Australia 1st Qualifying result

[-Fred-]

1. 2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari B 1'26"372 221.030 Km/h 3
2. 6 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes M 1'26"551 + 0'00"179 3
3. 16 VILLENEUVE BAR Honda B 1'26"832 + 0'00"460 3
4. 1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari B 1'27"103 + 0'00"731 3
5. 17 BUTTON BAR Honda B 1'27"159 + 0'00"787 3
6. 5 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes M 1'27"242 + 0'00"870 3
7. 8 ALONSO Renault M 1'27"255 + 0'00"883 3
8. 20 PANIS Toyota M 1'27"352 + 0'00"980 3
9. 7 TRULLI Renault M 1'27"411 + 0'01"039 3
10. 3 MONTOYA Williams BMW M 1'27"450 + 0'01"078 3
11. 21 DA MATTA Toyota M 1'27"478 + 0'01"106 3
12. 9 HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas B 1'27"510 + 0'01"138 3
13. 10 FRENTZEN Sauber Petronas B 1'27"563 + 0'01"191 3
14. 11 FISICHELLA Jordan Ford B 1'27"633 + 0'01"261 3
15. 14 WEBBER Jaguar Cosworth M 1'27"675 + 0'01"303 3
16. 4 R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW M 1'28"266 + 0'01"894 3
17. 12 FIRMAN Jordan Ford B 1'29"977 + 0'03"605 3
18. 19 VERSTAPPEN Minardi Cosworth B 1'30"053 + 0'03"681 3
19. 15 PIZZONIA Jaguar Cosworth M 1'30"092 + 0'03"720 3
20. 18 WILSON Minardi Cosworth B 1'30"479 + 0'04"107 3



Holy Cow, Jacques and Jenson!

 

[SandStorm]

Hey, Webber's up in 15th!

 

[-Fred-]

They're reversing the order for tomorrow's qualifying. Which means Wilson will start first, Barrichello last.

I'm willing to bet Ferrari and McLaren are sand bagging a little...

 

[advanR]

i think the new rules are a bit stupid. final qualifying being done one person at a time is great. but it is retarded that there is another qualifying session that determines nothing for sundays race. they should just call it practice. we all now many teams will be "sand-bagging" it.

I will also take the time in this thread to say that I think the no-refueling rule is amazingly retarded. this is almost as bad as putting bricks in shumachers car. taking away drivers aids will put more pressures on the drivers to actually perform. this no refueling BS takes away from the role of actually driving. it is more strategy now.

I was surprised a bit by how some of the top teams did. but the bottom was about what I expected. rookies and cosworth RS powered cars are at the bottom. toyota is doing much better as many predicted. williams should be up there tomorrow, atleast in top 8. (renault will probably top them.) I was surprised by BAR, but I expect them to move down to the middle tomorrow. Their performance today is one reason I think the first qualifying session means zilch. perhaps villenueve will perform well in the new qualifying format, relative to others, but i still expect them to back in the middle tomorrow. if not, great. JV is my second driver for gilles-guthrie's fantasy league. also, BAR doing better this year could only help them for next year. taku!

 

[vat_man]

I don't think they'll be sandbagging - the last five minutes of qualifying in the traditional format have usually seen the track at its fastest, so it's important to be quick in the Friday qualifying session to get the track at its best - hey, at least it counts for something, unlike last year.

They run this format in the Superbikes and although not a huge fan of bikes (although like most motorsport I will watch it!) it works really well there.

 

[SandStorm]

Sor3ry, but ( ) what's sandbagging? I haven't kept up with F1 lately so . . .

 

[vat_man]

Originally posted by SandStorm
Sor3ry, but ( ) what's sandbagging? I haven't kept up with F1 lately so . . .

Dogging it - not trying your best. Are you up with the changes in qualifying?

 

[Vasco]

So today was only practice right...the V8s certainly had some trouble first corner.

 

[vat_man]

Yeah - the 8.30-10.30 session was testing for the teams that opted for track testing instead of testing between racing (well, they get 10 days 2 car testing and 20 days 1 car testing). Then there was an hour free practice session for everyone, and then the one run Friday qualifying that determined the order everyone does their qualifying runs tomorrow. They'll run in the reverse order of the list in the first post - i.e. Wilson first, Barrichello last.

 

[SandStorm]

Originally posted by vat_man
Dogging it - not trying your best. Are you up with the changes in qualifying?

Nope!

 

[vat_man]

Originally posted by SandStorm
Nope!

Rather than go through the comprehensive changes, read this article.

http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ftjs055.html.html

 

[SandStorm]

I'm not plowin' through that, take me all day!

 

[vat_man]

Well, basically it's one hot lap for qualifying - and the car has to be the same (tyres, fuel) at qualifying as it is for the start of the race. Will be very interesting...

 

[Pupik]

The top 8 cars are separated by one second...not bad!

Nice to see my GG-FF1 drivers are 5th and 7th on the charts.

And I'm quite surprised that Panis, whom usually isn't a great qualifier at all, is in 8th. Toyota's got that ringer of a qualie engine, though.

 

[12sec. Civic]

Well, I must say. This is alot more exciting IMO. I am a relative newcomer to F1. But this seems WAY better than before. I like the fact that they are testing everyone's immediately available skills. It will give a lot of people a chance.


Qualifying is in 6 hours.

I only saw the beginning and end of Fridays qualifying, due to pushy friends that dont appreciate F1, and want to do other things.

Today, I vow to see ALL of it. Every second, I just love watching the cars, its hypnotic and enchanting.