Epic cliché missed by a tenth!

Motoring journalists the world over rued the missed opportunity for an inevitable "Pole on pole" headline  when Robert Kubica put all four wheels of his oddly nosed BMW in the grass.

Kubica showed where his "ballast" is and never lifted but, obviously, the lap was compromised.   I noticed this did not stop some (presumably with a straight face) from proclaiming that driving in the dirt did not really slow him down much...  OK.  Define "much",  I'm guessing well over 1/10th...

o.155 sec is all that eventually separated Kubica from Hamilton  who drove a great lap in a Mclaren which was clearly better set up than the rest of the field,   both Kovaleinen and Hamilton onboards  showed them fighting the car much less than the competition.  Mclaren nailed it this week end.   It did not look like Ferrari quite had the goods in qualifying mechanical issues aside .  BMW have tended to qualify on light fuel so we'll have to wait for the race to see if the pace is really there, but imagine Kubica in a Mclaren or a Ferrari?

Renault looked awful but how about Toyota and even Honda showing a pulse? Sebastian Bourdais and Piquet Jr. ....ouch.

There was a lot of sliding from just about everyone and it will be interesting to see what effect this will all have on tire wear  during the race.  Get your popcorn ready!