F1 and IRL qualifying round up.

So qualifying is done and everyone will get a clearer picture of who is fast and who is not at Hockenheim for the German Grand Prix and at Mid Ohio for the Honda Indy 200. In Germany it is Lewis Hamilton on pole from Massa and Kovalainen. We don't know how much fuel Lewis has, but judging by the first and third place grid spots for the McLarens they are making progress in relation to Ferrari. World Champion Kimi Raikkonen was a rather disappointing sixth on the grid, but at least Hockenheim is a track where one can pass. Fourth on the grid is an impressive Jarno Trulli, but we all know that Jarno is a great qualifier and an average racer, while he may be grandstanding a bit with a low fuel load. Teammate Timo Glock is a more realistic eleventh. Fifth was Fernando Alonso in his Renault, many believe him to be the best driver in F1 and so fifth place is probably out-performing is R28, while Nelson Piquet was disapointing 17th, one suspects that Flavio Briatore's patience may be running out with the Brazilian...... BMW were not great with Robert kubica seventh, after having an accident while Nick Heidfeld was 12th, despite claiming that his qualifying woes were over. Mark Webber, Sebastien Vettel, and David COulthard are 8th through tenth, highlighting a pretty good day for the Red Bull teams, Sebastien Bourdais is 15th. Williams and Honda were pretty dismal all things considering. Nico Rosberg was the best of the lot in thirteenth, while Kaz Nakajima is sixteenth. The Hondas are fourteenth and eighteenth with Button better than Barichello on this occasion. With Ross Brawn claiming that both men's jobs are probably safe for 2009, they don't seem to be overly motivated. The Force Indias occupy the back row as usual, with Sutil faster than Fisichella. With this being a home race for most people in some capacity (ze germans are everywhere!!!) this race should be very close.

In the IRL it was a Penske kind of day at Mid Ohio with Helio Castroneves taking pole from teammate Ryan Briscoe. Both men have been dialed in all weekend and I would not be surprised to see one of the Marlboro but not Marlboro cars in victory lane tomorrow. Penske's brilliance highlighted Ganassi's futility with Scott Dixon only managing to be sixth and Dan Wheldon missing out on the Q1 cut to start thirteenth. Both men will have their work cut out for them and it could be an opportunity for Castroneves to make up some points in the standings. Third is Marco Andretti who will start alongside Justin Wilson in a great performance for Newman/Haas/Lanigan. Justin Wilson will be very pleased with this result but the bad news is that he has to start next to Marco, who in recent races has shown us that wherever he goes there is a risk of an accident. The third row will be occupied by Tony Kanaan and the aforementioned Dixon. Missing the Q3 cut were an impressive Buddy Rice, who blew teammate Milka Duno out of the weeds (again), Oriol Servia, Bruno Junquiera in a great performance for Dale Coyne, Hideki Mutoh, Vitor Meira, and Will Power. Of the fourteen cars who missed the first cut, the most surprising are thirteenth placed Wheldon and twentieth placed Danica Patrick. Danica has not had a good weekend having gotten very angry with Milka Duno in this mornings practice and having gotten into it with the her in the pits. Reports vary of the exact nature of the altercation with some claiming that Danica spat in the face of Milka, and others claiming that it was more verbal with Milka throwing a towel at Danica. Either way it appears that Danica is into it again with the other drivers and there are some who are growing tired of her antics. Love her or hate her, her flare ups are good for publicity, but if in fact the did spit on Duno then she really has crossed the line. Getting into it verbally and even shoving people is one thing, but spitting on someone is one of the most degrading things someone can do and if this is true she should be punished by the IRL in some way. She will never be suspended as it would be terrible for publicity, but a fine or a grid penalty are possible. The cynics will say that Danica is immune to punishment from the IRL, but it would be worse for publicity if she got away with such an incident. Speaking of Duno she has been woefully slow all weekend and has really gotten in the way of people, including blocking and nearly colliding with Danica, the reason why Patrick was so irate. She is 1.3 second slower than the next slowest car, Marty Roth (which is saying something) and she has been farther off than that in most of the practise sessions. She is nothing more than a rolling chicane at this moment and if she didn't bring a truckload of money to the team she would have been fired long ago and replaced with the infinitely more competent Townsend Bell, but money talks and so Milka gets to drive and get in people's way. Milka came up through the road racing ranks, so being this slow is inexcusable in my mind. If the IRL was more financially secure both she and Marty Roth would have their racing licenses revoked. Hopefully she does not cause an accident while being lapped. The Mid Ohio people are expecting record crowds for this years race and hopefully it will be a good one.

Edit 6:20 PM EST It turns out that Danica did not spit on Milka, the story goes that she went down there to confront Duno about her driving and Milka told her to go away, things got a little heated and Milka through a towel at Danica. This did not go down too well and Danica proceded on a profanity laced tirade before being escorted away. If this was any other driver there would be fines handed out but because it is Danica nothing will happen. 8 drivers apparantly complained about Milka's driving, so maybe the IRL will talk to her.