It was all looking rather ominous in Australia as Red Bull
locked out the front row on Sunday morning after a rain delayed qualifying
session. Even though the weather continued to be on the inclement side, the
track began to dry and once again the reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel
came to the fore to score another pole position.
He rocketed away at the start too taking a huge lead by the
end of the first lap, but this wasn’t to be another cruise to the flag for the
German, in fact it wasn’t to be his win at all. In testing it was thought Red Bull
had the one lap pace but in race conditions everything would be much tighter,
Lotus particularly looked strong with its tyres, and so it proved as Kimi
Raikkonen came through from 7th on the grid to take his 20th
career victory in what he described as one of his easiest wins.
All last season they were described as the dark horses of
the championship. Admittedly we are in the extreme early stages, but this horse
is looking like it could be about to take centre stage.
Kimi got away well, keeping to the outside into turn one to
move into 5th place and immediately start to hassle Lewis Hamilton
in his Mercedes. After a few attempts he got him around the outside into turn
13, a great move that then set him up nicely behind Vettel and the Ferrari’s of
Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso who were hounding the Red Bull in the opening
stint.
After the first round of pit stops to get rid of the quickly
graining super softs and switch to the medium compound for the rest of the race,
the order remained the same, but here was where Kimi used the Lotus’ advantage
with tyres to exquisite effect. As the others made their second round of pit
stops Kimi just kept on going.
Quickly the others realised the Finn was going to use the
pit lane one time less, but with their cars unable to manage the tyres quite as
well there was nothing they could do about the relentless march of the Lotus.
Even after the final stops, with Alonso having now slotted
into second place and on fresher rubber, Kimi always kept him at arm’s length
banging in the fastest lap a few laps from the finish as if to say, don’t even
bother.
I’m not sure Alonso would understand the term don’t bother,
but he couldn’t catch him and in the end Raikkonen was able to cruise to the
flag and take an early championship lead.
Now these weren’t the kind of conditions we can expect at
most races, it was a lot cooler than expected and in Malaysia where it should
be a great deal hotter, things can change, however there’s no reason to expect
Lotus won’t be kind on their tyres there too.
This is a brilliant starting point for the team from Enstone
and as I’ve mentioned in these blogs before, their cycle of championship glory
is almost due. Too early to speculate of course on the title story, but that
performance will certainly make their rivals take a great deal of notice of the
former dark horse.
Adrian Sutil flies
after gap year
A starring role for the recently re-signed Force India
driver, returning to his former team after a year away and not exactly
encouraging for his team mate Paul di Resta. Sutil might have been out
qualified by his team mate but in truth he looked the quicker driver for most
of the weekend.
He started outside the top 10 so had the option of what
tyres to start on. He chose the medium tyre and made it work for him. Sutil was
in the lead of the Grand Prix twice as others pitted around him, but what was
impressive was that he led so convincingly, even pulling away from the likes of
Vettel at one point.
He looked like he might manage a podium at one point, but
the pace of the top teams eventually told and when he switched to the super
soft tyre 11 laps from home he dropped dramatically as the tyres just couldn’t
last. Still he ended up 7th, not bad indeed for someone who’d been
forced out just a year earlier and had only 3 days of winter testing.
di Resta blamed being stuck behind the McLaren of Jenson
Button for his failure to beat his team mate, but I think he was fairly
outclassed today. He certainly won’t want that to last if he wants to step up
to a top team, however 8th was a decent result and an excellent
first race of the year for Force India.
Ferrari looking
strong, Massa looking quick again
I think there’s potential for some very interesting times at
Ferrari. Obviously we all know that Alonso gets priority at this team, but
still it seemed to me rather off for him to be given pit stop priority over
Massa and on Felipe’s current form, how long before this becomes a problem for
the Brazilian?
Felipe out-qualified his team mate for the third consecutive
race and was ahead and challenging Vettel in front. Surely the leading driver
should be given first option in this situation?
Of course that wasn’t to be, at the second round of pit
stops Alonso boxed two laps earlier enabling him to jump both his team mate and
Vettel and then later to charge round the outside of Sutil after he exited the
pits to set himself up with a chance of victory. Of course we don’t know the
ins and outs of it all and perhaps Massa might have been going for a 2 stop
strategy, but let’s face it, it’s doubtful.
However, Massa should take great encouragement from a strong
weekend where he ended up with 4th and he’ll hope to continue this
form in Malaysia and give Fernando something to think about.
Of course we all know how great Alonso is, I just think it’ll
be fascinating to see how he’d react after three years of dominating Massa, if
the Brazilian were suddenly to consistently find the form that nearly made him
world champion in 2008.
Alonso of course grasps every opportunity and despite
probably being a little disappointed not to give Kimi more of a challenge
towards the end he’ll be delighted with 2nd and even more so that
Ferrari are well on the leading pace right from the start of the year. He didn’t
need that last season to nearly beat Vettel to the title, so this is a
fantastic start to the year in comparison.
Red Bull dominate,
then don’t
For all the world it looked like they were going to thrash
the rest of the field. After practice and then qualifying the race was already
sewn up for them, all they had to do was finish. But despite jumping into the
lead from the start, Vettel couldn’t maintain the pace of the Lotus or Ferrari
and was actually quite happy to keep Massa off the podium with a decent 3rd
place finish.
Mark Webber meanwhile suffered his traditional start
malfunction and dropped down the field, and he just wasn’t quick enough to
fight back after suffering a KERs issue, eventually finishing 6th.
Of course as I’ve mentioned these aren’t comparable conditions to what will be
experienced for most of the year and this track defies comparison but it gives
the rest of the grid hope that Red Bull are not going to saunter away with the
titles by the end of summer.
It had been predicted that on race pace the top teams looked
extremely close but I don’t think anyone thought that after locking out the
front row they’d fall backwards especially after the threat of rain rescinded.
Still it’s good for the sport that Red Bull aren’t looking
like they can walk away with it, but they started slowly last year and came
back strong. It was a decent showing and they’re still quick and they’re only
going to get faster. A lot faster.
Oh McLaren, not again
It’s becoming a habit of this team to shoot themselves in
the foot. Every few years or so they bring out a dud of a car and what with the
basic team errors and unreliability that stopped them claiming the titles last
year you’ve got to begin to question what exactly is going on?
For a top team of their quality it shouldn’t be forgotten
that they’ve only won one title this century. That’s just not good enough for
them. You do wonder what they thought they were doing by changing their design
philosophy for a set of regulations which will be wholly changed for 2014,
especially when they ended last season with the fastest car.
Unless they can solve their problems quickly they might have
to consider updating their 2012 car and bringing it in for the European season.
Of course this is an overreaction, McLaren are brilliant at developing a car
and in a few races time all might be different as they unlock its secrets.
However, what with the narrow operating window of Jenson Button, if they fall
too far behind then I can’t see them getting back on terms in the title hunt.
Button did well to qualify in the top 10 and was great as
always in the mixed conditions of qualifying, it’s saying something though that
they were probably happy to grab 2 points with a 9th place finish.
Sergio Perez’s debut for McLaren ended with 11th place. Probably not
quite what he was expecting when he joined!
Rest of the top 10
Former McLaren man Lewis Hamilton probably thinks he dodged
a bullet by leaving when he did as he impressed on his Mercedes debut. Despite
being outperformed in the wet conditions of qualifying by his team mate Nico
Rosberg, as the track dried he showed his class and qualified 3rd.
He attempted a two stop strategy like Kimi, but his tyres couldn’t live with it
and eventually faded a little to 5th. Rosberg dropped out with an as
yet unidentified problem.
A very encouraging start for Mercedes though, they look
quick in qualifying and don’t just fall away on race day, a significant step up
from last season. This could be a good year for them, certainly wins should
come their way. Rosberg will also be happy, he might actually be able to live
with the speed of Hamilton, and that’s pretty notable.
Romain Grosjean couldn’t match Kimi in the second Lotus. He
held onto the final point after a pretty unremarkable race. He’s a quick
driver, I hope after the adventures of last year he’s not become too tentative
with his racing.
Other mentions, Nico Hulkenberg might be looking enviously
at his former Force India team as Sauber got off to a slow start, he didn’t
even start the race due to hydraulic issues. Williams failed to shine in
Australia as Pastor Maldonado described the car as un-driveable proving this by
spinning off. His rookie team mate Valtteri Bottas made an under the radar
start, but moved up two positions from his grid slot.
The Toro Rosso’s looked quick in wet conditions, in the dry
not so much. Jules Bianchi looks awesome in the Marussia. This team look to
have made decent progress, especially in Bianchi’s hands. Max Chilton is going
to have to go some to get anywhere near his team mate. Caterham will want their
updates to come sooner than Spain.
One week to round two
Malaysia is next up and it’s probably going to be all change
ahead. Kimi has laid down a marker, but it wasn’t a dominant performance,
Ferrari and Red Bull will be challenging for victory next week, and Mercedes
will be lurking especially with Hamilton.
It’s going to be a good year.
all photo's taken from autosport.com
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