2012 Australian Grand Prix fastest laps

23 comments on “2012 Australian Grand Prix fastest laps”

1. 

   Rosa (@ciaran)
   18th March 2012, 15:19

   I knew Massa was going to be slower than Alonso, but 1.7 seconds is just dismal.
   1. 

      MahavirShah (@mahavirshah)
      18th March 2012, 15:36

      Massa looked absolutely AWFUL today. It looked like he was driving an HRT from 2010 instead of a Ferrari from 2012. I was one of the few hopefuls who would have thought that Massa might pull something special this year and give Alonso a stiff fight. Seeing this performance I want to go back in time and change that. Just goes to show the difference in class between the two Ferrari drivers. First he could not out qualify his team mate who crashed out early in Q2 and then drove so poorly. Such a shame.
      1. 

         Younger Hamii (@younger-hamii)
         18th March 2012, 19:11

         +1 to be honest to an extent, Felipe underperfomed well below the car’s ill capabilities it must it said.
      2. 

         The Last Pope (@the-last-pope)
         18th March 2012, 20:37

         An then there is how he drove Senna off the track. Pathetic performance.
2. 

   Sandhurst5 (@sandhurst5)
   18th March 2012, 15:26

   I was expecting Raikkonen to put in a quicker lap considering he had a couple of brand new set of tyres but then again he didn’t have much clear air once the safety car period came.
3. 

   Rush
   18th March 2012, 15:43

   Michael Schumacher seems to be the one able to unlock the car potential, good run in testing, he matched Rosberg in qualifying and still seem to has a better race pace than Rosberg like he managed to do in most of the race like last season, i think if not the retirement he can get a good result. But still it is first race
   1. 

      dkpioe
      19th March 2012, 13:53

      rosberg made mistakes this weekend. but in the 35 plus races they have done together, rosberg has been consistenly the faster driver. sure shumacher has made up more places in races, but that is because of his inferior qualifying, where he qualified behind inferior cars, which are then easy to overtake in the race. its unfortunate schumacher had the retirement, it would have been interesting to see the result, but i think his tyres would have worn out too early just like for rosberg and just like all throughout preseason for mercedes. the f-duct activated by drs will help mercedes qualify high, but since drs cant be used all around the track during the race like it can be in qualifying, they will fall back during the races. dont get your hopes up, the system may still be banned, and then mercedes will qualify 8th-10th like last year, and their race pace is still only 4th-5th best. mclaren, redbull, ferrari and renault were faster during the race.
      1. 

         Cranio
         19th March 2012, 15:22

         Agreed!
      2. 

         Cx9
         19th March 2012, 15:35

         But throughout the testing both their times were matched, 35 races? not really Michael could perform consistently on the race last season, matched Rosberg time and up to the middle of the season has been consistently better race pace. 2010 just far from the old Schumacher, 2011 improved maybe 2012 he finally closed to the prime Schumacher. About the degradation showing in last year Michael has better tyre management than Rosberg. Agree with you about the team position, the tyrres degradation still the main issue Merc have to solved and it’s going to be interesting to see the teams argue about the duct legality
      3. 

         Cx9
         19th March 2012, 15:58

         “where he qualified behind inferior cars, which are then easy to overtake in the race.”
         He passed the superior cars as well at start, Mark Webber Red Bull and Ferraris, Hamilton and his own teammate you might missed that
4. 

   AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
   18th March 2012, 15:46

   Seeing the data now, it turns out Hamilton wasn’t losing as much at the end of the first stint as I remembered. It was only the lap Button pitted and Hamilton’s inlap where he really lost time, although in the three laps before he also lost about 2 seconds to Vettel.

   Webber’s speed advantage over Rosberg reinforces something I commented on in the Grand Prix report article. For some reason, Webber, doesn’t seem very good at positioning himself for overtaking manoeuvres. I am reminded of something John Watson said recently on The Flying Lap, namely that a following car should not move around too much and make half-hearted moves, because this only gives the defender confidence that he can keep you behind. A shame for Webber that when he finally did pull up alongside Rosberg, Nico got away with cutting the corner. The situation is not that different, in my opinion, from Button’s overtaking attempt on Massa last year. Although Button came from behind Massa, wasn’t he ahead when they started braking (sorry, off topic).
   1. 

      Benjamin Lowry (@bplowry)
      18th March 2012, 16:45

      I think it speaks more to the perceived strengths and weaknesses of their cars. The Red Bull has been consistently quick through high-speed corners, while traction out of slower corners and straight line speed aren’t such strong points. The Mercedes on the other hand has quite good top speed.

      Track characterstics play a part here, too, obviously. At a circuit like Spa, the Red Bulls were carrying more speed than anyone coming out of Eau Rouge. On the Kemmel straight, they’d have a much higher hope than say, coming out of La Source. Albert Park, on the other hand, is a very different beast.
5. 

   kenji
   18th March 2012, 20:08

   it seems like caterham pace is in the lower midfield range. also, both cars running mostly on prime. petrov race pace is better than heikki. maybe that was because heikki didn’t have kers, but its quite good. he will keep heikki honest for this season. guess it’s worth it to replace trulli with petrov. you got money and pace I guess.
6. 

   Jose
   19th March 2012, 0:18

   Massa shouldn’t playing along with the new boys, he should be quicker in the field.
   1. 

      Baron
      19th March 2012, 15:38

      Just heard it on the grapevine. Ferrari Red Bull and McLaren team bosses got together over a cup of tea to discuss ways they could sabotage their number 2 drivers discreetly. Following a cream bun and a chocolate slice each they hatched a plan to put Dunlop remoulds on their cars disguised as Pirellis.

      Seems to have worked wonders… :)
7. 

   McFillin (@kcampos12)
   19th March 2012, 0:22

   Great job Pastor
8. 

   John Cousins
   19th March 2012, 3:59

   Webber and Vettels pace almost identical apart from when webber was being held up by rosberg!
   1. 

      sharmin. (@spartle)
      19th March 2012, 21:11

      This was usually the case last year as well. Webber even set several fastest laps (7 I think). Vettel was also usually in clear air while Webber was not. I’m not sure what it really means.
      1. 

         AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
         19th March 2012, 23:47

         @spartle Webber did get the record for the highest amount of fastest laps last year. I think Webber and Vettel were probably in a similar position when it comes to clean air, the field would have been spread enough and even if it wasn’t Vettel would have had to deal with traffic.
9. 

   Jay
   19th March 2012, 9:44

   Felipe’s form has been atrocious. I cant imagine the Ferrari to be that bad. Although its not what you expect from a Ferrari, Im certain it could have qualified further up the grid. Alonso is a class above, and its obvious he makes the car look better than it is.

   If I were SD or LDM, I would give Massa up till Bahrain, if he continues on this downward spiral and keeps indulging in his penchant for running into people, he has to be dropped. This would then be the best time to bring in Sergio Perez, as the in season test at Mugello will give him an opportunity to get a shake down in the F2012.

   To add to this, if Ferrari dont manage at least a 3rd in the Constructors, LDM should think about giving SD the boot. Ok, he won the Constructors in 08, but Ferrari should have wrapped up the drivers that season as well. The team has been very poor since then, their performances in 2010 was purely down to luck and some brilliant drives from Alonso.
10. 

    AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
    19th March 2012, 23:49

    Not surprised that Button got the fastest lap really.

    Probably pretty easy when you’re only running on fumes!
11. 

    Johan Kesti
    20th March 2012, 11:10

    This lap time chart is good but it would be better if you provided it as a table format also. I would prefer table because you can see individual lap times more clearly, thanks!
12. 

    Nick
    20th March 2012, 17:00

    Well done Vergne, showing great attitude and surprising maturity for a rookie.

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