Patronise F1

If it wasn't quite domination, then it was certainly a fair approximation of it. Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel, a man seemingly permanently stuck with his 'Baby Schumi' nickname back in his native Germany, delivered a near-perfect display of driving that even 'big Schumi' in his pomp would have been proud of. Vettel set a scorching pace in the qualifying session to take his 11th pole from the last 20 F1 races, and never realistically looked like losing the race win on Sunday.

For those panicking over the prospect of a season of Vettel/RBR dominance, there were a few promising signs that the young German might not have things all his own way this season. Red Bull quietly dropped their KERS device after Friday practice amidst some reliability concerns, and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton showed good pace across his first race stint, but generally this was a sobering weekend for anyone not called S. Vettel.

More than anything though, it was a weekend that made a bit of a mockery of the weeks spent analysing pre-season testing times and data to try and extrapolate the pecking order for the coming season. Despite what the test data had apparently 'showed' us, Ferrari were nowhere either on a single lap or on race pace, McLaren were nowhere near as bad as many had feared/hoped with their new MP4-26, and despite their promising late testing form, Mercedes remained hopeless.

Practice and Qualifying

Red Bull's dominance of the weekend appeared obvious from the very start of the weekend, as the RB7 drivers ended a typically quiet morning practice session at Albert Park with a 1-2 at the top of the times. The first sight of Formula One cars on track at a race weekend in 2011 got off to a frantic start, with Team Lotus test driver Karun Chandhok making a spectacularly inept job of his cameo appearance by crashing within three corners of his installation lap, but by the end Red Bull's dominance saw their two cars end nearly a second clear of the rest of the field.

It was Mark Webber who topped that opening session, and it quickly became obvious that the dubious glory of the fastest time in FP1 was to be the high point of his home grand prix weekend. Red Bull took a back seat for the afternoon session on Friday, as both Webber and Vettel concentrated on race fuel simulations, leaving McLaren to take a 1-2 finish of their own with Jenson Button continuing Friday's trend for 'number two drivers' grabbing the limelight by heading the order from Lewis Hamilton.

Meanwhile, the true entertainers of Friday had been the Hispania Racing crew, who had rocked up with their untested and largely unbuilt pair of cars only to spend the day standing around working out how the F111 bolted together. The comedic fun of watching mechanics, engineers and even race driver Tonio Liuzzi himself studying bits of F111 in mild confusion as everyone tried to figure out how to build the car was capped off by the team's sole bit of on-track running for the day being a super-slow install lap of one of their machines by Liuzzi, right at the end of FP2.

Alas, for all of their comedic brilliance, matters didn't get much better for Hispania on Saturday, with Liuzzi breaking down halfway round his first lap in final practice, while Narain Karthikeyan completed just three late flying laps. All the while, it was Vettel who finally bothered to top a session in the pre-qualifying practice hour. But when he did it, he did it with style, again finishing over a second clear of the best non-RB7.

The young German may well have begun exercising his celebrating finger prematurely in the time before qualifying, because his eventual capture of pole position was as inevitable a result as they come in Formula One. Vettel topped all three stages of qualifying by a comfortable amount, and eventually scorched to pole position by nearly eight tenths of a second from Hamilton. Factoring in the fact that he found time to miss his braking point in the penultimate corner, and was now running without KERS following the team's decision to ditch the unit on safety grounds on Friday night, and his margin of success could easily have been over a second.

In comparison, his rivals struggled. Hamilton made the best of an average job from McLaren by snatching a front row slot away from the second Red Bull of Webber, who could only line up third alongside the second McLaren of Button, while the leading Ferrari of Fernando Alonso was back in fifth place alongside the session's surprise package, Renault's Russian sponsor-accumulator Vitaly Petrov.

Still, it could have been worse. Mercedes GP's pace from the final pre-season test failed to really show up in Melbourne, with Michael Schumacher dropping out of qualifying after Q2 and lining up 11th, while Renault substitute Nick Heidfeld failed to channel the spirit of the sidelined Robert Kubica, and was knocked out in the first part of qualifying along with the six cars of 2011's sophomore teams.

Of those six cars, only four would make the grid on Sunday, as the futile efforts of Liuzzi and Karthikeyan to lap the track within 107% of Vettel's Q1 session-topper came to naught, and Hispania's drivers became the first F1 competitors to DNQ for over eight years.

The Race

The back row was a sombre and empty place, then, as the 22 qualifiers lined up on the grid for the start of the opening race of the 2011 season. Although technically the back row was now populated by the two Virgin Racing cars of Timo Glock and Jerome d'Ambrosio, it was still presumably a rather sombre place to be. And indeed may as well have been empty given how little impact the hapless pair ended up having on proceedings.

The attention at the start was very much on the pair of Red Bulls and their KERS situation. The fact that neither driver had used their special nitro button, returning to the sport this year for no apparent reason, flung the paddock rumour mill into overdrive, as everyone refused to accept the obvious explanation that they had simply removed the devices from their cars. The strongest suggestion was that the clever technical bods had created a special 'mini-KERS' unit, only designed to work off the start line when the system matters the most, with the drivers then benefitting from the weight saved by not using a full unit.

What we didn't know at the time was that, in a perfect example of Occam's Razor in action, the team had simply removed the KERS gubbins from their cars entirely. Which made Vettel's lightning start when the lights went out all the more impressive, and Hamilton's rather stodgy KERS-assisted getaway alongside him all the poorer. The McLaren was so slow away that Webber surged alongside on the run down to the first corner, but the home hero couldn't make the move stick into the first corner, dropping back to third place.

Meanwhile, Button had made a similarly dodgy getaway to his team mate, and in trying to defend from Alonso into the first corner he simply succeeded in leaving a Renault R31-shaped gap up the inside, which Petrov gleefully accepted to leap up to fourth place. Button's strong-arming of Alonso saw the Spanish Ferrari driver forced wide onto the grass on the exit of turn one, and allowed a number of other cars to scamper past. Further round the opening lap, Mercedes's dismal day began, well, dismally, as Schumacher was tagged by the Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari, causing a puncture and rear-end damage to the W02 that necessitated a costly pit stop, while Rubens Barrichello went skating through the gravel at turn three after questionably trying to pass around four cars at the same time by simply not braking for the corner.

Vettel, though, was well clear of the carnage behind him, and had established a 2.4 second lead over Hamilton by the end of a single tour of Albert Park, with Webber, Petrov, a fast-starting Felipe Massa, Button, Nico Rosberg and Kamui Kobayashi following in his wake. Alonso was now ninth after his hip-and-shoulder from Button in turn one, though he took eighth away from Kobayashi on lap two, while Button himself was already looking for a way past Massa, having had a half-hearted stab on the run to the fast turn 11 on the first lap. That would not be the first time he attempted that particular move.

Lap three saw the activation of the much-vaunted 'overtaking zone' for the DRS wing system, but it didn't help to resolve many of the early squabbles, with Button remaining stuck behind Massa as the Brazilian embarked on a decent approximation of some rugged defensive driving, and the close-running midfield pack, which was being headed by the rookie form of Force India's Paul di Resta, continued to circulate largely in formation. Not everyone was struggling though, with Alonso continuing his recovery drive by sweeping past the impotent form of Nico Rosberg in his ill-performing Mercedes on lap five.

At the front, meanwhile, something curious was happening. For all of Vettel's advantage in qualifying, Hamilton was able to stay within sight of the rear of his Red Bull. By lap 10, the gap was still only 2.7 seconds, and Hamilton was even managing to take a tenth or two out of the German's advantage with every passing lap. After the race, Red Bull would argue that Vettel was simply being tentative in his first-ever stint on the brand new Pirellis, but it was nevertheless a heartening sight for anyone looking for a sign that we're not in for some straightforward Vettel domination in 2011.

On lap 11, with Alonso now driving up to the back of them, the Button and Massa scrap came to a head, after the 2009 champion had tried and failed for a number of laps to get past the Brazilian, oddly eschewing combining his KERS boost with his DRS down the main start-finish straight for lap after lap in favour of wasting his battery-supplied afterburner elsewhere on the lap. Instead of the logical approach to passing then, he chose to pounce around the outside of turn 11, but Massa continued to defend, and Button was forced to take to the escape road through the middle of the chicane to avoid contact, taking the place as he cut the corner.

It looked like it deserved a drive-through penalty unless Button allowed Massa back through, but that stopped being an option almost immediately as Alonso took advantage of the slightly confused Massa to scamper past his team mate. Shortly after, any thought that Button had to saving himself a penalty by letting both Ferraris through ceased to be an option when Massa pitted for the first time, after the initial round of stops were kicked off by Webber, who had dropped into the 1:34s, at the end of lap 11.

The leader was in for the first time at the end of lap 14, and rejoined just behind Button, who had just been handed his penalty. Given the small gap between Vettel and Button's team mate prior to the German's pit stop, the McLaren man tried to make things difficult for the Red Bull, though not for long. Vettel swept around the outside around turn four on lap 16, and interestingly completed the move with all four wheels off the track surface. If some observers expected the effective race leader to pick up a similar penalty to Button, though, they would be disappointed, and we had our first 'inconsistent stewards' moan of the season.

Hamilton was in at the end of that lap, and Vettel unsurprisingly resumed in the lead, with now 6.5 seconds-worth of an advantage over the McLaren after Hamilton perhaps took his option Pirellis one or two laps too far. Webber was finding his second set of tyres no more comfortable than his first, and was now over 18 seconds off the lead, while Petrov resumed in fourth after Button toured down the pits for his drive-through penalty, the 2009 champion then dropping even further back to 12th place after he made his own first proper pit stop.

Alonso was now back up to fifth ahead of Massa, with the long-stinting Sergio Perez up to 7th for Sauber ahead of Rosberg, Barrichello and Kobayashi. The Williams man had grabbed ninth from the Japanese driver with a decisive move into turn three, which he enjoyed so much that he tried to pass Rosberg at the same corner a couple of laps later. But having seen the best of Boobens with one move, we then saw the worst of Boobens, the Brazilian's pathetic stab up the inside simply resulting in inevitable contact that ruined both of their race. Rosberg was out on the spot, and with Schumacher having parked his damaged car in the garage a couple of laps previously, the first race of the year was over in inglorious fashion for Mercedes GP.

Meanwhile, things were becoming increasingly comfortable for the leader. Hamilton's car had picked up some undertray damage on his adventures in second place, and he began to fall further back from the German. Thankfully for him, though, there was no risk from behind, with his pace still easily enough to pull away from Petrov, who inherited third place when Webber pitted on lap 26 as part of his less than perfect three-stop strategy. Alonso was in a lap later, with the Spaniard on the same sub-optimal strategy, and suddenly the podium finish was on for the two-stopping Russian. The two three-stoppers emerged just ahead of the recovering Button, who was now up to 7th courtesy of some pit stops ahead of him and a DRS-assisted pass on Kobayashi, the Japanese driver apparently eager to make up for every pass he made in 2010 by being passed by half the field in Melbourne.

The leader was in for his second and final stop on lap 36, with Hamilton coming in on the same lap as both driver took the harder prime tyres for the run to the flag. By that point the lead was out to 11.8 seconds, and it never looked like coming down. Petrov also pitted for his final stop on the same lap, which temporarily elevated Webber and Alonso back to third and fourth, but with both of those drivers still yet to make their own final tyre changes. Unsurprisingly, they were not able to do anything about extending a workable gap over the Russian driver, and as Webber emerged from his final stop at the end of lap 41, he compounded his already dismal afternoon by sliding wide off the track at turn three, which gave Alonso the impetus he needed to leapfrog him on track for fourth place fairly comfortably when he made his own stop on the next lap.

With the pit stops out of the way for the leaders, Vettel was left with a comfortable drive to the flag. Hamilton briefly managed to close the gap during the first few laps of their final stint, but once the German was happy that his final set of primes were good to get him to the flag, he gently extended his lead out towards the 20 second mark. Hamilton maintained second place easily despite his damage, a further twenty seconds up the road from Petrov, Alonso and Webber. The top five places were all locked away for the day as the cars raced on to the twilight ending at Albert Park.

With the leaders being boring, the remaining entertainment came from the old sparring partners Massa and Button, as the recovering McLaren closed back up on the Brazilian in the scrap for sixth place. Chastened following his earlier penalty, Button bided his time this time around, and finally got the Ferrari on the drag down to the first corner on lap 48, assisted by his DRS wing, his KERS, and also by Massa's ailing Pirellis. The red machine was in at the end of that lap for a necessary final stop, which left Button clear in sixth place. Despite enjoying the benefit of fresh rubber over the final ten laps, Massa was only able to pass the quietly impressive Toro Rosso of Sebastien Buemi for 9th place despite the best defensive efforts of the Swiss driver.

So Vettel took another comfortable chequered flag and the eleventh win of his short Formula One career, with Hamilton some 22.2 seconds down the road in his limping MP4-26, but seemingly satisfied with a strong podium following the team's diabolical pre-season testing performances with the car. Petrov took a remarkable podium, hanging on to third place despite Alonso closing right up on the back of his old nemesis from Abu Dhabi last year in the final few laps, and leaving the Spaniard having to settle for fourth from the anonymous Webber and the penalised Button.

The one-stop appeared to pay off for Perez, who shocked even Pirelli themselves by making the finish with just the single requisite switch from options to primes and took seventh ahead of his team mate Kamui Kobayashi. But there was to be a sad twist for the Swiss team, who would see their pair of C30s disqualified due to the smallest of rear wing measurement infringements. That promoted Massa into a largely undeserved 7th, with Buemi moving up to 8th and the pair of squabbling Force India team mates, Adrian Sutil and top rookie di Resta, moving up into the points in 9th and 10th.

Further back came Jaime Alguersuari, who never really recovered from his opening lap prang with Schumacher's rear wheel, while Nick Heidfeld produced a remarkably underwhelming performance on debut for Renault, coming home a lapped 12th, though after the race it transpired that the bearded German had been carrying significant damage to his right sidepod for most of the 58 laps. The only other finishers were Jarno Trulli, who 'won' the battle of the sophomore teams in 13th, a full two laps adrift by the end, and Jerome d'Ambrosio, who secured a race finish in his first ever F1 race, albeit four laps down on the leaders in 14th. His team mate Timo Glock also made the finish, but was not classified after dropping nine laps down following a lengthy pit stop to fix some car issues.

Joining the pair of Mercedes cars in retirement were the Williams duo, Barrichello pulling into his garage late on with transmission problems long after his race was ruined by his pathetic move on Rosberg and a resulting drive-through penalty and Maldonado pulling off the track with just a handful of laps in the books. Also failing to make the race distance was Heikki Kovalainen, whose Lotus crawled to a halt on lap 18 with a water leak.

But while it was a depressing day for those retirees, and indeed for most of the rest of the field in the face of such dominance from Vettel, the young German cheerily waved his finger in the air for the first time as he began his title defence in picture-perfect style. You sense that whether we like it or not, this won't be the last time we see that particular celebration in 2011.

Driver of the Race

Vitaly Petrov - There was no lack of stellar performers in Australia, just as much as there was no end of slightly hapless ones. Vettel was sublime, but was never really challenged at the front of the field, Hamilton again pulled a performance from a car that didn't quite deserve it, but then we're used to that now, and Perez managed a mind-boggling strategy, but then that came from him simply driving quite slowly, which doesn't really get the heart racing.

So the DotR award goes to Petrov for securing a result that nobody previously thought possible, and for wiping the floor with Nick Heidfeld and his army of excuses at the first time of asking. True, his podium has simply caused a lot of people to simply wonder 'What if Kubica was there?' rather than commending the Russian driver on face value, but then Kubica isn't here, and Petrov is, and he did a very good job indeed..

Moment of the Race

Lap 16 - Sebastian Vettel's pass on Jenson Button became one of the big talking points of the race afterwards, after the German appeared to similarly gain a place using an area of the track outside of the racing limits. Whether or not it cost Lewis Hamilton a race win is questionable, given that the latter part of the race showed Vettel displaying a performance advantage over Hamilton's ailing McLaren that would likely have allowed him to catch and pass him regardless of a drive-through. But still it was an interesting moment. Then again, Buemi made an even more extreme use of the run-off at the same turn when he passed Adrian Sutil and also failed to be penalised. So maybe it was just something about that corner.

Quote of the Race

"I couldn't find the button." - Vettel's deadpan response to the BBC questioning why he had not used his KERS device on his pole position lap, as the team continued to keep their decision to remove the devices from their cars a secret.

Patronise F1's Australian GP Coverage

Race Preview - Australian Grand Prix

Minute-by-minute reports:
Free Practice 1
Free Practice 2
Free Practice 3
Australian GP Qualifying
Australian GP Race

Session reports:
FP1 - Home boy Webber tops opening practice
FP2 - Jenson on the button in Melbourne
FP3 - Vettel blitzes final practice for Red Bull
Qualifying - Incredible Vettel too good in Melbourne
Race - Vettel cruises to victory in Australian GP

Post-race coverage:
Patty Chatty - Australian Edition
Five talking points from the Australian GP
Fifth Column - Australia

The Results

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email this

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Write comment

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment