F1 Quals: Australia 2017

It is a before one can race, you must qualify, and that's why the F1 Circus found themselves in Melbourne this afternoon... to begin the 2017 Formula 1 season! Here's the provisional grid for the Grand Prix of Australia!

Pos	Driver	Car	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:24.191	1:23.251	1:22.188
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:25.210	1:23.401	1:22.456
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:24.514	1:23.215	1:22.481
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:24.352	1:23.376	1:23.033
5	Embryo Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	1:24.482	1:24.092	1:23.485
6	Lettuce Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:25.419	1:24.718	1:24.074
7	Felipe Not Retired Massa	Williams Mercedes	1:25.099	1:24.597	1:24.443
8	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:25.542	1:24.997	1:24.487
9	Kid Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:25.970	1:24.864	1:24.512
10	Smiley Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:25.383	1:23.989	DNF
11	Sergio Perez	Force India Mercedes	1:25.064	1:25.081
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:24.975	1:25.091
13	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Honda	1:25.872	1:25.425
14	False Esteban!	Force India Mercedes	1:26.009	1:25.568
15	Sony Ericsson	Sauber Ferrari	1:26.236	1:26.465
16	Antonio Giovinazzi	Sauber Ferrari	1:26.419
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:26.847
18	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren Honda	1:26.858
19	Lance Stroll	Williams Mercedes	1:27.143
20	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:28.244

The more things change, the more they don't change.  Or something like that.  Is anybody really surprised that Lewis Hamilton is on pole?  What might be surprising is that the top three cars would break the track lap record if they turned it during the race.  These cars are fast.  We saw a lot of fishtailing and/or spins during the practice sessions and quals, and in most of those cases it looked like the grip just went away for no reason.  It may be more sinister than that... new compound tires and faster cars?  Hmm... I wonder.

I think the biggest surprise was the difference in performance between Haas teammates Lettuce Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen.  Lettuce is a good'un, we know that, but KMag is a useful driver too.  Nearly 1.5 seconds difference in ostensibly the same car?  That's huge, and the difference between Q1 and Q3.

Please note the name at #16, Antonio Giovinazzi, who is pushin' to be called Tony Snazzy.  He's the reserve driver for both Ferrari and Sauber, and is filling in for Pascal Wehrlein.  Wehrlein injured his back during preseason testing, and while he's okay, he wasn't able to work on his fitness during that time.  After driving in the first two practice sessions, he said to the team "I can't do it... the g-forces are beating the hell out of my soft flabby body."  Probably.  In any case, he took himself out of the seat for the race and Tony Snazzy stepped in on zero notice.  He ran in P3, then went right into Quals... and only just missed out on Q2 at the last moment.  Not bad.

So, race late tonight/early morning!  See ya afterwards!

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F1 on NBCSN: Australia 2017

Oh, hey!  Hiya, thanks for droppin' by!  What can I do you for this fine day?  F1?  What, is it that time already?  Okay, gimme half a second, be right back.  Gotta get dressed...

Yes, much better.  Hello there my loyal and true!  We are mere days from the start of the 2017 season of Formula 1, and there's been a lot of changes made everywhere!  The cars are different, the tires are different, the engine rules are different, the grid is different... heck, even the overall management of F1 is different!  It's been a busy offseason, but one thing hasn't changed: if it's the first race, it must be Australia!  Here's the track map:

Yep, no changes there... still the same mix of fast and slow, straight and curvy (but not too curvy) that's proven to be the perfect debut track for a new car.  The circuit provides a little bit of everything to the teams, the drivers, the car... it's challenging without being abusive, tough but not overly hard.  Which is not to say it won't bite your face off if you give it half a chance... just ask Fernando Alonso about that.  The walls are close, except at the end of straights, but the track is wide.  You can bounce off them, but you really have to work at it.  All in all, a better place to start the season probably doesn't exist. 

And as always, the good fellows of the Legendary Announce Team will be bringing us their lovely job of coverage.  However, since it's the first race of the year, there's some extras thrown into the mix!  Let's have a look, shall we?
Thursday
Practice 1: 11pm - 12mid, tape delay on NBCSN
Friday
Practice 2: 12mid - 2am, live on NBCSN
Saturday
Quals: 1am - 3am, live on NBCSN
Sunday
2017 Grand Prix of Australia: 12mid - 230am, live on NBCSN

All time are Pond Central, add or subtract as needed for your local time.

Now then.  I intend to have one post covering the cars on Tuesday, and another covering the assorted rules changes and et cetera on Wednesday.  Perfect way to lead into the weekend, dontchathink?  We all cool with those plans?  Yeah?  Excellent!  Then we will see you here tomorrow for more F1 stuff!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:10 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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