F1-Blog

It was not quite the race that McLaren and Lewis were hoping for after their domination in Australia. It was however an interesting race, as it showed that the season is not going to be the two horse race that we have had in recent seasons.

Ferrari shone all weekend, and where pretty much unbeatable, Felipe was looking fast, as was Kimi, and the Ferrari with it’s minor changes to improve cooling looked strong.

The race started under a little cloud, the McLaren team had been penalised five grid spots for both of their cars, this was because Lewis and Heikki had impeded Heidfeld and Alonso’s fast laps at the end of the Q3 session.

This put the two lower fueled McLarens into eight and ninth place, in and around heavier fueld cars. This did however show us that both the McLaren and Lewis are quick away from the line, the Brit lined up ninth on the grid, and finished the first set of corners in fifth, Mark Webber did well getting the Red Bull into fourth as well.

This left the two Ferrari’s of Felipe and Kimi running out front, and pulling away from the chasing pack. Timo Glock was again unlucky, with Nick Heidfeld bumping him into retirement, but some might say it was only fair, as Glock’s team mate Jarno Trulli had bumped Heidfeld at the first corner when he understeered into the German.

Lewis was having issues with his tyre selection, it was perhaps the wrong choice to use the option tyre, especially after the heavy rains in the night caused the track to loose some of it’s rubbering in. He started to come back at Webber as his tyres wore away, and the car regained some grip levels. Lewis sat behind the Red Bull for a few laps, then got lucky when the Red Bull pitted, this released Lewis who set some good times. Webber’s stop was not without issues, his rear safety light was loose, and had to be snapped off during his stop, he then suffered an air pump issue that caused problems during the race.

Hamilton had his second unfortunate turn of the day (after being penalised), he pitted on lap 20, but the wheel bolt and aero guard on the front right wheel was stuck with what looked like a lot of brake dust, and Lewis’s pit stop took 20 seconds, and Lewis was again fighting his way back up past Webber again, after going through the graining issues on another set of soft tyres, he managed to re-catch the Ausie, but again could not pass him on the track.

While everyone else was fighting their battles down the track, Felipe and Kimi were out front in their own duel, Kimi kept catching upto his Brazilian team mate, but the turbulent air would not allow him to put a move on to get to the front.

Massa pitted on lap 18, this released an amazingly fast Kimi from behind him, he put in a superb lap on his pit entry lap, when the two drivers had finished their first round of stops, Kimi had taken the lead. Felipe tried to stay with Kimi, but it all came to naught when Felipe lost the back end of the Ferrari and beaching the car in the gravel. This adds more fuel to the fire that Felipe is struggling to get to grips with the loss of the electronic driver aids.

It was good news for the teams following, Robert Kubica had been running third, in a race all of his own, and was promoted to second spot. Another driver with a battle on his hands was Jarno Trulli. The Toyota driver was running a great race, but coming under pressure from  Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren. Heikki got ahead of the Toyota, but it was a good showing from the team, as most of the time they were running laps equal to the McLaren cars.

Lewis Hamilton came under attack from Nick Heidfeld late on in the race, with Nick setting the fastest lap of the race on the last lap, something BMW cannot be too happy about.

Webber’s Red Bull hung on and took seventh spot, with the Renault of Fernando managing the last point with eight.

So from this we can gather the following.

• The Ferrari trouble at Australia seemed a little bit of a fluke, however the team have still only had one car finish in two races, so the Manufacturers title could be difficult unless they start finishing both cars in decent positions.
• BMW have certainly taken a big step towards the front of the grid, and will no doubt win a race in the not too distant future.
• Toyota have made a colossal improvement, just being able to run with the McLarens is a huge leap, lets hope for Trulli and Glock’s stake that the team can keep up the development on the car.
• The Red Bulls may be fragile, but are quick when they want to be, it’s not unlike Adrian Newey to try pair down the car and parts on it to their absolute tolerance, and I think that’s why we have seen big braking on the car when involved in accidents.
• The Renault really is not quick, and if Fernando really did bring the team 6 tenths of a second, then the Renault was a real dog of a car.
• The Honda is definitely a step in the right direction, lets hope Ross Brawn can now inject a little more pace.

With a couple of weeks until the next race, the teams have a chance to put any issues that these first two races have pointed out right, but with limited time they will have to prioritise any things they need to do.

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