The 2008 Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix Thread

[Ed]

Hamilton grabs pole ahead of Kubica and Kovalainen

Massa 4th ahead of Heidfeld, Trulli, Rosberg, Coulthard, Glock and Vettel.

As always with Q3 we don't know the fuel loads.

[Ed]

With this modified qualifying format, cars will not have their fuel used this session back. So for those on light fuel loads we may see very early pit stops

[Southernman]

I was impressed by BMW in all qualifying sessions. I didn't expect them to do as well as they did. Well done Hamilton for getting pole. McLaren have the upper hand in the first race. It's a pity Kimi had car troubles.

Renault were the big dissapointment. I expected alot better from them.

With the amount of sideways movement from the cars its going to be interesting to see how the drivers cope with tyre wear, and each other near during the race.

[cmlean]

It will be interesting to see just how well some of these drivers will last the duration of the GP without all the driver aids. I would expect some of them to miss braking markers enabling cars following to make the pass as well as a little too much right foot too early.

[gkaytaz]

I was impressed by BMW in all qualifying sessions. I didn't expect them to do as well as they did. Well done Hamilton for getting pole. McLaren have the upper hand in the first race. It's a pity Kimi had car troubles.

Renault were the big dissapointment. I expected alot better from them.

With the amount of sideways movement from the cars its going to be interesting to see how the drivers cope with tyre wear, and each other near during the race.

Hi folks. It's been a long time since we've had F1. Good to see the cars back on track.

I agree with S'man in most aspects.
Hamilton was pretty comfy getting the pole. He did his job good enough.
BMWs were quite impressive.
Kubica, given that he manages to keep his head, could make the season all the more interesting.
Kovalainen seems to be fast as well.
Massa needs to be a tad more confident.
Heidfeld is just Heidfeld.
Pity that Raikkonen and Webber failed to make it through.
Alonso's car seemed to be a mid-pack vehicle. He might still score an occasional podium but that would necessitate most of the Ferraris+McLarens+BMWs have problems.
Piquet Jr was a big disappointment.
Vettel was very impressive too.
Rosberg can make a difference given the right circumstances arise.
Barrichello was surprising. I had expected the Hondas to end up in the last six.

An entertaining season awaits us all.
Take care...

[gkaytaz]

It will be interesting to see just how well some of these drivers will last the duration of the GP without all the driver aids. I would expect some of them to miss braking markers enabling cars following to make the pass as well as a little too much right foot too early.

The first corner of the race will be fun to watch. The turn 11-12 combo will cause some mistakes for sure. I expect to see a few fly out there.

[Snowy]

Kubica's exuberance put him in contention for the first pole on pole, but ultimately cost the pole pole.

Alonso was hampered by a diff problem. I wonder if Nelson had a similar diff problem, a different diff difficulty or differed with a potentially non-differential difficulty?

[Ed]

Team by team summary from Saturday practice (GMM)

MCLAREN-MERCEDES

BMW's Robert Kubica only lost pole with a mistake, but Lewis Hamilton's fastest time and Heikki Kovalainen in third represents a strong start to McLaren's season, despite a close call with an overnight repair job on Kovalainen's gearbox. "Hopefully today's result represents our performance for the future," said boss Ron Dennis.

BMW-SAUBER

After a conspicuously low profile start to the weekend for the German team, Robert Kubica would have bagged pole if not for running too wide on the dirt at turn-12. The Pole and his teammate Nick Heidfeld topped the morning practice times, and Kubica's second on the grid, and Heidfeld not far away with fifth, is the team's best ever qualifying showing.

FERRARI

A fuel pump failure in Q1 left Kimi Raikkonen with only marshal-power in the pit entry, stranding him at sixteenth on the grid. Felipe Massa completed the pre-season favourites' off-colour day with just fourth place. "We knew from this winter that we would struggle a bit to do quick times over a single lap," said Luca Baldisserri.

TOYOTA

Jarno Trulli is a credible sixth on the grid, and Timo Glock impressively joined him in Q3 in his return to formula one. However, the reigning GP2 champion will drop five places for an unscheduled gearbox change, and a further five places - to a lowly nineteenth overall - after stewards ruled that he unfairly blocked Mark Webber.

WILLIAMS-TOYOTA

A mixed bag for the British team, with Nico Rosberg a solid seventh, but rookie teammate Kazuki Nakajima failing to join him in the final-ten Q3 by a wide margin.

RED BULL-RENAULT

The team's press release made mention of 'the fast and the furious' -- referring not only to the street-racing movie but to 'fast' David Coulthard, eighth, and 'furious' Mark Webber, whose suspected exploded brake disc in Q2 pitched him into the gravel at turn 6, caused a disruptive red flag, and left him fifteenth on the grid for his home race near the end of an impressive weekend.

TORO ROSSO-FERRARI

Sebastian Vettel continued to drive last year's car well as he broke into Q3, but the Red Bull junior team said an unspecified 'technical problem' prevented him from doing any running in the ultimate session. Rookie Sebastien Bourdais never made it through Q1, blaming a mistake and a yellow flag for his spoiled runs.

HONDA

The struggling Japanese giant threatened to upset the form-guide and make it through to Q3, but ultimately its drivers settled in eleventh and thirteenth places. Rubens Barrichello was delighted that recent testing progress at Jerez delivered eleventh on the grid in Australia, but Jenson Button said he made mistakes because he was pushing too hard.

RENAULT

Fernando Alonso dropped from third in a topsy-turvy morning practice to be just twelfth in qualifying, and the most remarkable factor is that the former title-winning team was the ninth fastest car on Saturday afternoon of the eleven in the field. The French squad said the Spaniard was carrying a differential problem, but the excuses were less convincing for the continuation of Nelson Piquet's disastrous debut weekend, as he split the Super Aguris for twenty-first place.


FORCE INDIA-FERRARI

All the pre-season hype, and mysterious testing and practice pace, including ninth again for Giancarlo Fisichella in the morning, culminated in grid positions seventeen and nineteen (Adrian Sutil). The team explained the discrepancy by referring to Sutil's spin into the gravel in Q1, and the need for Fisichella to 'lift off' for the resultant yellow flags. The Roman was then called before the stewards to explain how his best lap of the day was set after he drove through a yellow flag at speed, but escaped with a reprimand.


SUPER AGURI-HONDA

They were split by the abysmally slow rookie Piquet, but Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson settled at the rear of the grid as Super Aguri's awful 2008 opener entered a second day. Dead-last Davidson is still a long way of his team mate's pace, with Sato saying he was 'very pleased' to be only a couple of tenths shy of the car ahead of him.

[Ed]

Race starting in 5 minutes

It is a hot day in Melbourne with air temperature at 37 degrees and track temperature at 51 degrees

[Ed]

Formation lap underway!

[Ed]

Looks like Massa and Raikkonen are on the softer compound while the others are on the harder compound

[Ed]

Adrian Sutil is starting from the pit lane.

Hamitlon starts from Pole, Kubica in second, Kovalainen in 3rd and Massa in 4th

Alonso is 11th, Raikkonen 15th!

[Ed]

Race start: Hamilton leads from Kubica and Kovalainen

Some contact and the safety car deployed

[mlittle]

Safety car's out.........safety car's out!

Wonder what happened; it looked like a couple of cars got into it at the first corner...........

[mlittle]

Going by F1's timing/scoring.....................
~~Fisichella's out of the race
~~Vettel is being scored as stopped..............


Safety car back in.............green flag!!