Australian GP 2012 - Albert Park

[Shrieker]

Well deserved win for Button. Got 1st at the start, pulled a 3-4 sec gap before the stops and controlled from there. The only point Lewis was faster than Jenson the whole race was in the 2nd stint after he passed Perez. Even then the gap only came down 1-1.5 secs in total in what - 10-15 laps ? That's a tenth at most per lap and Jenson got that back before the second stops anyway. I feel Lewis was somewhat unlucky to have lost 2nd place to Vettel when the safety car came in. Jenson beat him fair and square today though.

A word about Vettel. Many people (including me) were quick to take a jab at him yesterday, but today he proved why he's a double WDC. The move round the outside of Rosberg was sublime.

Roll on Sepang !

[raymondu999]

Wow. I never expected Vettel to take second there. Heck I thought the podium was out of reach with his 8 tenths-off-pole lap. I like the guy - but he's not much of a racer when it comes to overtaking cars without a clear advantage. Happy to be proved wrong though. Respect. The confidence of a title and a dominant defense seems to have improved him a lot.

For the first time since 1996 I missed an F1 session - and it seemed mega from the f1 timing app. Darn. Anyone have vids or photos of Vettel taking Rosberg on the first(?) Lap? I heard it was pretty good stuff. The livetweets I read said "outside of T10" so I imagine he cut back under Rosberg for a better drive out of 9? I don't know.

Great drive from Jenson. No heroics - no theatrics - but just the usual Button trick (and the usual Vettel 2011 trick!) Of just keeping his nose clean at the head of the pack.

Shame Alonso missed 4th. That would've been a mega result for him.

Malders - massive cockup. I know world champs have done worse mistakes. Such as Vettel in 2010. But that to me just says that on that particular day the World Champion in question was somewhat rubbish. Still a bad mistake from Malders.

[skgoa]

But I'd also like to get an explanation of how things went during the second pit stop. French TV was, as usual, on commercials, and I didn't get how Vettel could go faster under the SC than the Macca. The gap was like what, 2s before the stops, and it looked like Vettel managed to find something like five seconds, as there were some cars between them...

Vettel was very near the end of the lap when the SC came out. Hamilton had to run at SC speed for a much greater part of the lap and so Red Bull managed to finish the pit stop before he arrived at the end of the pit straight.

[NathanOlder]

Ferrari's pit stop was the fastest, one second faster than anybody, it's huge

yeah, what are they doing so differently?

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1 ... ummary.pdf

Ferrari one second faster than anybody in the pit

[Tamburello]

I'm not agree with the Mercedes situation. I think that in terms of race pace they are behind Sauber, Alonso and Williams.

No I think they have better pace than those cars. They had track position and reliability issues which ruined their race a bit.

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

The Mercedes car in terms of race pace is behind of the Mcs, RBRs, Alonso, Lotus, Williams and Sauber. Probably this team will have problems to get points this year. A disaster to Merc fans, but this is the reality.

I don't think it's that bad, they just need to set the car up to protect the tyres a bit more even if it costs them a couple of places in quali.

Wake up yourself.

Schumacher/Rosberg

7 ) 1:34.246/1:34.218
8 ) 1:34.430/1:33.980
9 ) 1:34.215/1:34.014
10 ) 1:35.021/1:33.981

Nowhere better Schumacher.

2 1:35.127 2 1:36.234
3 1:34.402 3 1:34.825
4 1:34.021 4 1:34.497
5 1:34.359 5 1:34.330
6 1:34.347 6 1:35.829
7 1:34.246 7 1:34.218
8 1:34.430 8 1:33.980
9 1:34.215 9 1:34.014
10 1:35.021 10 1:33.981


It's better to show all the lap...

[Gonner]

But I'd also like to get an explanation of how things went during the second pit stop. French TV was, as usual, on commercials, and I didn't get how Vettel could go faster under the SC than the Macca. The gap was like what, 2s before the stops, and it looked like Vettel managed to find something like five seconds, as there were some cars between them...

Vettel was very near the end of the lap when the SC came out. Hamilton had to run at SC speed for a much greater part of the lap and so Red Bull managed to finish the pit stop before he arrived at the end of the pit straight.

Thank you. Bad luck more than anything else then. The double pit stop was a smart but risky maneuver. It was very well executed, too bad it didn't pay !

[WhiteBlue]

After the race I see the current constructor pecking order as follows:

McLaren: Best sorted car, drivers taking advantage of it
Red Bull: Close in race pace, some potential (FW-duct) and will quickly close the gap
Mercedes: a good distance behind, also need set up sorting urgently
Lotus: a bit weak in the driver department with question mark over Kimi, but quick car
Ferrari: Too slow in qualy and race, Alonso dragging the car over its merits, will quickly catch Lotus due to superior resources
Williams: quick car but weak drivers will not allow to take advantage
Force India: should be a solid visitor in the points
Sauber: will further fall back over the season
Toro Rosso: disappointed, Rookie drivers will generate DNFs
Caterham: best of the rest
Marussia: Glock could be fighting with Caterham
HRT: will fight with 107%rule

[Mestrades]

I'm not agree with the Mercedes situation. I think that in terms of race pace they are behind Sauber, Alonso and Williams.

No I think they have better pace than those cars. They had track position and reliability issues which ruined their race a bit.

Maldonado has said that they are better than Mercedes. It's obvious, you only has to see what has happened today.

[NathanOlder]

Looks like the Mclaren is easy to drive though, All the top teams other than Mclaren mad mistakes all weekend. I think the only time i saw a Mclaren off the road was Lewis running wide in Qualifying. Everyone else was slower, and more on the ragged edge. Good signs for Mclaren

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

Maldonado can said some BS too.. Mercedes is quicker, it's not because Rosberg was not good today that Williams is quicker.

[myurr]

Maldonado can said some BS too.. Mercedes is quicker, it's not because Rosberg was not good today that Williams is quicker.

Mercedes is definitely better over one lap in qualifying. But that Williams looked very strong in the race and was looking after its tyres very well. I think over a race distance on a high wear track like Australia the Williams probably has the edge over Mercedes.

[Mestrades]

Probably, without the DRS device, Schumy has not been classified 4th and would not have created so much excitement. Ferrari admiting that they are bad are in front of Mercedes, Mercedes admiting that they have made a step forward are back of Ferrari. I think that there are a problem in that team if they can't recognize their problems

[SchumiSutil]

Anyone knows how to find lap times comparaison between drivers ?
I think it comes from Mclaren website - like that for example :
http://i41.servimg.com/u/f41/15/91/15/71/5p1pn10.jpg