Australian F1 GP - Vettel off to a good start to title defence

The 2011 F1 season finally got on its way with the Australian F1 Grand Prix.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel got his world championship defence off to the best possible start in Albert Park.  Vettel took the checked flag with Hamilton about 22 seconds behind him.  


Mercedes' Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg did not have a good day.  Both having to not complete the race.   


Vettel now leads the world championship with 25 points to Hamilton’s 18, Petrov’s 12, and Alonso’s 10, while Red Bull lead the constructors’ title chase with 35 points from McLaren on 24, Renault on 15, Ferrari on 14, Sauber on 10 and Toro Rosso on one.


     

Results after Turkish F1 Grand Prix

If you had watched the Turkish F1 GP, you must have wondered - What was Vettel or Webber thinking?  The 2 drivers crashed into each other and, as a result, handed the victory to McLaren.   Really dramatic.  McLaren finished in 1-2 fashion with Hamilton taking the checkered flag.

Michael Schumacher also did well, finishing 4th, ahead of fellow Mercedes teammate Rosberg.  


Drivers' Championship table (Top 10 only):

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Mark Webber	Australian	RBR-Renault	93
2	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	88
3	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	84
4	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	79
5	Sebastian Vettel	German	RBR-Renault	78
6	Robert Kubica	Polish	Renault	67
7	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	67
8	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes GP	66
9	Michael Schumacher	German	Mercedes GP	34
10	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Mercedes	22

Constructor's Championship:

Pos	Team	Points
1	McLaren-Mercedes	172
2	RBR-Renault	171
3	Ferrari	146
4	Mercedes GP	100
5	Renault	73
6	Force India-Mercedes	32
7	Williams-Cosworth	8
8	STR-Ferrari	4
9	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1
10	Lotus-Cosworth	0
11	HRT-Cosworth	0
12	Virgin-Cosworth	0

       

Webber pips Vettel for pole position in Spain

Once again, the two Red Bull drivers are out driving each other in every qualifying.  One moment it was Vettel, and the next moment it was Webber.  In the end, it was Mark Webber who took the pole position.  The only car that went below 1m20s.

Schumi did well and he finally qualifies ahead of Rosberg in the Mercedes GP, which has some radical changes to make the car for suited to Michael's driving style and competitiveness.

Hometown favourite, Fernando Alonso is in 4th, just behind Hamilton in 3rd.  Alonso 4th placing split the 2 McLaren with Button qualifying in 5th.

It will be an interesting race tomorrow.  Hope to see Schumi on the podium soon.

       

Button wins Melbourne GP

Jenson Button moved within six points of the world championship lead on Sunday with a superb victory for McLaren in a dramatic Australian Grand Prix. Who says F1 racing was boring .... there were lots of action and incidents.

A rain shower just before the start saw the field start on intermediate Bridgestone tyres, and after a brush between Button, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher, then a heavy crash involving BMW Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi, Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi and Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg in Turn Six, the safety car was deployed.

When racing resumed on Lap Five drivers then had to judge the best time to switch to slick tyres as the track began to dry out in places. Button made the decision first, but it seemed premature as he momentarily slid off the road as he rejoined from his pit stop on Lap Six.

By Lap Eight, however there were wholesale pit stops as the road dried out, by which time the Englishman had climbed back up the order. When the final stops had been completed by Lap 11 Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel had a one-second lead over Button, with Robert Kubica third for Renault ahead of a mighty scrap between Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, fast-starting Felipe Massa for Ferrari, Red Bull’s Mark Webber and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton as, further back, Alonso recovered having been spun to the back of the pack at the start.

On Lap 56 Hamilton got alongside and fractionally ahead of Alonso, but the Spaniard braked super late, locked up and just maintained the position, and as Hamilton was obliged to back off a fraction Webber charged into the back of him, spinning them both off. The Australian was subsequently reprimanded for causing the collision.

Thus Kubica brought the Renault home a brilliant second from Massa, with Alonso fourth from Rosberg and the recovered Hamilton, who had put in the drive of the race. The final point went to Schumacher.

After a gripping race Alonso still leads the world championship with 37 points to Massa’s 33, Button’s 31, Hamilton’s 23 and Rosberg’s 20. In the constructors’ stakes, Ferrari still lead with 70 from McLaren on 54, Mercedes on 29 and Renault and Red Bull on 18.

After 1st race - Bahrain

The season finally got underway with the Bahrain GP. Wow!!! Ferrari did very well, finishing 1st and 2nd. Schumi also did pretty well, finishing in 6th in his first F1 race since coming out of retirement.

Drivers table now looks like this:

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	25
2	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	18
3	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	15
4	Sebastian Vettel	German	RBR-Renault	12
5	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes Benz GP Ltd	10
6	Michael Schumacher	German	Mercedes Benz GP Ltd	8
7	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	6
8	Mark Webber	Australian	RBR-Renault	4
9	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Italian	Force India-Mercedes	2
10	Rubens Barrichello	Brazilian	Williams-Cosworth	1

Ferrari now leads the Constructor's championship by more than double the points from closest rival .... McLaren-Mercedes. The Constructors table look like this after the 1st race:

Pos	Team	Points
1	Ferrari	43
2	McLaren-Mercedes	21
3	Mercedes Benz GP Ltd	18
4	RBR-Renault	16
5	Force India-Mercedes	2
6	Williams-Cosworth	1
7	Renault	0
8	STR-Ferrari	0
9	Lotus-Cosworth	0
10	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	0
11	HRT-Cosworth	0
12	Virgin-Cosworth	0

Start of 2010 F1 season

Yes, this weekend is the start of a brand new season!!!

Practice sessions have started and after the first practice session, here's the standings so far.

Mercedes GP
Nico Rosberg, 1m 57.199s, P8/1m 55.409s, P1
Michael Schumacher, 1m 57.662s, P10/1m 55.903s, P3
Rosberg look good and Schumacher did well too.

McLaren
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 56.163s, P6/1m 55.854s, P2
Jenson Button, 1m 57.068s, P5/1m 56.076s, P4
Button and Hamilton look good as well.

Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel, 1m 57.943s, P13/1m 56.459s, P5
Mark Webber, 1m 57.255s, P9/2m 00.444s, P17
Red Bull had a troubled day. Vettel only managed 5th fastest.

Williams
Nico Hulkenberg, 1m 57.894s, P12/1m 56.501s, P6
Rubens Barrichello, 1m 58.782s, P15/1m 57.452s, P13

Ferrari
Felipe Massa, 1m 57.055s, P4/1m 56.555s, P7
Fernando Alonso, 1m 56.766s, P2/1m 57.140s, P9
Ferrari still not there yet.

Renault
Vitaly Petrov, 1m 58.880s, P16/1m 56.750s, P8
Robert Kubica, 1m 57.041s, P3/1m 58.155s, P15

BMW Sauber
Pedro de la Rosa, 2m 00.250s, P17/1m 57.255s, P10
Kamui Kobayashi, 2m 01.388s, P18/1m 57.352s, P11

Force India
Adrian Sutil, 1m 56.583s, P1/1m 57.361s, P12
Vitantonio Liuzzi, 1m 57.194s, P7/1m 57.833s, P14

Toro Rosso
Jaime Alguersuari 1m 57.722s, P11/1m 59.799s, P16
Sebastien Buemi, 1m 58.399s, P14/No time, P23

Lotus
Heikki Kovalainen, 2m 03.848s, P20/2m 00.873s, P18
Jarno Trulli, 2m 03.970s, P21/2m 00.990s, P19
The famed Lotus name made its official return to racing, with Kovalainen just acing Trulli in each session. Lotus was the fastest newcomers.

Virgin
Timo Glock, 2m 03.680s, P19/2m 02.037s, 20th
Lucas di Grassi, no time, P22/2m02.188, 21st

HRT
Bruno Senna, No time, P23/2m 06.968s, P22
Karun Chandhok, No time, P24/No time, P24

Singapore F1 Grand Prix

This year, I chose to stay at home and watch the Singapore Singtel Grand Prix on TV. I must say that the feeling is just not the same. Last year, I bought tickets and experienced the F1 by the trackside. You just do not feel the vibration when watching it on TV.

The race started with much incident with Hamilton in the lead at Turn 1, and the rest of the pack made their way round Turn 1 safely. The 2 Brawn cars made up some track position after a good start. Compared to last year, the Safety car was called upon only once. This was when Adrian Sutil had spun his car and poor Nick Heidfeld's car crashed into the Force India's car. Heidfeld damaged his right rear wheel and was forced to retire, while Sutil was still able to drive his "noseless" car into the pits. Safety car was out for a number of laps and it took a brave track marshal to clear the Force India's nose off the track.

After the Safety Car returned to the pit lane, Vettel was applying good pressure on Hamilton, till he had to do a drive-through penalty for pit lane speeding. Mark Webber crashed his car when his car's brakes failed.

After the 61 laps, it was not a driver or team in the chase for the championship titles . The podium was filled by McLaren (Hamilton), Toyota (Glock) and Renault (Alonso).

I think Alonso did a fantastic race, putting behind him the crashgate scandal. It was a well deserved 3rd place for Alonso. Rumours has it that Alonso will be driving for Ferrari next season ... Can't wait to see him in the red car.

Really missed the loud engine noises ... think I will buy myself tickets next year.

Malaysian F1 GP

The 2nd race of the 2009 season will be in Malaysia, Sepang circuit. Based on what was seen during the Australian F1 GP, it seems that the Brawn GP will once again be the team to look out for.

Hamilton was disqualified for the Austalian GP after investigations revealed that McLaren had instructed Hamilton to let Trulli pass when the safety car was out on the tracks.

Sepang circuit has always be one of the favourite circuit of many F1 drivers, despite the intense heat.

Once again, I would be rooting for Ferrari to finish on the podium, despite their struggles during the Australian GP.