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

Austria Notables

• Setting the records straight. Monaco didn't see any driver improve on his grid position record, and in fact the only driver to equal his best (other than the pole setter, of course) was Fernando Alonso.

• Burti/Alesi. The difference between the two Prost drivers is staggering. Most likely, Burti paid dearly for the accident he had in the morning practice before qualifying, but the fact remains the gap Alesi set to his younger teammate is one of the biggest gaps recently.

• de la Rosa/Irvine. Eddie Irvine was the beneficiary of driving the new Jaguar R2b model, while his teammate Pedro de la Rosa continued using that dog of a car they called R2. The difference between the two cars showed significantly in the 1.6 seconds gap between the two drivers in qualifying.

• Changes since Austria: Jos Verstappen went back ahead of Enrique Bernoldi in the overall chart. At the top of the chart, Alonso continues to lead the way and it seems unlikely that his lead will be snatched from him anytime soon.

Monaco Differentials                  
--------------------                  
Slower          Diff.     Faster      
Burti        >  2.526  >  Alesi       
de la Rosa   >  1.601  >  Irvine      
Marques      >  1.413  >  Alonso      
Button       >  1.122  >  Fisichella  
Montoya      >  0.722  >  R.Schumacher
Bernoldi     >  0.513  >  Verstappen  
Frentzen     >  0.395  >  Trulli      
Hakkinen     >  0.319  >  Coulthard   
Barrichello  >  0.225  >  M.Schumacher
Panis        >  0.208  >  Villeneuve  
Heidfeld     >  0.180  >  Raikkonen   


Average Monaco Differentials          
----------------------------          
Slower          Diff.     Faster      
Marques      >  1.129  >  Alonso      
de la Rosa   >  0.911  >  Irvine      
Burti        >  0.602  >  Alesi       
Montoya      >  0.553  >  R.Schumacher
Button       >  0.528  >  Fisichella  
Barrichello  >  0.285  >  M.Schumacher
Frentzen     >  0.233  >  Trulli      
Raikkonen    >  0.139  >  Heidfeld    
Coulthard    >  0.110  >  Hakkinen    
Bernoldi     >  0.076  >  Verstappen  
Villeneuve   >  0.055  >  Panis       

The average gap between teammates in Monaco was a staggering 0.839s. This is almost twice more than last year's Monaco average, which was 0.486. It's also almost twice as much as in Austria, where the gap was 0.436, or in Spain, where it was 0.480s. This, compared to the San Marino Grand Prix, where the average gap was 0.715s; 0.25s in Brazil; 0.588 in Malaysia; and 0.852 in Australia.