- Formula 1 - Season 2009 -

[genius83]

The weights are declared by FIA.

[highlight]Pos Driver       Team                  Weight (kg)[/highlight]
 1. Trulli       Toyota                 648.5
 2. Glock        Toyota                 643.0
 3. Vettel       Red Bull-Renault       659.0
 4. Button       Brawn-Mercedes         652.5
 5. Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes       652.5
 6. Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes         649.0
 7. Alonso       Renault                650.5
 8. Massa        Ferrari                664.5
 9. Rosberg      Williams-Toyota        670.5
10. Raikkonen    Ferrari                671.5
11. Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes       678.5
12. Nakajima     Williams-Toyota        680.9
13. Kubica       BMW-Sauber             698.6
14. Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber             696.3
15. Piquet       Renault                677.6
16. Sutil        Force India-Mercedes   679.0
17. Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari     678.5
18. Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes   652.0
19. Webber       Red Bull-Renault       656.0
20. Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     667.5

[genius83]

@UK

Toyota's are really lighter then any other team but Vettel is not that light even Button and Barrichello are lighter then Vettel. Hamilton and Alonso are also lighter then Vettel while Massa and Rosberg are heavy and Kimi is the heaviest in Q3. Now for the declared weights of the remaining 10 drivers Heiki and Nakajima are heavy but both BMW's are joking or what. Piquet, Sutil, Buemi are heavy while Fisichella and Webber are lighter and Bourdais is heavy.

[SLR]

Kubica and Heidfield on a one-stop gamble.Vettel,Button and Hamilton will have a tough race.

[genius83]

@SLR

One stop gamble is not possible in these weather condiions, becuase for doing one stop they have to come in around more then 70% of race completion and so they could use the supersoft tyres easily otherwise they end up outside the points. My guess is they are doing 1 long stint from the start may be upto 35 laps then a short stint of 10 laps for supersoft in the end again on medium to go to finish. As for Vettel if Toyota's don't have any trouble he will be on podium but if any of them having trouble he will be winning the race. Button really have to do well so he could make most out of tis weekend.

[UncleKracker]

Trulli has smoked everyone with his qualifying lap. Fuel corrected his lap is two tenths quicker than Vettel and a second faster than team mate Glock.

The battle at the front for the race win will be between the two Toyota drivers, Vettel and Button, but Button need a few things to go for him before he can think of winning the race. He needs to be ahead of the KERS running cars of Hamilton and Alonso, as all three are expected to stop on pretty much the same lap.

Unlike other races, this time around the super softs are the tyre of choice and everyone should be starting on those and continuing with them after their first stops. Heidfeld is running to something like lap 30-31 during his first stint and that should pretty much be a one stop strategy.

[RedBull_ar]

all the best to barri

[raptor21]

Yes, Toyotas were light. i think everybody guessed that right and they will fall back. the fight will be b/w Vettel, Trulli and Button. would be interesting to see what kind of a role Kimi's heavier car would play during the race. i think Ferrari's are still quite a bit off the pace so should not pose any real threats.

Alonso is back on KERS and could do an upset right at the start.

All in a all it was a good qualifying. What was Sutil thinking? or may be he wasn't. he totally wrecked Webber's qualifing lap and i can imagine Webber would be pretty pissed off. he definitely missed on a very good opportunity. i hope he makes up for it during the race.

[genius83]

@raptor21

Sutil becomes the first driver to wreck 2 flying laps of another driver in one corner although he appoligised but I think he should sent back to the end of the grid i.e a 5 place penalty should be imposed.

[mehrozniazi1]

well its was a long run track..yet curse didt worked for the ferrari

seems like they r off the pace as raptor said

m surprised to see toyota on top.....

what ever if they r light...but yet they did a great job

[genius83]

Atlast Ferrari get their first points this season. Toyotas prove they are the show boys while Brawn and Button are the showstealers. Good drive by Vettel too. Hamilton also drive well.

Ferrari clarifies Schumacher's role

Ferrari Chairman Luca di Montezemolo has clarified Michael Schumacher's role with the marque's Formula 1 team, saying that the seven-time world champion continues to be involved as a consultant.

'McLaren could run into sponsorship trouble'

Martin Whitmarsh has conceded that McLaren could run into problems with their engine partner and sponsors if they are hit with a huge penalty at next week's WMSC hearing.

Montezemolo blames rules for poor start

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has blamed bad rules and complacency at his team for the Scuderia's disastrous start to the season.

Bridgestone to introduce softer inter

Bridgestone will introduce a new softer compound intermediate tyre from the Monaco Grand Prix onwards.

[mehrozniazi1]

@genius

yea mate...3 points and they will be happy...but yet again they acted like pros in massa stratagies

tyota they do have the pace when low on fuel..on long drive again they lose

M thinking just....who is gona take BRown gp down

[mehrozniazi1]

and the vettle ..OMG

he is driving perfectly

[genius83]

@rozzz

I don't think Brawn is that easy to bring down even if we assume that RedBull could be able to design a perfect Brawn type diffuser they can't test that before using it in any GP. Although there are rumours that Ferrari design diffuser is giving them a whole second advantage in qualifying and 0.3 of a sec advantage in race situation but these are simulation values and we can't tell whether they are that good or not.

[SLR]

By watching onboard vids of both Brawn and McLaren i noticed that the McLaren sounded like it was tired whereas Brawn sounded a bit hardcore than the McLaren.Engine sound can make a difference too.

[UncleKracker]

First "normal" race of the season and it became pretty processional after the first half, and first round of pitstops. Brawn GP is still the quickest car out there, and Jenson Button is doing all that needs, and is expected from a team leader, making the best of the early form of his team. The pass he put on Hamilton at the start sums it all up for me. It's that kind of aggression which one needs when fighting for the world championship. Had he been stuck behind Hamilton, he would still have emerged ahead of the two Toyotas after their second stops, but he did not wait for that and settled the race early on. I am baffled by what Ross Brawn did with Rubens, who was sitting comfortably behind Trulli, Vettel and the Hamilton battle with more fuel than all of them except Vettel, and Rubens would easily have passed Trulli and Hamilton during the pitstops, but Brawn fueled him and expected him to get in clear air and even pass Vettel after their last round of pitstops. Third place was there for the taking, but Brawn wanted a 1-2 i think instead of a 1-3.

It's now to Barcelona, where most teams will have their diffusers, some like BMW will have a new chassis and things might be different. We '' see if it's only the diffuser which makes Brawn GP so fast, I suspect not. I am not so sure it's as simple as putting a DD diffuser on the Red Bull, and it will instantly be quicker. They have the most difficult job to do, given their pull rod rear suspension and it might not work well as most people expect it. Having said that, Adrian Newey can never be underestimated and if anyone can make it work, it's him. Vettel is a very good driver, a champion of the future or maybe even this year, but he has an exceptional car underneath him. His team mate, Webber, though not from the same chip, is running very close to him when not impeded in qualifying. This a guy who missed most of winter testing because of a broken leg.

I am a little surprised by all this talk of Piquet Jr being under pressure. He must be, but can he be under more pressure than Nakajima? That guy hasn't finished a race as yet if i am not mistaken. Jr drove a good race today and it should go some way in keeping his drive for a few more races.

[zia1288]

In next GP all other cars will have the diffusers?

[nightsurfer]

I am just glad to see a Ferrari finishing in the points.

From now onwards it will be just a matter of salvaging the pride lost. Of course, Button has a huge advantage and to be honest, he is a fantastically smooth driver. I never had a question in my mind about his abilities. He must be having the time of his life in the dream car every driver wanted to be in.

It would take a team sheer domination for a good number of races to catch up with the Brawns. Even RB is far away. I must also congratulate Trulli who had another strong race.

As for Massa goes, I think, times like these will only show what he actually is made of. Ferrari are bound to go back to the winning ways one day, Massa now just has to make sure he is there the next time Ferrari gave them a quick car.

[raptor21]

All in all a very good race. The results were as expected. I thought Hamilton would give Trulli a fight for the third spot on the podium but his car didnt have the pace. Barichello's three pit stop strategy was a surprise and Kimmi did well to score Ferrari's first points for the season, for a moment i thought that it wouldn't happen in this race especially after some aggressive racing b/w kimmi and glock.

I think Brawn's still have the pace but it wont be for long. As Button confessed himself, they would be doing upgrades before Barcelona to keep up. they had to fight for this one and that made it exciting. As the European leg of the season starts Brawn will be challenged by Red Bull, McLaren and Renault. i expect Toyota and William's to fall back. While it would be very interesting to see what BMW comes up with, i hope its something good to prove that they haven't been sleeping the entire winter testing season.

[raptor21]

Now abt the liar gate scandal. i expect McLaren to be dissqualified from scoring any points this F1 season and expect Hamilton to face a two to four race ban. i think this should be enough.

The point is to punish the team to teach them a lesson not to kill the team for ever. Anything more than this would be considerd unfair in my opinion.

[genius83]

@raptor21

I was thinking banning for 2 races for both Hamilton and Mclaren is enough but the rules are simple they have breach a code which could led them to be ban from the whole season. And if they disqualified them from scoring points in any further races this season means they are making it a joke just like the Spy-Gate Scandal where they disqualify them from scoring points as a team but not stop them using the cars that are being design using some other team's designs.

@UK

I have 2 question to ask

1) What happens to qualifying system if WMSC bans McLaren from 2 races, Does this remains the same like we are following now that is 5 cars in Q1, 5 cars in Q2 the last 8 cars in Q3 or changes to 4 cars in Q1, 4 cars in Q2 and 10 cars in Q3.

2) Although it is a serious question but most likely your answer make it a joke. We call those teams sandbagging who don't show their true pace during pre-season testing but came out on top during races. My question is what we call those teams who are showing their true pace during pre-season testing but can't show the same during races.