Australia Qualifying Report: A Dramatic Start To The Season

Australia Qualifying Report: A Dramatic Start To The Season


Q1
Finally the time had arrived to - as current world drivers champion Sebastian Vettel said - "pull down your trousers & show what you've got" The weather had significantly improved since Friday practice 1 & 2 and the teams had gained some crucial dry running time earlier on in the day in Friday practice 3 (FP3).


The first session started out with all competitors getting in some installation & banker laps on the white mark hard Pirelli compound to learn how the track felt. Nico Rosberg though of Mercedes GP stayed out and set the first timed lap of qualifying in the 2012 season. Interestingly it was rumoured both Lotus Renault & Red Bull Racing would appeal the results of qualifying due to there beliefs that Mercedes rear wing f-duct is in fact illegal.

Quickly arrived the final 5 minutes of Q1 and the arrival of the yellow marked soft tyre compound. The difference between this weeks compounds was thought to be 0.6s but the times started to tumble rapidly. This nearly caught out top dogs such as Mark Webber who thought they were safe with the time set on the hard compound.

Ferrari's troubles were highlighted once again as both drivers were forced to use a set of option tyres in Q1 to secure there place in Q2. Despite this Brazilian Felipe Massa still finished 17th and escaped a high profile exit in the first qualifying of the season.

Sadly for Kimi Raikkonen the Lotus Renault driver went wide onto the astro turf at turn 11 and lost time meaning on his return to F1 was knocked out with both Caterham's, Merussia's & the HRT's who didn't make the 107%. Despite this both Narain Karthikeyan & Pedro De La Rosa are expected to be allowed to race.

If HRT & allowed to race they could be facing penalties for both drivers Narain Karthikeyan if under investigation for 2 separate cases of blocking whilst team Pedro De La Rosa just the once.

Q2
Qualifying 2 started with both Ferrari's quick out the box on a set of used options to try and get a time in but this quickly turned into the first red flag of the season. Fernando Alonso placed the left hand side wheels on the grass upon entry of turn 1 and spun into the gravel trap. Although the 2005 & 2006 world drivers champion kept the engine going and frantically asking the marshals for a push, they refused and he was out and placed 5th at that time.

The session restarted after Fernando's car was lifted away and his team mate was first out, he was followed out by both Mercedes who were on new options as there attempt to play it call and leave it late ended up with them loosing a set of options when Alonso's off caused the red flag.

The chaotic final minutes approached and the whole of the midfield were digging deep to find the extra few tenths needed to edge into the top 10 shoot out. Both Sauber drivers who previously in Q1 looked mighty had a poor Q2 with Kamui Kobayashi finishing 12th (1 place below Alonso) and Perez who for unknown reasons didn't set a time.

When the clock reached zero and everyone completed there laps Romain Gorsjean, Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hulkenberg & Pastor Maldonado were victorious in reaching the first top ten shoot out of the new season, getting there advantage over there team mate this weekend.

Shockingly both Ferrari drivers ended up out in Q2 with Fernando Alonso finishing 12th despite spinning off, and Felipe Massa just struggling for mechanical & aerodynamic grip.

Q3

The first shoot out of the season started with both Mercedes GP, McLaren & Red Bull drivers heading out to set there first timed lap. The Mercedes were restricted to a set of used options due to using an extra set in Q2, unlike both other teams who had the availability of new options. After the first run Lewis Hamilton lead the charge leading by 0.7seconds from second place.

It had come to light that the super lap everyone was expecting from Red Bull was not going to happen as Vettel & Webber were unable to get anywhere near the McLaren driver.

The midfield teams who got through to the last sessions all decided to make a strategical call and not run during Q3. This allows them to have more fresh sets of tyres tomorrow and opens up the options for there pit stop strategy tomorrow.

The final run had now arrived and Vettel entered his classic procedure of being last out on track, therefore last over the line. Despite this tactical call it didn't help the world champion. Jenson Button & team mate Mark Webber jumped ahead of Vettel on the time sheet - Webber by just 0.04seconds whilst carrying a KERS issue.

Nico Rosberg locked his front right tyre upon entry of turn 3 overshooting his breaking point - perhaps due to the use of his "super DRS" - and could only manage P6. This was until 2011 GP2 champion Romain Gorsjean impressively flew his Lotus Renault around Albert Park and earned a P3 just 0.380seconds off pole and bumped German Rosberg down to P7.

This left Brit Lewis Hamilton to coast into the pits and not even have to worry about finishing his 2nd flying lap. This is the first 1, 2 that McLaren have had with Jenson & Lewis at the wheel of a McLaren car.

What were your thoughts of qualifying? How do you see the race panning out? Let me know my leaving a comment on this blog or Tweet me via the link below

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Pos  Driver                Team                  Time          Gap   
 1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m24.922s
 2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m25.074s  + 0.152
 3.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m25.302s  + 0.380
 4.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m25.336s  + 0.414
 5.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m25.651s  + 0.729
 6.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m25.668s  + 0.746
 7.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m25.686s  + 0.764
 8.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m25.908s  + 0.986
 9.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  1m26.451s  + 1.529
10.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    No time
Q2 cut-off time: 1m26.319s                                   Gap **
11.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m26.429s  + 0.960
12.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m26.4942  + 1.025
13.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m26.590s  + 1.121
14.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault      1m26.663s  + 1.194
15.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m27.086s  + 1.617
16.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m27.497s  + 2.028
17.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        No time
Q1 cut-off time: 1m27.633s                                    Gap *
18.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m27.758s  + 1.576
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m28.679s  + 2.497
20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault      1m29.018s  + 2.836
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth     1m30.923s  + 4.741
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth     1m31.670s  + 5.488
23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth          1m33.495s  + 7.313
24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth          1m33.643s  + 7.461

Australia FP1 & FP2 Review

Australia FP1 & FP2 Review


FP1
The 2012 Formula 1 season finally got underway in a damp and drizzly Albert park at 12:30pm local time & 1:30am GMT. The season had been highly built up but the season seemed to start with an anti-climax when the typical changing weather at Melbourne dealt the teams with a blow in the form of rain just before Friday practice 1 (FP1)

The weather was the least of Kimi Raikkonen's problems when his cars front end was in bits. The returning 2007 world champion was taking the chance of poor weather conditions to change the power of his power steering. Which according to sources he has not been happy with so far in the Lotus.

The weather didn't stop the teams and the first car on track was the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne. The rookie Frenchman was quickly followed by the the pack and they all ran through installation laps to make sure the car was working ready to go push on a fast lap. Although this early section of the practice sessions are not thrilling for the spectators it is crucial work for the team to confirm the car is fundamentally ready to run.

Slowly by slowly the teams moved out back onto the circuit on the green marked intermediate Pirelli tyres. The times kept tumbling due to the ever drying track and ever growing confident drivers. All the teams were out on track as although wet conditions are not ideal, being the beginning of the season they still need to do aero and this is possible in damp conditions.

Later on into the session the Sauber team unleashed Kamui Kobayashi onto the street circuit with dry hard compound tyres, marked by the white stripe.  Kamui instantly went 6seconds quicker than the current fastest times and the rest of the field soon followed the Japanese driver onto the track on the hard compound Pirelli's

The times were improving every lap and whilst Felipe Massa had just completed his fastest 1st sector the Brazilian spun at turn 9 after getting his rear tyre onto the grass whilst under breaking. This left the Ferrari driver 18th after the 90minutes of practice and feeling rather embarrassed.

This re-highlighted Ferrari's troubles and it was proven again by the highly talented Fernando Alonso nearly loosing the back end at the last corner of his last lap. He could manage a solid 4 posistion which seemingly with Red Bull's low key first practice left the 2 McLaren drivers to battle it out and Schumacher just behind;

1) Button 1:27.560s 11 laps
2) Hamilton 1:27.805 14
3) Schumacher 1:28.235 17
4) Alonso 1:28.360 21
5) Webber 1:28.467 21
6) Rosberg 1:28.643 22
7) Ricciardo 1:28.908 23
8) Maldonado 1:29.415 16
9) Raikkonen 1:29.565 8
10) Kobayashi 1:29.722 26
11) Vettel 1:29.790 21
12) Hulkenberg 1:29.865 17
13) Di Resta 1:29.881 18
14) Senna 1:29.953 21
15) Perez 1:30.124 22
16) Grosjean 1:30.515 16
17) Kovalainen 1:30.586 16
18) Massa 1:30.743 11
19) Vergne 1:31.178 17
20) Petrov 1:31.983 8
21) Glock 1:34.730 8
22) Pic 1:40.256
23) Karthikeyan No time 3
24) De la Rosa No time 0

FP2
The weather forecast predicted for Friday practice 2 (FP2) was meant to be dry but just minutes before the green light the heavens opened. This drenched the track and meant a very slow start to the second session with very few cars heading out.

When the cars did emerge from the garages they were all on the blue marked full wet tyres as there was clearly a lot of standing water left on the circuit. Like the first session the teams had to do the standard procedure of installation laps to confirm the car is ready and a chance for the driver to find how the track is feeling on grip.

The quiet spell on the track due to the weather allowed the newly designed HRT team to get some valuable mileage under the belt for Indian driver Karthikeyan. The HRT team had issues with Narain Karthikeyan's car who stopped in FP1 reportedly due to a drop in oil pressure.

Similarly to the 1st session the track dried out over the period of the first 60minutes whilst the grid ran intermediate tyres. This left the last section of the 90minutes for the teams to attack the track with some dry running.

Everyone was on track to get some crucial data of dry running going into the weekend. Interestingly unlike FP1 teams decided to allow there drivers to run on the yellow mark soft compound. This tyre is meant to be quicker but the white marked hard compound was delivering the fastest times in this session. This may be due to the tyre compound being able to reach operating temperature at a lower figure.

The times were getting quicker and quicker with both Sahara Force India's looking impressive but the P1 posistion went to 7 time world champion Michael Schumacher driving for this years dark horse Mercedes. Shockingly despite looking twitchy the prancing horse of Ferrari picked up another 4th from Fernando and a positive 7th from Felipe Massa.

It is key not to read to much into these times as the track was constantly drying and teams could easily be on different fuel loads which can affect the lap time massively but what we can see is that Mercedes & McLaren both look impressive in lap time and straight line speed but don't discount the others yet as teams historically will not show there true pace until FP3, if not later (Qualifying)

1) Schumacher 1:29.183 16 laps
2) Hulkenberg 1:29.292 19
3) Perez 1:30.199 23
4) Alonso 1:30.341 13
5) Kobayashi 1:30.709 14
6) Di Resta 1:31.466 13
7) Massa 1:31:505 14
8) Kovalainen 1:31.932 16
9) Rosberg 1:32.184 17
10) Vettel 1:32.194 19
11) Webber 1:32.296 20
12) Glock 1:32.632 17
13) Petrov 1:32.767 15
14) Grosjean 1:32.822 11
15) Button 1:33.039 18
16) Hamilton 1:33.252 11
17) Maldonado 1:34.108 21
18) Raikkonen 1:34.275 7
19) Senna 1:34.312 17
20) Vergne 1:34.485 29
21) Ricciardo 1:34.604 31
22) Pic 1:34.770 13
23) Karthikeyan 1:42.627 16
24) De la Rosa No time 1

What was your view of the first two practice sessions? Let me know via a comment on this blog or Tweet me via the link below.


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