1. Jenson Button Britain Brawn-Mercedes 1m 26.202s
2. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Brawn-Mercedes 1m 26.505s
3. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 1m 26.830s
4. Robert Kubica Poland BMW Sauber 1m 26.914s
5. Nico Rosberg Germany Williams-Toyota 1m 26.973s
6. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 27.033s
7. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 27.163s
8. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 1m 27.246s
9. Nick Heidfeld Germany BMW Sauber 1m 25.504s
10. Fernando Alonso Spain Renault-Renault 1m 25.605s
11. Kazuki Nakajima Japan Williams-Toyota 1m 25.607s
12. Heikki Kovalainen Finland McLaren-Mercedes 1m 25.726s
13. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 26.503s
14. Nelson Piquet Jr Brazil Renault-Renault 1m 26.598s
15. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Force India-Mercedes 1m 26.677s
16. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes 1m 26.742s
17. Sebastien Bourdais France Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 26.964s
18. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes no time Q2*
19. Timo Glock Germany Toyota-Toyota 1m 26.975s**
20. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota-Toyota 1m 27.127s**

all times unofficial

* denotes driver penalised five places for gearbox change; ** denotes driver with times deleted for technical infringement

Weightings:
1. Jenson Button 664.5kg
2. Rubens Barrichello 666.5kg
3. Sebastien Vettel 657kg
4. Robert Kubica 650kg
5. Nico Rosberg 657kg
6. Felipe Massa 654kg
7. Kimi Raikkonen 655.5kg
8. Mark Webber 662kg
9. Nick Heidfeld 691.5kg
10. Fernando Alonso 680.7kg
11. Kazuki Nakajima 680.5kg 
12. Heikki Kovalainen 690.6kg
13. Sebastien Buemi 675.5kg
14. Nelson Piquet 694.1kg
15. Giancarlo Fisichella 689kg
16. Adrian Sutil 684.5kg
17. Sebastien Bourdais 662.5kg
18. Lewis Hamilton 655kg
19. Jarno Trulli 660kg
20. Timo Glock 670kg

Full results, sector times, speed trap  here

Australian GP 26th-29th March 2009 - Friday Ferrari Press Release

The first two sessions of free practice for the Australian Grand Prix confirmed that the rule changes introduced this year have jumbled up the pack. “One cannot really draw hasty conclusions after just three hours of free practice, but the first signs seem to support what we saw during winter testing,” commented Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Team Principal, Stefano Domenicali. “The pecking order that had established itself in recent years seems to have been overturned and we now find ourselves up against different and more numerous rivals. We did a lot of kilometres, pretty much completing the planned programme and now we have to carefully study all the data gathered. The most important data that catches the eye today concerns tyre management, which this year as never before, seems rather delicate: the softer tyres seem to degrade considerably over a distance, while the harder ones suffer from a lack of grip. We knew this to be the case and we have to concentrate on this problem and on how to improve the overall performance of the F60.”

Felipe Massa:
“We are more or less okay with the set up, although there is still room to improve the performance. I was not able to do a time on the soft tyres in the second session as I made a mistake because of oversteer: in this phase we had a different balance on the car compared to when we had used the hard tyres, which proved not to be the ideal choice. On top of that, towards the end of the session, the wind got up a bit, which definitely did not help. Tomorrow, with everyone on the same fuel load, we will see what the situation is.”

Kimi Raikkonen:
“This morning, the car went well, while in the afternoon, we didn’t manage to find a satisfactory set up, even though we tried various solutions. I think there is every chance we can improve our performance, but I can’t say by how much compared to the others. Today, it’s difficult to say where we are compared to them and we will see after tomorrow’s qualifying.”

Luca Baldisserri:
“The first Friday of the season always throws up some surprises and that is even more than usual the case this year, given the numerous rule changes. Today, we did a lot of running and had no technical problems: reliability will be one of the dominant themes of the championship and it will be vital to try and pick up points every time. In these three hours of free practice, we saw that our performance over a long run seems to be very consistent but we have to see how to improve outright performance for tomorrow’s qualifying.”

Unsurprisingly the story of the day was the superior speed of the Williams, Brawn and Toyota teams which are all running the controversial diffuser (that was cleared by the stewards after hours of deliberation yesterday but still under appeal).

Perhaps the only surprise was that it was the Williams’ of Rosberg and not one of the two Brawn GP drivers that topped the timesheet in Free Practice 1 and 2. Williams seemed to have the upper hand with Nakajima also running strong in both sessions. Even more scarily for their rivals though, was the fact that both cars set their times on the harder of the two new slick compounds which Bridgestone has made available to the teams in Australia. 

Kimi Raikkonen who was one of the first cars to hit the track for a timed lap this season and finished third fastest for Ferrari in session 1. He had dominated the top slot for much of the 90 minutes. Unfortunately with the cooler track temperatures due to the later start time, session two was a different story with Kimi struggling to make it to 11th and running of the circuit more than once. It looks like the 2007 champion may have a lot of work to do to make it through to Q3 tomorrow.

Frustratingly for the fans (both at the circuit and those who were up in the early hours to watch ) it was a very quiet start  with almost no running at all in the first 30 minutes of opening practice, apart the initial installation laps and some needed running for this year’s sole rookie Sebastien Buemi. Session Two provided more action but it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the season.

Sadly it will be the FIA’s new engine rules to blame , with the drivers only able to use eight engines during this season’s 17 events, that now includes Fridays sessions. The teams must focus on conserving these engines so as to not fall fowl of this rule and receive any hefty 10 place grid plenatlies. 

Many of the drivers had moments during these practice sessions (including Alonso, Massa, Raikkonen & Hamilton), as they struggled to match the pace of the seemingly new order of top teams (Williams, Toyota & Brawn GP).

The only real incidents  however where a puncture for Nakajima in FP1 , while Red Bull’s  Vettel stopped early-on on-track with a hydraulic problem in FP1 and then spun in FP2  after putting a wheel on the grass whilst braking for Turn 4. 

Free Practice One Times

Pos  Driver       Team                      Time              Laps
 1.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B) 1:26.687           19
 2.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B) 1:26.736 + 0.049   21
 3.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B) 1:26.750 + 0.063   24
 4.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B) 1:27.226 + 0.539   21
 5.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B) 1:27.453 + 0.766   15
 6.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B) 1:27.467 + 0.780   12
 7.  Massa        Ferrari               (B) 1:27.642 + 0.955   24
 8.  Glock        Toyota                (B) 1:27.710 + 1.023   24
 9.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B) 1:27.993 + 1.306   20
10.  Alonso       Renault               (B) 1:28.123 + 1.436   16
11.  Heidfeld     BMW Sauber            (B) 1:28.137 + 1.450   20
12.  Trulli       Toyota                (B) 1:28.142 + 1.455   21
13.  Kubica       BMW Sauber            (B) 1:28.511 + 1.824   22
14.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B) 1:28.603 + 1.916   16
15.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B) 1:28.785 + 2.098   27
16.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B) 1:29.042 + 2.355   18
17.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B) 1:29.081 + 2.394    7
18.  Piquet       Renault               (B) 1:29.461 + 2.774   25
19.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B) 1:29.499 + 2.812   21
20.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B) 1:32.784 + 6.097    4

Free Practice Two Times

Pos  Driver       Team                       Time              Laps
 1.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:26.053            36
 2.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:26.157  + 0.104   38
 3.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:26.350  + 0.297   42
 4.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:26.370  + 0.317   30
 5.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:26.374  + 0.321   38
 6.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:26.443  + 0.390   42
 7.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:26.560  + 0.507   33
 8.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:26.740  + 0.687   19
 9.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:27.040  + 0.987   29
10.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:27.064  + 1.011   35
11.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:27.204  + 1.151   32
12.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:27.232  + 1.179   28
13.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:27.282  + 1.229   32
14.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:27.317  + 1.264   34
15.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:27.398  + 1.345   36
16.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:27.479  + 1.426   36
17.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:27.802  + 1.749   35
18.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:27.813  + 1.760   31
19.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:27.828  + 1.775   35
20.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:28.076  + 2.023   33

All timing unofficial

Jemela Coventry - GoKimi Team

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Protest lodged over Brawn, Toyota and Williams diffusers

The much-talked-about diffuser designs on the Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams cars have become the subject of an offical protest from rivals in Melbourne, after they cleared Thursday scrutineering with the Albert Park stewards.

All three teams are believed to have found a loophole in the regulations which allows them to run a taller diffuser. However, four fellow teams - BMW Sauber, Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault - have objected, questioning the legality of the designs.

The stewards must now decide whether to allow the cars in question to race in their current form. However, should there be any appeal over that decision, it would come down to the FIA to determine the diffusers’ legality, possibly at a later date.

Source - F1.com

The wait is finally over as the long winter months draw to an end, and we’re heading back to the sun of Australia as the world gears up in anticipation for the 2009 Formula 1 season. The off-season mayhem, along with the new regulations, means that we should be in for a very exciting season – but what can we expect from the first race?

This year sees the return of slick tyres, as well as a huge reduction in the amount of aerodynamic parts allowed - meaning we should see F1 go back to its roots with nail-biting overtaking manoeuvres – hopefully spelling an end to the ‘overtaking fear’ shown at the end of last season. But the biggest question of all is who will adapt to the changes best? The Melbourne GP could spell boom or bust for this year’s line-up, as an in-season testing ban will halt those slow out of the blocks and benefit those capable of charging for victory.

BMW may be an obvious tip for the win with competitive testing times, a car that’s been in development from mid 2008 and a true title contender in the shape of Robert Kubica. However, the introduction of KERS could play a key role; will BMW’s keen development be a help or a hindrance? Will the weight play into the hands of tiny Heidfeld, or disadvantage the larger Kubica? How many of the teams will actually run the KERS system? It may be compulsory in 2010, but the short development time and high risks are putting teams off already.

These radical changes, however, may not be playing into the hands of McLaren. The new aero packages in particular could prove a problem for McLaren and reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton – whose get out of jail free cards may have (hopefully!) run out. With much of their winter spent fiddling with the rear wing and seeing the MP4-24 covered in luminous green paint, unconvincing testing times and various pessimistic team reports would suggest the Woking-based team are lacking in pace. Despite this, Heikki Kovalainen insists there’s nothing to worry about – here’s hoping 2009 will see the Finn showing the speed we all know he has.

Kovalainen is of course not the only Finn we’re hoping does well – Kimi Raikkonen has shown competitive times and is insisting he’s ready for the fight, despite Ferrari’s lack of development time due to 2008’s close title chase. Last season showed a return of the Iceman’s bad luck, sparking more suspicions of his disinterest – but Raikkonen has praised the F60 and we look forward to seeing the Iceman diminishing the critics’ repetitive and brainless remarks once again.

One team who have certainly diminished any criticism is Brawn GP – the rescued Honda team who, with almost zero testing time, have left the F1 world flabbergasted by consistently topping the time sheets with last year’s drivers, Barrichello and Button. Rumour has is that Brawn GP have been artificially quick, running underweight cars, but the team insist their pace is genuine – only time will tell whether they’ll be this year’s shock contenders.

The mid field is certainly shaping up to be an interesting battle. Red Bull see the return of Mark Webber after an off-season injury, along side the up and coming Vettel – a sure front runner of the future. Renault showed elements of getting back to their best in 2008, with Fernando Alonso scoring more points than anyone during the tail the end of the season. Yet it remains to be seen whether Piquet can prove himself as more than a liability. The same could be said for Williams’ Nakajima – who’s teammate, Rosberg, often threatens a breakthrough, but is yet to show whether he has the talent to do more than just threaten. Torro Rosso were without doubt threatening last year, but will ‘the Sebastiens’ be able to cause more upsets than just confusing the commentators? Toyota could cause a few upsets too – the strong team line up is steadily progressing forward .Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Force India; who may show the odd glimmer of hope, but seem unable to hold onto it. That being said, Melbourne’s first corner might be a white-knuckle ride!

This may all shape up to a close-knit season – thank god the new points system has been abolished as quick as it arrived! That is until next year – hopefully by then the teams will have kicked some sense into the madmen who came up with the ‘winner takes all’ idea. However, not all the new rules are so bad. Plans to make F1 drivers more accessible to fans include compulsory interviews after a driver retires from a race – that could provide some controversial moments from our favourite Finn if bad luck strikes!

Needless to say, Melbourne should not be a disappointment – that first win is crucial. A possibility for all teams to shock and surprise, first corner battles, full on overtaking and comical interviews - fingers crossed, at least!

Sarah Peacock
(Gokimi forum member - kimi_the_icesnail)

Bridgestone starts a new era in Formula One as slick tyres return to Grand Prix racing for the first time in over eleven years when round one of the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship gets under way with the ING Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park on March 29.

Bridgestone Potenza slick tyres are just one of the new aspects on the radically overhauled Formula One cars which will line up for the first race of the season, as the latest aerodynamic regulations - designed to reduce downforce - mean that the cars look very different from their counterparts of twelve months ago.

Slick tyres require a new method of marking to designate between compounds, as the previous method of painting one of the grooves with a white line no longer applies. Bridgestone has used the opportunity of launching a new system to show its continued support for the FIA’s Make Cars Green campaign, by marking the softer of the two dry compounds available for each race with green sidewall markings. The now renamed ‘wet’ tyre (formerly ‘extreme’ tyre) will also feature a green line in a central groove.

As before, two compounds of tyre will be available for every grand prix, with the requirement that both are used in the race. In a change from the previous allocation philosophy employed for the past two seasons, Bridgestone will now bring non-consecutive allocations to most events. For this grand prix the medium and super soft tyres have been selected from the range of hard, medium, soft and super soft.

Albert Park is traditionally a challenging venue. In addition to the notoriously variable Melbourne weather, the track surface changes significantly over the course of the race meeting as it is only used for motorsport once a year. The track features 16 turns over its 5.30 km and is a compromise circuit in its layout with low downforce desired down the straights, but higher downforce requirements through the turns. High lateral forces mean high levels of energy and heat are dispersed through the tyres.

Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development:
What are the significant changes for 2009 from Bridgestone’s perspective?
“The move to slick tyres is significant, although Bridgestone have a lot of experience with these tyres from many different race series so we are confident that we can produce good racing slicks. We are making these tyres to the same sizes as we had with grooved tyres, but this means there is a new front/rear grip balance. The teams will therefore have to work hard to get a good set-up, particularly with the varying surface of Albert Park, and we will be working closely with everyone to achieve this.”

How big a challenge will it be for competitors having a non-consecutive allocation?
“I think it has the potential to be a big challenge. We received many requests last season to make the difference between the two compounds greater, so we have attempted to do this by not only having a different compound stiffness, but also varying the temperature working range of the tyres. We have sought to allocate one tyre which has a lower working range and one which has a higher working range. This means that, even more than before, competitors will have to think long and hard about how they use their tyres, and there will be good rewards for those who make the best choices.”

Additional Information

Tyre compounds for the 2009 season:
ING Australian Grand Prix (Melbourne):  Super Soft, Medium
Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix (Sepang):   Soft, Hard
Chinese Grand Prix (Shanghai): Super Soft, Medium
Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix (Sakhir): Super Soft, Medium
Gran Premio de España Telefónica (Barcelona): Soft, Hard

Source - Bridgestone Motorsport

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Raikkonen: “Countercheck at Melbourne”

I enjoyed this winter break even more than usual. I spent most of the time with my family and friends in Switzerland and in Finland. Most of all I have also been training very hard and keeping myself fit in different way for the start of the most challenging F1 season.

This is a very difficult season to start making predictions, because of the massive change in rules this year. However, Ferrari has been competitive in testing, but the real test for the new F60 will be in Melbourne, when we are all back on the track at the same time with the same fuel load.

Only then we will truly find out just how competitive we are. More or less we need some more races to get a better picture. Albert Park is a special circuit and a special place, so, probably, it will take until Malaysia to find out which teams are really ahead of others in the beginning of this campaign.

Like always it feels great to start a new season. To put my helmet on and to start to race is something we are here for. The amount of testing has been restricted, but it has been fun, as always, to work with a brand new car.

I am really looking forward to the new season and to start racing again. It seems like a long time ago since the last race in Brazil. With the new cars it’s going to be very interesting with all that development and changes.

When you’re doing well it’s even more fun. But so far we haven’t done any races. It such a challenge to go to the first race and start the season properly. Hopefully things will go the way we hope for this year.

The new car has much less downforce compared to last year so it is slower in the fast corners. But the car has more grip in the slower corners with the slick tyres. Overall the lap time is similar to last year. Honestly I can say that I like the new car more than the car we had last year. This is more fun to drive. It’s more like the racing car used to be some years ago.

The KERS systems is very interesting. It’s very easy for a driver to use. Hopefully it will help with the overtaking. The whole team were positively surprised that the KERS systems seemed to be working well from the first test.

Everybody expects to see more overtaking. I think it’s too early to say, if the aerodynamic change will help, while following another car close behind. We have to wait and see what happens.

For the driver and for the team it’s always nice to start well. Especially if you look, how close the drivers’ championship has been in the last two years. I won the 2007 championship by one point and the drivers championship was decided by one point last year, too.

So every point counts. In 2007 I won in Melbourne, but last year we had too many problems. The target is again to start to score good points since race one.

During the winter break I competed in two rallies in Finland with Fiat Grande Punto S2000. It was also a great fun and good practise for racing. But now it’s time for the serious business of F1.

Source - Kimi’s Official Site News Section - where it is also available in Finnish.

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1 Lewis HAMILTON (GB) VODAFONE McLAREN MERCEDES McLAREN MERCEDES
2 Heikki KOVALAINEN (FIN) VODAFONE McLAREN MERCEDES McLAREN MERCEDES

3 Felipe MASSA (BRA) * SCUDERIA FERRARI MARLBORO FERRARI
4 Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (FIN) * SCUDERIA FERRARI MARLBORO FERRARI

5 Robert KUBICA (PL) BMW SAUBER F1 TEAM BMW SAUBER
6 Nick HEIDFELD (D) BMW SAUBER F1 TEAM BMW SAUBER

7 Fernando ALONSO (E) ING RENAULT F1 TEAM RENAULT
8 Nelson PIQUET (BR) ING RENAULT F1 TEAM RENAULT

9 Jarno TRULLI (I) PANASONIC TOYOTA RACING TOYOTA
10 Timo GLOCK (D) PANASONIC TOYOTA RACING TOYOTA

11 Sébastien BOURDAIS (F) * SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO STR FERRARI
12 Sébastien BUEMI (CH) * SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO STR FERRARI

14 Mark WEBBER (AUS) RED BULL RACING RBR RENAULT
15 Sebastian VETTEL (D) RED BULL RACING RBR RENAULT

16 Nico ROSBERG (D) AT&T WILLIAMS WILLIAMS TOYOTA
17 Kazuki NAKAJIMA (J) AT&T WILLIAMS WILLIAMS TOYOTA

18 Adrian SUTIL (D) FORCE INDIA F1 TEAM FORCE INDIA MERCEDES
19 Giancarlo FISICHELLA (I) FORCE INDIA F1 TEAM FORCE INDIA MERCEDES

20 Jenson BUTTON (GB) BRAWN GP FORMULA ONE TEAM BRAWN MERCEDES
21 Rubens BARRICHELLO (BR) BRAWN GP FORMULA ONE TEAM BRAWN MERCEDES

* Driver number change requested by the team and approved by the FIA.

Source - FIA