Justin:
I won't apologise for spotting a great pun and going for it with the headline there.
I was absolutely gutted for the Haas team though. They were running, what was it 4th and 5th, or 4th and 6th and looking pretty comfortable to be honest before disaster struck. Of the midfield teams, they were clearly the quickest behind the top 3 of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. They were holding off Renault and McLaren pretty easily. Still, the big positive to take forward is that if they have that genuine pace for the year, then big points are on the horizon for sure.
Fernando Alonso got F1 Driver of the Day for a gutsy, fighty and opportunistic drive. He pounced on the virtual safety car to pit and then jump a couple of cars. Of course a spinning Max helped his cause, but Alonso came out of the pits in front of Max in 5th and held him back for the rest of the race. A good start for McLaren with Stoffel also in the points. I have to say, I am loving Kimoa sponsoring McLaren - witness Zak Brown wearing the very cool sunnies produced by the company owned by his star driver.
All in all, I have to say that this was a pretty average race overall. Lewis was walking it until Mercedes misjudged things and allowed a very opportunistic Vettel a chance with the virtual safety car pit stops. Give Vettel a sniff of blood and he'll bring it home. Then it was Lewis following Seb for the rest of the race. The Mercedes doesn't run too well in dirty air, actually not many of the cars do in this incarnation of the formula - witness Bottas struggling in 15th for a fair while before starting to progress through to 8th.
No fighting at the front. Which was one of my big annoyances from last year - minimal action mano a mano at the front. All the fun fighting is in midfield still, and there didn't seem to be a great deal of that today either.
There was a great overtake by Ricciardo on one of the Renaults I think. That guy can brake later than anyone! Fantastic stuff.
Anyway, on to Bahrain we go.
Showing posts with label australian grand prix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label australian grand prix. Show all posts
Sunday, 25 March 2018
Saturday, 24 March 2018
Australia qualifying report
Justin:
Well, ultimately, there were no great surprises. Lewis out ahead flanked by a Ferrari. That was an astonishing lap by Lewis and a huge gap to Kimi.
It caused a bit of a fruity press conference afterwards - Gotta love these two exchanging words.
Bottas has his work cut out after hitting the wall quite heavily. Still, with the speed on the Mercedes you'd expect him to rise through to the top 5 with relative ease.
The Renault team look strong, as do Haas (they have apparently remained within the rules whilst actually building very little of their car compared to other teams) - the latter are surely the most improved/ big surprise of 2018 so far?!
Fernando Alonso said during the build up that this would be the worst weekend for McLaren. He'd better hope so. I'd imagine they didn't have qualifying 11th and 12th in mind before Q3. That said, Alonso seemed ok with it.
There is a big gap between the top 3 teams and the best of the rest. There was one second from Daniel Ricciardo back to Kevin Magnussen. Not sure if I'm more concerned by that gap or the one between Lewis and the rest.
That said, the flip side is the top 3 were all mega close after Q2...but Lewis was holding back until obliterating everyone in Q3.
Unless Ferrari and Red Bull pull something very special out of the bag tomorrow (today now if anyone down under reads this), I don't think anyone other than Lewis will win this race.
It's great that F1 is back, but I hope we have fighting at the front tomorrow and don't just have to rely on midfield for close up racing.
We shall see.
Well, ultimately, there were no great surprises. Lewis out ahead flanked by a Ferrari. That was an astonishing lap by Lewis and a huge gap to Kimi.
It caused a bit of a fruity press conference afterwards - Gotta love these two exchanging words.
Bottas has his work cut out after hitting the wall quite heavily. Still, with the speed on the Mercedes you'd expect him to rise through to the top 5 with relative ease.
The Renault team look strong, as do Haas (they have apparently remained within the rules whilst actually building very little of their car compared to other teams) - the latter are surely the most improved/ big surprise of 2018 so far?!
Fernando Alonso said during the build up that this would be the worst weekend for McLaren. He'd better hope so. I'd imagine they didn't have qualifying 11th and 12th in mind before Q3. That said, Alonso seemed ok with it.
There is a big gap between the top 3 teams and the best of the rest. There was one second from Daniel Ricciardo back to Kevin Magnussen. Not sure if I'm more concerned by that gap or the one between Lewis and the rest.
That said, the flip side is the top 3 were all mega close after Q2...but Lewis was holding back until obliterating everyone in Q3.
Unless Ferrari and Red Bull pull something very special out of the bag tomorrow (today now if anyone down under reads this), I don't think anyone other than Lewis will win this race.
It's great that F1 is back, but I hope we have fighting at the front tomorrow and don't just have to rely on midfield for close up racing.
We shall see.
Sunday, 17 March 2013
Kimi - A one stop strategy before the race ;-)
Justin:
Starting from where we left off in 2012 seems to be the main theme for Round 1 in Australia.
The three men on the podium were the top three in the title race last year and I would possibly put Kimi alongside Seb and Fernando in terms of real title contenders for 2013.
Of course, it's just one race and it's a quite particular street circuit in Albert Park. Malaysia has a lot of rather different characteristics as a track with fast, sweeping corners which may mean we'll see other cars coming to the front.
By way of a two stop strategy, and a one stop strategy before the race.... Kimi beat Fernando by over ten seconds in the end, with Vettel a further ten seconds down the road in third.
There was some great racing, nail biting stuff in the early stages with Vettel being hustled by the two very quick Ferrari's.
Mclaren are absolutely nowhere and Lewis must be loving his move to Mercedes, where he finished a solid if unspectacular fifth.
Sergio Perez's debut in his new team was frankly not good enough. Ok, its a difficult car, with JB struggling to ninth. But as we all know in F1 you must beat your team-mate first and foremost. I almost forgot Perez was in the race at all to be perfectly honest.
Mark Webber had a rubbish start yet again, from second on the grid. We learned later that he had an electronics fault AND no kers...does this guy get any good luck at all, ever?! Great recovery drive to sixth.
Adrian Sutil should get a mention - he led the race after a year out and didnt look out of place amongst the front runners at all. He faded due to differing strategies, but still finished a well earned seventh.
Good to see Massa is still keeping Alonso very honest, as he did in the last handful of races last year.
Alonso said the pace of the Lotus was a worry. Keeping things in perspective though, Ferrari have turned up with a very fast car. This time last year theirs was an absolute dog.
It seems Mclaren has brought the ugly duckling along this year.
Pecking order looks like Ferrari and Red Bull (RB may have better one lap pace but they seem to ruin their tyres in the race), Lotus then a small gap to Mercedes. Mclaren have fallen back and need to sort themselves out quickly.
To Malaysia in one week!
This isn't the Kimi we know - he usually drinks all the booze :-)
Starting from where we left off in 2012 seems to be the main theme for Round 1 in Australia.
The three men on the podium were the top three in the title race last year and I would possibly put Kimi alongside Seb and Fernando in terms of real title contenders for 2013.
Of course, it's just one race and it's a quite particular street circuit in Albert Park. Malaysia has a lot of rather different characteristics as a track with fast, sweeping corners which may mean we'll see other cars coming to the front.
By way of a two stop strategy, and a one stop strategy before the race.... Kimi beat Fernando by over ten seconds in the end, with Vettel a further ten seconds down the road in third.
There was some great racing, nail biting stuff in the early stages with Vettel being hustled by the two very quick Ferrari's.
Mclaren are absolutely nowhere and Lewis must be loving his move to Mercedes, where he finished a solid if unspectacular fifth.
Sergio Perez's debut in his new team was frankly not good enough. Ok, its a difficult car, with JB struggling to ninth. But as we all know in F1 you must beat your team-mate first and foremost. I almost forgot Perez was in the race at all to be perfectly honest.
Mark Webber had a rubbish start yet again, from second on the grid. We learned later that he had an electronics fault AND no kers...does this guy get any good luck at all, ever?! Great recovery drive to sixth.
Adrian Sutil should get a mention - he led the race after a year out and didnt look out of place amongst the front runners at all. He faded due to differing strategies, but still finished a well earned seventh.
Good to see Massa is still keeping Alonso very honest, as he did in the last handful of races last year.
Alonso said the pace of the Lotus was a worry. Keeping things in perspective though, Ferrari have turned up with a very fast car. This time last year theirs was an absolute dog.
It seems Mclaren has brought the ugly duckling along this year.
Pecking order looks like Ferrari and Red Bull (RB may have better one lap pace but they seem to ruin their tyres in the race), Lotus then a small gap to Mercedes. Mclaren have fallen back and need to sort themselves out quickly.
To Malaysia in one week!
This isn't the Kimi we know - he usually drinks all the booze :-)
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Reasons to be cheerful
Phil: Anyone would think Lewis Hamilton had been sucking on a lemon for most of Sunday's Australian grand prix, to judge by his post-race demeanour. Having cocked up the start, allowing his teammate Jenson Button into a lead he never looked likely to lose, he (perhaps slightly unfairly, it has to be said) lost second place to reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel when the safety car came out. And the big picture is that he must know he once again has a car capable of winning the world championship, but that the only other man with the same car, his teammate, is already 10 points ahead.
So, just for Lewis, and with a nod to Ian Dury who went to the same school as us (yes, really!) here are some things we learned on Sunday which if he were to reflect on them for a moment might incline him not to be such a miserable sod.
1. Red Bull's domination is broken. By mid-season we may be cursing McLaren's domination, but a change in F1's prevailing wind is always refreshing to begin with. Particularly if you happen to be driving the new fastest car on the grid.
2. The midfield is closer than usual. Perez made it to 8th from 22nd on the grid. Raikkonen must have had a damn good shit before the race because he made it to 7th from 18th. A healthy number of retirements (9 out of 22 starters) kept it interesting and even without the last corner shenanigans I was struggling to keep up with who was running where.
3. Williams seem genuinely competitive. Probably both Maldonado and Senna ought to have scored points, and would have done had they avoided midfield shunts.
4. We don't need Sky after all. Apart from cutting a few laps behind the safety car, I genuinely forgot this was an extended highlights show, rather than every lap in full. This will admittedly be of limited interest to Lewis. But best of all...
5. There's another one this weekend.
So, just for Lewis, and with a nod to Ian Dury who went to the same school as us (yes, really!) here are some things we learned on Sunday which if he were to reflect on them for a moment might incline him not to be such a miserable sod.
1. Red Bull's domination is broken. By mid-season we may be cursing McLaren's domination, but a change in F1's prevailing wind is always refreshing to begin with. Particularly if you happen to be driving the new fastest car on the grid.
2. The midfield is closer than usual. Perez made it to 8th from 22nd on the grid. Raikkonen must have had a damn good shit before the race because he made it to 7th from 18th. A healthy number of retirements (9 out of 22 starters) kept it interesting and even without the last corner shenanigans I was struggling to keep up with who was running where.
3. Williams seem genuinely competitive. Probably both Maldonado and Senna ought to have scored points, and would have done had they avoided midfield shunts.
4. We don't need Sky after all. Apart from cutting a few laps behind the safety car, I genuinely forgot this was an extended highlights show, rather than every lap in full. This will admittedly be of limited interest to Lewis. But best of all...
5. There's another one this weekend.
Friday, 8 April 2011
When I was in 'Nam...
Phil: Got back a couple of days ago from a very enjoyable honeymoon in Vietnam. Imagine my excitement on the morning of The Big Day when I turned on the telly to watch the first race of the season. Doesn't Albert Park look a lot like Interlagos, I thought, no lake, lots of hills, and hasn't Kubica done well to get it together in time for the first race? After about a minute I realised I was actually watching last year's Brazilian grand prix. In Vietnamese. Anyway, this blog tells me everything I need to know about the race I missed, and my co-blogger has done an admirable job of reporting it. I have only the following to add. 1. Aren't Ferrari crap these days? As my co-blogger has observed, they're at best the third best car this season, after Red Bull and McLaren. And Alonso can't do better than ninth in Friday practice at Sepang. 2. Didn't Petrov do well? Were I wearing a hat, I would take it off to him. After all, he was fairly lacklustre last season, but to put the Renault on the podium? Well doneski. This really only begs the question whether Reanult might actually be faster than Ferrari this year, and of course what Kubica could have done with the car. Finally, a brief personal message for my co-blogger. Have been having issues with my phone lately, but we are definitely on the annual live event on Monaco weekend.
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Phew!
What a race! It was almost a struggle to keep up, there was so much going on. We had overtaking, rain, overtaking, the safety car, overtaking, a first corner incident, and even some overtaking, and that was just the first lap! More interesting things happened in the first lap at Melbourne than in the entire race at Bahrain. I doubt we'll hear anyone whining about how dull Formula 1 is these days for a while at least.
So, the race. A well-deserved win for Jenson, whose smooth, precise driving style suited this race to perfection, not to mention having the courage to make that call for slick tyres ahead of the field. Any of four men, I think, could have won this race, but only one of them did. As for the other three, Vettel (and the entire Red Bull team, who could only turn first and second on the grid into a single eighth place in the race) must be the unluckiest man in F1 at the moment: having started both races on pole, and led them both, his car has let him down on both occasions. Vettel seemed to have a fairly comfortable lead over Button, and but for the brake failure which put him in the gravel trap it's hard to see him losing the lead to Jenson.
I'm sure my co-blogger will come back to me on this one, but I think Alonso's first corner incident may have cost him the race. He had plenty of pace coming back through the pack in pursuit of Massa, Webber, Hamilton and the rest. And finally, there's Hamilton. He was sixth despite having probably overtaken most of the cars in front of him: Button early on, Massa twice I think, and that outrageous (in a good way) move around the outside of Rosberg. I'm tempted to agree with him that he had the drive of his life, but a bad call on tyres from the team let him down. Looking back on it now, it was certainly the wrong decision. Having said that, while Button was able to look after his tyres for 50 or more laps, I don't think Hamilton, with his much more aggressive driving style, could have done that: when he was caught in the dirty air behind Alonso, he complained on the radio that his tyres were going away from him (these were his third set, at least 20 laps newer than the ones Jenson won the race on). He seemed also to be getting wound up behind Alonso, and even called the second pit stop 'a terrible idea'. Lewis is good at motivating the team behind him, but is also someone who has performed best when he had a teammate who didn't challenge him in Heikki Kovalainen, and I wonder if having a teammate who does, and who beat him easily today, is beginning to rattle him.
It may be too early in the season for the world championship standings to be meaningful, but in the driver's standings, Alonso is leading with 37 points, followed by Massa on 33 and Button on 31. Bernie's new points system may have been intended to favour race wins rather than consistency, but Massa who hasn't won a race is ahead of Button who has. In the constructor's standings, Ferrari are on 70 points, McLaren on 54 and Mercedes on 29 while Red Bull tie with Renault on 18.
Finally, as Martin Brundle seems no longer to nominate a driver of the day, I propose each race we name a Skiver of the Day, for the driver or other F1 personality who shows outstanding lack of effort and/or achievement. Today I'm going to give the inaugural Skiver of the Day to Jarno Trulli: to finish first, first you must finish, but starting is probably a prerequisite too.
So, the race. A well-deserved win for Jenson, whose smooth, precise driving style suited this race to perfection, not to mention having the courage to make that call for slick tyres ahead of the field. Any of four men, I think, could have won this race, but only one of them did. As for the other three, Vettel (and the entire Red Bull team, who could only turn first and second on the grid into a single eighth place in the race) must be the unluckiest man in F1 at the moment: having started both races on pole, and led them both, his car has let him down on both occasions. Vettel seemed to have a fairly comfortable lead over Button, and but for the brake failure which put him in the gravel trap it's hard to see him losing the lead to Jenson.
I'm sure my co-blogger will come back to me on this one, but I think Alonso's first corner incident may have cost him the race. He had plenty of pace coming back through the pack in pursuit of Massa, Webber, Hamilton and the rest. And finally, there's Hamilton. He was sixth despite having probably overtaken most of the cars in front of him: Button early on, Massa twice I think, and that outrageous (in a good way) move around the outside of Rosberg. I'm tempted to agree with him that he had the drive of his life, but a bad call on tyres from the team let him down. Looking back on it now, it was certainly the wrong decision. Having said that, while Button was able to look after his tyres for 50 or more laps, I don't think Hamilton, with his much more aggressive driving style, could have done that: when he was caught in the dirty air behind Alonso, he complained on the radio that his tyres were going away from him (these were his third set, at least 20 laps newer than the ones Jenson won the race on). He seemed also to be getting wound up behind Alonso, and even called the second pit stop 'a terrible idea'. Lewis is good at motivating the team behind him, but is also someone who has performed best when he had a teammate who didn't challenge him in Heikki Kovalainen, and I wonder if having a teammate who does, and who beat him easily today, is beginning to rattle him.
It may be too early in the season for the world championship standings to be meaningful, but in the driver's standings, Alonso is leading with 37 points, followed by Massa on 33 and Button on 31. Bernie's new points system may have been intended to favour race wins rather than consistency, but Massa who hasn't won a race is ahead of Button who has. In the constructor's standings, Ferrari are on 70 points, McLaren on 54 and Mercedes on 29 while Red Bull tie with Renault on 18.
Finally, as Martin Brundle seems no longer to nominate a driver of the day, I propose each race we name a Skiver of the Day, for the driver or other F1 personality who shows outstanding lack of effort and/or achievement. Today I'm going to give the inaugural Skiver of the Day to Jarno Trulli: to finish first, first you must finish, but starting is probably a prerequisite too.
Friday, 26 March 2010
Welcome to the blog
Phil: Welcome to our new blog. We're one race into one of the most eagerly anticipated Formula 1 seasons in years, with Alonso at Ferrari, the return of Michael Schumacher, three new teams and a ban on refuelling. The first race, at Bahrain two weeks ago, however, was criticised for being a bit boring. Well, you haven't seen boring yet. Wait until a few more blog entries, you'll be begging for Bahrain 2010 then.
This weekend's race in Melbourne is billed as a sunset spectacular. That's sunset in Australia, so still redeye in the UK. We'll post again over the weekend, if we can be bothered to get up early at watch it.
This weekend's race in Melbourne is billed as a sunset spectacular. That's sunset in Australia, so still redeye in the UK. We'll post again over the weekend, if we can be bothered to get up early at watch it.
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