After returning home from an outside broadcast of a sort, spying on the coverage brought by the force of evil that is Sky Television - safe to say that BBC has been doing a better job over the past few years than what was on display today. They may have all these fancy graphics and seem to be throwing a lot of money at the event, with 90 minute pre-race shows and over an hour afterwards, but still failing to match the content offered by the former hosts of the entire season. But that's not what these posts are about - much - there was a race today and a rather good one at that showing several teams being very competitive and others falling behind their normal standards.
We saw an event not short of some contact and shedding of body panels all the way up to an epic final lap which probably saw more position changes than an entire season under the old pre-2009 regulations. There was also a slight intervention from an Albert Park favourite, the safety car making up for it's absence in last years race. And in the end the champion crossed the line to continue where he left off in the race to claim the title last time. Of course for once it wasn't the German bloke out front, it was our bonus points reigning champion who claimed the chequered flag while all hell was breaking loose behind him, this is the Australian GP 2012...
The Race
 |
| The grid on lap one - from F1Fanatic.co.uk |
At the start the front row left virtually as a mirror image until Hamilton encountered a little bit of wheelspin gifting Button a free run into the first turn and into the lead, further behind Rosberg decided he didn't like his row of the grid too much and wanted to Michael on his row instead. Which left grosjean lagging off the line with gear selection problems. This was a little too civilised so it was time to unleash a little contact, step forward Mark Webber who ended up between Hulkenberg and Vergne and managed to hit both of them a little. If that wasn't enough, Senna ran wide and re-entered into and then over the front of Daniel Ricciardo. Oddly enough all of the cars that bounced off each other were able to still run afterwards, a couple fitted for checks and minor touches, except Hulkenberg who pulled off after the fast chicane.
Somewhere in all the mayhem one-stop Perez had come from the final row of the grid to be running up with his team-mate - sporting the harder of the two compounds, plotting one stop once more perhaps. Further towards the front of the grid Vettel was in the process of dealing with the two mercedes cars in front of him starting with Nico Rosberg. The battle of the Germans didn't last long as it turns out that the outside of turn nine is a place you can overtake, as Vettel sailed to the outside of the Mercedes and chased after the second one.
Next up to have a go a overtaking was Pastor Maldonado on a fellow GP2 champion Romain Grosjean - the Williams went down the inside of the Lotus but missed out one important detail. The frenchmans car does occupy a physical space, one Pastor failed to observe and contact was made ending Grosjeans day. A weekend of very contrasting fortunes, second row to second retirement. Back with Vettel and the gap to Schumacher was eroding fast, the Mercedes cars were falling back - Rosberg now had Alonso and Webber for company. But something rather odd happened, Sebastien made an error, running wide in turn on almost surrendering his 4th position, it did nothing to stop the charge however and four laps later he was in position to charge again. This time it was Michael who ran wide - two multiple German world champions messing up turn one, the world has gone mad. However it was mechanical trouble for Schumacher and he limped back to the pits and into retirement.
The race entered a state of calm, which is more than can be said for my innards, thoroughly playing up this weekend life is not pretty in blog HQ at the moment but I shall continue onwards. With the events of the opening laps the top ten was filled by the remnants of division one as the rest has fallen away, with the exception of Maldonado. Sauber were running in formation with Raikkonen and Massa which is where the action picks up again. Felipe was having difficulties managing the tyres on an unstable Ferrari and was under pressure from Kobayashi and Raikkonen - Kamui found himself on the outside of the Brazillian into the entry to turn three. This opened a gap for Kimi who followed the pair through the corner and then passed Kamui on the outside of four, some panel banging later and the Finn gained the place.
Another queue of cars was forming behind Nico Rosberg in the only remaining Mercedes, with the primary attacker being local driver Mark Webber, the Red Bull had difficulty catching the superior speed of the Mercedes even in the DRS sections. But Mark forced himself alongside the German on the run down to the quick turn 11, Nico broke a little too late, kept the position but had to use the escape lane on the inside of turn 12. With worn rear tyres he had to surrender the position in the pit lane unleashing a very quick Webber. A barrage of fast laps later and he had done enough to jump ahead of the Mercedes and try and close the gap to the leasing cars ahead.
Then things were about to get interesting, Vitaly Petrov must have gotten a little bored with racing down at the bottom of the grid, as he pulled his Caterham over on the pit straight and buggered off. To clear the machine the safety car was launched, and closed the field right up, and under the new rules shift all the lapped cars out of the way. And I don't care what you think Brundle it is a good idea, although it does need to be implemented smoother. The timing of the safety car helped Vettel jump ahead of Lewis Hamilton into second while Webber lined up 4th ahead of Alonso and Maldonado. The break was also good for one-stop Perez who had conveniently only stopped once and the rest would have helped his tyre life.
The Race - Part II
As the safety car pulled in, reigning bonus points champion headed reigning FIA champion - I think this shows which series is the best somehow. Button had a strong restart and cemented the position, the only pass on the restart belonged to Kobayashi. The Sauber driver repayed Kimi Raikkonen as he passed the Finn on the outside of turn three, the outside of corners was getting a lot of use today. Kovalainen in the remaining Caterham also passed two cars, yet this was before the SC line and was issued a grid penalty in Malaysia for the privilege.
This was the phase of the race where things started to go a little mental, starting off with Felipe Massa, the Brazillian was having an appalling day in a car which was failing to work in his case anyway. Fernado had managed for force his Ferrari to reach the top five at this point while Felipe was battling for 14th place... Massa was duelling with Ricciardo in turn three and cut a rear tyre in the process - Senna was passing the wounded Ferrari on the outside of the next corner. Due to the damaged tyre Felipe drifted into the side of the Williams, with shards of carbon fibre showering the track resulting in a front puncture for Senna. Both cars retired from the race as a result of the damage, putting Massa and Senna's races out of their respective misery as neither have been having a nice day. The next driver to visit the gravel was Jean-Eric Vergne but he only made a passing visit before rejoining.
With laps winding down the field was clumping into little groupings - the top four of both McLarens and Red Bulls who were unable to attack each other. Alonso and his fading tyres, was gaining a lot of attention from the remaining Williams of Maldonado who was having a good day, for once. Then there was roughly everyone else - a train behind Rosberg was forming with the Saubers, Kimi, both Torro Rossos and Paul Di Resta. All running fairly close together with conflicting tyre strategies including one-stop Perez on tyres older than the queen. What all this needed was a catalyst, some event to bring all these machines into immediate proximity to allow battle to really take hold.
On the final lap we had that catalyst provided by Pastor Maldonado, in his attacks on Fernando Alonso - pushing a little too hard to close on the weakening Ferrari he got a little too much curb on the exit of turn 6 and got a little sideways. Maldonado corrected the slide and introduced the Williams a little too personally to the inside wall. The impact was fairly severe launching the front of the car and spinning it across the track, had it not been the last lap it would have been a safety car scale accident.
Assumingly off camera this bunched up the Rosberg train and unleashed an epic final set of corners, the pictures picked up the train with Kobayashi leading the train out of the turn 9 chicane after a little contact. The contact punctured Rosbergs tyre allowing Perez and the rest of the train through, Raikkonen pounced on Perez in the penultimate corner while Ricciardo passed Vergne as Di Resta plotted and waited. As the crowd entered the front straight Kamui claimed the mid-field victory ahead of Raikkonen. Behind that Di Resta gained a run on the battling cars ahead passing Vergne on the straight and almost taking Ricciardo too as one-Stop Perez held the pair of them off for 8th position.
Beyond this brilliant lunacy - resembling one of the V8 Supercar races that followed the series this weekend - Button claimed a dominant victory ahead of Vettel, Hamilton, Webber and Alonso leaving a gap to the mid-field war won by Kobayashi.
The Bonus Points Results
An impressive start to the season, with action at both ends of the race - oddly both involving Williams cars - but as light has now completely faded here at Blog HQ it is time to open out the scoring for the first race of the season.
25pts - One-stop Perez - scores his second Australian GP points victory through using the trusty one-stop strategy even running second at one point from last place, just lost ground in the final fight
18pts - Jenson Button - The reigning champion strikes again claiming another race win in Australia in the dry
15pts - Kamui Kobayashi - Winner of the mid-field fight and for that move on the outside of Raikkonen
12pts - Pastor Maldonado - For keeping pace with Alonso all race very strong, but not as strong as the melbourne barriers - see painting them green made them invisible.
10pts - Fernando Alonso - For dragging a woeful Ferrari into the top five while Mass struggled just to drive the car without hitting things
8pts - Raikkonen - From 16th to 7th is good day for the Finn on his return to the sport good job
6pts - Sebastien Vettel - Awesome move on Rosberg, and keeping McLaren very honest today
4pts - Paul Di Resta - For a great final lap - going from 13th to a points paying position in one sector
2pts - Nico Rosberg - Fully uneventful race but gets points for the brilliant start
1pt - Marussia - For being the only newer team to finish the race when Caterham failed and HRT were too slow to start.
Driving Penalties Table
There was only one single infringement was performed by the traditional leader of the third division of the grid, Heikki Kovalainen who passed those two cars before the safety car line on the restart before he had to retire the Caterham with a loose steering arm. As a result he was handed a five place grid penalty in preparation for Malaysia.
The Penalties Points Championship
I would like to issue a penalty point to my internal organs for being horrifically uncooperative this weekend making life here in blog HQ not the most enjoyable of places to visit at the moment. Can't imagine what has destabilised my innards but I really rather it hadn't - there seems no rational excuse so hopefully a penalty point would sort the system out.
There is also a second penalty point going to Sky TV, not for their coverage today because the rant on that one has been played out over the end of the last season, but because they have also stolen the GP2 season too which is very displeasing because those races are brilliant.
Looking to Malaysia
After the compact parklands of Melbourne the series turns to something completely different, gone are the close camouflaged walls - replaced by acres of health and safety gravel as we enter the first of the seasons irritating Tilke-dromes. A track which offers a mix of fast challenging corners, and idiotic corners which can only have been designed drunk, and narcotics can only explain the turn one/two sequence. But what it is a permanent track where the cars will be able to stretch their aerodynamic legs in managing the faster layout.
This shall sort out the running order a little more definitively than the results here in Australia - Red Bull might be much closer in qualifying pace and perhaps Ferrari won't be so awful. We may also gain a better reflection on the pace of the Lotus in the hands of Kimi Raikkonen and that of Mercedes who encountered problems this weekend.
There is only a week before the Malaysian GP kicks off - now without GP2 since sky took that too, but that means things have to move quickly here at an ill blog HQ as video filming has to commence tomorrow as well as calculating the totals for the points series, and figuring out how many points the blog has scored this weekend. So until next time this is farewell from the blog...
No comments:
Post a Comment