2011 Australian Grand Prix - Live Thread

Chode ^ | 3/24/2011 | Chode

[Chode]

AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX

Venue: Albert Park, Melbourne
Date: Sunday 27 March
Lap length: 3.295 miles
Race laps: 58
2010 winner: Jenson Button (McLaren)
First grand prix: 1996

Fri Cloudy 17c

Sat Cloudy 18c

Sun Cloudy 20c

OK SportsFans... first race of the year, good luck to all!!!

on/off... if you want on or off the F1 list mash here to get added/removed

F1-Grand Prix Live Feed #1 F1-Grand Prix Live Feed #2 F1-Grand Prix Live Feed

i don't know if the feeds will work this year...

[Chode]

enjoy... i'll be in bed.

[Moltke]

Thanks for the ping.

Wow, not even 2 minutes into the very first session of the 2011 season and Chandhok stuffs the Lotus into the wall near turn 4. That’s got to be some kind of record.

[Frantzie]

Where is the updates for practice times?

Vettel Vettel Vettel....and Alonso.

[Frantzie]

It is a shame that Kimi will probably never come back to F1. He was probably the fastest F1 driver in teh past 15 years.

[Moltke]

Schumacher is back in F1 - why would Kimi not be back as well in a year or two? He’s young enough for that. I too would like to him slice and dice again.

[Chode]

i've been at work... feel free to post them as you see them

second practice...

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Time/Retired	Gap	Laps
1	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.854		32
2	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.986	0.132	31
3	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:26.001	0.147	28
4	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:26.014	0.160	35
5	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:26.283	0.429	33
6	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1:26.590	0.736	31
7	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:26.789	0.935	34
8	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:27.101	1.247	39
9	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:27.280	1.426	34
10	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	1:27.448	1.594	23
11	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	1:27.525	1.671	31
12	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:27.528	1.674	29
13	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1:27.536	1.682	22
14	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:27.697	1.843	30
15	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:28.095	2.241	35
16	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:28.376	2.522	33
17	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:28.583	2.729	31
18	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1:29.386	3.532	29
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	1:30.829	4.975	22
20	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1:30.912	5.058	23
21	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1:32.106	6.252	36
22	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:32.135	6.281	30
23	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	No time		1
24	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	No time		0

[Betis70]

Watching qualifying on DVR and they mentioned that Kubica is making ‘phenomenal’ strides in his recovery and might even be able to come back *this season*. Wow, I thought his career was done, great news!

[Chode]

Full race timings

Sunday, 27 March 2011

Conditions: Sunny

Pos	Country	Driver	Car	Team	Grid	Fastest lap	Race time	Points
1	germany	Sebastian Vettel	1	Red Bull-Renault	1	1:29.844	1:29:30.259	25
2	great britain	Lewis Hamilton	3	McLaren-Mercedes	2	1:30.314	+00:22.297	18
3	russian federation	Vitaly Petrov	10	Renault	6	1:30.064	+00:30.560	15
4	spain	Fernando Alonso	5	Ferrari	5	1:29.487	+00:31.772	12
5	australia	Mark Webber	2	Red Bull-Renault	3	1:29.600	+00:38.171	10
6	great britain	Jenson Button	4	McLaren-Mercedes	4	1:29.883	+00:54.304	8
7	brazil	Felipe Massa	6	Ferrari	8	1:28.947	+01:25.186	6
8	switzerland	Sebastien Buemi	18	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	10	1:30.836	lapped	4
9	germany	Adrian Sutil	14	Force India-Mercedes	16	1:31.526	lapped	2
10	great britain	Paul Di Resta	15	Force India-Mercedes	14	1:31.941	lapped	1
11	spain	Jaime Alguersuari	19	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	12	1:30.467	lapped
12	germany	Nick Heidfeld	9	Renault	18	1:32.377	lapped
13	italy	Jarno Trulli	21	Lotus-Renault	20	1:32.550	lapped
14	belgium	Jerome d'Ambrosio	25	Virgin-Cosworth	22	1:34.523	lapped
15	germany	Timo Glock	24	Virgin-Cosworth	21	1:35.789	retired, 49 laps
16	brazil	Rubens Barrichello	11	Williams-Cosworth	17	1:31.404	retired, 48 laps
17	germany	Nico Rosberg	8	Mercedes GP	7	1:33.503	retired, 22 laps
18	germany	Michael Schumacher	7	Mercedes GP	11	1:35.319	retired, 19 laps
19	finland	Heikki Kovalainen	20	Lotus-Renault	19	1:34.918	retired, 19 laps
20	venezuela	Pastor Maldonado	12	Williams-Cosworth	15	1:34.102	retired, 9 laps
DSQ	mexico	Sergio Perez	17	Sauber	13	1:29.962	+01:05.845
DSQ	japan	Kamui Kobayashi	16	Sauber	9	1:30.384	+01:16.872

[Moltke]

Shame about the Saubers getting DSQ’d. Read the news blurb on formula1.com, something about a rear wing surface, but it wasn’t particularly detailed.

[Chode]

Lewis Hamilton doesn't deal in regrets, but he still cringes when he thinks back to his long hairstyle in 2006. "I realise now I looked absolutely terrible," the fashionably cropped Briton admits.
Full story: The Sun

Ferrari has hired a former commander of the Italian national aircraft aerobatic team to help improve their teamwork and communication in 2011.
Full story: autosport.com

Extending the Australian theme to naming his new car following the belated start to the 2011 season, Sebastian Vettel has apparently decided to call his new Red Bull 'Kinky Kylie'.
Full story: crash.net

Force India reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg has become the first driver to fall victim of the FIA stewards in 2011, when the German driver was caught driving 2.5 km/h above the pit lane speed limit.
Full story: pitpass.com

As a result of the Singapore race-fixing scandal, the FIA has adopted a new registration system to 'preserve the safety and the image of the FIA Formula One World Championship'. All Formula One teams will be required to nominate a number of senior team members to register with the FIA at the start of each season. Registered team members will be granted a formal certificate and be required to comply with the new FIA Code of Good Standing, starting at the beginning of the 2011 season.
Full story: The FIA

[Chode]

Sauber's Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi have lost their seventh and eighth places in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix after both were disqualified for technical infringements on their cars.

Following post-race checks, the Melbourne stewards decided that both Sauber C30s were in breach of technical rules 3.10.1* and 3.10.2**, in relation to their rear wings. The team plan to appeal the decision.

"This is a very surprising and disappointing result," commented James Key, Saubers technical director. "It appears that there is a question over the top surface of the uppermost rear wing element, this area is not the working surface of the component and therefore relatively unimportant to its function.

"Certainly this has not led to any performance advantage. We are checking the design of the parts now to better understand the situation and we intend to appeal the decision made by the stewards."

The ruling means Ferraris Felipe Massa moves up to seventh, Force India's Adrian Sutil to eighth, Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi to ninth and Force India's Paul di Resta to tenth, the Scot thus scoring on his F1 debut.

*Article 3.10.1
"Any bodywork more than 150mm behind the rear wheel centre line which is between 150mm and 730mm above the reference plane, and between 75mm and 355mm from the car centre line, must lie in an area when viewed from the side of the car that is situated between 150mm and 350mm behind the rear wheel centre line and between 300mm and 400mm above the reference plane. When viewed from the side of the car no longitudinal cross section may have more than one section in this area.

"Furthermore, no part of this section in contact with the external air stream may have a local concave radius of curvature smaller than 100mm.

"Once this section is defined, 'gurney' type trim tabs may be fitted to the trailing edge. When measured in any longitudinal cross section no dimension of any such trim tab may exceed 20mm."

** Article 3.10.2
"Other than the bodywork defined in Article 3.10.9, any bodywork behind a point lying 50mm forward of the rear wheel centre line which is more than 730mm above the reference plane, and less than 355mm from the car centre line, must lie in an area when viewed from the side of the car that is situated between the rear wheel centre line and a point 350mm behind it."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9435626.stm

[Moltke]

Yep, that’s pretty much exactly the text of the post on formula1.com. No wait, that’s *exactly* the text of that post. The BBC must’ve been too lazy to write their own copy.

Now, I’d say I’m a technically inclined guy, but that does not really help me understand what’s the issue with Sauber’s wing. I guess it will be explained in greater detail in the coming days.

[Chode]

i don't understand it either...