Australian Grand Prix 2012, Albert Park Circuit - Race 1/20

Just watched the highlights, what a great start for JB :D Shame Hamilton got mugged a bit in the safety car/pits. Red Bull and Ferrari with better race pace than qually showed. Williams drivers hitting everything in site. Merc also not having a great day.

BBC coverage was quite good. Ben Edwards did get a little over the top at the beginning was ok generally. Look forward to Sky coverage next weekend.

OP updated etc.
 
Just watched the race on BBC. Coverage was better than I was worried it might be. Hoping to catch a few races on Sky this year though, sadly I don't have it at home :(
 
A decent race. Nothing spectacular. In fact, at the front, it was pretty boring. And as CaptainRave pointed out, they brought out the SC to spice things up. Even now, I'm not 100% sure why the SC was brought out (apart from adding spice, to the race).

Button and Hamilton
Button did a fantastic job in making no mistakes and (together which his team), made no mistakes with strategy. McLaren did shaft Hamilton though, but that's normal.

The important thing for Button was that he beat Hamilton, on a dry track, while Hamilton had no obvious problems/crashes. He beat him fair and square. This bodes well for Button's title challenge.

I am worried for Hamilton though, as Button is basically taking him apart. Hamilton NEEDS the entire team to be based around him. Every time Button beats Hamilton, another nail goes in his coffin and his confidence takes a hammering. I can well understand why Hamilton is so glum - this year maybe the last year where he is looked at as a top-line driver. Still, its only been one race, so Hamilton nor his fans shouldn't get too worried. Hamilton may yet win the title this year.

Vettel
I think today went some way to proving that he is a worthy champ. Even from 6th-7th place, he was still able to make 2nd place and once again show Webber, who the boss is. The guy is super quick and makes few errors. And above all, he is 'lucky'.

Alonso
Like Vettel, this guy never fails to impress. He is driving a car which is clearly difficult to drive. He is beating his team-mate by the biggest margin that any team-mate is beating his team-mate by (very important). If only we could get him in a car to rival the pace of Vettel - I would love to see Alonso and Vettel slug it out. [For me, Alonso is the best driver in F1, with Vettel snapping at his heals. These 2 are extremely close, in terms of their points scoring abilities]

Drivers of the Day:
Button and Vettel (nothing to separate these 2).

Predictions
Now that we have had 1 full race weekend, lets get some predictions in.

WDC:
1. Hamilton/Button/Vettel*
2. Hamilton/Button/Vettel*
3. Hamilton/Button/Vettel*

I know this is a cop-out, but I really can't choose between these drivers. McLaren have the best car (with 2 good drivers), but RBR have the better driver (and currently a slightly slower car). After the Summer break, I believe RBR will have the best car, which should allow Vettel to close down the gap in the WDC. This one is too close.

WCC:
1. McLaren (definitely)
2. RBR
3. Mercedes
 
They didn't shaft Hamilton. It's just one of those racing things. Something happened and it turned out for the worse, if it wasn't for sc then Hamiltons pits top would have been good.
 
Im with AH2 on this — if the SC hadn't come out, the McLaren double-pit stop would have been genius.

Hamilton was his own worst enemy today. He screwed up his start and he let JB get a 10 second lead sat behind Perez after the first pit-stop.

If he hadn't done either of the two above, he would have easily come 2nd and possibly won it.
 
Great opening race of the season.

Excellent drive by Jenson, hope there is lots more wins to come this season. Lewis should have been second.

RB and Ferrari's race pace looking good. Great to see Kimi back, had a good drive after poor qualy. Also good to see Williams doing better, shame Maldonado binned it at the end.
 
How unlucky that Grosjean and Schumacher both went out considering how well they did yesterday. I just had a feeling something would go wrong for them. And then how unlucky for Maldonaldo to be well in the points only to crash out at the last minute. Shame Raikkonen couldn't keep the 2nd place he had at one point.

I was surprised how Lotus had done so well yesterday. But is the Renault team now renamed Lotus and the Lotus team now renamed Caterham?
 
sunama said:
Vettel
I think today went some way to proving that he is a worthy champ. Even from 6th-7th place, he was still able to make 2nd place and once again show Webber, who the boss is. The guy is super quick and makes few errors. And above all, he is 'lucky'.
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Vettel drove off the road. So I say that at least splits him from button and button did every thing you lorded Vettel up for last year. Funnily enough vettel didn't when he car wasn't fastest by a mile.

He was fortunate that he had a good stint on softs while they put webber on an alternative strategy and then the safety car stopped him taking pain on the harder tyres.

I agree he's lucky.
 
sunama said:
long post
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How exactly did Mclaren shaft hamilton?

Also, while I don't doubt Vettel as a driver, I don't think that race was anything special for him from a driving perspective. He got very lucky, with Grosjean having a problem with 2nd gear off the line, MSC having reliability problems, and webber getting caught out at the start. He got very lucky today imho. No chance he would have passed Hamilton if the safety car hadn't come out either.

I agree with your point about Alonso though. Although Button is my favourite, I really think Alonso is the best driver in F1.

With regards to Malaysia, I expect Mercedes to improve here, and be seriously quick in quali. Still expect a Mclaren win, and red bull to be slightly further behind as Lotus and Mercedes get their act together.
 
I think what jono8 is alluding to is that Button beat Hamilton fair and square in a dry race. I must admit I can't remember many people just clean driving away from Hamilton after a SC in the same equipment. He pulled out 2 secs in a lap and a half and managed the gap till the end, just like Vettel did so many times last season...
 
3dcandy said:
I think what jono8 is alluding to is that Button beat Hamilton fair and square in a dry race. I must admit I can't remember many people just clean driving away from Hamilton after a SC in the same equipment. He pulled out 2 secs in a lap and a half and managed the gap till the end, just like Vettel did so many times last season...
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Exactly. I am a Hamilton fan and always rated him above Jenson. I thought last season that Hamilton was just unlucky and had a lot on his mind and wasnt in a good place. If he gets beaten again by jenson this season though, i am afraid that i will have to admit that Jenson is just...better.
 
I hate to say it, but I do believe Hamilton will be a beaten man if Jenson comes on top again. Part of his game has always been this never beaten by a team mate over a season, and he even (technically) managed it with Alonso...but then to be beaten by a driver that was long regarded as good but not great must have hurt...
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
How exactly did Mclaren shaft hamilton?
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dont think the did anything deliberate, it just worked out not too great for hamilton.

buttons ability to make the tires last just that extra lap or two ment that the first stop (which he is entitled to choose when by being infront) ment that vettel got an undercut on hamilton as he pitted the same time as button.

hamilton could have done with stopping 2 laps earlier.
 
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