Australian GP - Qualifying

[MikeLane]

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Australian Grand Prix

A change of rules and a new order of the final grid starts this season with a bang, as Hamilton takes pole.

Albert Park, Melbourne - Mar.15, 2008 - Round 1

By

Mike Lane

F1 Correspondent

Last season saw politics intervene in this sport and promise to wreck a great season.

Over the winter we have watched and tried to anticipate the relative positions of the teams, with Ferrari and McLaren both appearing to have maintained their advantage and the rest playing catch up.


The teams have had to adapt to the new rule changes and in some cases, new driver line-ups. Well today we got a first glimpse of what might be in store for F1 fans this season and it promises to be another great season with plenty of upset and intrigue, although hopefully not the kind we endured last year.

QUALIFYING

The circuit is a lakeside track in Albert Park with chicanes, a dusty surface and walls to hit if you get it wrong. The circuit is 3.295 miles long (5.27km) and the lap record is held by Michael Schumacher, who in 2004 set a time of 1:24.125m.

In Saturday’s qualifying session the weather was dry, but it soon became apparent that the loss of electronic aides on the cars would require extra care on the part of the drivers, as a number of drivers ran wide on turns, locked brakes and practiced their opposite locking techniques.

In the first 20 minute qualifying session, Sebastien Bourdais was first to go out on track in his Toro Rosso. After his very successful career in Champ car racing in the USA, we were now to get a glimpse of him in this new discipline. His first timed lap was a 1:30.250 mins which was some 2 seconds slower than his time in practice on Saturday morning.

As the clock ran down for the first session, Kimi Raikkonen left it quite late before setting a time and then sensationally, with only 1 min 40 secs left to go, slowed down as he entered the pit lane and came to a halt. He was unable to get his car back to the garage and was eliminated from the qualifying process.

As the clock reached zero and cars still on track tried to improve their times, Adrian Sutil in the Force India car spun in the final sector and stopped, causing yellow flags to be displayed. This compromised the others in their lap times.

At the end of the session Heikki Kovalainen for McLaren was fastest with a time of 1:25.664 min. The following drivers were eliminated, Giancarlo Fisichella, Sebastien Bourdais, Adrian Sutil, Takuma Sato, Nelsinho Piquet and Anthony Davidson.

As we entered the second qualifying session an early casualty was Mark Webber in his Red Bull, when a brake failure led to Mark crashing out, happily he was unhurt.

As the session continued, David Coultard in the other Red Bull was an early pace setter but then with Felipe Massa, in the remaining Ferrari, replacing him at the front.

This was the session where we were likely to see the fastest times laid down as the 3rd session now forces drivers to carry their race fuel with no credits for fuel used.

With 5 minutes to go Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber posted a time of 1:25.362mins but with 3minutes left, Hamilton put together a lap of 1:25.187 mins to lead the session.

At the end of qualifying session 2, Lewis Hamilton was fastest with a time of 1:25.187 mins, closely followed by Kubica 0.128 secs behind.

Those drivers eliminated were Rubens Barrichello, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Kazuki Nakajima, Mark Webber and Kimi Raikkonen.

The new format for the third qualifying session has changed. The time has been shortened from 15 mins to 10 mins and there is no so called ‘fuel burning phase’.

Drivers must now carry in this session the fuel they start the race with, so it was going to be interesting to see if there would be any differences in strategy.

It became quickly apparent that drivers were doing slow in-laps and out-laps to conserve fuel. If this is to become common practice, it could prove difficult for drivers on hot laps not becoming compromised by slower cars.

After only one lap, Sebastian Vettel came into the garage and got out of the car. Was this to be a future pattern with drivers in the last ten, but with no chance of a pole position, choosing to conserve fuel by retiring early? I hope not.

Clearly this new format for the third qualifying session is destined to not produce the fastest shoot-out and at the end Hamilton finished in pole position with a time of 1:26.714 mins, about 1.5 seconds slower than in Q2.

The grid order at the end was:


Hamilton, McLaren

Kubica, BMW Sauber

Kovalainen, McLaren

Massa, Ferrari

Heidfeld, BMW Sauber

Trulli, Toyota

Rosberg, Williams

Coultard, Red Bull

Glock, Toyota

Vettel, Toro Rosso

Following the qualifying session the Race Stewards made the following change. Timo Glock was penalized for a gearbox change at the end of Saturday morning practice and demoted 5 places. He was also judged to have seriously impeded Mark Webber and was further demoted 5 places. He will now start from 19th place in Sunday’s race.

The Stewards reprimanded 4 drivers for setting their fastest times under yellow flags when Sutil spun. They were not penalised further.

Qualifying turned out to be a mixture in Australia with Hamilton continuing his form, Raikkonen hitting bad luck and Alonso unable to get the Renault to work.

BMW Sauber confirmed the promise of last season with strong performances from both cars and Kovalainen made a great start with his new team.

The race on Sunday should be a very different mix from what we got used to last season.

Mike Lane

F1 Correspondent - Home Base - England