The 2006 Australian F1 GP (Alonso wins - Your thoughts ?)

Ed · Post by Ed » Tue Mar 28, 2006 7:07 pm

This is the place to discuss everything related to the third round of the 2006 season taking place at Melbourne in Australia between the 31st of March and the 2nd of April.

The Australian Grand Prix Preview is available here.
The main Australian Grand Prix Page is available here.

To submit your 8 'n' Pole Picks for Australia click here, to register in the competition click here (make sure you register and submit your picks before the first race of the season to maximise your chances)

Ed · Post by Ed » Tue Mar 28, 2006 7:11 pm

The event timetable for the Australian Grand Prix

Friday
1st Practice 11:00 local time - 00:00 GMT
2nd Practice 14:00 local time - 03:00 GMT

Saturday
Practice 11:00 local time - 00:00 GMT
Qualifying 14:00 local time - 03:00 GMT

Sunday
Race 14:00 local time - 04:00 GMT

Please note that the Daylight Saving ends on Sunday morning and hence the difference in 1 hour (GMT) between the qualifying time and the race time

Ed · Post by Ed » Tue Mar 28, 2006 7:20 pm

The latest weather forecast for the Australian Grand Prix (last updated 1 April)

Friday
1st Practice - 11:00 - 19 - Partly Cloudy
2nd Practice - 14:00 - 20 - Mostly Cloudy

Saturday
Practice - 11:00 - 15 - Cloudy
Qualifying - 14:00 - 16 - Cloudy

Sunday
Race - 14:00 - 17 - Cloudy

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 8:22 am

Ch 10 commences it's tv coverage of the GP at 1pm AEST today

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:27 am

Over here in the States', Speed Channel's coverage of the Australian Grand Prix weekend commences tonight at 10 PM US EST(Second Friday Practice), with the qualifying session set to air at Midnight US EST Friday night/Saturday morning......with the race itself set for broadcast, starting at 10:30 PM(pre-race show, then the race itself starting at 11 PM US EST)......oh, one more thing.....

Go Speed Go!!!!

Ed · Post by Ed » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:34 am

1st Friday Practice: Anthony Davidson fastest ahead of Robert Doornbos and Jacques Villeneuve. Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa, Michael Schumacher, Ralf Schumacher and Alex Wurz make the top 8 - Full Results

Davidson covered the most number of laps with 26.
Of the race drivers, Villeneuve covered the most with 16 laps and that means an engine change is on the cards.

Track temperature reached 24 degrees while air temperature peaked at 21 degrees.

Ed · Post by Ed » Fri Mar 31, 2006 2:25 pm

2nd Friday Practice: Anthony Davidson fastest ahead of Alex Wurz and Robert Kubica. Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Rubens Barrichello make the top 8 - Full Results

Davidson covered the most number of laps with 28.
Of the race drivers, Sato covered the most with 27 laps.

Liuzzi and Albers both spun off hitting the wall with little damage to their cars. Many drivers went off but recovered.
Webber had a gearbox glitch on his outlap but the team fixed the issue and continued his run.

Track temperature reached 26 degrees while air temperature was 23 degrees.

Kapel · Post by **Kapel** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 2:29 pm

In India : -

Qualifying starts at 8.30 am Live on Star Sports

Pre-Race day show at 8.30 am on Sunday morning on Star Sports

Race at 9.30 am live on Star Sports

F1-NUT · Post by **F1-NUT** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 12:05 am

P. No Driver Team - Engine Tyres Times Ave/Gaps
1. 36 DAVIDSON Honda M 1'26"822 219.884 Km/h
2. 35 WURZ Williams Cosworth B 1'26"832 + 0'00"010
3. 38 KUBICA BMW Sauber M 1'27"200 + 0'00"378
4. 12 BUTTON Honda M 1'27"213 + 0'00"391
5. 1 ALONSO Renault M 1'27"443 + 0'00"621
6. 5 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari B 1'27"658 + 0'00"836
7. 3 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes M 1'27"773 + 0'00"951
8. 11 BARRICHELLO Honda M 1'28"075 + 0'01"253
9. 4 MONTOYA McLaren Mercedes M 1'28"200 + 0'01"378
10. 6 MASSA Ferrari B 1'28"227 + 0'01"405
11. 2 FISICHELLA Renault M 1'28"280 + 0'01"458
12. 17 VILLENEUVE BMW Sauber M 1'28"440 + 0'01"618
13. 14 COULTHARD RedBull Ferrari M 1'28"531 + 0'01"709
14. 9 WEBBER Williams Cosworth B 1'28"860 + 0'02"038
15. 16 HEIDFELD BMW Sauber M 1'29"053 + 0'02"231
16. 8 TRULLI Toyota B 1'29"138 + 0'02"316
17. 21 SPEED Toro Rosso Cosw. M 1'29"196 + 0'02"374
18. 7 R.SCHUMACHER Toyota B 1'29"379 + 0'02"557
19. 18 MONTEIRO Midland Toyota B 1'29"713 + 0'02"891
20. 37 DOORNBOS RedBull Cosworth M 1'29"876 + 0'03"054
21. 15 KLIEN RedBull Ferrari M 1'29"879 + 0'03"057
22. 10 ROSBERG Williams Cosworth B 1'29"933 + 0'03"111
23. 40 JANI Toro Rosso Cosw. M 1'30"686 + 0'03"864
24. 20 LIUZZI Toro Rosso Cosw. M 1'30"734 + 0'03"912
25. 19 ALBERS Midland Toyota B 1'30"830 + 0'04"008
26. 39 WINKELHOCK Midland Toyota B 1'31"260 + 0'04"438
27. 22 SATO S. Aguri F1 Honda B 1'32"556 + 0'05"734
28. 23 IDE S. Aguri F1 Honda B 1'34"224 + 0'07"402

Ed · Post by Ed » Sat Apr 01, 2006 4:28 am

BMW Sauber have confirmed an engine change for Villeneuve is planned prior to qualifying.

Mario Thiessen

Robert had to stop the first practice prematurely due to an engine failure after 13 laps. Our whole focus is on reliability, but the time for development was too short. Over the winter our test engines of identical-specification covered the required distances without problem. However, our investigations into the breakages units after Bahrain and Malaysia revealed that some components have not met their required production tolerances. Our short-term reaction has been to build new engines with hand-selected components that best meet these rigorous requirements. We have two of these revised engines here. One is already installed in Nick?s car, and Jacques will get the second in time for qualifying after Saturday?s morning practice session. As a result he will lose 10 positions on the grid.

Jacques Villeneuve

The car seems to be competitive. One issue so far has been warming up the tyres, which should not be a problem in qualifying now that we can run more than one lap, or in the race, but it will be critical to be competitive then because of the penalty I will get for needing an engine change. That?s a pity, because the balance of the car is very good, and I?m really happy with its speed.

Ed · Post by Ed » Sat Apr 01, 2006 4:33 am

Fisichella who suffered performance loss towards the end of the 2nd session will not be requiring an engine change as the problem turns out to be a fuel feeder problem

Pat Symonds

We anticipated cooler conditions in Melbourne this year owing to its later position in the calendar, and made our tyre choice with that in mind. Even so, it is still not easy to get the tyres working well in the cold weather. However, the problem is the same for all the teams, and we made some good changes with Fernando's car to put us on the right track. Giancarlo stopped before the end of the session when we saw signs of a potential engine problem. We will look to make up for the lost set-up time during tomorrow's session.

Denis Chevrier

Fernando's day ran smoothly, and we were able to complete our normal programme with him, working on fine-tuning the engine mapping for this circuit. Giancarlo experienced a performance loss on the engine during the second session, which cost him track time. We diagnosed a fuel feed problem after the session ended, which has now been solved.

Giancarlo Fisichella

It was a bit of a difficult day for me. The cold temperatures meant the car was understeering a lot, and we had just started to improve the balance when I felt something strange with the engine. I brought the car back to the garage slowly, and we found the fuel feed problem after the session. On the positive side, Fernando's times showed that the car is quick at this circuit so I think we will be in a strong position.

Ed · Post by Ed » Sat Apr 01, 2006 4:42 am

Top 8 Driver quotes from Friday

Anthony Davidson - Fastest

I've had a very positive day today and I'm pleased to be top of the times again. It's been quite a difficult day in terms of traffic because none of the teams get to drive this circuit outside of the Grand Prix weekend, so there were a lot of cars on track at one time, especially when the circuit evolved towards the end of the second session. I think we've done a good job on tyre evaluation and overall we're looking good. There's definitely more to come though so if we keep moving forward like we have today we should have a good weekend.

Alex Wurz - 2nd fastest

Conditions were not so easy today. It was cold, windy and it was difficult to know where to put the
car on the circuit. Now we need to think about our tyre choice and the strategy for tomorrow and Sunday and we have some good ideas.

Robert Kubica - 3rd fastest

After the engine problem this morning we had a pretty good second session. We tried some promising aero solutions and were able to do consistent times in our long run. On my last outing I had some traffic, otherwise I would have been even quicker, but that is less important in a free practice session.

Jenson Button - 4th fastest

It's been a positive start to the weekend and so far, so good. The circuit had very low grip but we ran through everything we intended to and, most importantly, it's good that Anthony completed all his test items.

Fernando Alonso - 5th fastest

We seem to be in good shape. The conditions were quite windy out on the track and the grip levels are poor at the moment, but I am quite happy with the car even so. The grip levels will improve as more rubber goes down on the track, which will give all the drivers the confidence to attack more. But at the moment, the Renault feels nice to drive, and our pace is good. I think we are in a similar position to the other races so far this season ? aiming for the top positions in qualifying, and hopefully on Sunday as well.

Michael Schumacher - 6th fastest

Things went pretty well, apart from a bit of traffic stopping us from getting through 100% of our planned programme. One variable was the wind, which occasionally made for unpredictable handling. On one lap, I ended up running a bit wide in
a corner when a gust of wind pushed the car from behind, when I had no more room to brake. As for the tyres, it will be important to always ensure they are up to temperature.
There are no other problems, partly because over the winter we ran in much colder conditions than this. Tomorrow, I hope to be a front runner and be able to start the race from as near to the lights as possible.

Kimi Raikkonen - 7th fastest

A good start to the weekend where we went through everything we wanted to including our tyre evaluation with Michelin. It was a bit cooler than we expected but no problems, and I guess the temperature will stay pretty much the same for the rest of the weekend. I had a small off at one point which is what happens sometimes when you try different things, and I'm expecting the track surface to improve further as more cars run.

Rubens Barrichello - 8th fastest

I have had a much better Friday today than at the past two races. We had a little problem this morning so it's good that we got some good running this afternoon but I'm definitely looking a lot more competitive. I hope we can continue like this through the rest of the weekend and it should be a better race for me.

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 12:41 pm

In case anyone's interested, here are the practice times from Saturday practice(held under wet conditions, according to both autoracing1.com and motorsport.com)......

1}N. Heidfeld, BMW-Sauber.................1:35.328 sec.
2}J. Villeneuve, BMW-Sauber...............1:36.234 sec.
3}V. Liuzzi, S. Toro Rosso....................1:36.329 sec.
4}G. Fisichella, Renault........................1:36.418 sec.
5}R. Schumacher, Toyota....................1:36.438 sec.
6}F. Massa, Ferrari..............................1:36.505 sec.
7}M. Schumacher, Ferrari....................1:37.363 sec.
8}J. Trulli, Toyota................................1:37.468 sec.
9}R. Barrichello, Honda........................1:37.483 sec.
10}S. Speed, S. Toro Rosso.................1:37.813 sec.
11}C. Klien, Red Bull-Ferrari.................1:37.891 sec.
12}M. Webber, Williams-Cosworth..........1:38.047 sec.
13}J. Button, Honda..............................1:38.485 sec.
14}D. Coulthard, Red Bull-Ferrari...........1:38.672 sec.
15}N. Rosberg, Williams-Cosworth..........1:39.410 sec.
16}T. Montiero, Midland-Toyota..............1:39.532 sec.
17}F. Alonso, Renault............................1:39.609 sec.
18}Y. Ide, Super Aguri..........................1:40.828 sec.
19}T. Sato, Super Aguri........................1:41.422 sec.
20}J. P. Montoya, McLaren-Mercedes......1:44.375 sec.
21}K. Raikkonen, McLaren-Mercedes......1:48.219 sec.
22}C. Albers, Midland-Toyota.................no time listed

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 12:54 pm

The track was full wet at the start, developed a dry line, then light showers sprinkled at the end.
There was not a lot to be gained by being out there at all according to Ant Davison, who was more than happy to join the commentary team

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 1:02 pm

Qualifying has just commenced on a dry track. It is sunny and windy.

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