There were blue skies and 24 degrees Celsius, as the cars headed to the formation lap. Mercedes had been forced to change the gear box on Bottas´ W09, which had caused a 5-place grid drop for the Finn. This meant modest P15 for the Finnish Mercedes pilot. It was so exciting to see the lights go out for the very first time this season!
The top three took an excellent start. Hamilton held on to his lead, although Kimi almost had a chance to challenge the Briton going into Turn 2. Sebastian followed his teammate closely. Red Bull´s Verstappen, who started the race on the super soft compound, lost a position to Haas´ Magnussen, who jumped 4th. Bottas in P15 wasn´t able to gain any positions at the start and was stuck in his starting position. Williams´ rookie Sirotkin was the first driver to retire already on lap 5. The unlucky Russian suffered a brake failure.
On lap 9 Bottas managed to make a move on Force India´s Ocon, moving 13th. At the same time, Red Bull´s Verstappen faced drama. The Dutchman suddenly lost control of his RB14 and had a 360-degree spin in Turn 1. He lost positions to both Haas´ Magnussen and teammate Ricciardo, dropping down to 8th. Since the spin Max suffered from severe over steer and his RB14 seemed very difficult to drive. It was hard work to keep the car on track.
Ferrari were able to match Hamilton´s pace, and the gaps between the top three were only about two seconds. Haas was driving a brilliant race, as Magnussen was 4th and teammate Grosjean 5th. However, the American-based team had no chance to keep up with Kimi. The Iceman was the first top driver to pit on lap 19. He opted for the yellow-marked soft tyres, which was the hardest compound available for the weekend. Mercedes had no choice but to take Hamilton in as well; the Briton opted for a similar tyre choice. Sebastian stayed out instead, as he was in no hurry to pit. His P3 was comfortably secured, as the Haas duo was over 25 seconds down on the German.
What a huge drama the successful Haas team faced right after their pit stops! There were difficulties in attaching Magnussen´s rear-left tyre, and right after the pit stop the Dane had to stop the car and retire. Only two laps later, during Grosjean´s pit stop, there was an issue with his front-left tyre, and also the Frenchman had to retire the car after re-joining the track! Virtual safety car was deployed due to Grosjean´s retirement, and Sebastian pitted from the lead on lap 27. Sebastian, too opted for a fresh set of soft Pirellis. I was absolutely amazed to see, that Sebastian re-joined the track ahead of Hamilton, maintaining his lead! What a genius pit stop strategy from the red team, to keep Sebastian out in case of a (virtual) safety car! Hamilton, too couldn´t understand, what had just happened! Sebastian got lucky with the virtual safety car this time. Once he had got a grasp on the victory, I knew, he wasn´t going to let it slip through his fingers!
As it took time to get Grosjean´s car removed from the track, safety car was deployed. The re-start took place on lap 31. Sebastian held on to his lead, but it was obvious, that Hamilton was going to challenge the Ferrari ace sooner or later. Kimi instead had it difficult to match his teammate´s pace. Due to Haas´ unfortunate retirements, Red Bull´s Ricciardo was right at Kimi´s tail, and the Australian was definitely hungry to make it on the podium in front of his home crowd.
Sebastian and Hamilton banged the fastest lap times alternately, which foreshadowed a tight battle towards the closing laps. With some 10 laps to go, the Briton had already made it within DRS distance from Sebastian. However, Hamilton´s intense effort made him lock his tyres; in a blink of an eye the reigning world champion was over two seconds adrift. Hamilton, as well as his teammate Bottas, had an overheating issue with the power unit, which forced the Briton to back off at the end of the race. The issue seemed quite significant, as Kimi managed to decrease the gap to Hamilton into 1.5 seconds on the final lap! On the other hand, Ricciardo was putting serious pressure on the Iceman, but the Melbourne circuit offered very little chances for overtaking, so the Honey Badger had to settle for P4. McLaren had an impressive opening for the season, as Alonso finished 5th and teammate Vandoorne 9th, getting both cars in points. Verstappen finished 6th for Red Bull and Hulkenberg 7th for Renault. Teammate Sainz completed the top ten, which made the day pretty great for Renault as well. All in all, P8 was all Bottas could do after the catastrophic qualifying yesterday.
I had hoped for a red-coloured race, so my hopes were definitely answered! Only a Ferrari 1-2 would have made the day more perfect than this! What an amazing way to kick off the new season! I was overwhelmingly happy to see Sebastian standing on the top step of the podium, accompanied by the Iceman. It´s so great, that F1 is finally back; I have missed these adrenaline-filled race weekends so much! All the best for Sebastian and Kimi this season; I hope it´s going to be a bright red season!
Kimi Räikkönen & Sebastian Vettel
sunnuntai 25. maaliskuuta 2018
lauantai 24. maaliskuuta 2018
Australian GP / Qualifying: Hamilton blew his opposition away by storming on pole!
Finally the long winter hibernation was over and it was time to start the engines again! What an awesome feeling it was to wake up in the morning, knowing that it was time for the season-opening qualifying! A large cup of dark-roasted coffee, coffee-flavoured ice-cream and Formula 1 action made my morning perfect again.
In Q1 everyone came out on the purple-marked ultrasoft tyres. Kimi at the wheel of his brand new SF71-H showed top form right from the beginning and went fastest on his first run. Teammate Sebastian hit the traffic on his first flyer, which prevented the German to match the Iceman´s lap time. However, with five minutes remaining in the clock, Mercedes´ Hamilton put together a superb lap and topped the timesheets, leaving Kimi over two tenths adrift. Renault proved to had taken a significant step forward in terms of performance, as Sainz made it as high as P6 on the closing stages of the first segment. Hamilton´s teammate Bottas was left in P8 in the opening session. Quite expectedly, out of Q2 were the Toro Rosso duo of Hartley and Gasly, the Sauber duo of Ericsson and Leclerc and Williams´ rookie Sergey Sirotkin.
Q2 saw different tyre strategies and tight battle in terms of the top three teams. The Red Bulls mixed it up in the second session, with Verstappen and Ricciardo the only two drivers opting to run the super softs in the session, giving them an alternative strategy as they will start the race on that tyre. Hamilton went fastest on his first flyer, leaving closest rival Kimi four tenths adrift. However, Sebastian seemed to have found the rhythm on his second attempt, and the German topped the timesheets! Hamilton was only a tenth down on the flying Ferrari ace, followed by his teammate Bottas. The Red Bull duo of Verstappen and home hero Ricciardo could easily make it into the decisive last segment, in spite of running the harder compound. Eye-catching was the fact, that the pink Force India´s performance had dramatically dropped from last year! Both Perez and Ocon were eliminated from Q3, alongside the McLaren duo of Alonso and Vandoorne and Williams´ Stroll.
You could really feel the tension and the excitement, as the final segment got underway. And what a dramatic turn the final session got! After starting his very first flyer, the rear-left tyre of Bottas´ W09 touched the grass on Turn 2 and the Finn lost control of his Mercedes, causing him to crash heavily into the wall! The session was red-flagged, and Bottas´ qualifying was over. What a frustrating moment for the Finn, who had had high hopes for the season-opening qualifying! It took some time to clear the vast amount of debris that had been scattered across the track. As the session resumed, there was electrifying battle between the top three teams. After the first runs Mercedes´ Hamilton, Ferrari´s Sebastian and Red Bull´s Verstappen were all separated by 61 thousandths of a second only! The shootout for pole couldn´t have been any more exciting!... Until Hamilton came out for his second attempt. The Briton blew his opposition away by improving his lap time by eight tenths! It was an absolute masterclass by Hamilton. A very well-deserved fifth successive pole position in Australia. Kimi´s top form continued through out the qualifying, and the Iceman made it on the front row, although over six tenths down on the pole-setter Hamilton. The battle between the red warriors was extremely tight, as Sebastian qualified third, only a hundredth of a second down on his teammate. So it was very strong performance from the red team indeed! Verstappen and Ricciardo qualified 4th and 5th, but the Australian has been handed a 3-place grid penalty for a speeding offence in practice. This will drop him to eighth in the race starting order, handing Magnussen Haas´s best-ever grid slot in fifth. Magnussen´s teammate Grosjean will start alongside his teammate on the third row. It still remains to be seen, whether Bottas´ W09 needs a gear-box change, which would cause a grid penalty. It really was mixed fortunes for the Silver Arrows in qualifying today!
Statistically pole position doesn´t play as major a role in Melbourne as it plays on some other venues. Although Mercedes´ (Hamilton´s) qualifying pace was in a class of their own, the race pace of the three top teams should be more evenly matched. Kimi and Sebastian have every chance to challenge Hamilton for victory, if not a 1-2! It´s interesting to see, whether Verstappen´s different tyre strategy will help the Dutchman to gain positions in the race. If there is rain in the race, it will definitely benefit the flying Dutchman and increase his chances to make it on the podium. No matter whether Bottas starts from P10 or further back on the grid, the Finn will have a huge challenge ahead of him. A mistake like today´s never looks good. But the fact is, that everyone makes mistakes at some point. The crucial thing is, how Bottas is able to turn a setback like this into success and not to let the mistake haunt him. Competing against a teammate like Lewis Hamilton easily makes you try too much, which leads into making mistakes. Looking forward to an intense race, hopefully coloured in red!
In Q1 everyone came out on the purple-marked ultrasoft tyres. Kimi at the wheel of his brand new SF71-H showed top form right from the beginning and went fastest on his first run. Teammate Sebastian hit the traffic on his first flyer, which prevented the German to match the Iceman´s lap time. However, with five minutes remaining in the clock, Mercedes´ Hamilton put together a superb lap and topped the timesheets, leaving Kimi over two tenths adrift. Renault proved to had taken a significant step forward in terms of performance, as Sainz made it as high as P6 on the closing stages of the first segment. Hamilton´s teammate Bottas was left in P8 in the opening session. Quite expectedly, out of Q2 were the Toro Rosso duo of Hartley and Gasly, the Sauber duo of Ericsson and Leclerc and Williams´ rookie Sergey Sirotkin.
Q2 saw different tyre strategies and tight battle in terms of the top three teams. The Red Bulls mixed it up in the second session, with Verstappen and Ricciardo the only two drivers opting to run the super softs in the session, giving them an alternative strategy as they will start the race on that tyre. Hamilton went fastest on his first flyer, leaving closest rival Kimi four tenths adrift. However, Sebastian seemed to have found the rhythm on his second attempt, and the German topped the timesheets! Hamilton was only a tenth down on the flying Ferrari ace, followed by his teammate Bottas. The Red Bull duo of Verstappen and home hero Ricciardo could easily make it into the decisive last segment, in spite of running the harder compound. Eye-catching was the fact, that the pink Force India´s performance had dramatically dropped from last year! Both Perez and Ocon were eliminated from Q3, alongside the McLaren duo of Alonso and Vandoorne and Williams´ Stroll.
You could really feel the tension and the excitement, as the final segment got underway. And what a dramatic turn the final session got! After starting his very first flyer, the rear-left tyre of Bottas´ W09 touched the grass on Turn 2 and the Finn lost control of his Mercedes, causing him to crash heavily into the wall! The session was red-flagged, and Bottas´ qualifying was over. What a frustrating moment for the Finn, who had had high hopes for the season-opening qualifying! It took some time to clear the vast amount of debris that had been scattered across the track. As the session resumed, there was electrifying battle between the top three teams. After the first runs Mercedes´ Hamilton, Ferrari´s Sebastian and Red Bull´s Verstappen were all separated by 61 thousandths of a second only! The shootout for pole couldn´t have been any more exciting!... Until Hamilton came out for his second attempt. The Briton blew his opposition away by improving his lap time by eight tenths! It was an absolute masterclass by Hamilton. A very well-deserved fifth successive pole position in Australia. Kimi´s top form continued through out the qualifying, and the Iceman made it on the front row, although over six tenths down on the pole-setter Hamilton. The battle between the red warriors was extremely tight, as Sebastian qualified third, only a hundredth of a second down on his teammate. So it was very strong performance from the red team indeed! Verstappen and Ricciardo qualified 4th and 5th, but the Australian has been handed a 3-place grid penalty for a speeding offence in practice. This will drop him to eighth in the race starting order, handing Magnussen Haas´s best-ever grid slot in fifth. Magnussen´s teammate Grosjean will start alongside his teammate on the third row. It still remains to be seen, whether Bottas´ W09 needs a gear-box change, which would cause a grid penalty. It really was mixed fortunes for the Silver Arrows in qualifying today!
Statistically pole position doesn´t play as major a role in Melbourne as it plays on some other venues. Although Mercedes´ (Hamilton´s) qualifying pace was in a class of their own, the race pace of the three top teams should be more evenly matched. Kimi and Sebastian have every chance to challenge Hamilton for victory, if not a 1-2! It´s interesting to see, whether Verstappen´s different tyre strategy will help the Dutchman to gain positions in the race. If there is rain in the race, it will definitely benefit the flying Dutchman and increase his chances to make it on the podium. No matter whether Bottas starts from P10 or further back on the grid, the Finn will have a huge challenge ahead of him. A mistake like today´s never looks good. But the fact is, that everyone makes mistakes at some point. The crucial thing is, how Bottas is able to turn a setback like this into success and not to let the mistake haunt him. Competing against a teammate like Lewis Hamilton easily makes you try too much, which leads into making mistakes. Looking forward to an intense race, hopefully coloured in red!
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