Formula One 2012

[Troy]

Raikkonen not even making it out of Q3 was a massive shock, I expected him to make it to Q1. Lotus is fast, Grosjean proved that with his incredible third so Raikkonen must simply have been very rusty. Ferrari look terrible out there and look like they will be part of a very competitive middle pack. McLaren and Mercedes looked great whilst Red Bull just looked okay. Pumped that Webber outqualified Vettel and that Riccardo not only outqualified his partner but got into the top ten.

Can't wait for the race, the track looked incredible yesterday.

 

[Troy]

Forgot to add that I hate the new look of the cars, the fronts look terrible now with the hole at the front. They do sound amazing though.

Glad that HRT aren't racing today after failing to qualify. They were so slow and were holding up the faster cars during qualifying and they would be a menace on the track because they are so slow.

 

[Troy]

Another race and another poor start for Webber, down to ninth at the first corner. Webber was tapped by two cars during that start so not good for Webber. Grosjean is out of the race after Maldonado hit his front and broke his front right tyre strut. Button has a clear lead at the front after jumping Hamilton at the start.

 

[Andrew]

Not watching F1, Absolutely despise car racing and find it extremely boring.

 

[Troy]

Formula One is the only racing I watch. I don't find V8 cars or motorbikes interesting since they are just normal products and NASCAR is the most boring thing of all time since all they do is turn left. I love F1 though because of the skills and engineering involved in driving these cars. They are the top cars in motorsport.

Not a good day for the Australians so far. Ricciardo was caught up at the start when a Williams went right across his path so he has had to pit and is now at the back of the field.

 

[Troy]

A bit of drama at the end with a safety car and then a crash from Maldonado on the final lap. Button was class throughout and comfortably lead the field home, Vettel was second and Hamilton third. Webber got his best Australian GP finish with fourth and a big shock was Alonso in fourth. Ricciardo went from 12th to 9th in the final lap with some nice moves at the end to pick up two points. Mercedes were disappointing after putting in a great qualifying performance. All in all a good way to start the season and the good news is the next race is only a week away.

 

[AZUCAR!]

Felt sorry for Maldonado at the end, as Williams looked strong to get 6th. Alonso did well on the start to get from 12th to about 6th. Even though in the end he finished 5th, I think Ferrari would've taken that result had you asked them would you take 5th place, after your poor Qualifying performance the day before.

Mark Webber got 4th place, which is better than his previous best 5th place finish in Australia.

Vettel got lucky with the Safety Car at the end and finishing 2nd.

McLaren did well to get a 1-3 finish. I think they'll likely win again next week in Malaysia.

 

[Shaun]

Got to agree with Breakaway about Maldonado, it was a good performance by him from what I seen in the highlights and it would have more points than Williams scored in the whole of last season. Personally I'm glad to Kimi Raikkonen back as he is a personal favourite of mine, he had a good race after not having a very good qualifying and got a bit lucky coming seventh because of Maldonado's crash. Also some of the rookies had a good race. As a Brit I hope McLaren keep up the good form they showed today.

 

[Troy]

It was unfortunate that Maldonado crashed at the end because he had driven a great race up to that corner. Raikkonen did do really well after terrible qualifying, I look forward to seeing what he can do in Malaysia when he actually gets into Q1 and starts a race nearer the front.

Button does look like the driver to beat but we will see what changes teams make for the next race. I was surprised at Mercedes race pace after they did so well at qualifying so I assume that they will change a few things to be more competitive.

 

[AZUCAR!]

Yeah, Mercedes was definitely a surprise. Many people were expecting them to be a force this year, including some of the F1 teams (Renault was one) who went to the Stewards before Qualifying on Saturday to complain about Mercedes' car having an unfair advantage over the rest. In the end it didn't matter as Rosberg made an error on his hot lap and Schumi got 4th.

Still, they were doing what Red Bull were doing throughout most of last season on the grid for the race, and that was hiding the back so no other teams could see their exhaust. Schumi had to retire during the race and Rosberg got a few points. I'm sure Ross Brawn will be eager to bounce back in Malaysia.

 

[Aniking]

Rosberg actually got no points. He technically finished about 12th due to an issue on the final lap.

 

[Troy]

Rain nearly threatened to ruin the Malaysian GP but thankfully they managed to finish all of the race even after they had to red flag it for half an hour. A lot of surprises with this race as Alsono managed to win after getting his strategy perfect and Sergio Perez finished second for Sauber. Perez was half a second away from Alonso and closing fast with a few laps to go and then his team told him to take it safe and ensure he remained second. Soon after that he made a mistake and dropped right back, I don't know why his team told him to stay second when he had a great chance at winning. Hamilton finished third, Webber fourth and Vettel, Massa and Button didn't even score points.

This is a really open season so far with even the mid teams being able to push high into the points on the right day.

 

[Doink]

Rain nearly threatened to ruin the Malaysian GP but thankfully they managed to finish all of the race even after they had to red flag it for half an hour. A lot of surprises with this race as Alsono managed to win after getting his strategy perfect and Sergio Perez finished second for Sauber. Perez was half a second away from Alonso and closing fast with a few laps to go and then his team told him to take it safe and ensure he remained second. Soon after that he made a mistake and dropped right back, I don't know why his team told him to stay second when he had a great chance at winning. Hamilton finished third, Webber fourth and Vettel, Massa and Button didn't even score points.

This is a really open season so far with even the mid teams being able to push high into the points on the right day.

I think that was largely due to the Maldonado incident at Australia where he was pushing Alonso and ended up into the barrier, they didn't want the same to happen to Perez.

 

[Aniking]

I think it's more due to the fact that a Sauber driver finishing on the podium is a rarity. They didn't want Perez pushing and pushing for 1st place, because even though one side of the coin has him overtaking Alonso and finishing the race on top, the other side has him ruining his race and losing all 18 points. That's why Sauber did it, but in the end it didn't matter. He made a mistake, fell back by a few seconds, slashed a couple off and finished the race about 2-3 seconds behind. Fantastic drive by him, but also by Senna who finished 6th.

Maldonado and Grosjean can't catch a fucking break, in particular Grosjean. He qualifies strongly both races, is out of both early on. Maldonado qualifies well, out on the last lap in Australia and second last lap in Malaysia when in the points.

 

[AZUCAR!]

The rain delay under the red flag was nearly an hr. Perez was told to back off shortly after he went off the track. He said himself afterwards he probably could've caught Fernando had he not have made that mistake a few laps from the end, but still Perez drove a really good race and deserved 2nd. Plus Perez's front 2 tyres were going too.

There's rumors of him possibly going to Ferrari to replace Massa as soon as the Chinese GP in 3 weeks, since Massa under-performed again. Stefano Domenicalli denied it after the race, so did Alonso. But still, Massa had a new chassis and practically the same car as Alonso and yet he couldn't do anything again. Massa is either going to be shown the door by Ferrari before the end of the season or they just simply won't renew his contract which expires at the end of this season.

Still, I was very pleased that Fernando won. I didn't get up early to watch it, so it's a good thing I Sky+ it, so I could watch it when I woke up. I don't think Ferrari will be able to do anything in China to match today's result. They got lucky with a few things as Alonso said. With him getting past Mark Webber after the re-start, and before that getting past Vettel in the pits, then Lewis Hamilton after Webber. But today's result was hopefully a step in the right direction for Ferrari.