2012 Australian GP Thread ***SPOILERS***

if Massa gets kicked at mid-year for sure some of their test drivers will replace him (either Gene, or Fisichella, or even Bianchi). they also could call Algersuari if they want

They won't call on Gene or Fisichella because they'll be current breed of car rusty and Ferrari really should have learnt the lesson of 2009 and Badoer.

Bianchi is a possibility yet Ferrari rarely put a rookie into race... I think they might get on the ol dog n bone to Sauber and call a favour to have Sergio Perez.

So... live timing remains as whacky as HRT, yet the free basic app which they stopped supporting over the winter was seemingly working whilst the web based java one wasn't.

Germany seemed to lay their towel in the gravel.. slightly surprised that Vettel lost it in a FP3 as he'd usually make his mistake on a Friday, as for Schumacher he always did like finding his limit by exceeding it.

Still hard to make too many judgements but we could have a battle royal between McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Lotus for pole if we're exceedingly lucky.

strangely the mid-field didn't look as tight as the upper-field there and to have Maldonaldo leading the mid-field was unexpected somewhat. I hope Force India are keeping their powder dry somewhat.

If Ferrari's pace was representative then... erk.

HRT will need a miracle to qualify.

J i m Wrote:
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> HRT will need a miracle to qualify.

So we will actually see the 107% rule put into action?

Well they failed to qualify here last year and weren't given dispensation to race. They need to find more than 1.5 seconds to qualify and I don't think they can rely too heavily on teams just putting bankers in during q1 because it could be really tight and to do so could mean dropping out.

They haven't been within 107% at any point this weekend. At least Marussia are... and they thought to put Timo Glock on al ow fuel run whilst everyone was busy doing heavy long runs during FP2 yesterday as their insurance.

Kimi out

And still after Q1 still dont know whos quickest!

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Oh dear Kimi out in Q1, not quite the return everyone expected. Sets him up for some epic overtakes though .
Hopefully HRT won't be allowed to race, Karthikeyan was absolutely lethal throughout that session, he shouldn't be near the car after that...
Caterham not quite on the midfield as i'd hoped. Still about a second off, and it looks like they will keep their 19th and 18th places to begin with. Atleast until some of the closer tracks like monaco which is annoying. Still i think they will be slightly closer to the back, maybe got better race pace than qualifying and will look to keep with the pack. The are miles ahead of Marussia and HRT thankfully
I was pretty surprised at how much of a difference the soft tires made. Normally they put the midfield about where the leaders are, but the tires were making a massive difference. Maybe a much bigger gap between the compounds this year?

Really jim? Ive got the java based one up, and its working fine for me?

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2012 07:28AM by truecrysis.

Thoroughly disappointing from Kimi. I know he's rusty after his time out and he's had car problems, but still he was piss poor today. Massa pretty crap too, but that seems to be a given for him just now - can't see him qualifying much higher than the P17 he ended up in after Q1.
Such a close field though! And Vergne going quickest!

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Alonso :-/

This is mental! I really can't tell who'll be on pole right now, nevermind who'll win this!

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2012 07:36AM by EC83.

EC83 Wrote:
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> Alonso :-/
>
> This is mental! I really can't tell who'll be on
> pole right now, nevermind who'll win this!


Never mind who, what team?!?

Mercedes, redbull & Mclaren look equal!

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Mercedes are definitely looking impressive. It'd be awesome if they were quicker and RedBull were slower... Fireworks! :D

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Soooooo what was everyone saying about grosjean?

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wow Kimi looked miserable, even Michael did better in ´10 with a worst car and with more years absent... Grosjean wiped him, but hopefully he rcovers himslf..

Massa..... no words.. the whole Ferrari team was bad..

nice qualy though, RedBull don´t seem to have the dominant car anymore, this is where their strenghts will be tested, Vettel´s too

Schumi looked awesome, could've been second if it werent for the small slide in second to last corner,.. Rosberg looked under pressure.. now he knows Michael has a car and is motivated?

Lewis and Jenson solid on what seems the best car, but not by far!!

matt3454 Wrote:
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> Soooooo what was everyone saying about grosjean?

He's just shown what a quick car that Lotus is. He'll have plenty of opportunities to show how safe it is as well.

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Hi guys, i've been lurking around for years, enjoy the forum you all have here.

Rosberg was looking good, I don't think it was pressure from Schumie that caused his mistake, I just think it was a mistake; Great to see Schumacher seems to a have a real car again though.
Hamilton really nailed it.
As did Grosgean....does Kimi have the toughnes to get through? I don't know...the car is certainly capable based on today's performance.

Ferrari are in HUGE trouble, depending on tomorrows final standings Montezemelo is going to be spitting the dummy, and this will see the team just explode. The car looks like a total lemon at this stage.

Can Vettal get back to the front the race? He has a spare set of softs because opf his off, right?

wow, ferrari have there work cut out for them.

Good job done by Grosjean, dissapointed to see Kimi drop out in Q1

matt3454 Wrote:
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> Soooooo what was everyone saying about grosjean?

pffft. I always advocated that 2009 and the circumstances around it made him look worse than he may be... and that a decent pre season preparation and a handy car he'd be ok.

McLaren are looking comfortable... they haven't got a huge advantage but the car looks very good to driver not just in aesthetics. Mercedes might have actually made a giant leap (if they can keep it up) Schumacher is clearly revelling in the front end pointyness and Rosberg dropped a possible shot at pole. He looked monstrously quick even through the mistakes, but I do think he bottled it because he smelt his first pole.

Red Bull have lost (possibly temporarily) their advantage. Vettel has grown used to have a car with a few tenths in reserve and wasn't able to make the difference himself today. Things could change tomorrow so lets not get too excited because the finger could still be wagging at us at the end of the race.

Lotus... definitely have dark horse promise. They need to iron out these glitches though. Excellent effort by Grosjean... overly cheesy grin in the post qualify press conference but you could hardly blame him for that. Kimi out of sorts... but he could yet produce Suzuka 2005 stuff tomorrow.

The other stand out today was Maldonaldo. How the very @#$%& did he put that in q3 after the hilariousness of sector 3 on that lap? Epic lap. And Williams look like they might at last have something to work with to scrap it out in the mid-field instead of last years desperate hair pulling.

Overall... I think there's enough drivers today who didn't put it together, Kimi, Alonso, Di Resta, Senna who could mix things up tomorrow... that and crazy DRS zones, should be quite frantic at times in the race.

LMAO Jim, Maldonado's las few corners were Hilarious indeed!!!

i am just soooooo in love with the new rules they make drivers like earn their money. just think what it d be in the wet. either its that or i am excited simply due to the fact schuey is up there again. Still, soo frustrating to miss P3 and press conference only for 0.02

me too m8, Michael was fantastic just .1 from Lewis on first two sectors but second to last corner cost him 2nd place.. he looks consistently quick whic is great to see... if he can survive first corner tomorrow (Grosjean) he could be fun to watch for the first couple of laps, remember he does great starts since he cameback!