Saturday, April 01, 2006
# posted by Rich @ 8:03 PM
Australia quaifying: report
Jenson Button took a pole position for the 2006 Australian Grand Prix, his third career pole position, and his first since Canada last year. His pole time of 1:25.299 bettered Fisichella by over 4 tenths of a secon, who was in turn a tenth faster than his teammate Alonso. The rest of the top eight positions were filled by Raikkonen, Montoya, Ralf Schumacher, Webber, and Heidfeld.
However, there were quite a few surprises in qualifying. Rain in the morning practice session left the track "green", and consequently, because of a number of driver mistakes, Q1 and Q2 turned out to be quite hectic. In Q1, Ide spun his Super Aguri (Steve Matchett persists in calling Super Aguri "Super Best Friends" for whatever reason) and appeared to have trouble getting the car going again. This precipitated the red flag, although as soon as the red flag came out, Ide managed to find a gear and get going again. When the session went green again, there was a scramble on track as drivers tried to avoid getting eliminated. With the traffic and the curtailed session, Barrichello was the biggest loser. With only enough time left for one hot lap, Barrichello was severely baulked by Ide - the man who brought out the red flag - and lost over a second on his hot lap. His time was only good enough for 17th, and he was eliminated, along with Albers, Speed, Monteiro, Sato, and Ide. When Barrichello came back to the pits, he was clearly fuming - he ripped off his gloves and threw them down in anger.
On a side note, I am definitely instituting the Olivier Groiuillard award, and I already have a good idea who is going to be the first recipient.
Q2 turned out to be even more chaotic. Halfway through the 15 minute session, Massa lost control of his Ferrari 248 at the turn 12 "flick" - an area where many drivers have been having problems this weekend. Massa mounted the curb on the inside of the turn, unsettling the car. He tried to get the car back under control, but it broke away from him, and he ended up backing the car into the tyre barrier, breaking off the rear wing, and embedding his tyre so far in the tyre wall that the track workers had difficulty removing it! Needless to say, this caused the second red flag of qualifying. This was a setback for Rosberg, who had been on a hot lap when the red flag came out.
When the session went green again, there was a mad scramble on track for position, with four cars batling for the piece of track coming into turn 12! As if the traffic wasn't enough of a hindrance, it then began to rain heavily towards the end of the session, although the rain didn't last long. It was enough, however, to ruin the chances of not only Rosberg (who suffered a double whammy because of the red flag), but Michael Schumacher as well, who just missed out on the top 10, and was therefore elimintated - neither Ferrari driver will start in the top ten.
Ferrari were also left scarlet faced at the restart of Q2 when somehow, Michael Schumacher managed to leave the pits with a brake cooling fan still attached. As he accelerated away at the pit lane green light, it fell off and he ran the device over, destroying it in the process. As Steve Matchett said, that's a career ending move for the mechanic who did that.
After all of that, Q3 was more tame. The drivers took to the track and began to burn off their fuel loads. During this time, Jenson Button's race engineer came on the radio to inform him to stick to 1:32.000 laps, because at the rate that everyone else was driving, they were all going to come in for tyres at the same time, but he could stay out a lap longer. Indeed, the pit lane was crammed with about 5 minutes of the session to go as drivers, having burned off their fuel, pitted for new tyres to set their flying laps.
So they all went back out, and all pushed hard, but it was Button who set the fastest time. Some, including itv-f1.com, have said that this was surprising, but it is no surprise at all if you consider that Button was the fastest regular driver on Friday. His time was quick - 4 tenths quicker than the Renaults, which suggests a lighter fuel load, possible a 3-stopper. It was Montoya who perhaps came closest to besting Button though. Having spun his car at turn 4 with only about a minute of the session left to run, he was able to cross the line just in time to start one final flying lap. He was faster in sector 1, but lost a lot of time by running wide later on in the lap.
And so Button will start from pole position for tomorrow's race. Can he turn pole into that first, elusive victory? We shall have to wait and see.
However, there were quite a few surprises in qualifying. Rain in the morning practice session left the track "green", and consequently, because of a number of driver mistakes, Q1 and Q2 turned out to be quite hectic. In Q1, Ide spun his Super Aguri (Steve Matchett persists in calling Super Aguri "Super Best Friends" for whatever reason) and appeared to have trouble getting the car going again. This precipitated the red flag, although as soon as the red flag came out, Ide managed to find a gear and get going again. When the session went green again, there was a scramble on track as drivers tried to avoid getting eliminated. With the traffic and the curtailed session, Barrichello was the biggest loser. With only enough time left for one hot lap, Barrichello was severely baulked by Ide - the man who brought out the red flag - and lost over a second on his hot lap. His time was only good enough for 17th, and he was eliminated, along with Albers, Speed, Monteiro, Sato, and Ide. When Barrichello came back to the pits, he was clearly fuming - he ripped off his gloves and threw them down in anger.
On a side note, I am definitely instituting the Olivier Groiuillard award, and I already have a good idea who is going to be the first recipient.
Q2 turned out to be even more chaotic. Halfway through the 15 minute session, Massa lost control of his Ferrari 248 at the turn 12 "flick" - an area where many drivers have been having problems this weekend. Massa mounted the curb on the inside of the turn, unsettling the car. He tried to get the car back under control, but it broke away from him, and he ended up backing the car into the tyre barrier, breaking off the rear wing, and embedding his tyre so far in the tyre wall that the track workers had difficulty removing it! Needless to say, this caused the second red flag of qualifying. This was a setback for Rosberg, who had been on a hot lap when the red flag came out.
When the session went green again, there was a mad scramble on track for position, with four cars batling for the piece of track coming into turn 12! As if the traffic wasn't enough of a hindrance, it then began to rain heavily towards the end of the session, although the rain didn't last long. It was enough, however, to ruin the chances of not only Rosberg (who suffered a double whammy because of the red flag), but Michael Schumacher as well, who just missed out on the top 10, and was therefore elimintated - neither Ferrari driver will start in the top ten.
Ferrari were also left scarlet faced at the restart of Q2 when somehow, Michael Schumacher managed to leave the pits with a brake cooling fan still attached. As he accelerated away at the pit lane green light, it fell off and he ran the device over, destroying it in the process. As Steve Matchett said, that's a career ending move for the mechanic who did that.
After all of that, Q3 was more tame. The drivers took to the track and began to burn off their fuel loads. During this time, Jenson Button's race engineer came on the radio to inform him to stick to 1:32.000 laps, because at the rate that everyone else was driving, they were all going to come in for tyres at the same time, but he could stay out a lap longer. Indeed, the pit lane was crammed with about 5 minutes of the session to go as drivers, having burned off their fuel, pitted for new tyres to set their flying laps.
So they all went back out, and all pushed hard, but it was Button who set the fastest time. Some, including itv-f1.com, have said that this was surprising, but it is no surprise at all if you consider that Button was the fastest regular driver on Friday. His time was quick - 4 tenths quicker than the Renaults, which suggests a lighter fuel load, possible a 3-stopper. It was Montoya who perhaps came closest to besting Button though. Having spun his car at turn 4 with only about a minute of the session left to run, he was able to cross the line just in time to start one final flying lap. He was faster in sector 1, but lost a lot of time by running wide later on in the lap.
And so Button will start from pole position for tomorrow's race. Can he turn pole into that first, elusive victory? We shall have to wait and see.
Labels: Australia, Formula 1, Grand Prix
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