2012 Australian Grand Prix

The 27-year-old F1 motor racer from Hertfordshire claimed pole position around the Albert Park street circuit in Melbourne this morning (Saturday).
Hamilton’s Vodafone McLaren Mercedes colleague Jenson Button was second quickest in Q3 to complete the team’s first front row lock-out since Hungary 2008.
While there were celebrations in the McLaren garage, there were glum faces in the Red Bull paddock after double world champion Sebastian Vettel could only qualify sixth behind Mark Webber, who will start from the third row in fifth spot.
Things were even worse for Ferrari, with both their drivers, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, failing to reach the top 10 shootout in qualifying.

Will Lewis Hamilton win the 2012 world title in the McLaren MP4-27?

Following the capitulation of both the Red Bull and the Ferrari cars, William Hill make Stevenage-born Hamilton the 11/10 favourite to win the Australian Grand Prix, with his team-mate Button second in the betting at 11/4.
Vettel has gone from being the 11/8 favourite for the race to 8/1, while Michael Schumacher, fourth on the grid, could get his first podium finish since returning to F1.
The German Mercedes driver is 12/1 for first place and 2/1 for a spot in the top three.
Romain Grosjean qualified third for Lotus ahead of Schumacher.

Hamilton is 8/13 to beat his team-mate, while Button is 6/5 to finish ahead of Lewis.
If Vettel’s drift in the race odds has been alarming, then his drift in the Drivers’ Championship has been more so.
At one point 5/6 before the season had even started, Vettel is now 9/4 second favourite, with Hamilton 2/1 and Button, in from 8/1 to 3/1 third favourite.
“Sebastian Vettel has been so well fancied and that is highlighted by the fact that he was odds on before a wheel had been turned in anger.

 

Lewis Hamilton in Melbourne [Picture: Vodafone McLaren Mercedes]

 

“That the Red Bulls were so far off the pace indicates that this season could be the closest yet,” said Hill’s spokesman Joe Crilly.
The poor Australian GP qualifying for Red Bull has also seen them overtaken for the Constructors’ Championship, with McLaren 8/11 and Red Bull 2/1.
Mercedes GP are in third for the first time at 5/1 with Ferrari out to 20/1.
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F1 Australian Grand Prix

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Ferrari doubtful of a podium finish in Australia 

Ferrari technical boss Pat Fry has conceded that the team are unlikely to finish on the podium at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix later this month. After wrapping up the final winter test in Barcelona on Sunday, Fry admitted the new F2012 had failed to meet expectations and that they must work very hard back in Maranello to extract more performance from the car before it’s too late.

“In the hunt for the podium in Melbourne? At the moment I’d say no,” Fry told Ferrari’s official website. “We are disappointed with the performance level seen at these tests and I think we have a lot of work ahead of us.

“In testing, you can only make assumptions regarding what fuel loads the other cars are running and it will only be in Melbourne that we will get a clear answer as to whether we have to be very disappointed or just a little, how far we really are off the front runners and consequently how much ground we have to make up to get there.”

Drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa have laboured at the three pre-season tests to find a consistent level of performance from the F2012, but have topped the timesheets just once. With the new car full of radical solutions, including innovative front pull-rod suspension, both have found it a difficult charge to master.

Midway through testing Ferrari also introduced a new exhaust position to boost rear downforce but, according to Fry, the solution appears to have hindered rather than helped progress.

“Clearly the decision relating to the exhausts that we took last week meant we took a few steps backwards in terms of development,” Fry continued. “How much? Difficult to say right now. We have been working on the current configuration for really just two weeks. We found a bit of performance but there’s no doubt that the original solution is the one that gives the most.

“I think we can claw back, at best, at least 25 percent of the downforce we had last year, even if we need to see what that costs us in fuel consumption and corner turn-in stability. At the moment it’s still causing us problems, but it’s the most obvious way to try and improve performance and increase aerodynamic downforce. We will continue to work on it, as indeed will all the others.”

With just 10 days to go before the Australian race weekend gets underway, Ferrari have returned to their Maranello factory to continue work. But with their rivals doing just the same, Fry doesn’t hold out much hope of noticeable improvement before Melbourne and is instead waiting for May’s multi-team test at Mugello - four races into the season - to enact greater change.

“We must improve in general the level of aerodynamic downforce on the car, but we are well aware that the pace of development is more or less the same for everyone,” he concluded. “We will have a few updates for Melbourne, basically aimed at readapting the car to the exhaust configuration we have chosen to run for at least the first four races of the season. (But) the Mugello test will be useful to try new parts, because it is always difficult to introduce major developments during a race weekend.”

The 2012 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix takes place on March 16-18.