Sebastian Vettel utterly crushed the opposition in Melbourne to take an emphatic first pole position of the season, but despite the continuation of Red Bull superiority, it wasn't his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber who joined him on the front row. Instead, Lewis Hamilton made it plain that the recent simplification of the McLaren's exhaust system is enough to propel them back into the mix at the front, the Brit doing enough to prevent a Red Bull lockout of the front row by qualifying second.
Q1
Setting the early pace was Renault's Vitaly Petrov, who posted a lap time of 1'29.4, before improving to a 1'27.3. His time at the top of the leaderboard was relatively short-lived however, as Vettel bested the Russian's effort by seven tenths of a second. Webber's first effort left him just a twentieth of a second behind his teammate, but the reigning champion proceeded to take over a second off of his previous best to post a 1'25.5. Incredibly, Hamilton was able to go two tenths better in his McLaren, but Vettel found a further tenth to relegate Hamilton back to second position. Petrov made use of the soft compound tyres to come third in the session, just three tenths short of Vettel's time, with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso just another two tenths back in fourth. Unsurprisingly, all six new team cars failed to progress beyond Q1, with the Hispania cars, having done no pre-season testing and hardly any practice laps, both failing to make the 107% cut. However, the big shock was that the experienced Nick Heidfeld fell at the first hurdle for Renault, putting him in for a long afternoon tomorrow and a considerable distance behind his teammate.
Eliminated – Nick Heidfeld (Renault), Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus), Jarno Trulli (Lotus), Timo Glock (Virgin), Jerome D'Ambrosio (Virgin)
Did Not Qualify – Vitantonio Liuzzi (Hispania), Narain Karthikeyan (Hispania)
Q2
Firstly, Rubens Barrichello consigned himself to 17th place on the grid when he beached himself in the gravel at turn three, just before Sebastien Buemi for Toro Rosso set the ball rolling with a 1'26.0. The first of the 'big guns' to go out was Hamilton, who went half a second better than the Swiss driver. His fellow McLaren driver Jenson Button, however, opted to use the soft tyres from the off to post a 1'24.9, six tenths faster than Hamilton. Once again though, it was Vettel who was looking worryingly quick, raising the bar by another nine tenths to put in a time that nobody would be able to match for the remainder of the session. Not even Webber in identical machinery could come close, as he could only manage a 1'24.6, a tenth slower than Hamilton who, after his own effort on the soft tyres, once more finished the session second only to Vettel. Further back, Adrian Sutil did a neat pirouette in his Force India as he came onto the start/finish straight, lucky to avoid walloping the barriers. The German could only muster 16th place, one behind his new British teammate Paul Di Resta who'll begin his debut race in a respectable 14th. On the other hand, seven-time champion Michael Schumacher would've been hoping for better than just 11th after such a promising final pre-season test.
Eliminated – Michael Schumacher (Mercedes), Jaime Alguersauri (Toro Rosso), Sergio Perez (Sauber), Paul Di Resta (Force India), Pastor Maldonado (Williams), Adrian Sutil (Force India), Rubens Barrichello (Williams)
Q3
With all ten Q3 runners making use of the soft tyres, it was Hamilton who set the initial benchmark at a 1'24.5. Button couldn't top this, finishing his first effort three tenths adrift, but Vettel certainly could, slashing Hamilton's time by no less than an entire second. Webber once again had no answer, only bettering Hamilton's time by two tenths, and Alonso appeared decidedly off the pace, 1.4 seconds adrift of Vettel. Neither of the Red Bulls could improve their times on their second attempts, but Hamilton found an extra three tenths to knock home favourite Webber off the front row. Button lined up in fourth ahead of Alonso, with Petrov doing a great job to join the former champion on the third row. Nico Rosberg, the only Mercedes pilot in Q3, could only do enough for seventh, just ahead of Felipe Massa who span his Ferrari at the first corner no sooner than he had exited the pit lane for his first run. Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi will line up in ninth beside Buemi who rounds out the top 10.
Top 10 – Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Mark Webber (Red Bull), Jenson Button (McLaren), Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Vitaly Petrov (Renault), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber), Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso)
My Prediction
All of my predictions over the course of the season will be based on the assumption that it is a dry race (unless qualifying is wet) and will not include unforeseen events such as accidents and breakdowns. As such, my prediction for the first race result of the season runs as follows:
1. Vettel, 2. Webber, 3. Hamilton, 4. Alonso, 5. Button, 6. Rosberg, 7. Massa, 8. Kobayashi, 9. Petrov, 10. Schumacher
Hamilton's aggressive approach could allow Webber to sneak past having conserved his tyres better, whilst Ferrari's traditional kindness on its tyres should see Alonso at least leapfrog Button. That's just my opinion though – if you disagree, why not write a comment in the form below?
Check back tomorrow for a full run-down of the events of the Australian Grand Prix – it's going to be one heck of a race. Hope to see you then!
No comments:
Post a Comment