10:30pm (syd time and forum time) not sure what time it is on up there in QLD.

Schuy is on pole, what a rager

should be good, discuss

ohdear @ kimis wipeout! great start to the year

new qualifying is interesting
great to see 22 cars in the field for the first time in years

what engine config are they using this year?

V8s

except for one team which is using V10 rev restricted i believe

I watched qualifying last night, its pretty cool...

I seriously predict that Ferarri are running light, and maybe even Honda.

As always, I will be willing Webber on... Qualified in 7th I believe.

yep, hope webber goes well

if schuy wins the title this year I'd say he'll retire

10:29 I will be afk okay?

I reckon Schumi could win this one, although it's a close call. I think the test Ferrari did there has paid off. Ferrari might be a few laps lighter but my guess is the top four are on pretty similar strategies. I didn't expect Massa to be up there and it'll be interesting to see if he can keep up with Michael during the race, given that he has reputation for never taking the same line through a corner twice. Bad luck for Alonso with his mistake in qualifying. It'll be a nice fight with Button and him during the early stages of the race.

Webber looks like he has a fair bit of fuel onboard so I hope he can steer clear of any carnage in the first two corners. I think the Bridgestones will be reasonably consistent if the temperatures stay as they are so with any luck, he might bag some points.

It's gonna be very interesting to see how Squadra (Scuderia) Toro Rosso do this round. I'm crossing my fingers Scott Speed is up there, but it's very likely Vitantonio will be. My understanding is they backed off bigtime in practice 1+2, not even realising how quick the car was, and got a huge shock.

Bets are Massa is on a lighter fuel load than Schumi, but it's still quite an impressive jump from the results he was getting at Sauber. Barrichello surprised me too, I expected him to be much further up there. Big shocks for me are Williams and BMW - BMW splitting their old partners. But after preseason testing, I was expecting Webber to be further up (though Nico has always been down the field). With Toyota having just fallen somehow, I'm wondering if BMW will rise to the level Toyota were at last year very quickly.

Renault and McLaren were surprisingly quiet, I have to say. Expect the first grenades this race to be Red Bull Ferraris and the Super Aguri Hondas.

Australian telecast times in local timezones:

Race
» Melbourne 10:30PM
» Sydney 10.30PM
» Brisbane 10.30PM
» Adelaide 10.30PM
» Perth 10.30PM
» Darwin 10.40PM
» Hobart 10.30PM

Enjoy.

here is a lap of fridays practice session, onboard camera you can hear the seamless gearbox - williams cosworth
hypertext.

heh - ex minardi owner paul stoddart's ozjet has gone belly up

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=61982

well the cricket is over, may as well watch the F1

haha yeah I know spidz

talk about rubbing it into SA, they'll regret all the talk now...

Lee to take 6-25 :)

oier just reading news.com.au and found this

http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,18440470-23210,00.html

looks like ron dennis and kimmi raikonnen don't see eye to eye

alonso in the lead now!

250hp less than last year... gayness, their still fast.

last edited by eighty-eight at 23:59:29 12/Mar/06

does anyone have pics of the car thats painted chrome?

yes

http://www.mclaren.com/interactive/wallpaper/MP4-21_1024_1.jpg
http://www.mclaren.com/interactive/wallpaper/MP4-21_1024_2.jpg
http://www.mclaren.com/interactive/wallpaper/MP4-21_1024_3.jpg

awesome.. much 8> ek

Anyone whos got Foxtel and has interest in f1 should have a look at 'A road to le mans', interesting indepth look at the behind the scenes work it takes to get a machine race ready... (plus they're pretty much F1 cars with covers over the wheels so the technology is pretty much the same), test days, talks with drivers and co drivers, engineers etc..

Thursday evenings 7:30 i think plus usually replayed all the time anyway as is the case with most fox things :p

Great race... well maybe it's just that it's been a while since the last race, but it didn't hurt that there was a lot of action and passing. I think the fact that cars are doing quick laps out of the pits (due to the new tyres) depite the heavy fuel load, means it's harder to wait for the pit stops to pass a car and we might see more on-track passing than the last few years which will be great.

alonso comin out of his second stop to nudge mike out of that first corner was superb.

also, that mclaren does look unreal.

I think its all on for Williams, Rossberg (sp) set two fastest laps, and they finished 6/7th so I'm looking forward to a big season from MW already omg.

I cried like a little bitch when the renault came out like half a cars length in front of the fezza.. cried myself to sleep.

How can you people enjoy this sport? It's just cars following each other round the track untill a few of them crash. The overtakes (if they happen at all) are boring and tedious.

its better than watching guys run and hit eachother repetadly(sp).

Lets see, what other form of racing do we have to watch?

Indy? Lets face it, you only watch it for the chicks, definately not the american propoganda.

Rally? Spose its cool watching no overtaking at all...

V8s? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

...

oh... your serious?

Moto GP? If watching faget italians on cock rockets win every race by about 20 laps is your thing...

Drag racing? Now theres a sport which requires zero driver skills

Admitingly, F1 can get frustrating to watch, because of the little to no overtaking, its all about race strategy that wins most races. There was s*** loads of overtaking and 'dueling' going on last night, it was awesome.

last edited by casa at 14:18:46 13/Mar/06

Cricket is better than F1

Moto GP > F1. Watching Alonso and Schuey going round and round for 17 laps knowing that the race was really already over made it pretty much suck. Early days yet, we'll see. Good on Webber for 6th though.

Moto GP? If watching faget italians on cock rockets win every race by about 20 laps is your thing...

I don't know why I'm even bothering replying to this, you obviously have never seen a motogp race.

Did you watch any of last season? Pretty much every race was close, granted rossi was normally the one in the lead, but there was always someone up there with him.

Absolultely hilarious when Fisichella came out of the pits.
Rob White: "Just keep going hard"
Fisi: "Yeah but it's f***ing s***"

loved martins comment when fisi's car died..
'well if you call your car nasty names of course its going to give up on you'

frikkin excellent race! alonso/schu/kimi ! what a start to the season

Funniest part of the race was the Super Aguri pitstop where Sato came in on an angle, rammed the pitcrew, got out 2 metres and stopped facing a wall. Classic.

Super Aguri are an absolute joke and with Sato behind the wheel will only get in the way in the short term.

what the hell happened with the toyota doing the random drive through?

Actually that was Ide that did that.

Toyota, no idea, but Button should have been penalised (given a drive-through). It's his responsibility as the one moving out to ensure that doesn't happen, and I can't understand how he got off on that. Utter load of crap that is.

yea also love how lee diffey decides to give his gay little wrapup over the top of fernandos radio communications after winning the race. d*******.

You'll get over it.

Edit: Okay maybe that was a little harsh :) I might be a tad biased since I know Leigh Diffey in person, started working with him back when he was doing commentry for OptusVision/Optus Sports at the Thunderdome.

last edited by Raven at 22:18:44 13/Mar/06

I don't know why I'm even bothering replying to this, you obviously have never seen a motogp race.

Then get the f*** out of the F1 thread... my gawd.