Paul Henman formula1 Australian Grand Prix – Practice

Australian Grand Prix – Practice

It’s the start of the 2012 Formula One season, at long last!

Check out my post showing the drivers (including 6 World Champions!) and race weekends – it’s going to be a long season 🙂

Free Practice 1
The track’s officially been declared wet, which means the teams can use the wet tyres and DRS is disabled
New boy Jean-Eric Vergne is the first on track, in the Toro Rosso
The FIA’s live timing data shows total gibberish!
10mins into the 90min session, and just Pedro de la Rosa is yet to go out, although no-one has actually set a lap time as yet
13mins: everyone sitting in the pits; not a very exciting start to the season 🙁
16mins: Ricciardo is venturing out of the pit lane – it’s his home race, so maybe local knowledge will inspire some confidence in the wet track
DR first to set a lap time – 1:47.448
(FIA live timing page is still messed up)
DR 1:43.669
(JV 1:46.169)
(SV 1:44.870)
DR 1:42.490
JV 1:41.629
Alonso now on track too
DR 1:41.001
JV 1:40.946
DR 1:39.848
Perez takes to the track, followed by Karthikeyan
FA 1:37.941
30mins in to FP1; only FA, DR, JV and SV have set a lap time so far; 60mins left
NK has stopped on the main straight and brought out the red flags (session suspended)
Red flags replaced with yellows
Rosberg 1:37.147
@MikeGascoyne tweets: Track drying quickly, too dry for the intermediates which wont last one lap
Kobayashi 1:36.906
55mins: KK going out on slick tyres
KK 1:31.751 – that’s almost 5 seconds faster than his previous lap!
KK 1:30.761
30mins left; only 12 drivers have set a lap time: KK, MW, SV, BS, SP, NR, FA, PR, DR, NH, JV, CP
MW 1:30.520
KK 1:29.722
MS 1:29.656
MS 1:29.156
MS 1:28.235
(LH to P2 but JB yet to set a time)
15mins left; no time from JB, NK, KR, PR
Yellow flag – FM in the gravel trap at Turn 9
JB 1:27.650 – great first timed lap!
JB 1:27.642
5mins left
JB 1:27.560
Chequered flag; LH puts in a fast lap for P2; order is JB, LH, MS, FA, MW, NR, DR, PM, KR, KK, SV, NH, PResta, BS, SP, RG, HK, FM, JV, VP, TG, CP, NK, PRosa.

Free Practice 2 started at 1:30am so I recorded it 🙂
Nice feature of the FIA Live Timing app for the iPad is that it lets me replay a session, so I can have it showing the “live” data (lap times, track positions, etc.) in sync with the TV recording
It’s raining again and it’s still pretty overcast at Albert Park
Forecast for the race is cloudy but dry
Perez is first onto the circuit in his Sauber; he’s on full wets (blue band)
Pit radio for SP: “save the tyres and mind the car” 🙂
Just a sighter lap for SP – back into the pit lane without setting a time
Same pattern for his teammate, Kobayahsi
SP on track again, followed by Vergne
Speed’s advert for the race says 1:30am Saturday … err, no, it’s 1:30am Sunday!
JV 1:52.220
JV 1:50.175
JV 1:50.081
Ricciardo 1:48.874
DR 1:48.571
DR 1:47.678
DR 1:47.478
JV 1:47.166
KK runs wide in Turn 1, across the wet grass and clipped the gravel trap but returned to the track
DR loses the tail in Turn 11
Hulkenberg 1:46.779
KK 1:46.098
KK & SP are on 2nd set of wets; Senna is on 3rd set
FA on track on intermediate tyres (green band)
KK 1:45.117
30mins into FP2, 60mins left; only 8 drivers have set a time so far in this session
Speed TV seems to have been hijacked by a Greek station – weird colour graphic; feed is frozen!
Funny that happened dead on 30mins – did Speed forget to book/pay for their satellite feed time? 🙂
FA 1:44.912 on inters – only 0.2s quicker than KK on full wets
SP off track at Turn 14, escapes the gravel trap and rejoins
FA 1:42.171
Massa and di Resta exit the pit lane both on inters, as does Webber
FM 1:41.976
FM 1:41.749
PM 1:40.721
JB 1:39.497
JB 1:37.989
PM 1:37.721
45mins left
MS 1:37.649
Track is starting to dry out but no-one’s ventured on to slicks as yet
MW takes to the grass – still wet out there!
Pit-car radio from SV saying it could be time for slicks
SP 1:37.189
(Reminder: fastest time in FP1 was JB 1:27.560)
25mins left; Speed TV’s feed is still broken
Everyone barring KK are in the pits – he’s just gone out on the option (soft compound) tyres
SV 1:36.975 on prime tyres (medium compound)
Grosjean 1:36.190
FM 1:34.001
10mins left of FP2
di Resta 1:32.302
PRe 1:31.639 [There’s Paul di Resta and Pedro de la Rosa, so I’ll use PRe and PRo respectively]
Mind you, PRo has yet to set a lap time
MS 1:30.643
NH 1:29.808
5mins left; almost everyone is on track and they’re all on slicks
PM off track at Turn 15; rejoined track
NH 1:29.292
Chequered flag falls to end FP2 (but current laps will count, as usual)
MS 1:29.183
NK stopped in Turn 7
Top 10 fastest were: MS, NH, SP, FA, KK, PRe, FM, HK, NR, SV. (JB=P15, LH=P16)

Free Practice 3
It’s warm and dry, so we should see better times than FP1 and FP2, especially as they’ll be able to use DRS
1min since the lights turned green and already there are 15 cars on track – almost everyone is on the prime (medium compound; white band) tyre
Just a sighting lap – they’re all heading back into the pit lane
Only NK yet to leave his garage
Yellow flag – MS off track at Turn 3 but recovered
NR completes a lap – 1:29.788
NR 1:26.982
15mins in to FP3 and finally there’s more than just NR with a lap time … although he is still fastest
Aaaaaaargh! My blog just ate some of my updates for FP3! 🙁
Fortunately the first 30mins wasn’t overly exciting, so let’s carry on from there
NR 1:25.929
FM and BS have spun (separately) in Turn 15 but both recovered
15mins left of FP3; order is NR, MS, SV, LH, MW, SP, KK, JB, RG, DR
SV has stopped at Turn 6 – yellow flags
RG 1:25.758
(LH P2)
Yellow flags – MS off at Turn 9
3mins left; top 10 are RG, LH, MW, JB, NR, MS, SV, SP, DR, JV
LH 1:25.681
Chequered flag
Top 10 are LH, RG, MW, JB, NR, MS, SV, PM, SP, DR

Qualifying is just 2 hours away… [my notes]

4 thoughts on “Australian Grand Prix – Practice”

  1. Be happy I just googled F1 timing showing total gibberish and you were the first result! let me know if you find a fix

  2. I’m surprised Google indexes my blog so quickly!
    Sadly my fix was to spend $30 on the official app for the iPad – data there is fine.

  3. Oh well, just have to grin and bear it. Can you also do an update on the rear wing controversy?

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