F1 2007: ING Australian Grand Prix, Albert Park

[Zytek_Fan]

OMG Davidson is doing good

[Jack_Bauer]

First session over, those not taking any further part are Albers, Sutil, Liuzzi, Coulthard, Speed and Barrichello. Nothing too unexpected there really. Coulthard and Ruebens will be disappointed to see their teammates both making it through to Q2. Button got in by the skin of his teeth, but Webber was decidedly more impressive up in P7 in his home event. Super Aguri continued their good form with both drivers comfortably through. The usual suspects were up at the front of the grid, and the most interesting thing from a fan's point of view is just how close everyone is up at the top, just fractions of a second covering the first 7 or 8 drivers. Roll on Q2...

[Jack_Bauer]

Eventful session in Q2. First Trulli went out with the rear jack still attached, then Ralf's gearbox choked up, then remarkably Massa managed to break his Ferrari bouncing over the kerbs and will not make it through, his spot in Q3 is taken (astonishingly) by Sato's Super Aguri! Round one in the battle to be Ferrari top-dog has definitely gone to Kimi.

Those to drop out are Massa, Wurz, Button, Kovalainen, Rosberg, Davidson.

[twinspark]

I'm a bit sad to see Kovalainen outside top 10, especially with Fisico being 6th in Q2. Also the problems with Massa's car (supposably gearbox) worry me a little. But seeing both Super Aguris higher than the Hondas is a nice surprise.

[Kitdy]

I don't even know what to say other than Kimi Raikkonen for the win!

[Jack_Bauer]

Starting Grid

1. Raikkonen
2. Alonso
3. Heidfeld
4. Hamilton
5. Kubica
6. Fisichella
7. Webber
8. Trulli
9. Schumacher
10. Sato
11. Davidson
12. Rosberg
13. Kovalainen
14. Button
15. Wurz
16. Massa
17. Barrichello
18. Speed
19. Coulthard
20. Liuzzi
21. Sutil
22. Albers

Kimi Raikkonen takes pole for the 2007 season opener, and given that he's four tenths of a second faster than his nearest rival he's got to be red-hot favourite for the race win tomorrow. Alongside him on the front row is the man who is filling his boots at his old job at McLaren, his old adversary from the 2005 title race Fernando Alonso. Third place goes to Heidfeld who proved the BMW's undeniable pace by splitting the McLarens. Hamilton grabs an excellent P4 on his debut, although a small mistake in the final sector of his final hotlap cost him P3 or maybe even a shot at the front row.

Kubica took a creditable fifth although he will be disappointed to be a full eight tenths of a second behind his more experienced teammate. Fisichella took P6 showing that the Renaults aren't quite on the pace as they have been in Melbourne for the past two years. Mark Webber put on a good show for his home fans with a rather suprising 7th place, ahead of both the Toyotas and Sato who couldn't produce any more miracles for Super Aguri in Q3

The race looks like it is shaping up well for tomorrow. If Kimi makes it into turn one ahead then he should be in an almost unassailable position given the Ferrari's pace. The only real question mark hangs over the reliability after Massa limped out of qualifying in the sister car. The ideal scenario for the neutral fan would be Alonso or maybe even Heidfeld squeezing ahead of Kimi off the start, giving Kimi and Ferrari some serious work to do. Down the grid things look very tight and unpredictable in the midfield so we should see some very close racing at times, and let's not forget Massa should be coming steaming through the field in the first stint from P16. I can't wait!

[Kitdy]

Yeah, hopefully Massa will cut through the field like butter - that'll make for good tv!

I am amazed at the pace of Super Aguri - beating names like Heikki and Coulthard, and Barichello - and the lack of pace from Honda - getting beat by Toyota and their baby team? That is quite a dissapointment.

I guess of particular dissapointment was Honda, Kovalainen, Barichello, and Coulthard. Good to see Hamilton up far though. In the very early stages of the season, it looks like BMW has squeaked up to 3rd place and Renault has slit form first to fourth. How interesting- time, and tomorrow, will reveal more.

[Jack_Bauer]

...and the lack of pace from Honda - getting beat by Toyota and their baby team? That is quite a dissapointment.

Actually, Button said he was pleasantly suprised by his pace. He wasn't even expecting to make it through the first round. Just shows how bad things truly are at Honda at the moment.

[fpv_gtho]

Newsbreak - Honda joins Williams and Spyker in the fight against customer cars

Albers was way off Sutil's pace in Q1. Over 2 seconds, maybe he developed a problem that limited his track time, but already it seems Sutil is doing everything right.

Bit of a mixed bag from the Red Bull quartet. Coulthard found himself with the relatively untested STR2's, although claimed some rubbish on track cost him some time, albeit probably not enough. Great to see Webber get 7th in all 3 sectors though, those laps in Q1 and Q2 seemed to come from nowhere.

Begs the question, who truly is the 5th best team right now - Red Bull, Toyota or Williams. Or even Super Aguri. Whilst the latter 3 seemed to be more on pace with each other, the RBR's were split fairly wide, perhaps not giving an accurate indication. Toyota though put in a surprise to jump ahead of Williams, who had been leading them so far through testing and practise.

Disasterous start for Honda, i dont think you can really say anything else. Whilst RBR has been outpaced on occasioni by STR in testing, theyre relatively the same car. Honda though, are clearly behind a development of where they were last year. Are they in the same boat as RBR, in that with such a new car, they need to better understand how the car works? Or did they simply cock up.

Williams i think perhaps actually dissapointed by not getting either driver through to Q3. Both Rosberg and Wurz looked firmly in the drop out for Q2, and perhaps due to the surprise performance of Webber and Sato, fell victim. Will be interesting to see how they manage to develop their package, as they typically have fallen back over the past few years.

[Jack_Bauer]

Disasterous start for Honda, i dont think you can really say anything else. Whilst RBR has been outpaced on occasioni by STR in testing, theyre relatively the same car. Honda though, are clearly behind a development of where they were last year. Are they in the same boat as RBR, in that with such a new car, they need to better understand how the car works? Or did they simply cock up.

Well all the excuses coming out of the Honda camp today and over the whole preseason are about struggling to come to terms with the new package. I remember Nick Fry saying a few weeks ago that the BAR/Honda cars for the past 3 years have been developments on the same concept that did so well in 2004. This 2007 car is a totally new concept, they basically started from scratch so will take a while to get to grips with it.

Button was saying after qualifying that he thinks the basic chassis is better than the past season's, but there is a serious issue with the aero balance. You could see from the on board shots just how much the drivers were struggling with the car on corner entry particularly, it was way too pitch sensitive, it looked a real handful. They are saying that if/when they come up with a solution to the aero problems that the car should have great potential. Bit late to be trying to sort out major balance problems now though.

In other news, Spyker have reportedly lodged a complaint against Super Aguri, going against the expectation that they would wait until after the Grand Prix. I guess they didn't quite realise just how badly they were gonna get thrashed by SA.

[Quiggs]

Yeah, both of my parents are Polish, with my mom from Katowice and my dad from Bialystok. I might have like a 10% sliver of German in me too.

Yea, I'll bet you've got a sliver of German in ya, ya fairy.

[fpv_gtho]

Well all the excuses coming out of the Honda camp today and over the whole preseason are about struggling to come to terms with the new package. I remember Nick Fry saying a few weeks ago that the BAR/Honda cars for the past 3 years have been developments on the same concept that did so well in 2004. This 2007 car is a totally new concept, they basically started from scratch so will take a while to get to grips with it.

Button was saying after qualifying that he thinks the basic chassis is better than the past season's, but there is a serious issue with the aero balance. You could see from the on board shots just how much the drivers were struggling with the car on corner entry particularly, it was way too pitch sensitive, it looked a real handful. They are saying that if/when they come up with a solution to the aero problems that the car should have great potential. Bit late to be trying to sort out major balance problems now though.

In other news, Spyker have reportedly lodged a complaint against Super Aguri, going against the expectation that they would wait until after the Grand Prix. I guess they didn't quite realise just how badly they were gonna get thrashed by SA.

It comes as almost a surprise that theyve gone that direction, although i suppose the basics of the RA107 were set before the team started getting somewhere with the RA106.

[dydzi]

extremely amusing - http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/7817/rbbrb3.jpg

[Kitdy]

That was good. My favourite was the Tak attack!

Where did you find that dydzi?

[Jack_Bauer]

So the 2007 F1 season finally gets underway with a comfortable victory for Kimi Raikkonen on his Ferrari debut. After safely negotiating the first corner and holding his lead he was able to cruise away from the pack throughout the race and won his first race in over a year barely breaking into a sweat. He was consistently quick, controlled, almost mistake free, and put in some stunningly quick laps when needed. It was the start of Ferrari's first season without Michael Schumacher in over a decade, but they won't be missing him for long if Kimi continues like that.

The real story of the race though was going on behind Kimi. As Nick Heidfeld squeezed past Alonso into the first corner the young debutant Lewis Hamilton saw his opportunity to get the jump on his illustrious teammate and take P3. Heidfeld later dropped out of podium contention after his gamble of taking soft tyres early on in the race backfired, leaving the McLaren teammates to duel over the second position. In the end it all came down to strategy as they seemed inseperable on the race track in terms of pace. Hamilton caught a huge slice of bad luck as he ran into traffic on his in lap coming in for his second stop. This saw his slender lead over Alonso evaporate and the reigning champ was able to leapfrog the youngster for P2. However, claiming the third podium spot is still a remarkable acheivment for the young Brit, and there will certainly be a LOT more to come from him for many seasons to come you suspect.

Heidfeld took a comfortable fourth for BMW ahead of Fisichella and Massa. In truth his BMW teammate Kubica would have been ahead of the Renault and Ferrari if it weren't for his gearbox giving up the ghost midway through the race. A promising start for BMW, but the reliabilty issues are a worry. Fisichella was his usual solid but unspectacular self, holding off the hard charging Massa. Massa had his chances of a podium finish ruined by getting stuck behind the Hondas of Button and Barrichello for over 10 laps, halting his charge up the field from last on the grid.

Rosberg put in a stunning display, making his way from 12th to 7th with some consistent pace and an absolutely stunning move on Ralf Schumacher, launching one up the inside of turn 3 from miles back. His Williams teammate did not have such a good day of it. Wurz was outpaced and then wiped out of the race altogether by an audacious lunge from David Coulthard into turn 3. The Red Bull car was actually launched over the top of the Williams cockpit in what could have been a very dangerous incident indeed. Ralf took the final points position for Toyota, holding off his teammate Trulli. It was an adequate performance from Toyota, but they yet again look as though they will struggle to hit the heights the company bigwigs demand of them.

Elsewhere there was a troubled debut for Heikki Kovalainen who struggled with pace and also made numerous silly mistakes. I lost count of the number of times we saw him skidding across the grass and gravel. As expected, Honda were poor. Barrichello salvaged some pride after they had their noses bloodied by the "B" team yesterday by finally overhauling the Super Aguri of Sato for P11. Button though had a shocker, limping home 3rd last on the racetrack after struggling with chronic understeer all day long. Webber will have been terribly disappointed by his afternoon infront of his home fans. He slipped from 7th on the grid down to 13th with a combination of indifferent pace and a bizarre incident where he managed to spin the car on entry to the pitlane. The other finishers were Liuzzi, who we barely saw all race long, Davidson who battled hard after a disasterous start with a faulty throttle, and Sutil who struggled with the Spyker on his debut. Scott Speed retired with front tyre issues early on, and Albers suffered the ignimony of being the first man to crash out of the 2007 F1 season with a stupid mistake.

So Ferrari have sent out a powerful warning shot to their would-be championship rivals. They were dominant all weekend long and Kimi never looked in danger of being troubled by the McLarens. McLaren will be satisfied with a decent first weekend with plenty of points on the board, but they will know they have serious work to do if they are to get on the pace of the Ferraris. One thing is for sure though, McLaren certainly have the driving talent to do it if they get the right car underneath them. We all knew of Alonso's brilliance, and now any lingering doubts about Lewis Hamilton's credentials as a serious driver will have been blown away by his stunning Formula 1 debut. A new era has been born for Ferrari with a well deserved win, and a new star is born for all the world of motorsport to take note of in 22 year old Lewis Hamilton.

1. Raikkonen
2. Alonso
3. Hamilton
4. Heidfeld
5. Fisichella
6. Massa
7. Rosberg
8. Schumacher
9. Trulli
10. Kovalainen
11. Barrichello
12. Sato
13. Webber
14. Liuzzi
15. Button
16. Davidson
17. Sutil
dnf. Coulthard
dnf. Wurz
dnf. Kubica
dnf. Speed
dnf. Albers