 8: 15. Sutil 16. Liuzzi
ROW 9: 17. Alguersuari 18. Trulli
ROW 10: 19. Petrov 20. Kovalainen
ROW 11: 21. Glock 22. Di Grassi
ROW 12: 23. Senna 24. Chandock

[UltimateDanGTR]

i predict the first four rows will be locked out by mercedes, mclaren, ferrari and red bull. beyond that, I have no clue. Id take an off the wall guess of Vettel on pole but i dont trust that too well, its impossible to say at this point. and thats BRILLIANT!

[truefan72]

ROW 1: 1. Alonso, 2. Hamilton
ROW 2: 3. Vettel, 4. Webber
ROW 3: 5. Button, 6. Massa
ROW 4: 7. Rosberg, 8. Schumacher
ROW 5: 9. Kobayashi, 10. Hulkenberg
ROW 6: 11. Barrichello, 12. Sutil
ROW 7: 13. de la Rosa, 14. Buemi
ROW 8: 15. Kubica, 16. Liuzzi
ROW 9: 17. Trulli, 18. Petrov
ROW 10: 19. Alguersuari, 20. Glock
ROW 11: 21. Kovalainen, 22. di Grassi
ROW 12: 23. Senna, 24. Chandhok

top 2 are interchangeable to me, and massa could also be in the mix, he usually qualifies well in Bahrain, but then again the track is different this year.
if it turns out this way, I still give a slight edge to Hamilton for the race

...then again anything is possible and we could see kobayashi and PDLR in the top 3. The point is, I really don't know what's going to happen LOL

[F1boat]

1 Massa
2 Alonso
3 M Schumacher
4 Hamilton
5 Button
6 Vettel
7 Rosberg
8 Barrichello
9 Webber
10 Kubica

Probably my pred is a total rubbish, but we'll see. :-)

[Cozzie]

ROW 1: 1. Alonso, 2. Vettel
ROW 2: 3. Massa, 4. Hamilton
ROW 3: 5. Webber, 6. Sutil
ROW 4: 7. Schumacher, 8. Kobayashi
ROW 5: 9. Button, 10. Rosberg
ROW 6: 11. Barrichello, 12. de la Rosa
ROW 7: 13. Kubica, 14. Hulkenberg
ROW 8: 15. Liuzzi, 16. Buemi
ROW 9: 17. Alguersuari, 18. Trulli
ROW 10: 19. Petrov, 20. Glock
ROW 11: 21. Kovalainen, 22. di Grassi
ROW 12: 23. Senna, 24. Chandhok

[jens]

Hmm, interesting thread. :D It's going to be quite tricky and considering, how tight the field is, I think we are going to see a few surprises if one can call them so (like Button and a Mercedes failing to reach Q3). I certainly don't expect the so-called Top 4 teams to occupy Top8 grid slots and we are always going to see some fluctuations from that point of view. Unlike others I must say that new teams have realistically no hope in hell in beating any of the cars from established teams on merit - they are at least 2 secs per lap slower than the slowest "old team".

Kobayashi is behind de la Rosa, because in his two F1 GP's he hasn't shown himself much of a quali-man - his strength was racing. Massa behind Alonso in quali? Well, I'm going with last year's trend on slick tyres, when Massa was actually better at racing than in qualifying! I have a suspicion that an outsider team might spring a surprise in Q3 by qualifying into Top3 after opting for soft tyres instead of hard ones that others might choose - if the latest information about a tyre-conserving Sauber is anything to go by, it might be them opting for that. But I didn't gamble on that now, because I'm not entirely sure, how will the tyre strategies pan out!

Provided no-one has failures during Q:
1 Vettel, 2 Alonso
3 Webber, 4 Hamilton
5 Sutil, 6 Massa
7 de la Rosa, 8 Rosberg
9 Hülkenberg, 10 Buemi
11 Button, 12 Kubica
13 Schumacher, 14 Kobayashi
15 Liuzzi, 16 Barrichello
17 Alguersuari, 18 Petrov
19 Trulli, 20 Glock
21 Kovalainen, 22 Senna
23 di Grassi, 24 Chandhok

[Mark]

You always find the first race of the year the pickems are very low scoring, then they work their way up from there as people get some idea of the form.