was good to see Brawn/Button/Barichello/Branson do well today....
One thing that really impresses me watching the qualifying was how calm they are with under 3 minutes to go. Just sitting in the garage leaving it to the last second before heading out. Good to see the cars moving aorund a bit more too. Should be a good race tomorrow.
Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen will line-up for the Australian Grand Prix in seventh and ninth positions respectively. While the Italian team aknowledge they did not have the pace of the dominant Brawn GP cars, they had expected to qualify higher up the field. Kimi Raikkonen's day was undoubtedly compromised by a hydraulic failure that forced him to miss most of the final practice session, but in the final round of qualifying this afternoon both Raikkonen and Massa suffered a dramatic drop off in pace with race fuel on board
Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli have been excluded from this afternoons qualifying session for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix after qualifying sixth and eighth respectively. The duo will therefore join Lewis Hamilton at the back of the grid for Sundays 58-lap event. Post-qualifying inspection revealed that the TF109 wings flexed excessively and therefore contravene Article 3.15 of the FIA technical regulations which specified that wings must not have any degree of freedom
Melbourne - Qualifying Weights (kg) 1 . K. Nakajima - Williams Toyota FW31 - 612.5 * 2 . R. Kubica - BMW Sauber F1.09 - 650.0 3 . F. Massa - Ferrari F60 - 654.0 4 . K. Raikkonen - Ferrari F60 - 655.0 5 . L. Hamilton - McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 - 655.0 * 6 . N. Rosberg - Williams Toyota FW31 - 657.0 7 . S. Vettel - Red Bull Renault RB5 - 657.0 8 . J. Trulli - Toyota TF109 - 660.0 9 . M. Webber - Red Bull Renault RB5 - 662.0 10 . S. Bourdais - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR4 - 662.5 * 11 . J. Button - Brawn Mercedes BGP 001 - 664.5 12 . R. Barrichello - Brawn Mercedes BGP 001 - 666.5 13 . T. Glock - Toyota TF109 - 670.0 14 . S. Buemi - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR4 - 675.5 * 15 . F. Alonso - Renault R29 - 680.7 * 16 . A. Sutil - Force India Mercedes VJM02 - 684.5 * 17 . G. Fisichella - Force India Mercedes VJM02 - 689.0 * 18 . H. Kovalainen - McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 - 690.6 * 19 . N. Heidfeld - BMW Sauber F1.09 - 691.5 * 20 . N. Piquet - Renault R29 - 694.1 * * Declared weight (outside of top ten) Earl ALEXANDER © CAPSIS International Zoom Light running for Nakajima in second qualifying Prior to the current season it was commonplace to hear a driver or team talking about adjusting their qualifying times on account of the fuel they carried on board in qualifying. This year the FIA publish this information and it makes for interesting reading. Unsurprisingly, those with the most fuel on board and therefore the heaviest declared weights generally did not make the top ten shoot out in qualifying. As a rule of thumb, 10kg of fuel lasts four to five laps while 10kg of fuel slows the car by roughly 0.3s a lap depending on the circuit type and length. The minimum weight for a Formula One car is 605kg with the driver on board and with the addition of KERS this year, the teams opting to run the new system have, while able to meet the minimum weight, have not been able to ballast the car towards that limit as they would likehe minimum limit. Pole sitter Jenson Button weighed in at 664.5kg (table below) after qualifying suggesting he has a good level of fuel on board the super-impressive Brawn Mercedes. Rubens Barrichello was just 2kg heavier as he lines up alongside in the sister BGP 001. One figure stands out at the top of the table detailed below and that is Kazuki Nakajima. The Williams Toyota driver did not make it into the final phase of qualifying and running on fumes in Q2, his listed weight is an astonishing 612. 5kg, some 81kg lighter than the KERS equipped Renault of Nelson Piquet. The BMW Sauber (again with KERS) of Nick Heidfeld is the second heaviest package in the field today, some 41.6 kg heavier than Robert Kubicas standard F1.09 but over at Ferrari, they are running relatively light considering they also have KERS on board. Theres plenty of data available this year and it should enable fans of the sport to get a better understand of what to expect on race day.
According to some cynics in the Melbourne paddock, Saturday's qualifying result proved that KERS is set to fade even before it becomes fashionable in Formula One. Only seven of the twenty cars are tackling the season opener with the newly allowed braking energy re-use technology, following concerns the weight implications could prevail over the power boost. Indeed, the highest KERS runner is Ferrari's Felipe Massa who was seventh fastest in qualifying. Nick Heidfeld, meanwhile - using KERS - qualified seven places behind his non-KERS BMW team-mate Robert Kubica, while the McLarens and Renaults languished in the bottom half of the grid.
Hot on the heels of the news that Toyota had been excluded from the Australian Grand Prix qualifying session and moved to the back of the field for Sundays race, was news that Williams Toyota had filed a protest against both Red Bull Renault and Ferrari. After hours of deliberation the team withdrew the protest in the interests of the sport and the grid for the season-opening event is now finally set. Williams had reportedly filed a protest against it rivals in relationship to the aerodynamics of the sidepods. "The AT&T Williams team confirmed that following todays qualifying session, it submitted protests against two competitor teams under the 2009 Technical Regulations," a statement from the Grove-based squad began. "After further detailed consideration, Williams has withdrawn both protests in the interests of the sport. Williams recognises the possibility that in this area there could be more than one interpretation of the rules and therefore does not feel it appropriate to continue with the protests, the team concluded. After the drama of qualifying in which no less than six of the top ten runners could have been disqualified, the race proper gets underway late tomorrow afternoon in Melbourne. Earl ALEXANDER © CAPSIS International
However this podium finish was short lived. Following a stewards' inquiry,Trulli was been stripped of his podium finish after officials ruled that the Toyota driver overtook Lewis Hamilton under the safety car, after losing third position to the world champion by running off the track. Italian Trulli received a 25 second time penalty, dropping him out of the points. McLaren's Hamilton was promoted to third, with Sebastien Bourdais joining the points-paying positions.
OK. Thats what the commentators were saying. I have to say the coverage was shocking. Totally missed the Kimi off. Happened during an ad break. Only got to see it at the replay.
They said that??? I didn't hear them. Yeah...terrible coverage...and with BBC not doing ads, it's going to be up to ch10 to decide when they are...which is a worry.
Yes, they questioned whether Trulli passed under the yellow. They were going on their screen. How slow are the organisers to allow the presentation to take place along with the interviews. So much for technology. BTW were you drinking coffee in Lygon street today in your F40 again?????
BBC post race show went on for an hour. They covered that in other interviews with McLaren and Toyota.
I'm meaning the F1 mob here. They were on the yellow/safety car for 5 laps. They should have sorted it out before the presentation. Gees if Brundle and Co could pick it up why couldn't Charlie Whiting and Co.........
notice the driver gets in the car without a HANS device and correct we didnt get that, we get Neil Crompton interviewing himself whilst having a toss over a V8 supercar......meanwhile the Aust GT series do one race lap...WTF
Not to take anything away from Brawn GP, they had a good result, but to me they are not a "new" team IMO. Most of the development of these casr (90% as stated by Nick Fry) was done last year under Honda. The team was sold and renamed Brawn GP. A "new" team to me is something that starts from scratch e.g. Hyundai or Kia starting up. Actually I wonder if we'll see them joining in at some stage in the future. Imagine that, Kia WCC and WDC.
Yes. the Brawn phenomena is rather overdone, imho. First thing they're doing is sacking 270 staff. So is McLaren. Know a guy who worked on that BBC intro. Its all Maya and RF4. Best race viewing I had yesterday was rewatching a stream of last seasons FIA GT Spa round. Got to have my GT fix. See they stuck Vettel with a ten grid place penalty next week. Eddiec Jordan was right. Vettel never should've apologised. 50-50 racing incident in my view.
Sunday's official crowd figure at Albert Park was 105,000, three thousand less than for the 2008 afternoon race. But major events minister Tim Holding said : "We're in very difficult economic times, so it's not unreasonable that people are cautious as to how they spend their money."
At least five teams have already turned their attention to copying the Brawn-esque diffuser design, according to gossip as the Albert Park paddock packed up ahead of this week's dash to Malaysia. The appeal against the stewards' decision to allow the controversial diffusers to race in Australia will only be heard in Paris next month, but it is rumoured that BMW, Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Renault are resigned to going down the path of readying for a negative outcome. "For us it is not really possible to copy it," BMW's Nick Heidfeld told the German news agency SID, "because not everything on our car can be changed at short notice." Red Bull's Christian Horner added : "The ramifications could be the whole rear half of the car which obviously has a huge amount of cost implications in a not fantastic economic time." Whispers indicate McLaren is quite advanced with a 'double decker' diffuser design, and the Spanish newspaper Marca said Renault - despite boss Flavio Briatore's anger - is also working on the issue. The sports newspaper said the same is true for Ferrari, while Fernando Alonso could be racing a new diffuser by the time of next month's Chinese grand prix. "What is happening with the diffusers is stupid, forcing teams to spend money in a time of crisis," Briatore fumed. "It is also about safety: we have already put similar pieces in our wind tunnel and it gives 14 per cent more downforce. That is not in the spirit of the regulations. And once they are developed we could be talking 30 or 40 per cent additional," Briatore added.
Michael Schumacher in Australia questioned the stewards' decision to penalise his countryman Sebastian Vettel. Vettel, driving for Red Bull, apologised to his team and BMW's Robert Kubica for the crash near the end of the 2009 season opener. The 21-year-old was also quoted by media as calling himself "an idiot", and it is believed he was equally as frank during the stewards' inquiry. However, not everyone agreed that Vettel was entirely to blame, as he tried to defend his second place to the charging Kubica. "He (Vettel) was on the inside - he couldn't make his car dissolve into thin air," Ferrari advisor and seven time world champion Schumacher said at Albert Park, according to Germany's Bild newspaper. 1982 world champion Keke Rosberg remarked that Vettel may have been penalised because he is an overly "honest chap". Stewards ruled that he caused the crash and ordered Vettel to start ten places lower than his qualifying position in Malaysia this weekend. "I think it's hard but we just have to accept it," Sebastian said. Source GMM © CAPSIS International Image Unavailable, Please Login
it's just the old Germany and Poland thing again .... you turn the GPS on in a Merc/BMW and it automatically locks onto Poland
In my case it was Dachau. That's where the factory is in Germany where I have been visiting frequently in the past year. Been a bit reluctant to take the tour in the past. A few guys at Friday nights dinner were saying I should go and have a look. A bit like the fires here in Vic, not sure if I want to see the real thing.
