By Marcel Borsboom, Netherlands
Atlas F1 Magazine Writer

For the fourth year running, Atlas F1 is going to keep an eye on the battle between teammates throughout the season with a simple measurement: we compare the qualifying times of each driver against his teammate's result. After every Grand Prix, we will show how teammates have fared up against each other, and where they are overall since the beginning of the season. At the end of the season, the World Champion of Qualifying Differentials will be elected - the driver who was most beaten by his teammates, in seconds. Only those who participate in at least 15 of the 17 rounds are eligible for the coveted crown; and for those who made the efforts and participated in all 17 races, the best and worst result will be scrapped.

With eleven qualifying sessions completed for 2001, the differentials are on a roll! Let's see which drivers deserve bragging rights.

Britain Notables

• Setting the records straight. Kimi Raikkonen was the only driver (except the pole sitter, of course) to be able to equal his best result ever - seventh on the grid.

• Marques. No surprises there, really. Tarso Marques had a Saturday he'd rather forget, not only being outqualified by his young teammate by over 1.7 seconds, but also not making it inside 107% of the pole sitter.

• Michael Schumacher. True to form this year, the Ferrari driver is the only one to have outqualified his teammate in all sessions this year (which also goes to correct a mistake we made in the previous issue of Qualifying Differentials).

• Changes since France: none whatsoever.

British Differentials
---------------------
Slower         Diff.   Faster
Marques      > 1.714 > Alonso
Barrichello  > 1.268 > M.Schumacher
Villeneuve   > 0.600 > Panis
Bernoldi     > 0.539 > Verstappen
Coulthard    > 0.398 > Hakkinen
Burti        > 0.343 > Alesi
Frentzen     > 0.287 > Trulli
Heidfeld     > 0.200 > Raikkonen
Irvine       > 0.166 > de la Rosa
Fisichella   > 0.152 > Button
R.Schumacher > 0.064 > Montoya

Average Differentials through Britain
-------------------------------------
Slower        Diff.   Faster
Marques     > 1.014 > Alonso
de la Rosa  > 0.598 > Irvine
Barrichello > 0.525 > M.Schumacher
Montoya     > 0.503 > R.Schumacher
Button      > 0.491 > Fisichella
Burti       > 0.412 > Alesi
Frentzen    > 0.266 > Trulli
Bernoldi    > 0.168 > Verstappen
Raikkonen   > 0.081 > Heidfeld
Villeneuve  > 0.066 > Panis
Coulthard   > 0.043 > Hakkinen

The average gap between teammates in France was 0.425 (as opposed to 0.400 last year) and in the Nurburgring it was 0.455 (as opposed to 0.546 last year). This, compared to Canada, where the gap was 0.544; or Monaco, where the gap was 0.839s; Austria, where the gap was 0.436; Spain - 0.480s; 0.715s at the San Marino Grand Prix; 0.25s in Brazil; 0.588 in Malaysia; and 0.852 in Australia.