2009 European Grand Prix Qualifying

So, a few weeks/days/somethings ago, I commented that Micheal Schumacher was set to make his Formula 1 return in the European Grand Prix in Valencia Spain. However, due to a prior injury he sustained in a motorcycle race earlier this year, he decided that his body wasn't up to the stresses of a full F1 race. So, instead of having a seven-time world champion running for them, Ferrari has decided to give their long-standing test driver Luca Badoer the start. Their test driver who's almost as old as Schumacher, and hasn't driven in an F1 race since 1999.

Does that sound like he's gonna be slow? Because he is. He qualified 20th, also known as "last". Throughout this year, the lap times from pole to the 20th have been separated by just over a second. For this qualifying session, Badoer was 2 seconds back. So, he's slower than poo.

And Renault have announced that Frenchman Romain Grosjean will replace the rather useless Nelson Piquet Jr. In his first Grand Prix qualifying, he got to about 14th. So, not a bad first start for Grosjean.

Hamilton on pole. His McLaren teammate Kovalainen in 2nd. Brawn's Rubens Barichello in 3rd. Blog Favorite Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull in 4th. Championship leader Jenson Button of Brawn GP in 5th.

Vettel's teammate Mark Webber is down in ninth. And that's pretty much everyone that might have any sort of chance of winning the World Championship at this point.

Barichello's rocking the goatee again. FYI.

The start of tomorrow's race should be interesting. Both McLarens have the KERS unit, which gives them an extra boost of power, which will probably make them hard to pass off the line. That, and Barichello's tendency to hit everyone and their mother at the beginning of the race, should make for an interesting start to tomorrow's race.