Formula 1

Racing Tread: The Australian Grand Prix

Formula 1, Spultured

Published on: http://www.spultured.com

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The Ice-man Kimi Raikkonen does it again at the Australian Grand Prix, taking the top of the podium for the first round of the Formula 1 season.

The Finnish Lotus driver took a shock win, starting from his qualifying spot of 7th position.

Favourite for the race Aussie Mark Webber suffered with wheel spin off the front row, falling back through the field before turn one.

End of lap one was clean, with Sebastian Vettel leading the first lap, closely followed by Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso.

Newly signed Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton battled with the Ferrari’s at the front of the field, with Raikkonen ready to pounce closely behind.

Current World Champion Sebastian Vettel led away from his pole position before the leading contenders made their early first stops to change from the super soft compound to the medium rubber.

Being the first race of the season, experimentation with pit-stops was the talk of the race, with many teams considering a two-stop race. Majority of the teams started their drivers on the Pirelli super-soft tyre, which shed vastly quicker than the medium compound tyre. Teams then discussed the two-stop strategy as “too risky”, as two sets of tyres would not withstand the race.

Force India thought otherwise, with the team pressing the limit on the Pirelli tyres, with Adrian Sutil taking the lead once the lead pack went in for their first round of pit stops.

As the race pressed on, all of the front-running teams decided to take on the three-stop pit strategy.

Lap 25 of the race saw Pastor Maldonado spinning in the gravel and out of the race, with Nico Rosberg later retiring after an electrical failure on his Mercedes.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo also retired with 19 laps to go, with his Toro Rosso suffering a broken exhaust.

The two-stop strategy was seen as a failure by Force India’s behalf, with Sutil drifting back through the field as his tyres began to see better days.

With good pit-strategy and looking after his tyres, Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen had taken the race lead, and continued to extend his lead as each lap went on to the final sprint.

Raikkonen took out the race by over ten seconds to Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso with third place on the podium going out to RedBull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel.

The race was threatened by a light drizzle of rain, but was run mainly under dry conditions with no safety cars during the grand prix.

Final positions for the Australian Formula One Grand Prix:

Pos

Driver

Team

Time/Retired

Grid
1 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault Winner 7
2 Fernando Alonso Ferrari +12.4 secs 5
3 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault +22.3 secs 1
4 Felipe Massa Ferrari +33.5 secs 4
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +45.5 secs 3
6 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault +46.8 secs 2
7 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes +65.0 secs 12
8 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes +68.4 secs 9
9 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +81.6 secs 10
10 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault +82.7 secs 8
11 Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes +83.3 secs 15
12 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Ferrari +83.8 secs 13
13 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari +1 Lap 18
14 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault +1 Lap 16
15 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth +1 Laps 19
16 Charles Pic Caterham-Renault +2 Lap 22
17 Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth +2 Laps 20
18 Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault +2 Laps 21
Ret Daniel Ricciardo STR-Ferrari +19 Laps 14
Ret Nico Rosberg Mercedes +32 Laps 6
Ret Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault +34 Laps 17
Ret Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari Fuel System 11

Formula 1: Mark Webber wins the Monaco Grand Prix

Formula 1, On The Record

Published on: http://www.ontherecord-unisa.com.au/?p=3083

Mark-Webber-Monaco-F1

Australian Mark Webber took his first victory for the season on the streets of Monaco in the Monaco Grand Prix.

Webber was the first Australian to win two Grand Prix’s at the Monaco Grand Prix, after claiming his first victory in the streets of Monaco in the 2010 Grand Prix.

With Mark Webber taking out the Grand Prix, this makes the 35 year old the sixth winner for the season, which is a first in Formula 1 history.

The Australian started on pole position with a qualifying time of 1:14.381, after seven-time Formula 1 Champion Michael Schumacher posted a pole time of 1:14.301 but was penalised five positions after running into the back of Bruno Senna in the Spanish Grand Prix, with the incident seeing both Senna and Schumacher out of the race.

Mark Webber started on the front row of the historic Monaco street circuit, with Nico Rosberg starting alongside him. Webber gained a great jump from the rest of the field and didn’t look back, with Nico Rosberg claiming second spot.

Carnage was caused behind the leaders between Romain Grosjean and Michael Schumacher, seeing Grosjean taking his third retirement from a race start for the season and making it hard for the rest of the field to make it through the first chicane, causing many drivers to fall back several positions.

With the race being action packed, there was a safety car by the first lap, which gave driver’s realisation of how tight and tricky the streets of Monaco are.

Mark Webber failed to make a mistake throughout the whole race, with Webber claiming the Grand Prix victory despite the pressure being applied from behind from Nico Rosberg, Fernado Alonso and current World Champion Sebastian Vettel.

The Grand Prix saw Webber take his first victory for the season, with Rosberg in second, Alonso in third, RedBull racing team mate Sebastian Vettel in fourth and Lewis Hamilton rounding out the top five postions.

With Webber taking the victory, he is now in third place in the Formula 1 Driver’s Championship, with Fernado Alonso in first place and current World Champion Sebastian Vettel in second place.

27/05 – Circuit de Monaco – 78 laps – 162 miles

Points

Time/Lag

Avg. MPH
1 Mark Webber – Red Bull

25

1:46:06.557

147.312
2 Nico Rosberg – Mercedes

18

+0.643

147.297
3 Fernando Alonso – Ferrari

15

+0.947

147.29
4 Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull

12

+1.343

147.281
5 Lewis Hamilton – McLaren

10

+4.101

147.217
6 Felipe Massa – Ferrari

8

+6.195

147.169
7 Paul di Resta – Force India

6

+41.537

146.357
8 Nico Hulkenberg – Force India

4

+42.562

146.333
9 Kimi Raikkonen – Lotus

2

+44.036

146.3
10 Bruno Senna – Williams

1

+44.516

146.289
11 Sergio Perez – Sauber

0

–

145.276
12 Jean-Eric Vergne – Toro Rosso

0

–

144.491
13 Heikki Kovalainen – Caterham

0

–

144.361
14 Timo Glock – Marussia

0

–

144.265
15 Narain Karthikeyan – HRT

0

–

141.983
16 Jenson Button – McLaren

0

–

145.283
17 Daniel Ricciardo – Toro Rosso

0

–

145.609
18 Charles Pic – Marussia

0

–

144.7
19 Michael Schumacher – Mercedes

0

–

146.081
20 Vitaly Petrov – Caterham

0

–

134.575
21 Kamui Kobayashi – Sauber

0

–

119.761
22 Romain Grosjean – Lotus

0

–

–
23 Pedro de la Rosa – HRT

0

–

–
24 Pastor Maldonado – Williams

0

–

–

Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix: Full Race Report

Formula 1, On The Record

Published on: http://www.ontherecord-unisa.com.au/?p=1859

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The atmosphere was growing for the start of the season, with 22 drivers starting on the grid for the first official race for the 2012 season.

For the first time ever, the Australian Grand Prix had two Australian drivers on the grid; Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo.

It was Webber’s tenth time since debuting at the Australian Grand Prix in 2002.

As for Ricciardo it was his debut for the Australian Grand Prix, after competing throughout the second half of the 2011 Formula 1™ Championship.

The race was action packed, starting from the first corner.

Jenson Button gained first position from McLaren team mate Lewis Hamilton, as carnage further back in the pack caused Australian Mark Webber to fall from fifth to ninth, Daniel Ricciardo tenth to nineteenth and damage to Romain Grosjean’s car, later taking Grosjean out of contention for the race.

After the first lap, the top five positions were McLaren’s Jensen Button in first, Lewis Hamilton second, Michael Schumacher third, Sebastian Vettel in fourth and Nico Rosberg in fifth.

On lap 14, Michael Schumacher’s race came to an end after a gearbox failure heading into turn one, which caused Schumacher to drive off the circuit.

This incident enabled Sebastian Vettel slide into third position.

Later on during the race on lap 37, Vitali Petrov’s car came to a stop on the main straight of the circuit, leaving the marshals to incur a safety car.

While the safety car was deployed, Vettel took the advantage and went in for his compulsory pit stop, with Vettel leaving the pits in second position and overtaking Hamilton.

Jensen Button then led the rest of the race, securing first position at the Australian Grand Prix to reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel.

Button’s team mate Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top three, with Australian’s Mark Webber finishing in fourth and Daniel Ricciardo in ninth position.

This was the first Formula One™ in history where two Australian drivers have finished inside the top ten of a grand prix, both gaining championship points.

Final Race Positions:
1 – Jenson Button (McLaren)
2 – Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
3 – Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
4 – Mark Webber (Red Bull)
5 – Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
6 – Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber)
7 – Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)
8 – Sergio Perez (Sauber)
9 – Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)
10 – Paul Di Resta (Force India)
11 – Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)
12 – Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
13 – Pastor Maldonado (Williams)
14 – Timo Glock (Marussia)

DNF (Did Not Finish)
Charles Pic (Marussia)
Bruno Senna (Williams)
Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham)
Vitaly Petrov (Caterham)
Michael Schumacher (Mercedes)
Romain Grosjean (Lotus)
Nico Hulkenberg (Force India)