2008 Formula One Australian Grand Prix

[Jack_Bauer]

Drivers to miss out on Q2:

Fisichella
Bourdais
Sutil
Sato
Piquet
Davidson

Absolute shocker of a debut for Piquet, being beaten by a Super Aguri with zero testing mileage under its belt! Pretty poor for Bourdais too, getting soundly beaten teammate Vettel. Honda looked better than expected. BMW were pretty darned impressive, they might even be giving the Ferraris and McLarens some headaches in Q3 if they go aggressive with the fuel strategy. Raikkonen's mechanics will be earning their keep to get whatever was wrong with his car fixed in the next few minutes.

[Suka]

Raikkonen done!!

Shock, reliablity problems already, oh no.

[Jack_Bauer]

Raikkonen definitely out! Disastrous start for the reigning champions. All the pressure is now on Massa to produce the goods.

[Suka]

I might have jumped the gun a bit with my statement. Commentators (rubbish as they are) pointed out that Raikkonen stopped out on track and was pushed back in by his pit crew so isn't alowed to continue.

[Jack_Bauer]

Drivers out in Q2:

Raikkonen
Webber
Nakajima
Button
Alonso
Barrichello

Yet another nightmare for Mark Webber in front of his home fans with a bizarre front brake failure spitting him off the track. Alonso couldn't make it through to the final shootout, that's both the World Champion drivers on the current grid out before we even get to final qualifying! Hondas couldn't quite make it to the final ten, but they weren't too bad and have a good base to build on clearly for the rest of the season.

Stars of qualifying so far - Hamilton and Vettel. P6 in a Toro Rosso for Vettel!

[Kitdy]

Damn it. Kubica has some magic or something to get 2nd on the grid after that slight off - if he hadn't gone off, he may have been the pole sitter.

I was excited.

[Jack_Bauer]

F1 2008 gets off to a superb start in Melbourne, with drama and surprises aplenty in the qualifying session for Sunday's curtain-raising Grand Prix. The predicted dominance from Ferrari failed to materialise in what was a hugely disappointing first competitive session of the season for the Scuderia. They had looked like the front runners all throughout winter testing put couldn't put it into practice when it counted. Champion Raikkonen didn't make it into the final session after he had to be pushed back to the pits after a fuel pressure problem. That left all the pressure on Felipe Massa, and in customary Massa style he wilted and could only manage fourth spot.

It was first blood to Hamilton and McLaren then in the predicted two-horse race for the titles as Lewis put in a superb lap in the dying moments to take pole. However, more worrying for Ferrari will be the stunning performance from Kubica in the BMW. He took second on the grid, a result which the team would scarcely have believed possible a few weeks ago, but Kubica may even have a few regrets. He made a big mistake in the final sector and was lucky not to have a spectacular off. Without that mistake he may even have pulled off an incredible upset and taken P1. With the form of BMW and the tightness of the competition in the middle of the field, Raikkonen will find it extremely difficult to get himself up towards the podium, even if he goes mega-heavy on fuel.

Heikki Kovalainen is well positioned in P3, and his role tomorrow will surely be to fight off Massa into that first turn and act as rear-gunner for Hamilton. Nick Heidfeld is in a strong 5th place ahead of Trulli and Rosberg. Red Bull didn't quite live up to their Practice pace after Coulthard could only manage 8th and Webber crashed out in Q2 with a failure of some sort under braking. Glock had a strong debut for Toyota with 9th place, starting ahead of Vettel in the Toro Rosso. Sadly Vettel chose to sit in his garage and save fuel rather than run in Q3, which was a shame as he had been driving superbly up until then. It would have been nice to see him have a go at upsetting the likes of Toyota and Williams.

Outside the top ten the big losers were of course Raikkonen and Webber. Other big disappointments will be Renault with a deeply mediocre 12th and 21st place result. Honda showed that their 2008 season perhaps isn't gonna be the complete wash-out their early winter form had suggest. A very respectable 11th and 13th spot on the grid indicates that they have improved massively, and who's to say they can't continue the improvement and really get into the midfield mix. Worst performance of the day has to go to Nelson Piquet Jr, who will be the meat in a Super Aguri sandwich at the foot of the grid in his Renault. Not the best way to impress your new employers!

So Hamilton will start off his 2008 campaign as the red-hot favourite to take the first 10 points of the season. Can Massa or maybe Kubica do anything to stop him?

Provisional Grid

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

[Zytek_Fan]

Go BMW!!!

[go.pawel]

Glock's gearbox had to be replaced, so he gets a penalty and will start 14th.

[LandQuail]

No electronically softened engine braking, no traction control, no bullshit.

Love it. Love it. Love it.

This'll be the best F1 season in a decade.

[charged]

OK boys heres the story, cant watch the race live on TV due to being in the middle of no where, Im after a stream of the race via the net. I have TVU player but cant find a channel hosting it. Help me fellas with a decent feed.

Cheers
John

[Rockefella]

In the F1 predictions thread I said BMW would finally go up front to challenge the Ferrari's and McLaren's. Sadly, no one really agreed.

Now you can all suck it.

[go.pawel]

Another five-places-drop penalty for Glock, this time from marshalls for impeding Webber during qualifaying. This means he'll start 19th, instead of 9th.

[Suka]

OK boys heres the story, cant watch the race live on TV due to being in the middle of no where, Im after a stream of the race via the net. I have TVU player but cant find a channel hosting it. Help me fellas with a decent feed.

Cheers
John

Both Star Sports and Shangahi Sports are showing the F1 on TVU.

[charged]

Both Star Sports and Shangahi Sports are showing the F1 on TVU.

yeah found them after searching, cheers mate