1. Vettel (Red Bull)
2. Hamilton (McLaren)
3. Webber (Red Bull)
4. Button (McLaren)
5. Alonso (Ferrari)
6. Petrov (Renault)
7. Rosberg (Mercedes)
8. Massa (Ferrari)
9. Kobayashi (Sauber)
10. Buemi (Toro Rosso)
11. Schumacher (Mercedes)
12. Alguersuari (Toro Rosso)
13. Perez (Sauber)
14. di Resta (Force India)
15. Maldonado (Williams)
16. Sutil (Force India)
17. Barrichello (Williams)
18. Heidfeld (Renault)
19. Kovalainen (Lotus)
20. Trulli (Lotus)
21. Glock (Marussia Virgin)
22. D'Ambrosio (Marussia Virgin)

Pre-season poll:

Poll: Formula 1 World Champion 2011?
1. Sebastian Vettel (24) 29%
2. Fernando Alonso (17) 20%
3. Lewis Hamilton (15) 18%
4. Michael Schumacher (13) 16%
5. Other driver (6) 7%
6. Mark Webber (5) 6%
7. Nico Rosberg (2) 2%
8. Jenson Button (1) 1%
9. Felipe Massa (0) 0%
83 total votes

+ Show Spoiler [Poll: Australian GP winner?] +

Poll: Australian GP winner

Vettel (10)

36%

Hamilton (10)

36%

Webber (3)

11%

Alonso (3)

11%

Button (1)

4%

other driver (1)

4%

Petrov (0)

0%

Rosberg (0)

0%

Massa (0)

0%

28 total votes

Your vote: Australian GP winner

(Vote): Vettel
(Vote): Hamilton
(Vote): Webber
(Vote): Button
(Vote): Alonso
(Vote): Petrov
(Vote): Rosberg
(Vote): Massa
(Vote): other driver

+ Show Spoiler [Poll: Australian GP: To score best For…] +

Poll: To score best Force India result

Sutil (11)

79%

di Resta (3)

21%

14 total votes

Your vote: To score best Force India result

(Vote): Sutil
(Vote): di Resta

+ Show Spoiler [Poll: Australian GP: Barrichello to sc…] +

Poll: Barrichello to score points?

Yes (9)

60%

No (6)

40%

15 total votes

Your vote: Barrichello to score points?

(Vote): Yes
(Vote): No

Noam

Israel2209 Posts

March 26 2011 14:34 GMT

#66

If the track temperature stays low for the race I think we're gonna see several tire related accidents. They wont be able to nurse them for a lap coming out of the pits like they did in the qualifiers.

rANDY

United Kingdom748 Posts

March 26 2011 14:42 GMT

#67

Anyone know where I can see the qualifying times broken down into the different sector times?

GoGo Button!

Insight.9

United Kingdom79 Posts

March 26 2011 14:42 GMT

#68

Awesome OP, looked this morning and saw no thread for F1 in here at all and was going to make something, but i'm glad you did because it's amazing! :D

Hope Hamilton does well all season and takes the championship. Red Dull whitewash is pretty boring now. Here's hoping Kubica comes back soon and strong too.

bmml

United Kingdom962 Posts

March 26 2011 14:43 GMT

#69

Dropped £10 on Hamilton to win championship at 7-1, I think it'll pay off.

Shinobi1982

1605 Posts

March 26 2011 15:19 GMT

#70

I have not followed the winter test sessions and have not seen qualifier session of tomorrows GP. But my guess either Hamilton (my favo) or Vettel are gonna take the title this season. Next to Hamilton, I'll be rooting for Kobayashi his drives style is like Hamiltons, exciting crazy/risky "all out" style :D but with a bit lesser car.

Rinrun

Canada3509 Posts

March 26 2011 15:34 GMT

#71

Jacques Villeneuve for life.

GO KOBAYASHI GO! ~~Eat~~ Race your way to ~~victory~~ points! ;D

zere

Germany1287 Posts

March 26 2011 15:35 GMT

#72

HRT applied for an exemption from the 107%-rule, Stewards denied the request. HRT-Boss Kolles: "We'll be back stronger than ever in Malaysia." I lold.

On March 26 2011 23:42 rANDY wrote:
Anyone know where I can see the qualifying times broken down into the different sector times?
!

http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2011/844/6823/best_sector_times.html

Sazchu

Iceland489 Posts

March 26 2011 15:49 GMT

#73

Gonna be interesting to see if HRT can get within the 107% rule in Malaysia, hope for their sake they do.

Sutil gonna get top10 in Australia \o/

jfourz

Ireland421 Posts

March 26 2011 16:04 GMT

#74

i love f1. last season was so good, so much drama and such a close (drivers) championship... hopefully this season will be similar

WArped

United Kingdom4845 Posts

March 26 2011 16:08 GMT

#75

Vettel's qualifying was mindblowingly fast. He didn't even use his Kurz apparently.

Greg_J

China4409 Posts

March 26 2011 16:26 GMT

#76

Red Bull looking pretty dawn fast, they where talking all week about how off the pace Mclaren where looking in testing but they seemed O.K today. Interesting to find out whether Mclaren and Red Bull are fairly even and Vettels lap was special or whether Maybe red bull are a lot faster and Hamiltons lap was special. I'm thinking red Bull have the better car but how much faster is it.

Loving the new flip down wing thing's be interesting to see how that pans out in the racing. I'm not sure how thier keeping track of who can and when they can use them but it sounds like its a lot of work for someone.

All in all hyped. Can't wait for tomorrow

not sure if i can be assed to go to YeoungAm again this year last year was a disater in terms of transport. There must have been people queing way in to the early morning trying to get a bus out of there.

a176

Canada6688 Posts

March 26 2011 16:38 GMT

#77

I think the HRT drivers would have barely scraped into 107%, their lap times were coming down progressively. Sector 3 was ridiculously slower than the rest, I'm sure they just needed the practice time to find those seconds.

Though I still wonder why they're using last year's wing package instead of the one shown in the render :|

Klive5ive

United Kingdom6056 Posts

March 26 2011 16:49 GMT

#78

On March 27 2011 01:08 WArped wrote:
Vettel's qualifying was mindblowingly fast. He didn't even use his Kurz apparently.

Because he doesn't have it

He was just winding the journalists up saying "I couldn't find the button".
According to the BBC they've taken out the charging part of the KERS and are just going to have a one-use system to use off the line.
This might effect their race pace. No KERS means you need slightly more fuel and even 1kg will give a noticeable time difference in F1. OR they might just have a much better balance to the car without KERS and Vettel will use his boost to stay in front of Hamilton off the line and then dissapear into the distance. We'll just have to wait and see

Aristodemus

England2010 Posts

March 26 2011 17:07 GMT

#79

One kilo is nowhere near a second a lap, its more like 0.1 or 0.2. As for today, everyone can see what an amazing job mclaren have done, they look in really good shape. Vettel not using KERS is a weakness in terms of power but not so much in terms of performance. Hamilton also did not have KERS for his final session, which was a huge disadvantage (it was broken) as you carry a 20-30kg unit for no reason. It also affects brake balance badly so you can see what a great job he did today.
I said earlier in the thread i tip Hamilton for the title, but testing did not go well to say the least. After today however, i am confident in my prediction once again.

Sceptor87

Canada266 Posts

March 26 2011 18:47 GMT

#80

Yeah, I'm probably going to say Hamilton takes it all this year as well. I kind of want Webber to win because he is getting up there in years and will probably retire this year or next, but Hamilton should take it if the car performs properly and consistently. Right now, early in the season I'm seeing Hamilton or Vettel taking it, but will be cheering for Webber.

Although I am skeptical of KERS again. Just never seemed reliable enough, which might be the reason Newey developed RBR7 without it, but who knows. Maybe it might be better now. I doubt it, but it is possible.