Category: Formula 1

A fascinating qualifying period at the 2012 Australian Grand Prix has ended with Lewis Hamilton claiming pole position for McLaren. He was the only man to break the 1:25 barrier with a time of 1:24.922, en route to his 20th pole position.

In second place was Jenson Button (1:25.074) completing a front-row lockout for the Mercedes-powered McLarens.

Romain Grosjean, fast emerging as the dark horse for the 2012 F1 season, finished third for Lotus (1:25.302). Michael Schumacher will start alongside the young Frenchman after he came home fourth with a 1:25.336.

That means Red Bull will start tomorrow’s race from an unfamiliar row three, with Webber in P5 (1:25.651) and Vettel alongside in P6 (1:25.668). Yep, you better believe it, this season is wide open now.

The remaining places in the top 10 were claimed by Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG, 1:25.686), Pastor Maldonado (Williams, 1:25.908), Nico Hulkenberg (Force India, 1:26.451) and Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso, no time).

Full results from qualifying are available here. We’ll have pics and the full post-quali transcript for you later tonight.

Qualifying is about to start at the 2012 Australian Grand Prix but we thought we’d share with you a few observations from trackside. During Free Practice 3 we watched proceedings between Turns 4 and 6.

Three things were clear. In a sea of hackneyed platypus nosed dogs the McLaren MP4-27 stands out as a really great looking car. We’ve grabbed a few pics from Friday’s practice to support our claims.

The HRT’s, god bless’ em, are little more than mobile chicanes. They are visibly slower and from what we’ve seen will serve to build up the arm muscles of the flag marshalls and not much else.

Of most interest, however, was the sound made by the two Red Bull RB8’s on the entry to Turn 6. Clearly different to all the other cars on track they exhibited an off throttle note that was somewhat reminiscent of the spluttering noises made last year when the engine tunes were busy feeding exhaust blown diffusers.

As a side note watching an F1 car from behind as it makes its way from Turn 6 and on to Turns 7 and 8 is a wonderful sight.

In bright, sunny conditions Lewis Hamilton sent McLaren to the top of the timesheets in the final practice session before this afternoon’s qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix. It was the first totally dry period of the weekend and Hamilton’s time of 1:25.681 is the early benchmark.

Showing their pre-season pace was no fluke Lotus sit comfortably inside the top three with their returning F1 driver posting a time of 1:25.758. But it wasn’t the 2007 World Champion, Kimi Raikonnen, instead the former Renault driver, Romain Grosjean, who was just 0.077 seconds behind.

Australia’s best chance of a home win in Melbourne rests with Mark Webber and he has indicated his Red Bull will be at the pointy end of qualifying by setting the third fastest time in FP3. Webber’s best lap of 1:25.900 was only 0.225s behind the leading McLaren.

Jenson Button was fourth, with the Mercedes pairing of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, despite an excursion in the kitty litter, finishing fifth and sixth respectively.

Sebastian Vettel provided light drama when he went into the gravel with 15 minutes of the session remaining. He was unable to rejoin but the dual world champion still managed with seventh fastest time with a 1:26.211.

Pastor Maldonado will have impressed his team boss Frank Williams by putting the Fw34 in eighth. Sergio Perez will also ensure Peter Sauber has a grin on his face after completing practice with the ninth fastest time. Daniel Riccardo rounded out the top 10 some 1.042 seconds behind Hamilton.

We expect there’ll be glum faces in the Ferrari pit with Fernando Alonso back in sixteenth (1:27.323) and Felipe Massa eighteenth (1:28.023). You’d reckon it will be tough for them to fight their way into Q3 from there.

HRT also struggled and they may find it difficult to post a time within 107% of the fastest Q1 qualifier which could put them in jeopardy for Sunday’s race.

You can see a full list of times after the break and we’ll be back with more after the qualifying.

In May last year we brought your attention to a powerful BBC documentary called Grand Prix: The Killer Years. It concentrates on Formula One from the years 1961–73 and highlights the horrors the sport could bring and the inherent lack of safety at the time.

The full one hour documentary was on YouTube but has now been removed. However, if you missed it or would like to watch it the doco will be broadcast on One tomorrow at 10:50am right before coverage of the Australian Grand Prix commences.

We recommend you take the time to watch it and set your recorders if you can’t watch it live. There’s a short preview after the break.

UPDATE 16 March: It now looks like this program will go to air 30 minutes earlier at 10:20am. Thanks for that One!

Charlie Whiting is Formula One’s Race Director and is therefore best placed to talk us through the various changes to the Sporting and Technical Regulations for the 2012 F1 season.

Some of the changes introduced this year include a four hour time limit on Grands Prix, a relaxation for tyre usage in Friday free practice sessions, as well as the re-introduction of the “one-move” defending track position rule and the ability for lapped cars to overtake the Safety Car to resume at the tail of the field.

Regarding the Technical Regulations find out why the almost all of the cars have a “platypus” style nose and why F1 is cracking down on aerodynamic gains from exhaust flows and braking systems. Measures have even been taken to reduce the assistance given to wheel gun operators during pit stops.

With thanks to the FIA you can read the full Q&A interview after the break.