The 2010 Australian Grand Prix Thread

[Ed]

This is the place to discuss everything related to the second round of the 2010 season taking place at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne between the 26th and the 28th of March.

To submit your 10 'n' Pole Picks for Australia click here, to register in the competition click here

Track Layout



The event timetable for the Australian Grand Prix.

Friday
1st Practice 12:30 local time - 1:30 GMT
2nd Practice 16:30 local time - 5:30 GMT

Saturday
Practice 14:00 local time - 3:00 GMT
Qualifying 17:00 local time - 6:00 GMT

Sunday
Race 17:00 local time - 6:00 GMT

For the latest Formula 1 News check out the F1 news page

[Jim Watt]

Hooray! I've been waiting with baited breath for this thread to open up and now I get to be first to post the Pole n 10 picks!

O.K. my picks for Pole n 10 for Melbourne will be as follows:

1. Seb. Vettel: RedBull/Renault Seb would have won save his plugs last week (and if you believe that I’d like to talk to you about some real estate I have for you... )

2. Fernando Alonso : Ferrari the Spaniard was fastest lap in the desert and last year he got sixth place in that terrible Renault! He won in Australia in ’06 when Renault was supplying F1 racers with actual race cars and he could get his second win (both for Australia and 2010) with a little help. (Kobayashi crashi into Vettel? )

3. Felip Massa: Ferrari Little Phil is fast, no question and he could out-qualify his team-mate, but I don’t see it in the cards --or in the race either

4. Lewis Hamilton: McLaren Fourth fastest in Bore-rain & would have been on the podium last year but for some prevarication...remember? He won here in the ‘wonder year’ of ’08 & if the circuit surface is rough, he should shine; the McLaren is always a good kerb climber and the Red Bulls and Ferraris are usually more delicate machines, so Lewis could podium here!

5. Mark Webber: RBR/Renault Webbo’s was the 3rd fastest lap in the desert last week and this is his best chance at home since he got the Williams in 3rd slot on the grid and took it home to fifth five years ago, so let’s say he holds to that form...

6. Jenson Button: McLaren Only Ninth fastest in Bore-rain; last year’s winner... but not this year!

7. Michael Schumacher: Mercedes Can’t discount the winningest ever driver; he won down under six years ago (when Vettel was probably too young for a driver’s license!

8. Nico Rosberg: Mercedes a good driver in a good car; he even made the final step on the podium in Australia in '08, but not this year I’m afraid; too much competition. But he could pip Michael!

9. Adrian Sutil: Force India Merc Second fastest last race! with luck he could even be sixth or seventh. definitely a driver to watch this year!

10. Rubens Barichello: Williams/Cosworth Rubens won’t give up, will he? But he’s a long way from last year’s second step on the podium. Probably as close as he’ll ever get.

Pole: I think Fernando may pip Seb. V., but I’m still going to give the Pole pick to the German flyer just the same!


With four teams owning the first eight places, it looks like a long, long season for the rest of the field!

Poor Kubica, poor Buemi; :alright:

Now if I could just get me a Merc engine deal AND buy last year’s Toyota chassis from the mysterious Mr. Stephan, AND get some one with some racing nous to run my team, I’d buy Buemi and Kubica's contracts and enter my black cars with red trim and flashy thumbs up logo as the ‘Up Yours, Bernie! Racing Team’.

And by God, we’d be worrying Michael before the year was out!

Jim Watt & have a great race! I love Melbourne; it's a great road circuit!!

[mlittle]

Hooray! I've been waiting with baited breath for this thread to open up and now I get to be first to post the Pole n 10 picks!

O.K. my picks for Pole n 10 for Melbourne will be as follows:

1. Seb. Vettel: RedBull/Renault Seb would have won save his plugs last week (and if you believe that I’d like to talk to you about some real estate I have for you... )

2. Fernando Alonso : Ferrari the Spaniard was fastest lap in the desert and last year he got sixth place in that terrible Renault! He won in Australia in ’06 when Renault was supplying F1 racers with actual race cars and he could get his second win (both for Australia and 2010) with a little help. (Kobayashi crashi into Vettel? )

3. Felip Massa: Ferrari Little Phil is fast, no question and he could out-qualify his team-mate, but I don’t see it in the cards --or in the race either

4. Lewis Hamilton: McLaren Fourth fastest in Bore-rain & would have been on the podium last year but for some prevarication...remember? He won here in the ‘wonder year’ of ’08 & if the circuit surface is rough, he should shine; the McLaren is always a good kerb climber and the Red Bulls and Ferraris are usually more delicate machines, so Lewis could podium here!

5. Mark Webber: RBR/Renault Webbo’s was the 3rd fastest lap in the desert last week and this is his best chance at home since he got the Williams in 3rd slot on the grid and took it home to fifth five years ago, so let’s say he holds to that form...

6. Jenson Button: McLaren Only Ninth fastest in Bore-rain; last year’s winner... but not this year!

7. Michael Schumacher: Mercedes Can’t discount the winningest ever driver; he won down under six years ago (when Vettel was probably too young for a driver’s license!

8. Nico Rosberg: Mercedes a good driver in a good car; he even made the final step on the podium in Australia in '08, but not this year I’m afraid; too much competition. But he could pip Michael!

9. Adrian Sutil: Force India Merc Second fastest last race! with luck he could even be sixth or seventh. definitely a driver to watch this year!

10. Rubens Barichello: Williams/Cosworth Rubens won’t give up, will he? But he’s a long way from last year’s second step on the podium. Probably as close as he’ll ever get.

Pole: I think Fernando may pip Seb. V., but I’m still going to give the Pole pick to the German flyer just the same!


With four teams owning the first eight places, it looks like a long, long season for the rest of the field!

Poor Kubica, poor Buemi; :alright:

Now if I could just get me a Merc engine deal AND buy last year’s Toyota chassis from the mysterious Mr. Stephan, AND get some one with some racing nous to run my team, I’d buy Buemi and Kubica's contracts and enter my black cars with red trim and flashy thumbs up logo as the ‘Up Yours, Bernie! Racing Team’.

And by God, we’d be worrying Michael before the year was out!

Jim Watt & have a great race! I love Melbourne; it's a great road circuit!!

Interesting picks, Jim.

I really like the last paragraph, though, about the idea of running an "Up Yours, Bernie! Racing Team" in Formula 1. Now if we combined it with a sports-car team to run at LeMans AND in the FIA GT-1 championship..........wouldn't that be an interesting idea?

As to the race............hopefully, since Melbourne isn't a Tilke-built, sterile race track, the race will be interesting. One can only hope.........

[Snowy]

I hope it's a good race but unfortunately Albert Park isn't renouned for its overtaking opportunities. With the skinny front tyres, extra downforce and no KERs button it will be a miracle if anyone overtakes here.

The threat of rain may just save F1's day, so I'm doing a rain dance.

Overtaking isn't the be all and end all of a good race, and the TV director/producer here is usually on the ball with keeping up with events, unlike most of the venues on the calender...

Late night Thursday or early start Friday for me ... what do you think?

[Julian Mayo]

I hope it's a good race but unfortunately Albert Park isn't renouned for its overtaking opportunities. With the skinny front tyres, extra downforce and no KERs button it will be a miracle if anyone overtakes here.

The threat of rain may just save F1's day, so I'm doing a rain dance.

Overtaking isn't the be all and end all of a good race, and the TV director/producer here is usually on the ball with keeping up with events, unlike most of the venues on the calender...

Late night Thursday or early start Friday for me ... what do you think?

Easy Snowy. Just look at final qualy, then save yourself a lot of time n boredom by going to bed.

[Jim Watt]

Snowy & Julian:

I'll agree with you about the excitement generated from rain in Melbourne, but not that overtaking is infrequent there. Though it is true that last year Jenson and Rubens were 1 & 2 on the podium after being 1 & 2 on the Grid, Jarno Trulli who brought the Toyota home in 3rd place was number 20 (that’s twenty, 2-Zero!) and Timo Glock who took fourth place in the other Toyota started number 19 on the grid! Alonso, in last year’s terrible Renault brought it home in fifth place from tenth on the grid. And the year before that, in 2008, though Lewis drove from the Pole to victory, Nick Heidfeld took second place starting from grid position 5 and Fernando again had a good race, finishing 4th in the Renault after starting from eleventh on the grid. And, in that race eight machines retired owing to accidents. So there can, indeed, be overtaking in Melbourne.

And it will again be about tyre management --favoring smooth drivers, like Jenson and Lewis and Michael over deep, hard breakers like Mark and
boy wonder Sebastian. Rain, of course, benefits both the rising German and the Seven time WDC as well as Lewis and Fernando.

Oh, I hope I'm right and it is a barn burner, a nerve wracking, down to the wire, test of skill and daring.

Jim Watt

[Ed]

Live coverage for the Australian Grand Prix here

[Ed]

1st Friday practice session results:

1. Kubica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.927
2. Rosberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:27.126
3. Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:27.482
4. Massa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:27.511
5. Vettel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:27.686
6. Alonso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:27.747
7. Hamilton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:27.793
8. Buemi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:28.014
9. Petrov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:28.114
10. Liuzzi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:28.192
11. di Resta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:28.537
12. Schumacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:28.550
13. Alguersuari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:28.572
14. Webber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:28.683
15. de la Rosa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:29.465
16. Barrichello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:29.712
17. Hulkenberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:30.249
18. Kobayashi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:31.588
19. Trulli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:31.652
20. Kovalainen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:31.654
21. di Grassi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:32.831
22. Senna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:33.401
23. Chandhok . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:34.251
24. Glock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:34.925

Most laps by Hulkenberg and Kovalainen with 26 laps each. Least laps by Kobayashi with 5 laps and Glock with 8 laps

[Ed]

2nd Friday practice results:

1. Hamilton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.801
2. Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.076
3. Webber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.248
4. Schumacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.511
5. Petrov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.732
6. Buemi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.832
7. Sutil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.834
8. Liuzzi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.835
9. Barrichello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.904
10. Rosberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.956
11. Kubica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:27.108
12. de la Rosa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:27.108
13. Kobayashi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:27.455
14. Hulkenberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:27.545
15. Alonso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:29.025
16. Vettel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:29.134
17. Massa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:29.591
18. Kovalainen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:29.860
19. Alguersuari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:30.510
20. Trulli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:30.695
21. Glock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:32.117
22. di Grassi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No time
23. Chandhok . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No time
24. Senna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No time

Alguersuari covered the most number of laps with 43 followed by Buemi with 29 and Kubica with 28 laps.

Senna didn't complete any laps. Chandhok only managed 1 lap and di Grassi just 2 laps while Timo Glock only covered 9 laps

[Snowy]

Snowy & Julian:

I'll agree with you about the excitement generated from rain in Melbourne, but not that overtaking is infrequent there.
Jim Watt

Unfortunately overtaking round here is actually statistically less frequent than Sakhir.

Circuit _____2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 AVERAGE
Melbourne ____9 __5 __23 __8 ___12 __25 ___- ___13.67

Sakhir ______12 __8 ___34 _18 __13 __15 __21 ___17.29

F1 overtaking analysis:
http://www.cliptheapex.com/forum/viewto ... =51&t=1482

And contrary to popular belief there was more overtaking at Sakhir this year than in the last three years. People have conveniently forgotten just how consistently boring the Bahrain GP has been since it was first run...

[Jim Watt]

Gosh, Snowy! I yield to your data base, tho' it's still hard for me to believe that there's more overtaking in the desert than on the streets in Australia. You make me think maybe I should just sleep through the race and check the results later on line!

But I WILL watch the race and hopefully will think it worth it!

Cheers, Jim

[Ed]

Saturday practice results:

1. Webber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:24.719
2. Alonso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:24.929
3. Schumacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:24.963
4. Vettel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.122
5. Rosberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.366
6. Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.399
7. Hamilton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.505
8. Sutil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.525
9. Massa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.549
10. Liuzzi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.782
11. Barrichello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.852
12. Buemi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.104
13. Kubica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.184
14. Kobayashi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.275
15. Alguersuari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.368
16. Petrov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.661
17. Hulkenberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.804
18. de la Rosa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.818
19. Kovalainen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:29.539
20. Trulli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:29.800
21. di Grassi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:30.800
22. Glock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:31.114
23. Chandhok . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:34.334
24. Senna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:36.649

Buemi, Kubica and Kobayashi completed the most number of laps with 21 laps.

Senna covered the least number of laps with 8 followed by Chandhok with 11 and Glock with 12 laps

[Ed]

Qualifying results:
Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Q1 Q2 Q3
1. Vettel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:24.774 1:24.096 1:23.919
2. Webber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.286 1:24.276 1:24.035
3. Alonso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.082 1:24.335 1:24.111
4. Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:24.897 1:24.531 1:24.675
5. Massa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.548 1:25.010 1:24.837
6. Rosberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:24.788 1:24.788 1:24.884
7. Schumacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.351 1:24.871 1:24.927
8. Barrichello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.702 1:25.085 1:25.217
9. Kubica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.588 1:25.122 1:25.372
10. Sutil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.504 1:25.046 1:26.036
11. Hamilton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.046 1:25.184
12. Buemi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.061 1:25.638
13. Liuzzi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.170 1:25.743
14. de la Rosa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.089 1:25.747
15. Hulkenberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:25.866 1:25.748
16. Kobayashi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.251 1:25.777
17. Alguersuari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.095 1:26.089
18. Petrov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26.471
19. Kovalainen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:28.797
20. Trulli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:29.111
21. Glock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:29.592
22. di Grassi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:30.185
23. Senna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:30.526
24. Chandhok . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:30.613

[Ed]

The coverage for qualifying was done in the race session. That has now been rectified. We do apologise for the error

[jido]

The coverage for qualifying was done in the race session. That has now been rectified. We do apologise for the error

If you believe in the overtaking cassandras, that would be oddly appropriate

Button 4 - Hamilton 11, funny my bets were the other way around
At least Vettel was impressive as expected