Former F1 star names 'BEST' era of qualifying

Legendary Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya has revealed what he believes is the ‘best’ era for the sport’s qualifying format.

F1 fans today are familiar with the current qualifying format, which consists of three sessions, with five drivers eliminated in each of the first two (Q1 and Q2), before a 10-car shootout for pole position in Q3.

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But back in 2002, the system was significantly different, as qualifying only consisted of a single one-hour session.

First introduced in 1996 – when the previous format, which ran from the first championship in 1950, was two sessions, one on the Friday and the Saturday, with the fastest overall time taking pole position – drivers had one hour to set a maximum of twelve laps.

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Montoya reveals best qualifying format

During the 2002 season – the final year that used that format before it became one-lap qualifying in 2003 – Montoya grabbed seven pole positions, level with Michael Schumacher, including five consecutive poles from Monaco to France.

However, the Colombian was unable to convert any of them into wins, as Ferrari completely dominated the season and Schumacher cruised to his fifth world title.

And speaking with the Beyond the Grid podcast, the former Williams and McLaren driver, who won seven races in his career, claimed that format was the best in the sport.

“Yeah, it was weird,” he said. “I did well at it, for me, the four laps were the best. The four-lap qualifying for me was so good because you could build on it.

“The way I always looked at it was ‘ok, lap one let’s match what we did in practice.’ If you can match what you did in practice or even a little better because you’ve got to take less fuel, you started really well.

“If the first run – you're on par with practice, it means from now on, whatever you do is a plus. If you had a car for the pole, that first lap was good enough for sixth, seventh, maybe eighth place. It means even if I throw the car off now, I’m starting in a decent place.”

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