2009 Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix

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What happened to Kimi? I think channel 10 might have put in an ad-break while something happened.

Brilliant race by Brawn, and it was quite satisfying to see Hamilton finish so high after his qualifying issues, although it was a shame to see Kubica and Vettel crash so close to the end.

As for the penalties, I think 30 seconds may have been a bit excessive, same for Vettels fine and grid drop. If it was during proper racing I could understand, but you'd think that they could be a bit more lenient under the safety car.
 
Oh wow, the penny just dropped inside my head and reminded me they finished (effectively) under safety car. That makes a 25 second penalty so much worse! He's totally out of the points now.
 
So once again stewards are settling results after the race. That isn't what I call entertainment.
 
melbournian said:
Ouch. Not so much at the $50,000 fine, because fair enough, what Vettel did was probably dangerous, but the time penalty for Trulli and the 10 place grid drop seem slightly harsh. They could have just stripped Trulli of 3rd and left it at that.
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Grid drop is only for Vettel ( :( ), Trulli loses all his points though...but he gives them to Lewis, so it's OK :p
 
So a fantastic win for Jenson Button and Ross Brawn and really great to watch. It's such an incredible result considering all the off-track action over the winter and how at more than one point it didnt look as if they'd be racing come Melbourne. Not only that but to convert the car over from a Honda engine to a Mercedes power plant is a pretty awesome effort. It is still Honda's car, they were the ones who developed it over 2008 and they must've known they'd be strong in 2009, so to not be able to take any recognition for any of their involvement must be particularly galling. Even Richard Branson and the Brawn commercial team must've been slightly annoyed to see their two drivers on the podium in pure white overalls and not a Virgin logo to be seen. Hopefully their deal is significant enough to see proper branding in the coming races. Great race from that team and hopefully they'll continue to perform over the rest of the season.

Great result for Hamilton in third, I dont think he, or anyone at McLaren was expecting that. They got a bit lucky with all the happenings at the front of the field but it was a great disciplined drive from Hamilton who did exactly what was needed. Melbourne is always a crazy race so they needed this result as things probably wont be so good again for a while now. Of course, this is all still under appeal, so Hamilton may yet claim victory, although even I hope this wont be the case ;)

Toyota showed great speed to come from the pitlane to finish where they did. I think they have promise to be genuine contenders for race victories this season, especially with McLaren and Ferrari largely out of the way at the moment.

I'm surprised Barrichello's first corner fracas wasn't investigated. Last year we witnessed Hamilton get a penalty for almost taking out Raikkonen. Barrichello goes and whacks straight into the side of Webber and in addition, puts Heidfeld and Kovalainen out of the race. Also, they got it completely wrong with the safety car for Nakajima's accident. The field only really formed up behind it after the debris had been cleared and we were ready for racing again. Among all the changes for 2009, the stewards and race officials are still complete muppets.
 
I remember when Michael Schumacher drove his three-wheeled car through a flood in Spa at insane speeds. OK, just back to the pits, but it was half a lap. In my opinion, it was relatively safe for Vettel to continue on three wheels - after all, it was behind the safety car! Until the end of the race!
 
Red_Bull said:
I'm surprised Barrichello's first corner fracas wasn't investigated.
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So am I. He ended Webber's GP before the first corner. :(

Cold Fussion said:
Was anyone here watching the start of the race? Kova DROVE into barrichello, how in gods name is that barrichello's fault?
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Oh, is that what happened? I'll have to go and watch my recording again. It was a rather messy start.
 
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Right, I managed to wake up early enough to catch the last 20 or so laps. What a race. Button's win was just deserved, and the way he was just chatting to Barrichello at Parc Ferme was refreshingly different. They'll soon be rivals, but right now they remain as friends just like they have been for the past 3 years.

Lewis Hamilton... from 18th to 3rd speaks for itself really. Great champions always push the car out of their boundaries, we saw it with Alonso last year and it could be this season won't be so painful for him at all.

Vettel and Kubica...WTF?! That was an amateurish mistake. I could've handled it better than Kubica did, and that's saying something. (This is going by my experience of playing F1 games on the Playstation:p) Looking at the onboard footage, what happened was both drivers tried to hold their racing line expecting the other to give way, and it just didn't happen. Understandable driver error, I just expected someone, particularly of Kubica and Vettel's caliber, to see sense and let the other one through. Can't complain, it gave Lewis Hamilton some more points.:p

I'm going to watch the rerun now to catch up on everything I missed. F1 is back.:)
 
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THE REAL STIG said:
Grid drop is only for Vettel ( :( ), Trulli loses all his points though...but he gives them to Lewis, so it's OK :p
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Yeah, sorry I didn't word that more accurately, I'm really bummed by Vettel's penalty (as I guess he and RBR would be). Unfortunate for Trulli too, although a good result for Hamilton, and he did drive a very good race.
 
Just a thought, if and i mean if Brawn do get disqualified due to the appeal, will they get DQ'd from this race or does this result stand.

If not a win for Hamilton
 
The stewards declared the parts legal. There is absolutely no reason to disqualify them if they lose the appeal. The FIA's only option would be to cancel the results of the races before the appeal, which, of course, they won't risk doing.

So this win is a win and 10 points in the bag. And that's an end of it.
 
<--- my view of the penalties and of Ferrari's performance. At this rate it's going to be Brawns vs Kubica vs Vettel (and Webber) for the championship, with maybe a sprinkling of Ferrari if they stop being amateurs.
 
I feel like it's so cruel for Toyota. First they got dropped after qualifying, and now this.


This is a very long shot, but we may get another Brazilian vs Briton championship situation this year again - Barrichello vs Button. Ooooo now wouldn't that be awesome!
 
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Vettel admited that collision was his fault due to used tires.

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/090329114744.shtml

And one more about that:

In fact, the Sepang grid penalty was for his crash with BMW's Kubica with three laps to go
(...)
The $50,000 fine, meanwhile, was levied because Red Bull officials instructed the 21-year-old by radio to continue to race his three-wheeled car rather than pull it to the side of the Melbourne layout.
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http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/090329134226.shtml
 
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