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This is the place to discuss everything related to the first round of the 2011 season taking place at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne between the 25th and the 27th 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

The weather outlook is not good for the Pirellis.

Mark Webber was quickest at the end of the first Friday practice with a time of 1:26.831 followed by Sebastian Vettel (+0.327) and Fernando Alonso (0.918).
Robserg, Barrichello, Button, Hamilton, Schumacher, Kobayashi and Petrov make the top 10.

For commentary during the session, click here

Jenson Button was quickest at the end of the second Friday practice with a time of 1:25.854 followed by Lewis Hamilton (+0.132) and Fernando Alonso (+0.147).
Vettel, Webber, Schumacher, Massa, Perez, Barrichello and Rosberg make the top 10.

For commentary during the session, click here

Sebastian Vettel was quickest at the end of Saturday practice with a time of 1:24.507 followed by Mark Webber (+0.857) and Lewis Hamilton (+1.046).
Button, Petrov, Alonso, Kobayashi, Rosberg, Heidfeld and Schumacher make the top 10.

For commentary during the session, click here

Webber looked totally perplexed in the post quali interview...3rd??

Sebastian Vettel grabs Pole position in dominant fashion ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber.
Button, Alonso, Petrov, Rosberg, Massa, Kobayashi and Buemi make the top 10.
Vettel's time was a 1:23.529 which is simply stunning given that Hamilton's time was 0.778 seconds slower and Webber's was 0.866 seconds behind.
Vettel's time was a massive 3.537 seconds quicker than 10th place Sebastian Buemi

For commentary during the session, click here

Will Vettel lap most of the field on Sunday ?
Lets wait and see but it looks like we'll have another interesting start to the Formula 1 season

Quotes for the top 10 drivers on the grid:

Vettel - Pole:

It was a funny winter; the cars changed a lot and testing was really busy. We all tried to work our way around the Pirelli tyres and coming here we’re all impressed by how they’re working on one lap and also when there’s more fuel in the car. It’s promising for Sunday, so we’ll see how we get on. We have made the first step and starting the season this way with a pole position is a good sign for the team. We’ve been working very hard to get the RB7 to where it is now – it’s thanks to all those in the factory and those here, down under, for preparing the car. If you look at the points we still have zero like everyone else, so we need to see what happens tomorrow.

Hamilton - 2nd:

I was really happy with my lap today. The car felt fantastic, and I owe it all to the guys back at the factory, in the design office and those building components. They need to give themselves a huge pat on the back. It was a brave decision to make such a dramatic change to the car, and a superb effort to deliver that change. An amazing turnaround!
However, although I was pleased with my performance today, my KERS Hybrid stopped working halfway round my final lap – I had 40 per cent left that I couldn’t deploy – but that would have been worth only an extra couple of tenths. Still, it’s good to know, because this car platform is now definitely something we can build upon.
Tomorrow is a long race and it won’t be won at the first corner. We need to take home some good points from this weekend because we know our car will only get better.
We still have some work to do, but I think the race is winnable from here – and I’ll be giving Sebastian [Vettel] the race of his life tomorrow!

Webber - 3rd:

I was disappointed with my performance today. Sebastian put in a very good lap. I’m a little bit mystified by the gap to be honest, I tried my best. I’ll have to go through it and have a look at where I can improve and go from there. It’s frustrating, but credit to the team; the guys have done an incredible job. Obviously it wasn’t the best day for me, but the bar is high. I would like to have done better, but reflecting on the performance of the team and what they’ve done over the winter – it’s incredible.

Button - 4th

I think we should be happy with this result. Q3 was a bit disappointing, however: I got stuck behind Nico [Rosberg], and Felipe [Massa] had a spin in front of me. It was all quite messy – the lap that I didn’t complete in Q2 would have been quicker!
So we didn’t get the most out of our package in Q3, but it’s nonetheless a massive step forward from what we had in testing, so we should all be very happy with what we’ve done so far.
And there’s still a lot we can build on: the car is still in its early stages because we haven’t done much testing. To be reliable and reasonably quick gives us huge motivation: everyone back at the factory should be really proud – they put in an awful lot of hard work to get us here today.
I’m really looking forward to tomorrow: I had a good race from fourth last year, and I think I can have a good race from fourth this year, too. We ought to be positive and think we can challenge for the win tomorrow.

Alonso - 5th

Clearly, we cannot be happy with this result, but we must not immediately make a drama out of it. We definitely did not get the most out of the car and we have to understand the reasons for that. Compared to what we saw at the tests, here we ended up much closer to cars that had been a long way off in Spain. We went well yesterday and we had a good feeling for the car, while right from this morning the situation changed, obviously for the worse. Now let’s see how the race turns out. In testing and in yesterday’s free practice, our performance over a long run was good and we were definitely closer to those who today seem to be a long way off. Fifth place on the grid is not too bad and it means I am in a position to fight for a podium finish in a race which is still wide open, if you only think what happened last year, with Kubica starting from sixth or seventh and finishing second. McLaren seems to have made a good step forward, but you should not dismiss Mercedes either, who were impressive at the last Barcelona test.

Petrov - 6th:

After all the hard work during a very tough winter for the whole team, it feels great to come here and qualify on the third row. There was a lot of pressure in Q3 because I only had one run, right at the end of the session. So there were no second chances and I’m glad I was able to deliver the lap. The car has felt good right from the start of practice and we’ve improved it constantly during each session. I think we are in a great position for the race and that we can fight for some points tomorrow. I’m not too worried about the tyres because they have been working well for us so far and we have not seen the drop off that we saw during winter testing.

Rosberg - 7th:

I'm disappointed as when I went to bed last night, I was hopeful of a good qualifying performance. In the morning, a few things didn't work on my car, but the team did a good job and almost all of the systems were working for Qualifying, so we need to find out what happened. I did make a small mistake in Q3 which possibly cost me a place but it hasn't quite come together for us this weekend. One good thing is that I will start on the clean side of the grid, and we will do our best to score some good points tomorrow.

Massa - 8th:

We were less competitive than we could rightly have expected and there’s no doubt about that. Sure, I did not think I would be fighting for pole, especially when you look at the very quick time that Vettel did, but I had hoped to be higher up the order. We had problems with grip on both the hard and the soft tyres on a surface where the tyres wear a lot less than we have seen in winter testing and they provide less grip on the first lap, or at least they do with our car. Now we have to prepare as well as possible for tomorrow’s race, when pure speed will not be the only thing that counts, with reliability and team work being especially important. My spin in Q3? When I came out of pit lane, I accelerated and the tyres were evidently still too cold: the set was not damaged for the race, but it was definitely not a help on my only flying lap.

Kobayashi - 9th:

Overall performance wise we are not too bad and now we see what we have done in the winter was okay. Of course there are still things to improve, but this is only the first Grand Prix and making it into Q3 is good. I want to thank the team. I only wish I had a set of new tyres left for Q3, instead of the used set of soft tyres, as then I think P6 would have been possible. However, I believe today is positive news and I’m very happy to give that to Japan.

Buemi - 10th:

I am very happy to be back in Q3, as we had not been there since 2009. In the end, I had no more new tyres, but all the same, I have to say thanks to the team for doing such a good job and it shows we are on the right road. Let’s hope we can continue to do well in the race tomorrow and from what we have seen of our pace in free practice, I think that should be possible. I could not have hoped for a better start to the season, being among the ten fastest cars on the grid. My quick lap was good and I don’t think I could have done any better.

Ed: Your're right about Vettel's qualifying time being "stunning"!!

But take a look at the comparative performances of power plants for this first grid of the year.

Once again, Renault --which is supposed to be an engine at a DIS-advantage manages to snag positions 1,3, & 6

whereas Mercedes --the supposedly "best" engine available, gets 2, 4 & 7

and Ferrari (which, if you believe their p.r. is supposed to be really great) only manages 5, 8 & 9!

The Cossies --supposed to be competitive-- manage (barely) to grab 15, 17, & 21!!

I'm only counting the first three positions for each engine (each is mounted in six chassis) because my assumption is that the lower positions for each engine are attributable to weak chassis and inexperienced or lesser drivers.

Why is there this chatter about how if Red Bull had a Merc no one would be able to even touch them?? And what in the world is wrong with the famous Maranello magic?

Jim Watt

Sebastian Vettel wins the Australia Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Vitaly Petrov.

The top 10 are:

1. Vettel
2. Hamilton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +22.2
3. Petrov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +30.5
4. Alonso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +31.7
5. Webber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +38.1
6. Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +54.3
7. Perez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +65.8
8. Kobayashi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +76.8
9. Massa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +85.1
10. Buemi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +1 lap

Gave driver of the day to Vettel. He slaughtered all opposition, including his team mate, with ease.

Petrov and Perez deserve mention too.

Thoroughly enjoyable race with varying strategies between and within teams, although my 10 'n' Pole forecast is looking about as accurate as a blind darts player.

Both Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi have been excluded from the result due to a technichal infringement. This means Massa moves up to 7th, Buemi in 8th, di Resta in 9th and Sutil in 10th. The team will appeal the decisions.

A statement by the Sauber team read:

After having shown a great performance at the season’s opening race in Melbourne with Sergio Pérez finishing seventh and Kamui Kobayashi coming eighth, the Sauber F1 Team got excluded from the race results with both cars (Sergio Pérez and Kamui Kobayashi). The FIA stewards of the meeting have found the team in breach of article 3.10.1 and 3.10.2 of the technical regulations.

James Key, the Sauber F1 Team’s Technical Director said: “This is a very surprising and disappointing result. It appears that there is a question over the top surface of the uppermost rear wing element, this area is not the working surface of the component and therefore relatively unimportant to its function. Certainly this has not lead to any performance advantage. We are checking the design of the parts now to better understand the situation and we intend to appeal the decision made by the stewards.”

Gave my drive of the day to Perez. He had a great day as did Petrov.

Quotes from the top 10 finishers:

Vettel - Winner

“I’m very pleased, it was a very good weekend and I had a very nice car to sit in this afternoon. It was a good race – towards the end things calmed down a bit. Lewis didn’t push as hard, so we tried to control the last part of the race. I don’t think it was easy today. The start was crucial and being on the clean side I had a very good getaway. I didn’t know if it was enough, but then I saw Lewis and Mark battling for position. I got a cushion on lap one and we tried to hold the gap for the first stint. When the tyres went off, Lewis caught up and we came in. I think it was the right time, as I couldn’t have done more laps.
After my first stop it was crucial to get past Jenson, which I did. That was important. In the second part of the race I didn’t know what was gong on behind Lewis, if he was under pressure or not, but towards the end of the race I could control it more. We learned a lot of things today. It’s good coming here after a long winter and setting the pace.

Hamilton - 2nd

Second position is a great result. The car felt fantastic, really nice to drive, and I was able to look after my tyres throughout the race. To be able to apply pressure to Sebastian [Vettel] so soon into the season was massively encouraging, too.
I think we were competitive enough today to compete for the win. If it hadn’t been for the poor start, we could have been in the fight. So I think we should be excited.
I don’t really know what happened with the floor, but it didn’t feel too bad to drive. After the race I had a look at it, and it looked quite badly damaged. I was just glad to be able to bring the car home, I was nursing it.
Physically, though, that was one of the easiest races I’ve ever had. I came here feeling fitter than ever, so I’m looking forward to going to Malaysia, which is probably the toughest race of the year.
I’m also looking forward to seeing what additional performance we can bring to the next race. The engineers know where there’s more performance to be gained, and we’ll get it to the track as soon as we can.
I think we can challenge for the win at Sepang.

Petrov - 3rd

I’m delighted to be here on the podium, especially after the winter that we had as a team, which was very tough. Even during testing we didn’t really know where we were compared with the others, but we continued adding new parts to the car this weekend, and they worked pretty well. I made a great start today, which was probably the key for my race because it got me ahead of Alonso and Button, and I was able to run in some clean air and push hard, as well as looking after my tyres. Our two-stop strategy was clearly the right decision and we made it work. I have to say a big thanks to everyone in the team for working so hard and for supporting my over the winter. This result is for all of us and I’m totally ecstatic.

Alonso - 4th

If you just look at the classification, this is not such a bad result; yes we have lost ground to Vettel and Hamilton, although we have done better than Webber and Button. Here at Albert Park, it seems that I have a season ticket for fourth place, as it’s the third time in four years that I’ve finished the race in this position. Last year, we came here off the back of the win in Bahrain, which means that the same result then had a very different feel to it. Once again today, Vettel seemed to be on another planet, while the others were a bit closer, not to the extent they were on Friday, but at least not as far off as in qualifying yesterday. Finishing behind Petrov again like in Abu Dhabi? True, but it’s a coincidence and then, at this stage it is more satisfying to have managed to keep Webber behind me, who I reckon will be a more serious rival in the title fight than the Russian. KERS worked well as did the moveable rear wing, although it did not make the overtaking moves that easy. At the start there was a bit of confusion: I got away well, but then Button headed for me and I had to go wide to avoid a collision. The strategy was just right and it helped me to make up some places. Maybe if I hadn’t ended up immediately in traffic, I could have tried to go for two stops but given how things went, we made the best decision. We are in the right zone for us to be able to win a title, but definitely not if we keep finishing third or fourth. We have to improve, we know that, but it’s still too early to make any predictions.

Webber - 5th

I wasn't quick today and it was the same in qualifying yesterday, so we need to understand the reason why. There wasn't much else I could do today. I lost the last position to Fernando (Alonso) during the pit stops and that was it really. It was very frustrating. Seb drove a good race, in terms of what the car can do, but it's not normal for me not to go and match the rhythm at the front. I should be able to stay with these guys, but today I finished a long way behind. It was a tough race and I was pushing as hard as I could, but I wasn't getting much back. To finish that far behind is not really usual, but let's stay cool; it’s the first race. I’m looking forward to going to Malaysia; I wish the race was tomorrow already. I was in a different race to Sebastian today, so we had to do different things. I was in trouble with the tyres much sooner than he was, so we need to have a look why.

Button - 6th

I got an okay start, but I was surprised to see Vitaly [Petrov] up the inside – he got a very good start and forced me wide. Then I got stuck behind Felipe [Massa], because I got a very poor exit out of Turn 1, and that was the worst move of my race, because he was so slow and difficult to overtake. He slowed us both down massively.
I tried to overtake him around the outside of Turn 11. I was in front before we turned in, but he went really deep into the corner and pushed me wide so that I couldn’t take my normal line.
After my drive-through penalty I had to fight my way back – which was fun but also frustrating. I just wish I could have got the best out of it today, but at least Lewis did a good job.
We should be very happy with our pace though. We’ll have upgrades for the next race, but the car is still very new, and there are plenty of changes we can make to hone the package.
We should be very happy with this weekend, I just wish I could have come away with more points.

Perez - 7th (excluded from results but will appeal)

I will never forget this race, that is certain. After we changed from the hard to the soft tyres, I thought at first I had to push. But then I realised I could manage the tyres quite well and we decided to go to the end with them. I lost some time behind Sebastian Vettel, but I was then able to overtake him. I used the rear wing and he also left room. I am very proud of my team, the strategy worked and it was a nice surprise the tyres lasted so long. I want to thank everybody, especially in Mexico, who helped me to get into Formula One.

Kobayashi - 8th (excluded from results but will appeal)

I’m very happy we have managed to score points with both cars. I had a good start and got by Alonso, who overtook me later. With the first set of soft tyres I was struggling to warm them up. With the second set of the soft ones I think the pace was good, and also the third stint on the harder tyres was okay. I had a big moment when Rubens Barrichello and Nico Rosberg crashed in front of me, but no more excitement after that. It is a good start and makes me feel happy looking forward to the season.

Massa - 9th (moves into 7th)

At the start things got off on the right foot with a nice start and good defending from Button’s attacking moves. Then we tried to bring forward the use of the hard tyres, but that move did not pay off and we had to make the third stop towards the end, which lost me a few places. In the second part, I suffered a lot with degradation on the rear tyres and I could not keep up a good pace. New elements such as the rear wing worked as they should: we definitely saw more overtaking than last year.
The duel with Button? It was very tight: when he passed me, cutting the chicane, I expected him to be penalised. I am a bit disappointed with the result and the overall performance this weekend. We have to get down to work to understand fully what happened, because I think we have not shown our true potential.

Buemi - 10th (moves into 8th)

It’s not too bad finishing tenth, after making it to Q3 yesterday, but I think I could have done better, maybe an eighth or ninth place was possible. It’s a shame that my team-mate and I made contact at the first corner. It’s not the first time it has happened, so I think we will be having a chat about it after I’ve watched a recording of the incident! Towards the end, I was not able to hold off Massa, who was much quicker than me at that point, but I am still pleased with the result. Overall, I would say we are definitely more competitive than last year and now we must continue to move forward, bringing further improvements to the car. It has been a positive start and we will have a lot to learn from analysing this whole weekend and then we will see what we can do in Malaysia.

Sutil - 11th (moves into 9th)

Generally it was not a bad race. Coming from 16th was not easy; the start itself was good and as usual there were a lot of cars at the first corner, but I made up several places by the end of lap one. We had good performance on the track and in the end it was a good race for the first one of the season. It is a shame that we were just outside the top ten, but we hope to have improved our pace and be in the points in Malaysia.

di Resta - 12th (moves into 10th)

We had quite a good start and fight with Kobayashi, but that allowed one of the Toro Rosso's by and from there we lost a bit of momentum. Our pace was just a little bit behind today, but hopefully by Malaysia we will be able to understand why and, when the upgrades come, perform at bit better. Adrian and I were on different strategies and we had to fuel conserve toward the end that's why the gap opened up. I am going into Malaysia to try to do a better job than I did here today, but overall I am relatively happy.

well, chaps, despite the fact that my Pole n' 10 picks were ABSURDLY off the mark (I thought Ferrari was sand-bagging in the run-up practices when, as is now evident, they were running so many laps because they were looking, desperately, for some speed!)

Which speed, by the way, they NEVER found. If they didn't have Fernando, they'd be a [sad] footnote to this season! THEY NEED TO GET RID OF FELIPE MASSA; there are plenty of drivers, both with seats and without them who can bring something to the scuderia besides history. You'll not find me picking him in the top ten for Malaysia!!

I'm still mystified by Nick Heidfeld's flop in qualifying AND in the race; the official explanation smells fishy to me. Did he have the flu? Is he taking drugs??

But I will be picking Petrov (like everyone else) to finish high up in the next race. Clearly, if they can pick up their straight line speed, they can take the fight to both McLaren AND Red Bull. Or at least Vitaly can!

The other big surprise was the flop of the Mercs:

I think Michael should hang up his helmet before they get back to Europe. He was twenty-first in fast laps in the race, barely beating Timo Glock in the Virgin!!! I am a big fan of his, but I think the folks at Petronas should be demanding something more for their money than an antique! They could pick up Hulkenberg for some spare change and maybe even start making it into Q 3 with both cars!!

They (and Ferrari, too!) have got to GET WITH THE PROGRAM. They need people who eat, drink, sleep, and dream nothing but F1; people who make ZERO mistakes and NO EXCUSES!! Both Merc & Ferrari are starting to sound like politicians: they have plenty of answers, but no results!!

F1 demands HUNGRY people, not MERELY competent ones. That said, I've not given up on Nico; but I won't be expecting any podiums from him either; not with the talent & machinery in front of him!

Perez! Looks like Kimi did when he burst on the scene; hope this disqualifying business is rescinded. If you want to penalize folks for engineering mistakes do it in the pocket book; don't take points away from drivers!!!

And Williams! Anyone want to buy any stock in a fading legend?

Finally, let me beat the drum again on this matter of engine performance: ignoring the stupid suspension of the Saubers, in the first race Renault engines earned 50 points (Vettel: 25; Petrov: 15 & Webber 10). That misses by one point matching the combined points of Mercedes Benz [26] and Ferrari [25]!! So much for the notion that Renaults are lacking in grunt!

As for the Cossies: when will Bernie give up on this notion that moving chicanes somehow add to the excitement?? The Virgins, the so-called Lotuses (even WITH Renault power!) and the HRTs are beyond embarrassing; they're dangerous! Do we have to wait for someone to get really hurt before taking action??

So. It must have been a good race, eh? look at this post!! I'm getting excited again; it's been too long without F1!

cheers

Jim Watt