Australian Grand Prix – Qualifying

March 17, 2007 by paul
Filed under: Uncategorized

Having just watched Friday’s practice, we’re now catching up on the qualifying session. (Note: the format is unchanged from last season.)

Qualifying Session 1 (Q1):
Albers put the tail out in his Spyker but keeps it on track and posts 1:32.300
Davidson 1:29.211
Trulli 1:28.709
Coulthard 1:28.579
Webber 1:27.799
Hamilton 1:26.674 – very impressive for his first F1 race
Alonso goes P2
5mins left
Raikkonen 1:26.644
3mins left- Button’s in the bottom six
Session ends but the current lap will count (as usual)
Button moves up to P11
Bottom six: P17=Barrichello; 18=Speed; 19=Coulthard; 20=Liuzzi; 21=Sutil; 22=Albers.

Qualifying Session 2 (Q2):
Trulli left the pits with the rear jack still attached! Fortunately it dislodged itself before he got too far onto the circuit
Rosberg 1:27.723
Davidson 1:27.228
Schumacher looks to have a problem – he’s touring round very slowly – pit-car radio suggests it’s gearbox
Fisichella 1:26.545
Kubica 1:25.862
Hamilton 1:25.577
Alonso goes P2 again, same as in Q1
5mins left
3mins left – Button’s in the bottom 6 again
Massa is coasting to a stop – looks like a dead Ferrari
Session ends – still quite a few drivers on their flying laps
Alonso 1:25.326
Button only manages to move up to P14
Bottom six: P11=Davidson; 12=Rosberg; 13=Kovalainen; 14=Button; 15=Wurz; 16=Massa.

Qualifying Session 3 (Q3):
Everyone’s queued up, waiting for the session to start
The 10 contenders are Alonso, Fisichella, Hamilton, Heidfeld, Kubica, Raikkonen, Sato, Schumacher, Trulli & Webber.
Heidfeld 1:29.951
Raikkonen 1:29.680
Heidfeld 1:29.652
Schumacher 1:29.650
Fisichella 1:27.925
5mins left
Hamilton 1:27.190
Alonso 1:27.050
Raikkonen 1:26.072
Session ends
P1=KR, 2=FA, 3=NH, 4=LH, 5=RK, 6=GF, 7=MW, 8=JT, 9=RS, 10=TS

So the provisional grid for tomorrow’s race is:

K Raikkonen (Ferrari) 1:26.072
F Alonso (McLaren)
N Heidfeld (BMW)
L Hamilton (McLaren)
R Kubica (BMW)
G Fisichella (Renault)
M Webber (Red Bull)
J Trulli (Toyota)
R Schumacher (Toyota)
T Sato (Super Aguri)
A Davidson (Super Aguri)
N Rosberg (Williams)
H Kovalainen (Renault)
J Button (Honda)
A Wurz (Williams)
F Massa (Ferrari)
R Barrichello (Honda)
S Speed (Toro Rosso)
D Coulthard (Red Bull)
V Liuzzi (Toro Rosso)
A Sutil (Spyker)
C Albers (Spyker)

My predictions:

Spyker (and maybe other teams) will want the FIA to investigate Super Aguri and Toro Rosso – it’s illegal to use another team’s chassis and those teams are doing suspiciously well but just happen to be owned/funded by Honda and Red Bull respectively.
Hamilton will push Alonso hard for the victory
Schumacher won’t get on the podium, despite him considering himself “amongst the top three drivers”