F1 2011 thread

Practice One - Webber leads Red Bull one-two in Australia

The 2011 F1 season finally kicked off this morning in Melbourne’s Albert Park - with a bang. Test driver Karun Chandhok got as far as Turn Four on his out lap before losing grip and cannoning into the wall, severely damaging his Lotus T128.

After that, it took more than half an hour before Pastor Maldonado in the Williams became the first man to set a lap time. Soon, however, Red Bull moved to the front as expected, with Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel taking it in turns to go fastest until the Australian slammed in a 1m 26.831s best right at the end to beat the German’s 1m 27.158s by 0.327s.

Behind them, the surprising McLarens gave chase initially before conserving their rubber for the rest of the session, and that meant that Fernando Alonso came through for third in the Ferrari with 1m 27.749s.

There was great encouragement down at Mercedes, where Nico Rosberg set the fourth fastest time of 1m 28.152s, and also at Williams after Rubens Barrichello’s 1m 28.430s best moved him ahead of the McLarens. Jenson Button lapped his MP4-26, with revised exhausts and floor, in a promising 1m 28.440s early on, with Lewis Hamilton seventh on 1m 28.483s.

Michael Schumacher’s 1m 28.690s left him eighth ahead of Kamui Kobayashi, who jumped up the order with 1m 28.725s for Sauber, while Vitaly Petrov was Renault’s faster runner on 1m 28.765s. Team mate Nick Heidfeld was 12th on 1m 28.928s, separated from the Russian by his former Sauber team mate Felipe Massa, who flat spotted a front Pirelli after posting a 1m 28.842s best.

Tyre wear on both the hard, but especially the soft, Pirelli was as significant as expected, with Vettel in particular rooting a set of the latter after an early five-lap sortie.

Behind the fast set, Adrian Sutil was 13th for Force India on 1m 29.314s, then came Sebastien Buemi for Toro Rosso on 1m 29.328s, Maldonado on 1m 29.403s, an impressive Daniel Ricciardo on 1m 29.468s in Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso, Sergio Perez in the second Sauber on 1m 29.643s, Nico Hulkenberg in Paul di Resta’s Force India on 1m 31.002s, and Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus on 1m 32.428s.

The Virgins were off the pace, with Jerome D’Ambrosio lapping his MVR-02 in 1m 35.282s ahead of team mate Timo Glock on 1m 35.289s.

Chandhok did not take further part after his early indiscretion, while neither of the HRTs ran as their rear ends were still being built up. The team hopes to make it out in time for FP2.

In a joint initiative, all the teams are carrying bespoke stickers on their cars in Melbourne as a mark of respect for the casualties of the recent earthquake in Japan.
Click to expand...

Very happy to see the McLarens not look nearly as useless as pre-season testing would've had it seem...
 
I've recorded the practice sessions, so I'll watch those when I get home :)

I CANNOT wait till sunday! F1 in HD, its gonna be amazing :D
 
Times for FP2:

1 4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.854
2 3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.986 0.132
3 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:26.001 0.147
4 1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:26.014 0.160
5 2 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 1:26.283 0.429
6 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:26.590 0.736
7 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:26.789 0.935
8 17 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1:27.101 1.247
9 11 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:27.280 1.426
10 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:27.448 1.594
11 19 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 1:27.525 1.671
12 10 Vitaly Petrov Renault 1:27.528 1.674
13 9 Nick Heidfeld Renault 1:27.536 1.682
14 18 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 1:27.697 1.843
15 16 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:28.095 2.241
16 15 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:28.376 2.522
17 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:28.583 2.729
18 12 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1:29.386 3.532
19 20 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1:30.829 4.975
20 21 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1:30.912 5.058
21 25 Jerome d'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1:32.106 6.252
22 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:32.135 6.281
23 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth
24 22 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth

Sure, one can't read much into the times yet. BUT McLaren aren't languishing in the midfield where it seemed they would. ;)
 
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The wet weather makes the McLarens look so good ;)

Let's hope it clears up for the rest of the weekend.
 
I have Button winning the race, Webber for fastest lap and Alonso exploding into a fireball
 
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