Best Qualifying Laps Ever?

  • Thread starter Chris123
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Chris123

Chris123

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So with the Monaco GP coming up shortly, it got me thinking about how hard it must be to race around there and all the amazing qualifying laps we've seen over the years. I couldn't find a thread similar to this so here it is, what are your favourite qualifying laps or which do you consider the best of all time.

Many people claim Senna's 88 pole at Monaco is the best they've ever seen, but for me Schumacher's 96 pole he took from Hill right at the end was the best lap I've personally seen around the circuit. When I think of Senna I think of him at Phoenix in the early 90's, there's a video of him onboard driving so close to the corner walls it's scary, it's almost as if the word safety didn't exist back then. I also remember the 2000 Suzuka GP qualifying. I was 7 at the time, and had no interest in motor sport, then one Saturday my father told me to watch the racing on the TV. I saw Schumacher and Hakkinen go back and forth, snatching pole from each other. I got so into it and was an F1 fan ever since. Feel free to share your favourites and perhaps why they are memorable.
 
Well, like you said with Suzuka 2000, I loved that one! So much that in fact here is a video!


Now I am a massive Schumacher fan, so 96 was amazing. And Monaco 2012...

That was the first time in years that I had been shouting at the TV, trying to urge Schumacher on. And then he took it and I am not ashamed to say that at that moment I felt like crying in happiness at seeing him back on top!

There were so many qualifying sessions that I loved to watch, some from the more recent times too!
 
ECGadget
Well, like you said with Suzuka 2000, I loved that one! So much that in fact here is a video!


Now I am a massive Schumacher fan, so 96 was amazing. And Monaco 2012...

That was the first time in years that I had been shouting at the TV, trying to urge Schumacher on. And then he took it and I am not ashamed to say that at that moment I felt like crying in happiness at seeing him back on top!

There were so many qualifying sessions that I loved to watch, some from the more recent times too!
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Aha yes that's the one, I just remember seeing those cars wiz by my TV set and the sounds of those engine's, V10's I think right. That one in 2012, that I remember sadly as Schumacher's final hurrah. It was like for a few moment's the old guy we once knew was back, a shame they took it away from him.



Here's another one. Seeing Kimi take away provisional pole that had just been set by like 4/10's by pretty much the same amount is mental. All great stuff, keep it coming.
 
Carl Edwards is one of those NASCAR oval guys who if they focused on it completely, could be an incredible road racer. Here he shows beating Schumacher at the race of champions was no fluke as he covers Montoya and the entire 42 car field (filled with competent road racers like AJ Allmendinger, Marcos Ambrose, Scott Speed and othets) by a massive 4 tenths, the largest gap from 1st to 2nd I have ever seen in NASCAR qualifying.

 
Cap'n Jack
The lap that took Greg Murphy/Rick Kelly to pole position for the 2003 Bathurst 1000. Not just a great qualifying lap, but a fantastic lap of Bathurst regardless of the session.

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An amazing lap.

He was the only guy to get 6th gear before turn 2 and still put it on Pole despite missing the gear change from 2nd - 3rd after the exit from the Dipper.
 
Cap'n Jack
The lap that took Greg Murphy/Rick Kelly to pole position for the 2003 Bathurst 1000. Not just a great qualifying lap, but a fantastic lap of Bathurst regardless of the session.

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Ye that's a brilliant lap right there. The way he just kept on finding time, by the second sector reading you thought there was no way he was going to add any more to that, and then when he crosses the line he's done even more. Another you've probably heard about is the world record on the Nordschleife with a car fitted with an onboard camera set by the late Stefan Beloff. Not entirely sure if it's a qualifying lap, whether it is or not doesn't change the fact that it's pretty amazing to watch. Forget Gran Turismo, this is the real deal.

 
Bellof's lap is not the one recorded there, that's Derek Bell, who also does the commentary. Porsche (or Dunlop) had done a full-length VHS (yes, VHS) with onboard laps from all the major racetracks in an endurance season (there's Le Mans that's quite easy to find on Youtube, probably Spa as well) I always laugh when I see Jackie Ickx flying around him just right after Aremberg... Up to that point you have the feeling he is hauling quite some ass, but he may has well have been running his errands on a sunday morning!
 
Ah I see, can't find the footage now but I'll have a look around later, I did find it pretty strange when the other guy went straight past him. Maybe someone else can find the right one in the meanwhile.
 
Tired Tyres
He means Blundell's lap defines qualifying. Everyone else is a little boy playing with toys.
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Oh ok. I thought it was a winge about people posting videos of qualifying laps :banghead:
Obviously referring to Blundell's lap at Le Mans in the Nissan with the gumball tyres & boost wound right up on the hand grenade engine.
 
I was indicating that I thought that Blundell's lap in the Nissan is the best qualifying lap of all time* and that the thread could end right now.


* From the days of the on-board camera anyway...
 
You can all take your videos and get out of Nelson Piquet's thread :P

The car just sounds like pure power and he's just on it completely. I love how you can hear the revs spike on corner exit as the prodigious power overwhelms the rear tyres.

 
That's freaky, I literally just watched this video before I clicked on this thread :S
 
I'm not 100% sure this is actually a qualifying lap, however it does come up if you search IOM TT Qualifying, so who knows. Michael Dunlop, CBR600 SS, 2013, Isle of Man TT.

Either way, girly F1 hotlap repellent.

 

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