Ray S

Great race!

Someone needs to fix Petrovs radio as he's obviously missed the "Alonso is faster that you" two years in a row.

Nice drives by Perez and Kobayashi....

Australian Grand Prix Results - 27 March 2011 - 58 Laps
POS DRIVER NATIONALITY ENTRANT LAPS TIME/RETIRE
1. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 58 1h29m36.259
2. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes 58 22.297
3. Vitaly Petrov Russia Renault 58 30.560
4. Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari 58 31.772
5. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 58 38.171
6. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes 58 54.304
DQ Sergio Perez Mexico Sauber-Ferrari 58 1m05.845, Rear Wing
DQ Kamui Kobayashi Japan Sauber-Ferrari 58 1m16.872, Rear Wing
7. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari 58 1m25.186
8. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari 57 1 Lap
9. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes 57 1 Lap
10. Paul di Resta Britain Force India-Mercedes 57 1 Lap
11. Jaime Alguersuari Spain Toro Rosso-Ferrari 57 1 Lap
12. Nick Heidfeld Germany Renault 57 1 Lap
13. Jarno Trulli Italy Lotus-Renault 56 2 Laps
14. Jerome d'Ambrosio Belgium Virgin-Cosworth 55 3 Laps

R Timo Glock Germany Virgin-Cosworth 49 Unclassified
R Rubens Barrichello Brazil Williams-Cosworth 48 Transmission
R Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes GP 22 Damage
R Heikki Kovalainen Finland Lotus-Renault 19 Water leak
R Michael Schumacher Germany Mercedes GP 19 Damage
R Pastor Moldonado Venezuela Williams-Cosworth 9 Transmission
FASTEST LAP:
Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari 55 1:28.947

AutoAtlanta

Bull. Vettel is not a full second better driver than Webber. One does not drive 1 second faster than a teammate in equal equipment.

Lewis may be better than Button, but there is preferential treatment there too!

(Don't even talk about McLaren 2007, if Ron Dennis had any smarts at all Fernando and McLaren would have been champions that season. If you want to play team manager, you have to learn to manage egos of megalomaniacal 20somethings in multi-million dollar machinery.)

MJSpeed

All of you Alonso haters are just as ridiculous as A.Wayne 180 degrees in the opposite direction.

******* grow up.

wanna911

Why, because Ron would have disabled Hamilton's car or did everything possible to keep from from winning at Fernando's request?

And for how long would Fernando have held the information he used to his benefit to blackball the team?

- build me a better car or I'll tell?
- slow the competition down or I'll tell?
- make sure I'm faster than the rookie of the year every year or I'll tell?



McLaren would have ended up like Renault (having to rebuild after the hurricane Alonso passed through) had Ron ceded to Alonso's wishes. He got straight up beat by a rookie and couldn't take it.


Alonso has earned every bit of hate he get's on this board (except for maybe LTC). Everyone knows the guys can wheel a car like nobodies business (except for maybe Pete...........and LTC), but he's easy not to like because of his antics. Blackmailing one's team is treason to anyone who has a true respect for motorsports, then copping out and letting your team take the fall while you plead for a SECOND immunity for something they (Renault) did for YOU (Alonso) makes it hard to really like a guy no matter how well he can drive. No amount of great driving will gain the respect lost from those types of things.


Anyone who doesn't have Alonso blinders on can see that.

wanna911

And contrary to what you might think, the Alonso apologists and avid defenders make him LESS like-able.

MJSpeed

Here we go again...it's like a broken record.

Again you are all starting to rival A.Wayne and his faux bullsh¡t!

I get it Alonso is despicable. I don't like him either but as far as driving goes, he's one of the best of the current crop.

Rich Sandor

I think Button had the drive of the race. After his bull**** drive thru penalty for getting held up then bumped off track by Massa, he managed to climb back up the ladder to pass him in the end! (although the slower drivers were not much of a challenge to pass, and rubens, rosberg, and schumi where already DNF'd)

I think Vettel has matured and is on his way to WDC#2. Webber is bitter and his frustration might bump him from contention, hopefully he does not take it out on Vettel. Lewis is crisp and on the ball, and doesn't seem to have any mental drama issues to distract him. Button seems to support Lewis more than himself, and last year seemed to have lost his urgency to win, but his interactions with Massa this race tells me that he still has the fire within. Maybe he will take more risks and challenge Lewis afterall. I've lost confidence in Massa. He has shown magic in the past, but usually when others were off their game. Alonso can drive as well as Vettel or Lewis, but I think Scuderia is lacking in aero and strategy compared to RedBull and McLaren. Unless they improve, he will need to continue using Massa as a pawn to advance himself. Petrov is a pleasant surprise. I wish him the best, as he seems a genuinely nice guy. (I'm not sure Alonso shares that sentiment)

paradisenb

I have not decided if it was truly more exciting racing or just exciting because it was the first of the year. Either way, I`m glad it`s back.

Drive of the race goes to Petrov. He is showing a steady hand. Must be the vig.

Alonsa is a very good driver. I just can`t understand how he got freight trained so bad at the start.
Rubens? What`s up? He is driving with a sense of urgency that he has not shown in years but with less than impressive results.

Vettel is clearly in a class by himself at this point in the season. I expect Hamilton to challenge him all year. Look for McLaren to catch up in a couple of races.

Land Jet

Congrats to Vettel and RBR. I hope they repeat as WDC. I haven't seen the race yet, only the results. Will watch it today at noon.

I think Massa'a contract will be bought out and another driver will be in his seat very soon.

Ray S

Priceless, the one using profanity tells me to grow up...

I suppose you believe that Massa "gave his all" in defending that pass by Alonso (just like he did with Button)? I may not like Alonso, but at least I'm not blind.

Ray S

So it is your theory, that McLaren and Red Bull are purposely giving Button and Webber substandard equipment? Think about what you are saying.

These teams spend millions in search of an extra tenth (and absolutely covet not only the driver, but also the team championship), but you believe they are slowing down drivers with equipment on race #1?

Okay....

jaje

Agree - Massa was driving too defensively against Button and by the time Button had to go off track b/c Massa forced the issue they were side by side and Button had every right to have the outside of that corner. Thus, I don't agree with the penalty Button was given. Massa was holding up Button so that Alonso could catch up to them and he did. I laugh though that Button still managed to have a higher position but I think Massa should have been penalized with blocking as he made more than 2-3 moves on occasion to block Button.

Massa is simply the #2 driver to help Alonso by slowing up other competitors and allowing the easy pass for Alonso. He's simply a rolling roadblock for the other drivers. If Massa does this enough someone's going to punt him and I'm betting Webber will do so as he is not afraid to make contact.

Larry Herman

Want to improve passing? Just make those front wings stronger and sharper. That would make it a lot easier to cut down someone tire if they are blocking you. Just thinking outside the box.

ilko

Rubens might beat Webber to the punch on that one

I enjoyed watching the race yesterday, fun start to the season. Great to see Petrov and the Saubers up there, Button also did a great job fighting back from the penalty, although I think he earned it. He was never ahead of Massa, so technically he wasn't squeezed out of the corner as he claimed. Biggest losers of the race were Mercedes. I felt bad for them, but hopefully they'll bounce back.

The tires/DRS/KERS hype didn't live up to the expectations however.

There was no obvious drop off in tire performance that resulted in close racing that I could see. And Perez managed to go the distance on one stop! Still, I give Pirelli credit, more pit stops made things a bit more exciting.

DRS should've been deployed by race control between turns 2-3, not on the front straight. It would've provided more overtaking. But the whole idea of DRS is stupid anyway. It is de facto not controlled by the drivers, but by race control. What else should we let those guys control, gear changes? I heard people compare it to the (over)boost button from the turbo days, but that was manipulated exclusively by the drivers at their own choosing.

KERS is another stupid idea, and I see no reason to bring it back. RBR proved they can beat the competition even by not using it. The top 3 drivers in qualifying on Saturday didn't use KERS - think about that for a moment. Hamilton's car had the system but it wasn't working properly so it actually hindered his performance by messing up his brake bias. The F-duct from last year was a much more exciting driver aid and showed true innovation. So, yeah, bring on the artificial rain Bernie...

And one more thing - Vettel was .4 sec faster in qualifying this year than last year. Despite all the rule changes that are supposed to rob the car of downforce.

JustinL

Good points, but remember that Webber out launched Hamilton, then got out KERS'd to the first corner.