Australian GP Report
March 29th 2011 05:54
Formula One roared back into action in the golden afternoon of a Melbourne autumn. But there was to be no postcard serenity as Sebastien Vettel and Red Bull Racing confirmed their rivals’ biggest fears since the German won last year’s crown… yep, they are still unstoppable.
THE GLORIOUS
1. Sebastian Vettel. RBR (grid: 1)
The boy wonder strikes again, with a hammer blow of a season opening performance. The newly crowned champ kicked off his title defence perfectly, storming to a lights to flag victory. Like a gazelle prodded with a soldering iron, Seb’s pace in that shiny new RB7 was frightening for anyone not in a Red Bull team shirt… except maybe Webber, who was inexplicably well off the pace.
2. Lewis Hamilton. McLaren (grid: 2)
McLaren’s ordinary showings in winter testing seem to have been cured by the exhaust update package they brought to Melbourne. Hamilton managed to gap the Red Bulls and held position to the end in what was a pretty cruisey, easy drive. He even left Melbourne without getting arrested. A changed man do we see before us?
3. Vitaly Petrov. Renault (grid: 6)
Comrade Vitaly, hero of mother Russia! The man most famous for driving Alonso to new heights of frustration, finally demonstrated a bit of raw racing talent – taking his Renault all the way to a podium. He kept a brisk pace, and managed to jump the likes of Alonso (go figure), Webber and Button to claim his first ever podium.
THE WORTHY
4. Fernando Alonso. Ferrari (grid: 5)
Alonso, still smarting from the last-gasp collapse of his title ambitions last year, wanted to come out swinging. Unfortunately, his Ferrari F150 utility truck – sorry, F150 Italia (I always get that confused) was a little soggy around Albert Park. The Spaniard could wring enough pace to keep Webber behind him and score some decent points, but by his standards – it’s not the strongest start to a season.
5. Mark Webber. RBR (grid: 3)
The Aussie could only stand by and watch his team-mate tear his home soil a new proverbial . As Vettel marched ahead, Webber struggled on his tyres and actually fell down the order. His laps were at times a second slower than the sister RB7, prompting a lot of head scratching in his side of the garage. It’s early days, but should this become a trend, how long before the conspiracy -seekers out there (i.e. everybody) start asking questions. The most likely scenario though? Mark and Pirelli aren’t yet the best of mates.
6. Jenson Button. McLaren (grid: 4)
Jense had a Hamilton-sort of race, scrapping, cutting a corner, getting penalised and fighting back in a dogged fashion. He was one’ hooning’ charge away from completely stealing Lewis’ identity. He made a poor start and was stuck behind a rather slow Felipe Massa for several laps. He eventually overran a corner after an attempt to overtake, and was slapped with a drive through. But the Briton recovered and came home with a relatively decent collection of points.
7. Felipe Massa. Ferrari (grid: 8)
The Brazilian was far from impressive in Melbourne – his seventh place comes thanks to Sauber’s somehow illegal wing and subsequent disqualification. Massa crossed the line ninth, well and truly off the pace. He put up a stout defence in the face of Button’s frantic attacks, but he’ll need to find a bit more pace if he’s to have any chance of not becoming Fernando’s indentured servant. Remember, the team orders ‘rule’ is now gone…
8. Sebastien Buemi. Toro Rosso (grid: 10)
The other Seb did a good job in Melbourne, cracking Q3 and snapping up a point (three with Sauber’s disqualification). The Toro Rosso man will need to keep this sort of performance up with the whispers around the paddock that he will be at some point kindly asked to vacate his seat to make way for Red Bull’s newest prospect, Daniel Ricciardo.
9. Adrian Sutil. Force India (grid 16)
Force India came to Melbourne knowing the midfield will be as fierce a battlefield as ever, and to be honest, they were lucky to emerge with some points. Adrian and new teammate Paul Di Resta maintained a steady pace, and upon Sauber’s disqualification – were gifted the final two points positions.
10. Paul di Resta. Force India (grid: 14)
It was as good a debut as a rookie could hope for really. The Scot outqualified his more experienced teammate, finished the race without crashing into something and to top it off, he scored a sneaky little point in the end. Sutil will have good reason to use his mirrors this year.
THE POINTLESS
11. Jaime Alguersuari. Toro Rosso (grid: 12)
Beaten by Buemi, but still showed flashes of potential in the surprisingly quick Toro Rosso.
12. Nick Heidfeld. Renault (grid: 18)
Traffic in qualifying and a damaged car in the race made for a horror first outing for Nick as Kubica’s replacement.
13. Jarno Trulli. Lotus (grid: 20)
Jarno ensured Lotus were again the best of the now-not-so-newbies, but still well off the pace they’d hoped for
14. Jerome D’Ambrosio. Virgin (grid: 22)
He finished on debut. That’s alright.
THE FALLEN
DNF: Timo Glock. Virgin (grid: 21)
Cause of Death: Actually nothing, but the German had broken drive pegs and limped home.
DNF: Rubens Barrichello. Williams (grid: 17)
Cause of Death: Transmission. Rubens fought from down the order before he clanged into Rosberg.
DNF: Nico Rosberg. Mercedes (grid: 7)
Cause of Death: Rubens Barrichello. Battling along before a Brazilian came charging along.
DNF: Heikki Kovalainen. Lotus (gird: 19)
Cause of Death: Water Leak. So far Heikki has killed his Lotus by fire, and now water…
DNF: Michael Schumacher. Mercedes (grid: 11)
Cause of Death: puncture. Missed Q3 and was hit in the first corner. Forgettable.
DNF: Pastor Maldonado. Williams (grid: 15)
Cause of Death: Transmission. Solid enough in qualy and early laps on debut, but his FW33 wanted an early bath.
THE NAUGHTY
DNQ: Sergio Perez (Q: 13, R: 7) and Kamui Kobayashi (Q: 9, R: 8)
Tsk tsk, an impressive double-points finish for Sauber – including a very impressive seventh for Mexican rookie, Perez – was taken away when the FIA deemed the cars to have something dodgy going on with their rear wing. Sauber’s technical director James Key insists it’s a small matter of measurements and not performance enhancing. A shame, but thems the rules, boys.
THE NOTHING
Tonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan, HRT. DNQ
It’s been a while since the last DNQ in F1, Alex Yoong in a Minardi, unless I’m very much mistaken. HRT may be better off entering GP2 if they continue to fall so far outside the 107% rule.
THE GLORIOUS
The boy wonder strikes again, with a hammer blow of a season opening performance. The newly crowned champ kicked off his title defence perfectly, storming to a lights to flag victory. Like a gazelle prodded with a soldering iron, Seb’s pace in that shiny new RB7 was frightening for anyone not in a Red Bull team shirt… except maybe Webber, who was inexplicably well off the pace.
McLaren’s ordinary showings in winter testing seem to have been cured by the exhaust update package they brought to Melbourne. Hamilton managed to gap the Red Bulls and held position to the end in what was a pretty cruisey, easy drive. He even left Melbourne without getting arrested. A changed man do we see before us?
Comrade Vitaly, hero of mother Russia! The man most famous for driving Alonso to new heights of frustration, finally demonstrated a bit of raw racing talent – taking his Renault all the way to a podium. He kept a brisk pace, and managed to jump the likes of Alonso (go figure), Webber and Button to claim his first ever podium.
THE WORTHY
Alonso, still smarting from the last-gasp collapse of his title ambitions last year, wanted to come out swinging. Unfortunately, his Ferrari F150 utility truck – sorry, F150 Italia (I always get that confused) was a little soggy around Albert Park. The Spaniard could wring enough pace to keep Webber behind him and score some decent points, but by his standards – it’s not the strongest start to a season.
The Aussie could only stand by and watch his team-mate tear his home soil a new proverbial . As Vettel marched ahead, Webber struggled on his tyres and actually fell down the order. His laps were at times a second slower than the sister RB7, prompting a lot of head scratching in his side of the garage. It’s early days, but should this become a trend, how long before the conspiracy -seekers out there (i.e. everybody) start asking questions. The most likely scenario though? Mark and Pirelli aren’t yet the best of mates.
Jense had a Hamilton-sort of race, scrapping, cutting a corner, getting penalised and fighting back in a dogged fashion. He was one’ hooning’ charge away from completely stealing Lewis’ identity. He made a poor start and was stuck behind a rather slow Felipe Massa for several laps. He eventually overran a corner after an attempt to overtake, and was slapped with a drive through. But the Briton recovered and came home with a relatively decent collection of points.
The Brazilian was far from impressive in Melbourne – his seventh place comes thanks to Sauber’s somehow illegal wing and subsequent disqualification. Massa crossed the line ninth, well and truly off the pace. He put up a stout defence in the face of Button’s frantic attacks, but he’ll need to find a bit more pace if he’s to have any chance of not becoming Fernando’s indentured servant. Remember, the team orders ‘rule’ is now gone…
The other Seb did a good job in Melbourne, cracking Q3 and snapping up a point (three with Sauber’s disqualification). The Toro Rosso man will need to keep this sort of performance up with the whispers around the paddock that he will be at some point kindly asked to vacate his seat to make way for Red Bull’s newest prospect, Daniel Ricciardo.
Force India came to Melbourne knowing the midfield will be as fierce a battlefield as ever, and to be honest, they were lucky to emerge with some points. Adrian and new teammate Paul Di Resta maintained a steady pace, and upon Sauber’s disqualification – were gifted the final two points positions.
It was as good a debut as a rookie could hope for really. The Scot outqualified his more experienced teammate, finished the race without crashing into something and to top it off, he scored a sneaky little point in the end. Sutil will have good reason to use his mirrors this year.
THE POINTLESS
11. Jaime Alguersuari. Toro Rosso (grid: 12)
Beaten by Buemi, but still showed flashes of potential in the surprisingly quick Toro Rosso.
12. Nick Heidfeld. Renault (grid: 18)
Traffic in qualifying and a damaged car in the race made for a horror first outing for Nick as Kubica’s replacement.
13. Jarno Trulli. Lotus (grid: 20)
Jarno ensured Lotus were again the best of the now-not-so-newbies, but still well off the pace they’d hoped for
14. Jerome D’Ambrosio. Virgin (grid: 22)
He finished on debut. That’s alright.
THE FALLEN
DNF: Timo Glock. Virgin (grid: 21)
Cause of Death: Actually nothing, but the German had broken drive pegs and limped home.
DNF: Rubens Barrichello. Williams (grid: 17)
Cause of Death: Transmission. Rubens fought from down the order before he clanged into Rosberg.
DNF: Nico Rosberg. Mercedes (grid: 7)
Cause of Death: Rubens Barrichello. Battling along before a Brazilian came charging along.
DNF: Heikki Kovalainen. Lotus (gird: 19)
Cause of Death: Water Leak. So far Heikki has killed his Lotus by fire, and now water…
DNF: Michael Schumacher. Mercedes (grid: 11)
Cause of Death: puncture. Missed Q3 and was hit in the first corner. Forgettable.
DNF: Pastor Maldonado. Williams (grid: 15)
Cause of Death: Transmission. Solid enough in qualy and early laps on debut, but his FW33 wanted an early bath.
THE NAUGHTY
DNQ: Sergio Perez (Q: 13, R: 7) and Kamui Kobayashi (Q: 9, R: 8)
Tsk tsk, an impressive double-points finish for Sauber – including a very impressive seventh for Mexican rookie, Perez – was taken away when the FIA deemed the cars to have something dodgy going on with their rear wing. Sauber’s technical director James Key insists it’s a small matter of measurements and not performance enhancing. A shame, but thems the rules, boys.
THE NOTHING
Tonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan, HRT. DNQ
It’s been a while since the last DNQ in F1, Alex Yoong in a Minardi, unless I’m very much mistaken. HRT may be better off entering GP2 if they continue to fall so far outside the 107% rule.
| 7 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
