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| Front row lock out for McLaren - Lewis 1st, Jenson 2nd |
Qualifying 1st Session
Pre-season over, practice sessions over, no more excuses, the lights turn green, it's time to stand up and be counted.
In the first practice session seven cars are eliminated, as we find out position 18 to 24 on the grid for tomorrows race. The questions as qualifying session one starts are, will HRT make it within the 107% rule and who will be the 7 drivers taking no further part in qualifying?
First out on to the track was Charles Pic, the rookie from Marussia. Hi time a 1:32.349. A surprise for most was to see Vettel out on track early in the session. Most of the top teams are on the harder compound tyre. Half way through the first session, it's the McLarens, Mercedes, Sauber and Wiliams. Are times changing or is this just a precursor to a rush on towards the end of the session.
With under 4 minutes remaining in the session, Massa is in the drop zone. Massa will have to go out again to try a set of soft tyres.
The first major casualty of qualifying one was returning world champion Kimi Raikkonen as he couldn't manage better that 18th, followed by the usual teams of Caterham, where Kovalinen and Petrov still look like they need to find an extra second in qualifying to get into the midfield. Catherham finished 19th and 20th. Next out in 21st and 22nd were Glock and Pic for Marussia, despite a lack of winter running have will be on the grid tomorrow. The final two slots were taken by HRT, both De La Rosa and Karthykeyan, but they will struggle to to race given the 107% rue. There will be a lot of persuading going on at the stewards office by the HRT lads.
At the other end, Kobayashi, Vergne and Grosjean completed the top, with Mercedes the only big team to show any action worth noting in this session.
A lot of discussion will no doubt take place about Kimi, but you have to wonder whether this is all an overhang from his steering yesterday, who knows?
Qualifying 2nd Session
Now we find out who is going to make it through to the top ten shoot out. Can the big teams pull something out of the bag or are we in for that tipsy turvy weekend so many predicted. From what I have seen so far, I am not sure. I would expect a fight between Mercedes and McLaren for poll later but I may well be mistaken.
Paul Di Resta is the first out for this session on soft tyres, the rest soon followed, now the top teams set out to guarantee a place in the top ten shoot-out. It's now we'll see the real times start to poor through. There is 10 minutes to go and I am watching Hamilton light up the timing screens, yet something else has caught me eye, Fernando Alonso beached in the gravel, his session surely over now. Whilst my eyes were diverted, Hamilon went 1st and Button joined him in 2nd. Then the session was red flagged with 8 minutes to go while race stewards removed the stricken Ferrari.
The biggest loosers from the red flag were the Mercedes when they had ventured out on a new set of softs and then had to roll back to the pits. We'll see if that makes a difference come the end. Straight away both Mercedes made it to the top of the leaderboard.
It's unusual to see so many mistakes from top drivers here today as they throw their cars round in anger. These cars must feel so different without the blown diffussers.
The Mercedes and McLarens' stayed in the pits straight after the red flag, obviously happy with their times. At the end of that session Alonso was dropped into 11th and where he will start that race from.
So the seven we loose from this session are (with their grid positions for tomorrows race are);
11th – Vergne – Toro Rosso
12th – Alonso – Ferrari
13th – Kobayashi – Sauber
14th – Senna – Williams
15th - Di Resta – Force India
16th – Massa – Ferrari
17th – Perez – Sauber
Qualifying Top Ten Shoot out
The cars taking part in the session for pole position are, both Mercedes, Both McLaren's, Both Red Bull's, Grosjean's Lotus, Maldonado's Williams (a great start for them, such improvement on 2011), Hulkenberg's Force India and Ricciardo's Toro Rosso.
Who will be on pole? The next ten minutes will give us the answer. Welcome to the first pole position shoot out of 2012.
McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull will go out on soft tyres for the first two lap run. A great lap by Hamilton, putting in a 1:24.922, a time that will take some beating.
As we get into the the final few minutes of this shoot out, what are we going to see? Vettel will be the final car across the line, so some things never change. The chequered flag falls as all cars are on track setting times. The only car not taking part and therefore happy with 10th on the grid is Ricciardo.
Schumacher is first to finish on a 1:25:336, followed by Grosjean follows up with a 1:25.302 for provisional 2nd before Button follows him over the line with a 1:25.07, good enough for 2nd so far but not good enough to topple Hamilton. Then the final car across is Vettel's Red Bull which was only good enough for 6th. What an exciting end to the session. Let's catch our breath and look at the times and run down of the top 10 for the grid of the 2012 Australian Grand Prix.
Position | Name | Team | Time |
1 | Hamilton | Vodafone McLaren Mercedes | 01:24.92 |
2 | Button | Vodafone McLaren Mercedes | 01:25.07 |
3 | Grosjean | Lotus Renault | 01:25.30 |
4 | Schumacher | AMG Mercedes | 01:25.37 |
5 | Webber | Red Bull Racing | 01:25.65 |
6 | Vettel | Red Bull Racing | 01:25.67 |
7 | Rosberg | AMG Mercedes | 01:25.69 |
8 | Maldonado | Williams Renault | 01:25.91 |
9 | Hulkenberg | Sahara Force India | 01:26.45 |
10 | Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | DNR |
A magnificent start to the season with Ferrari's struggling, McLaren on form, a surprise or two. Mercedes looking like they have taken a huge step forward. Perhaps most surprising of all is the lack of Red Bull anywhere near the speed of the top runners. A season of shocks perhaps.
The real answers come tomorrow. Join us tomorrow afternoon for a full race review. Until then, enjoy the racing.
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