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.


     

2011 season starting soon

Yes!! the F1 season for the year 2011 is starting soon.. With the Australian F1 GP as the first stop, since Bahrain withdrew due to its current national situation.

Australian Grand Prix will start off another season from 25 to 27 Mar.

Much remains to be seen if Michael Schumacher will triumph and improve on last season.  I hope he does.

I guess the teams to watch would probably still be Redbull, Ferrari, McLaren.

There are a number of changes this year.  Different tires - Pirelli, the return of KERS, and the new moveable rear wings.

It will be difficult to predict who will prevail.  Only time will tell how the new changes will affect each team.

Can't wait for the season to begin.

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

Teams for the 2010 F1 season

The F1 season is about to start again with the first race in Bahrain. This year there are more teams compared to 2009. some teams have left and new teams have joined the F1.

The biggest comeback would be the return of the legend Michael Schumacher. He is re-united with Ross Brawn under Team Mercedes GP. If the car is good enough, we could see Schumi making a challenge for the Driver's Championship.

Teams for 2010:

1. McLaren

2. Mercedes GP

3. Red Bull

4. Ferrari

5. Williams BMW

6. Renault

7. Force India

8. Toro Rosso

9. Lotus

10. Campos

11. Team US

12. Virgin

Can't wait for the new season to start on 14 Mar 2010 in Bahrain.

Go Ferrari and go Schumi !!!

Waiting for the Singapore F1 GP ...

It's about 1 more month to the Singapore F1 Night race. I am really looking forward to that, though I have not gotten my tickets. Still hesitating.

It was nice to see Ruben win the Spanish GP and Kimi taking the last podium spot for Ferrari. Badoer was a bit disappointing to watch. Given the many years he had as a Ferrari test driver, I was expecting him to do much better. Imagine this ... he was testing cars to ensure the cars are perfect for Schumi and other Ferrari drivers, and he kinda screwed up on his debut. Nonetheless, hope to see Badoer do better in the next race.

Schumi is not coming back ...

So sad that Michael Schumacher is not making his comeback. That's because of his neck injury.

I was really looking forward to seeing him race in Spain and hopefully in Singapore !!! But his health is far more important than making a comeback to help keep Ferrari's season afloat. Now that job will fall on the shoulders of Ferrari's test driver.

At the same, hope Massa is recovering well.

Schumi could be back for Ferrari in Spanish GP

It was really unfortunate that Messa was injured during the last race. That was a really freak accident. Thank goodness for the helmet. But improving the design of helmets is definitely a must. Hope Messa will recover soon.

Meanwhile, with the Spanish F1 GP coming up in Valencia, Ferrari is one driver short. Guess who has been activated to come out of retirement? It's no other than the seven-time F1 Champion, Michael Schumacher.

Schumi has less than a month now to prepare himself for the race. He has not raced at Valencia and he has not driven the F60 before. With the ban on F1 testing, Schumi could not drive the F60 until practice sessions start in Spain.

It would be great to see the great Michael Schumacher back behind the steering wheel of the F60. He is always exciting to watch. Who knows? He might just turn up in Singapore to race in his first ever night race !!!!!!