Fi South Korea Quali

The Formula 1 circus this weekend moves into the unknown as it arrives in Makpa in the South of Korea to the Yeongam circuit. Much talk has focused around the readiness of the new facility but Charlie Whiting finally passed the circuit ready for the arrival of the F1 teams.

The championship couldn't be tighter as the five protagonists fight like cat and dog up at the front with only three races to go. Mark, Sebastian, Fernando, Lewis and Jenson will have to cope with plenty of dust, grease and oil in their fight for the ultimate prize.

The race will be over fifty three laps, circuit length of nearly four miles and a total race distance of 192 miles. It is going to be a challenge for all the drivers and on a virgin circuit it will be up to the cars to to clean the track along with the sweepers as there are no support races.

Albeit the circuit has two long straights which should favour the F duct on the Mclaren's, Red Bull have said there cars are better suited for this type of circuit. All the drivers have had problems and whilst the organisers have made changes overnight it will be an issue for all the cars.

It was interesting watching David's access to the Mclaren Technology Centre at Woking and brings back memories for me and my visit to the facility during 2009, it is an unbelievable place with some phenomenal cars going back over many years. The Mclaren's have to perform this weekend and any disasters will unfortunately put both Lewis and Jenson out of the title chase.

It was great to see Australian Alan Jones as the appointed driver race steward this weekend. He was my hero in the TAG Williams of the bygone era some thirty years ago and a tremendous driver in his time at the wheel. As an ex world champion he will no doubt add a balanced view obviously supporting Mark's challenge.

So as quali looms the crowd have come and filled the grandstands, the weather is fine and the fight begins for the first twenty minutes as Heikki takes to the circuit in his Lotus some eight seconds off the pace of this mornings running.

Robert could mix it up at the front as he is very quick here and the mods to the Mclaren's seem to be working. This could be the most critical quali of 2010 for the Mclaren's.

After Q1 we lost Vitantonio, Jarno, Timo, Heikki, Lucas, Sakon and Bruno which is to be expected. Off the cars go into Q2 and times will start to get faster as the surface rubbers in.

So after a hectic Q2 we lost Nico (H), Kamui, Nick, Adrian, Vitaly, Jamie and Sebastian (B) and now the fight for pole begins with mere tenths between the leading contenders.

It is now all to play for and Eddie still feels Lewis has the car to be on pole albeit he dropped behind the Red Bull's in Q2. Mclaren have certainly found something since Japan many items having come in on private jets and suitcases.

With only a quarter of a second between the top five this is going to be a tense quali session. The first to show was Fernando who slotted in a 1.35.9 and is the first into the 35's followed by Sebastian and Lewis.

What a pole shoot out and in the end the Red Bull's took it by fractions of a second so Sebastian, Mark, Fernando, Lewis, Nico, Felipe, Jenson, Robert , Michael and in tenth Rubens. Now it is to play for tomorrow so bring it on and we should be in for an almighty dog fight.