Melbourne Grid 2003

[Wrex]

Minardi - What are you doing?

Webber - could have been a good lap (running light?)

Ralf - running heavy?

Heidfeld - That lap looked brilliant
But mate, a slow down lap does'nt need to be that slow.

What happened with Trulli's lap? I thought he was a qual specialist.

Michael - Sensational lap!

Kimi - did exaclty what I thought - he would be fast or blow it - and he did both

All the Rookies seem to struggle.

A Ferrari front row - Like I said people the cream rises to the top

[Wrex]

P. No Driver Team - Engine Tyres Times Ave/Gaps Laps
1. 1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari B 1'27"173 218.999 Km/h 3
2. 2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari B 1'27"418 + 0'00"245 3
3. 3 MONTOYA Williams BMW M 1'28"101 + 0'00"928 3
4. 10 FRENTZEN Sauber Petronas B 1'28"274 + 0'01"101 3
5. 20 PANIS Toyota M 1'28"288 + 0'01"115 3
6. 16 VILLENEUVE BAR Honda B 1'28"420 + 0'01"247 3
7. 9 HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas B 1'28"464 + 0'01"291 3
8. 17 BUTTON BAR Honda B 1'28"682 + 0'01"509 3
9. 4 R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW M 1'28"830 + 0'01"657 3
10. 8 ALONSO Renault M 1'28"928 + 0'01"755 3
11. 5 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes M 1'29"105 + 0'01"932 3
12. 7 TRULLI Renault M 1'29"136 + 0'01"963 3
13. 11 FISICHELLA Jordan Ford B 1'29"344 + 0'02"171 3
14. 14 WEBBER Jaguar Cosworth M 1'29"367 + 0'02"194 3
15. 6 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes M 1'29"470 + 0'02"297 3
16. 21 DA MATTA Toyota M 1'29"538 + 0'02"365 3
17. 12 FIRMAN Jordan Ford B 1'31"242 + 0'04"069 3
18. 15 PIZZONIA Jaguar Cosworth M 1'31"723 + 0'04"550 3
19. 19 VERSTAPPEN Minardi Cosworth B 2 lap(s) 2
20. 18 WILSON Minardi Cosworth B 2 lap(s) 2

[Adam43]

Montoya is higher than I thought.

So who has done well? Who knows?

Ross Brawn doesn't know if they have done well yet either!

But a Ferrari 1-2

[Wrex]

McLaren must be bleeding

[Inigo Montoya]

Too bad about Ruben's spoiled lap... Hats off to Frentzen! (maybe)

[Wrex]

I'm amazed how many of them made mistakes. Looks like Ferrari are 2 stopping, but what are everyone else doing?

[Jukebox]

At least we don get the usual 6 predicted grid positions like last season anymore.....Ferrari? well...as always one word desbribes em best Superior

[f1manoz]

Ferrari may be out front like usual, but at least it's VERY interesting behind. BAR and Sauber had great qualifying sessions, JPM was his usual efficient qualifying self, while McLaren self-destructed...

I think the biggest surprise is Panis in 5th, considering he's never been thought of as a brilliant qualifier...

As for the home town boy, he tried his best. That's all we should expect.

[Blue]

Mclaren may have 1 stop fuel strategy. Or, just both drivers don't fit 1 lap qualifying well.

[DNQ]

Not a nice session for a McLaren fan

JV did really well, could so easily have been 3rd if he wasnt as slow in the final sector.

[Jukebox]

Yeah..i've had high hopes for the Macaroons, but then they are great strategists. Maybe they could make up by using pit stops to their advantage tommorow

[Blue]

I just learned that BAr didn't use the Melbourne spec engine but lower spec with less power. If the car last to the end, they have high potential of scoring points or even podium. fingers crossed!

[enemy-ace]

Michael and Rubens look very strong, that Ferrari looks just so well balanced it actually looked slow until those sector times popped up.
Villeneuve really looked like he had his foot in it, here's hoping the Honda can make it to the end.
I think the Jaguar drivers underperformed in their one-lap runs, however their still fresh faces and i'm sure they'll find their rythm.
It would appear Kimi's practice shunt has really put him up against it. He had to qualify the t-car and obviously he had very little time in it before qualifying.
My gut feeling is that the red cars are two stopping and that Montoya is in a one stopper. At least i hope so or this cold be a ferrari runaway.

[golem]

We hope so about two stopping red cars.

I hope Panis is where he is owing to skill and car not light fuel. And a shame about Trulli. But BAR... well, what can we say? They did well yesterday and today they did fairly again. Looks good.

[RWC]

I have a feeling ferrari are one stopping-that about makes the gap the same as last year.
Monty COULD be two stopping-i'll be impressed at his dominance over ralf if he isn't!
I guess we have to think in the longer term to compare team mates now...We may say to ourselves tomorrow---'oh,so coulthard is one stopping,while kimi is doing two-THAT explains the gap yesterday!'(in performance not resulting times!)

Looks like sat-turd-day is going to be totally pointless to us fans....



Just abit of tension and fun

[Red]

I guess that Montoya is on 2 stoppers. And I'd venture to guess 1 stoppers for David and Ralf. I mean, they did slight mistakes, but not 1.5-2 seconds worth. Can't really say about Ferrari, but if the last year's car, on full tanks can do this... all I can say is that they have 16 very well organized "race simulations" ahead of them and they've launched the 2004 car already. They're 1 full second ahead of Montoya!

[x_dt]

I wouldn't bet against the Ferraris having more fuel on board than the cars immediately behind them....

The best hope of a non-Ferrari win lies in the F2002s hitting trouble. And given the bullet-proof reliability of the F2002 what is the chance of that?

[Red]

Oh, but that's nothing new..




But, still, 1 second is 1 second!!!

What the heck am I doing, complaining by Ferrari domination!? No, I don't, just that I really wanted to see the GA doing business this year

[True Believer]

The Minardis should have been faster than they were... for goodness sakes they have Cossies now... and arguably were further behind the next team than Webber managed with the Asiatech last year.

I for one was disappointed... the Minardi car isnt pointing properly, the front and rear arent talking, which I think is related to the decision to fudge qualifying... the traction control seems to be on longer and more violently than either Jag or Jordan

[DNQ]

Originally posted by True Believer
The Minardis should have been faster than they were... for goodness sakes they have Cossies now... and arguably were further behind the next team than Webber managed with the Asiatech last year.

But you must remember that -

• Arrows is gone.
• The Jag R3 was comparatively worse then the R4
• Toyota have made a big leap
• BAR are now much quicker

It's not a surprise. Jordan are the only serious competition for Minardi this year, I fear

[Peter Mallett]

Originally posted by AdamAshmore
Montoya is higher than I thought.

In truth he's where I would have expected. If not pole because his characteristics (to me) are still embedded in Cart with its one shot qualifying etc.

Good to see how close Button and JV are.

Trulli (the qualifying specialist) proved me right again.

Panis is looking good if he isn't running a light fuel load. Likewise the two Saubers.

Can Kimi change his tyre(s) before the race? When he went off the screen I got seriously worried.

And is Pizzonia really that slow?

[Kex]

I'm glad to see Frentzen up there in fourth place. And Wilson doesn't need to worry too much...Button started his first Grand Prix from the last row of the grid.

[MiniMe]

All these guys did really well!:
4. 10 FRENTZEN Sauber Petronas B 1'28"274 + 0'01"101 3
5. 20 PANIS Toyota M 1'28"288 + 0'01"115 3
6. 16 VILLENEUVE BAR Honda B 1'28"420 + 0'01"247 3
7. 9 HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas B 1'28"464 + 0'01"291 3
8. 17 BUTTON BAR Honda B 1'28"682 + 0'01"509 3

The Sauber's and BARf's did particularly well - but a really poor show by McLaren (declining rapidly) and I'm surprised that Renault have given up their usual fourth row.

[Peter Mallett]

How do these times compare with last year's race times?

[Red]

1:28.541s fastest lap last year. Not bad.

I forgot, the pole last year was 1:25.543