Qual was exciting. Q2 seems to be more intense now.
There's never going to be a perfect qual format, but they seem to have it as right as possible now. Shortening Q3 made sense, 'cause the first ten minutes before was just about burning fuel. It does mean that the big action happens in the closing minutes of the sessions, and what suffers is that the cameras can't possibly follow enough cars at the same time when they're all on a final lap to pip the spot. The second reason imho it suffers a bit is that you don't know the fuel loads in Q3, so you don't know for sure, e.g. Kubica today, if someone has made a good time because they're fueled light. I think they should have to decide and publicize their fuel loads beforehand. Everybody would have to release their fuel info at the same time.
Still, the qual format is probably better than any they had before. The old single runner and single hot lap format stunk. The old old everyone has an hour and you can go out and qualify whenever you want was ok, but it sure didn't have the intensity.
I agree ... it will be interesting to see if the Ferraris, in particular Kimi, can work their way up. One wonders if they are going to have reliability issues this year.
This is a great thread. Let's keep it going during the season. I'm a big F1 fan and stuck with it through the years when it was dull as dishwater.
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