High Voltage Down Under – Gold for Silver
Finally back to racing mode. The waiting is over and the season opener took place at Melbourne’s Albert Park under perfect conditions with clear blue skies. This time without Fernando Alonso, as McLaren have confirmed that he did suffer temporary memory loss following his crash at Barcelona testing. It is unclear when Alonso will be back in his car. His replacement for Melbourne was Danish driver Kevin Magnussen.
2015 Australian Grand Prix Review
There was still sandbagging in the free practice sessions on Friday. After the second free practice session news came down from Red Bull Racing that the gap between them and Mercedes is frightening. On top of it all, Daniel Ricciardo is already onto engine number two with no timed lap in FP2!
On Friday, Ferrari was the second team behind the two Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel was clearly ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen.
There were more problems for Red Bull in qualifying as Daniil Kvyat didn’t make it for thre third session and Ricciardo grabbed the seventh spot on the grid.
As expected the two Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg took spots on first row followed by Felipe Massa, Vettel, Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas. There were further technical issues with Nico Rosberg’s car and only one timed lap hampered him from having an even better performance from him. Meanwhile, Bottas was seen limping after getting out of his car. He skipped the post qualifying television interviews.
“Valtteri was suffering with his back and lost a lot of time at the last corner,” Williams engineer Rob Smedley said. The Finn was taken to the medical center first and then to hospital for further checks, and his ability to race was in question.
Well done for the two Youngsters at Toro Rosso. Carlos Sainz Jr. qualified eigth and Max Verstappen took 12th.
Race day:
Williams came forward and stated that Bottas was indeed unfit to take part in the race. Kevin Magnussen had a problem with an engine blower on his McLaren Honda on the way to the grid. Daniil Kvyat was also unable to start due to a gear box failure in his out lap.
The race began with only 15 cars on track – what a start of the season! Trouble in turn two brought the Safety Car out and another two cars lost. By the end of the race, only 11 cars finished.
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg provided yet another Mercedes 1-2 finish, while Sebastian Vettel finished third for his first podium for Ferrari.
As expected, Formula One yawning continues this time with car No.44 ahead of car No.6 and maybe next time reverse… and we saw more pit stop failures in only one race than in the whole season 2014
Man of the race: The Rookies! They all did well. Felipe Nasr is the best Sauber Rookie finishing in fith. Max Verstappen was unlucky as he suffered an engine failure while looking like he would pick up points.
Remarkable notes:
• The rear mirrors of McLaren are closer together and higher positioned than any other Team
• Every time a Team ended with a 1-2 finish in Australia, they went on to win the Constructors Championship
Numbers:
Pole position time: 1:26,327 Lewis Hamilton
Fastest lap: 1:30,945 Lewis Hamilton in lap 51 from 58
Lap record: 1:24,125 Michael Schumacher (Ferrari 2004)
Car weight: it increased 2 kilos from 700 to 702 – the rear tyres are half a kilo heavier each in comparison to 2014 plus one kilo for two more cams between the front tyres.
Main Photo:
