Archive for 'times'

Testing continues in Spain

Williams will have done their stock price no harm with this test showing as Rubens Barrichello pulled out the fastest time in Jerez. The testing regime doesn’t really allow for a comparison, we all saw what Sauber did last year in the pre-season – and look where they are again.
The headline times don’t tell the whole story as the big teams seemed to set the most consistent fast times with Red Bull and Ferrari looking the strongest of those. McLaren may have to play catch up yet again, if only they’d make it easy for themselves at the start of the year.
Mercedes seem in all sorts of trouble with issues with the car and not seeming like they have the pace, though again it is only pre-season and in F1 terms there’s still a long way to go until that first race.
Renault continue to evaluate drivers to replace Kubica who [...]

Sebastien Vettel finally gets that win as Red Bull show their form at last

Sebastien Vettel took a flawless victory in the Malaysian heat which he essentially won in the first corner after he managed to squeeze Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg out. Mark Webber almost had him at one point but a sticking right front air gun and a blistering out lap from Vettel put pay to that chance.
With the McLarens and the Ferraris out of position it was only Hamilton who really made any impression on the other drivers as carved his way though the field though ultimately he only finished just ahead of Massa and Button. Alonso also deserves a mention for nursing a downshift problem through the whole race distance before his Ferrari engine expired two laps from the end, he was close to taking Button even with his problems that would have meant the car was unpredictable under breaking and unbalanced in some of the slower turn ins.
Adrian Sutil [...]

Friday practice in Malaysia – Lewis Hamilton takes the day

The practice sessions on Friday were dominanted by the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton as he seeks to put Australia behind him as fast as possible. The other McLaren of Jenson Button, the two Mercedes and the Red Bull of Sebastien Vettel have all shown pace through the sessions.
Practice 1
In first practice Hamilton lead the way with Button and the two Mercedes in close pursuit, the Renault of Kubica was also still showing the pace that he had in Australia. The new teams were much closer to the back of the pack with the Virgins and the Lotus’ mixing it up together and the HRT Cosworth cars just behind them.
It seems that the Williams cars were either practising long runs or are very slow here. With the Ferraris and the Red Bulls down the order they might not have been the only ones.
1. Hamilton [...]

Australian GP Qualifying, Sebastien Vettel takes pole for Red Bull again

The qualifying session for the Australian GP started with traffic problems as the new slower cars tried to get out of the way of the fast cars on the shorter track. The weather was also threatening for the whole session as the teams scrambled to avoid being caught out. It was the Red Bull team that put down a marker though with Sebastien Vettel taking pole and Mark Webber locking out the front row in an ominous fashion .
Session 1
The first part of qualifying saw the elimination of all the new cars though the Lotus cars performed the best of those. Vitaly Petrov joined the new cars that were knocked out of the session as he struggled to get to grips with the Albert Park circuit.
Session 2
The second session saw all the teams getting times in to make sure that they avoided any weather problems, the only real surprise is [...]