2008 Australian Grand Prix

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That was an awesome piece of driving from the Pole. If he hadn't have done that, he would have taken first on the grid. But do the commentators acknowledge it? No, because he's not Lewis Hamilton!

Nice to see Honda put in that stellar performance; I don't think anyone expected it. Whatever they found a erez the other week was certainly worth it. I was expecting to seem the languishing down around 18th, not fighting to get into Q3. As Barichello pointed out, they might be just outside the top ten, but they now get to pick their stategy.

Disappointing start for Piquet, I was hoping the kid might out-class Alonso (who I was expecting to see miss the Q3 cut, but I wasn't expecting to see him sandwiched between the Hondas). Flav is likely to go off his nut at the kid, much the same way as he did at Kovalainen. But he should be more concerned with Alonso: the Spaniard is ideally-positioned to be the main offender in the first-corner chaos that usually blesses Melbourne. Tomorrow's race should be very interesting.
 
I was hoping Kubica would get pole, he might've if he didn't have that little off. Still, it was a great effort. Good drive from Hamilton too.
 
Kubica is a mad man. He goes off the corner and takes pole like nothing. But Hamilton remains a tad faster.
 
Well done BMW , I'm guessing Nick is just a bit heavier than people in front of him
 
Well, not a pretty day for Massa, really should have given Ferrari some hope of a good result tomorrow but instead I'm looking at either McLaren or BMW for the win.

Oh and Honda, where in god's name did that come from? I think I might start believing again..
 
Bee
Oh and Honda, where in god's name did that come from? I think I might start believing again..
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Jerez. Whatever they found there elevated them to the five-way (now six) batte for best of the rest.
 
Well yeah I knew about the private test, I just wasn't expecting such a jump, the car doesn't look hugely different..
 
Kimi, what have you done:(. But good job from Lewis again:tup: and what the hell happened with eyebrow man?. 12th is not good.
 
Appie
Kimi, what have you done:(. But good job from Lewis again:tup: and what the hell happened with eyebrow man?. 12th is not good.
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Sandbagging? LOL... Kubica deserves round of applause. Gonna be a long race and alot can happen.
 
Alonso is not sandbagging. There's not need to sandbag once the season has begun. The purpose of sandbagging is to hide your true pace before the season begins. Once the first race is on, sandbagging is counter-productive because you're trying to win. If you drive a little bit slower to hide your pace during practice, qualifying and the race, you're your own worst enemy because you're missing out on valuable points. Alonso is not sandbagging; the answer is that the R28 is not demonstrating any pace. Honda, on the other hand, might have been sandbagging because there's ntohing radically different about the car but they're now up and running with the Q3 crowd.

And I think Lewis is running a very light load. He was remarkably quicker than everyone else to begin with.
 
Do you race?
Alonso is not sandbagging. There's not need to sandbag once the season has begun. The purpose of sandbagging is to hide your true pace before the season begins. Once the first race is on, sandbagging is counter-productive because you're trying to win. If you drive a little bit slower to hide your pace during practice, qualifying and the race, you're your own worst enemy because you're missing out on valuable points. Alonso is not sandbagging; the answer is that the R28 is not demonstrating any pace. Honda, on the other hand, might have been sandbagging because there's ntohing radically different about the car but they're now up and running with the Q3 crowd.

And I think Lewis is running a very light load. He was remarkably quicker than everyone else to begin with.
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I think BMW illustrates the meaning of sandbagging perfectly, they did have a rough start in the winter , buy they kept it looking that all winter .

Kubica said its hard to get the perfect balance out of the car , I'm guessing as the season moves on and they develop the car even more it should get better.

is it a bit optimistic to say the BMW is longer the best of the rest? and is actually much closer to the best to be considered one of them? they matched 2 top teams pace and even were faster than ferrari . Y

You can tell how excited I'm :dopey: :D
 
Well done to Kubica, probably had pole set until the slip up, but still to pull off 2nd even with that it's nothing to be sniffed at. Shame for Kimi though but we all know what he can do from further down the grid.

And Alonso...enjoy the dust back there when Kimi slices past you =3
 
adood84
I think BMW illustrates the meaning of sandbagging perfectly, they did have a rough start in the winter , buy they kept it looking that all winter .

Kubica said its hard to get the perfect balance out of the car , I'm guessing as the season moves on and they develop the car even more it should get better.

is it a bit optimistic to say the BMW is longer the best of the rest? and is actually much closer to the best to be considered one of them? they matched 2 top teams pace and even were faster than ferrari . Y

You can tell how excited I'm :dopey: :D
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I consider the fight for the Best of the Rest to be between Honda, Williams, Red Bull, Toyota, Renault and, to a lesser extent, Toro Rosso. If BMW aren't in league with Ferrari and McLaren, they're just outside that bracket.

And I read somewhere that Force India were feeling very optimistic, possibly looking to qualify high in Q2 or even make the Q3 cut. Who the hell are they kidding?
 
Unfortunately I cannot watch video on the itv site... I was about to go into a big rant about the internet, but I know you don't want to read that.

So does anyone know another place I can find the qualifying session online, or at least the highlights? If not, anyone know how I can spoof my ip address?
 
Quali's 1 and 2 work for me so far. 👍
 
BMW definitly surprised me, wow, what a pace Kubica had 👍

Also, very happy to see Trulli up there in 6th, Glock did a good job as well. Let's hope the Toyota can keep up that pace during a whole race 👍

Too bad for Kimi though, the season hasn't properly started and Ferrari's already having reliability problems with their engine parts...
 
Bad news for Toyota fans - Glock has been relegated TWICE. First time was 5 places for a gearbox change, then recently he was relegated a further 5 places for allegedly impeding Webber in Q3. He will now start 19th, which allows Barrichello's Honda into the top 10 :)
 
Too bad, let's see if Glock can profit from an eventual first corner crash, and, as the rookie he is, let's see if he manages to complete the race 👍
 
adood84
Well done BMW , I'm guessing Nick is just a bit heavier than people in front of him
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I half-know it by now. Seeing both Mario and Heidfeld respond to the question "Is Nick heavier?" with a wink and "You'll see tomorrow" is almost a written statement... :p

mustang245
I agree, so he and Kubica don't pit on same lap.
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C'mon, almost every team takes that into account. When we're talking about loading heavier, it's probably an extra two-three laps, at least...

adood84
I think BMW illustrates the meaning of sandbagging perfectly, they did have a rough start in the winter , buy they kept it looking that all winter.
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That wouldn't be sandbagging, that'd be plain improvements. Heidfeld himself was shocked - his pre-practice interviews on RTL sounded very grave. After Friday, he sounded happier, and now he was booming. Mario explained afterwards that they really struggled with the whole car, but that the last training-session was a gift. As Kubica said - "The F1.08 is a very quick car, but quite delicate to set-up and to drive."

Do you race?
Alonso is not sandbagging; the answer is that the R28 is not demonstrating any pace.
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He was one of the fastest throughout practice and Q1 - he just didn't get a fully-clean field on his hotlap (though, nothing to be a real disturbance - just a couple of drivers on their way to the pits). His problem was a tight field: Alonso finished a tenth behind Nico - he ended up 12th, Nico 7th. I'd call that paying a dear price for a single tenth rather than lack of pace. :indiff:

peterjford
So does anyone know another place I can find the qualifying session online, or at least the highlights? If not, anyone know how I can spoof my ip address?
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German TV channel RTL announced on their program today that from now on, they're offering live video of the races, qualifying, and practice-sessions.
 
nitro_2005
Bad news for Toyota fans - Glock has been relegated TWICE. First time was 5 places for a gearbox change, then recently he was relegated a further 5 places for allegedly impeding Webber in Q3. He will now start 19th, which allows Barrichello's Honda into the top 10 :)
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Poor Glock, but now Kimi is 15th 👍
 
Alonso has apparently had a problem with his Renault's differential. Which made the car horribly unstable and made him lose three tenths.

Or so do him and Flavio say.
 
Rubens > Fernando. :D
 
Once KR dropped out I expected Massa to take over Q3 for Ferarri. What a sad disappointment! "Massa, your contract is running out!"
BTW those Beemers are beautiful.
 
Can someone briefly explain what happened to Fernando, I only caught the end of qualifying saw he wasn't in the top ten then they had a clip of him saying thats life or something! :lol:

Robin
 
Robin.
Can someone briefly explain what happened to Fernando, I only caught the end of qualifying saw he wasn't in the top ten then they had a clip of him saying thats life or something! :lol:
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Broken differential, apparently, which cost him time. Might as well have been a single tenth, since that was the difference between him (P12) and what Nico (P7 at Q2) managed. Ultra-tight there...

The TVs showed a long bit of him conversing with the mechanics over the radio, discussing differential-settings.
 
Robin.
Can someone briefly explain what happened to Fernando, I only caught the end of qualifying saw he wasn't in the top ten then they had a clip of him saying thats life or something! :lol:

Robin
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Rob, claims differential slippage, source planetf1.com.
 
Do you race?
And I think Lewis is running a very light load. He was remarkably quicker than everyone else to begin with.
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I dont think so. Hamilton will very likely win the race and it could be quite boring. Ferrari having problems, Heikki being in his first race with the team, and BMW probably lacking a little bit of pace to the Mclaren should put the race on Hamilton's platter.
 
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