F1: Australian GP Team-By-Team

Formula 1

F1: Australian GP Team-By-Team

Adam Cooper rounds up the weekend with his team-by-team analysis of the Australian GP.

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted March 30, 2009 Melbourne (AUS)

Brawn GP made a winning start to their F1 involvement in Melbourne (LAT)

Hamilton made the most of a bad car to end the race fourth, and was then promoted to third (LAT)

Mclaren
1 - Lewis Hamilton
2 - Heikki Kovalainen
Lewis Hamilton’s challenge for a second title got off to a disastrous start when he had a gearbox failure in qualifying, although he wouldn’t have been much higher than 15th, a place behind team mate Heikki Kovalainen. A gearbox change put him to the back but the Toyota situation left him 18th. Hamilton started on the softer tyre and made some good progress in the early laps before his early first stop. He didn’t benefit as much as others from the safety car but plugged away to finish fourth, which became third after Trulli was penalised. Kovalainen made contact with Barrichello on the first lap, and had to retire. His luck doesn’t seem to have changed...

Ferrari
3 - Felipe Massa
4 - Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari clearly wasn’t on the pace in Australia, although the team was in better shape than McLaren. Felipe Massa qualified seventh but was moved up to sixth by the Toyota problem, while Raikkonen – who lost most of Saturday morning to a technical glitch – jumped from ninth to seventh. Both cars planned short first stints on the softer tyres. Massa made a good start and took advantage of trouble ahead to jump up to third, but had to stop even earlier than planned. He fought back into a strong position but had to retire with a steering problem. Raikkonen suffered with a suspected diff problem and retired after clipping the wall following a spin, the team pulling him out of the safety car queue to save the engine.

BMW
5 - Robert Kubica
6 - Nick Heidfeld
BMW had an interesting strategy with Nick Heidfeld running KERS and the heavier Robert Kubica sticking to a conventional set-up. Kubica did a better job in qualifying to start fourth, albeit with the lightest fuel load in the field. Heidfeld qualified 11th but started ninth when the Toyotas went back. Kubica started with soft tyres and a light fuel load. He had a strong early run until his early stop dropped him back, but the safety car gave him a boost. Towards the end he was challenging Vettel for second when they made contact and he crashed – had he got by, Button might have been easy prey. Heidfeld suffered damage on the first lap and after a stop had a low-key run to 10th.

Renault
7 - Fernando Alonso
8 - Nelson Piquet
The Renaults didn’t look comfortable from the start of practice, but things improved so Fernando Alonso was disappointed when he went off on his last lap in Q2 and had to settle for 12th, although he was bumped up to 10th by the Toyotas. Piquet struggled all weekend and was 17th fastest. Alonso was badly delayed by the first corner incident and spent a long time stuck behind Fisichella. He eventually made it to sixth, gaining another place from Trulli’s penalty. Piquet had a good start and had a strong early run, but spun off at Turn One after an apparent brake problem.

Toyota
9 - Jarno Trulli
10 - Timo Glock
Toyota survived the diffuser protest but the team hit trouble after qualifying when both cars were excluded after their rear wings were found to be flexing too much. That was a shame for Timo Glock, who had qualified sixth in a heavy car, and Jarno Trulli, who had been eighth, and were relegated to pit lane starts. Trulli had a very early first stop and when the safety car came out that helped him into a strong position. He moved up to third when Vettel and Kubica retired, but was penalised for passing Hamilton under yellows. The only consolation was that it moved Glock up from fifth to fourth.

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Adam Cooper

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