Race comments from Caterham: -Off the line, Kovalainen had no KERS, and no DRS til lap 6, but was still capable of chasing down the cars ahead early on -Petrov retired due to a loss of all steering control (unsure whether this was continued power steering issues from last year, or unrelated) -Kovalainen had a front left track rod problem, from very early on in the race, meaning the car pulled left under braking. The problem was worsening, so Caterham retired him for safety reasons. -On the positive side, they believe their early race pace shows they can compete with the midfield, and say their lap times were comparable with Williams and Force India. Really pleased with the race today, much, much closer racing down the order compared to last season, and theres more positives to look forward to in the next race. Grosjean showed the Lotus has 1 lap pace, and without a quali screw up and a first lap accident, we should see Grosjean and Raikkonnen competing right at the top end in Malaysia. It's a real shame Schumacher retired too. I don't think Merc had the race pace for him to hold onto third, but he certainly would have been an interesting factor in everything. Equally, I suspect Rosberg will be smarting slightly after being second best to Schumacher this weekend, so I'm hoping for an improved performance from him. Ferrari showing that (at least with Alonso) they do have race pace, might lead to interesting strategies from then in Malaysia. I think they expected to at least make Q3 this weekend, but accepting they won't could give them addition option tyres, so we could see both of them cutting through the pack again, but more effectively. In the midfield, Sauber looked impressive, but there didn't seem to be too much between them and Force India, Toro Rosso or Williams. Hopefully Caterham can get in on the act too, and hopefully HRT can at least qualify, and maybe offer some competition for Marussia.
I think the ominous thing for Hamilton was Button's raw pace. His biggest strength over Button is his outright speed, but if JB can match him it makes it very difficult for Lewis to beat him, even if Lewis had held onto the lead at the start I suspect Button would've had him anyway towards the end of a stint when Lewis was having more problems with his tyres.
Pit stop summary McLaren Button - 23.275, 22.837 Hamilton - 22.862, 23.464 Red Bull Vettel - 24.256, 24.131 Webber - 23.302, 22.915 Mercedes Rosberg - 23.203, 23.017 Ferrari Alonso - 22.035, 21.910 Massa - 22.313, 22.528, 22.103 At least Ferrari did something well. http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2012/864/7173/pit_stop_summary.html
Full pit stop times here: [NSFW] PHP: Australian GP 2012 - pitstop (from fastest)Fernando Alonso ---- 21,910Fernando Alonso ---- 22,035Felipe Massa --------- 22,103Felipe Massa --------- 22,313Felipe Massa --------- 22,528Jenson Button -------- 22,837Lewis Hamilton ------ 22,862Mark Webber -------- 22,915Nico Rosberg -------- 23,017Pastor Maldonado --- 23,166Nico Rosberg ---------23,203Jean-Eric Vergne ---- 23,203Daniel Ricciardo ----- 23,257Jenson Button ------- 23,275Mark Webber ------- 23,302Kimi Raikkonen ----- 23,310Pastor Maldonado -- 23,427Lewis Hamilton ----- 23,464Jean-Eric Vergne --- 23,569Bruno Senna -------- 23,777Sergio Perez -------- 23,882Sebastian Vettel ---- 24,131Kamui Kobayashi --- 24,162Sebastian Vettel ---- 24,256Daniel Ricciardo ---- 24,348Heikki Kovalainen --- 24,397Vitaly Petrov -------- 24,579Paul di Resta ------- 24,579Heikki Kovalainen -- 24,580Bruno Senna ------- 24,599Kimi Raikkonen --- 24,881Paul di Resta ------ 24,933Timo Glock -------- 25,046Charles Pic -------- 25,303Kamui Kobayashi -- 25,346Timo Glock -------- 26,322Heikki Kovalainen -- 28,888Bruno Senna ------- 30,888Daniel Ricciardo --- 32,319Charles Pic -------- 48,984 [/NSFW] Fernando Alonso, most complete driver in the pit lane.
1: I don't know as I haven't seen it yet. 2: Last time I checked from the Lewis fans cutting through the field starts at 5th. 3: I heard he was closing down Lewis regardless of the SC and that losing 2 seconds in pitstops. Can't believe I'm saying this but, Seb would of lead every lap if he was driving that mclaren considering the gap Jenson had. Man that felt good.
Agree with this. It was really annoying when Brundle was saying that if Button has not of passed Hamilton at the start he would not of won. Button was the fastest driver on track the entire race and I am sure if he had not of passed Hamilton at the start he would of soon enough anyway. Also seems like Button is getting on top of his tyre warm up issue with his quali lap that was only a tenth slower than Hamilton's and his re-start from the SC.
Massa's fastest lap of the race was 1:31.940 - this is 2.7 seconds slower than the fastest lap of the race (from Button) and 1.66 slower than Alonso's best lap. Only Petrov, Kovalainen, Pic, Glock and Schumacher did slower laps.
Somebody just get Perez in that Ferrari ffs and just give Massa the dignity to step down as a Ferrari driver. Perez looks to have settled, now it the time Ferrari while the gap isn't so big. Alonso-Perez come next race.
Ferrari really can't ignore that shocking performance much longer. Alonso would make almost every driver on the grid look bad, but 1.6 secs in just ridiculous. Massa is just getting worse and worse.
Maybe, or maybe he knows where the bodies are buried. Kovalainen has apparently been given a five place grid penalty for Malaysia. This will hurt the Kovy pickers in +/–.
Yeah, just seen a tweet from him about it, he thinks it was harsh. Not sure what for though. Quali will be fun for him then, I guess he'll just do a lap within 107% and take the rest of the afternoon off. And probably still be ahead of the HRTs!
Um, why exactly has Kovalainen been given a penalty, for ducking into the pits under the safety car? Ridiculous if true.
