Australian GP 2012 - Albert Park

[Morteza]

Holy God! Alonso would kill that pit guy if he could!
McLaren looks pretty strong. Grosjean was the surprise today. Amazing job by Lotus. It's pity for me to see Kimi this far from the top of the grid. Schumacher also did damn good with his Mercedes. W03 is not as lame as its predecessors.
Fingers crossed for a fantastic race tomorrow.

[univex]

Vettel/RB had a massive advantage with the blown diffuser. Not least Vettel. The RB7 had engine driven aerodynamics and the engine mapping would have been tuned to Vettel's driving style.
Webber will out qualify Vettel more than once with the RB8.
Button should have got pole but for small error on the back straight. He was ahead until the final sector.

[basrawi]

Didnt KIMI run on Soft tyres when he screwed his lap up ?

Kimi was on hard all the time

[myoozikk]

Echo

HAHAHAHAHA .... Which people said Lotus would be faster than Ferrari, Redbull, McLaren and Mercedes? You still don´t understand Lotus will never be top 4.

I just wanted to put this here.

[NathanOlder]

So it looks like the Lotus was a front runner, Kimi maybe could be infront of Grosjean. So going out on Medium tyres was right (IF) they knew their true pace at that time. As Mclaren ran on Medium tyres at that point, as did Red Bull ?
So going on Medium tyres was prob the right thing to do , it just bit back.

[Morteza]

Vettel will be right behind Schumacher at the start, won't he? That will be so interesting. BTW, if Merc has such a wing duct as they say, can Schumacher easily pass Grosjean during the first laps?

[Shrieker]

@FrukostScones,

Yeah well at no point drivers other than BUT were on pole contention... Fair play to him.

@Pierce89,

To be perfectly honest I thought Kimi was going to trample him and I said so in the forum, just the opposite happened. Credit where it is due.

Button should have got pole but for small error on the back straight. He was ahead until the final sector.

For the record, BUT was 0.027 slower at the 2nd split, he finished +0.152 from HAM so he couldn't have gone faster than him in the last sector either; matches the error suggesiton though.

[foxmulder_ms]

Kimi also said he thought he would have another run. There was a communication problem apparently so he even didn't know it was his last run. Unlucky start for him.

[Ray]

One qualifying session and everyone is throwing out Vettel, Kimi and Alonso out with the baby and the bathwater. It's one session guys, we've got a long way to go. It would be very foolish to count anyone out right now.

[King Six]

Vettel will be right behind Schumacher at the start, won't he? That will be so interesting. BTW, if Merc has such a wing duct as they say, can Schumacher easily pass Grosjean during the first laps?

If they can only use DRS in two zones, I think their race pace won't be as well relative to the grid as their Q pace.

[Th0R]

drs isnt allowed for the first three laps.

[i70q7m7ghw]

I guess all the Newey worshippers are hiding behind the sofa? McLaren looking ace, Merc & Lotus also looking really fast! Great season ahead. Shame about the Sky F1 coverage, so cheesy! I'll skip the build up tomorrow, it was just so gormless, made for people who never watch F1, not worth getting up at 4.30am for.

[Mandrake]

Bye bye car advantages.. Hello driver talents! Now we will see if Vettel can actually race.

I'm guessing no. He's a midfield driver who just happened to be in a spectacular car.

The Damon Hill example a few posts ago is spot on with regards to Vettel!!!

Both McLaren's .3 of a second faster than the rest is no car advantage to you? Some people have ridiculous logic here....Best job today was done by Grosjean, MSC and Button, no running off the track, fast and consistent times. Hope the Lotus and MGP are not .3 secs apart in the race as well

[NathanOlder]

One qualifying session and everyone is throwing out Vettel, Kimi and Alonso out with the baby and the bathwater. It's one session guys, we've got a long way to go. It would be very foolish to count anyone out right now.

Winner of the first race, has had a very high % chance of winning the title.
And it doesnt look like Alonso Kimi or Vettel will be winning tomorrow. So i'd say its good judgement , especially when it comes to Alonso's ferrari.

Remember Mclaren have the best development team in terms of finding speed through the year. So if the start the season infront, It looks promising for the woking team

[CHT]

things should look quite different during the race. Renault cars will have the advantage of fuel efficiency while Merc has the advantage of power and torque.