[anachronix]

Hold on guys! All that matters is where you finish on Sunday. Its not the Bridgestone days to finish the race with a single stop!

[Zensi]

my observations so far:

1) RB have started from where they left off - this championship is theirs to loose!
2) McLaren is not as slow as they showed at the tests. Were they sandbagging?
3) Ferrari need to replace their number 2 driver pronto! Massa needs to go.
4) Torro Rosso will give nightmares to more established teams.
5) Renault have taken a definitive step forward. Will they knock on podiums - i dont think so.
6) Mercedes doesnt look like it will win any races this season in a normal race.
7) Force India are now behind Sauber and Williams - both of which are now the upper midfield. It will be interesting between Renault, STR, Sauber and Williams.
8) The 107% rule could fold up the Hispania team sooner than expected! I dont expect to see them on Sunday for a while.

[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by Zensi

1) RB have started from where they left off - this championship is theirs to loose!

Yes, and that too with no use of the KERS. Looking forward for some serious pace tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Zensi

2) McLaren is not as slow as they showed at the tests. Were they sandbagging?

That could be the case. Anyway, great job to start at the front row. What for Hamilton was crying a few days back?

[SchumiFan]

I wonder if RBs can convert their qualifying pace into race pace.

McLaren, as reports say, were trying to route the exhaust through multiple outlets to blow the floor (I guess), but were not getting the desired result and also one of the substance that was needed to make it work, was banned. Now after reverting to conventional setup they are running good.

Ferrari seem to have been too gentle on the tires or they genuinely seem to have performance issues. It will take a race or two to decide the running order and as Anachronix says, the need to make more than one pitstop per race will prove to be a deciding factor in choosing the winner.

[ashok_lat]

Force India has to really improve there Car very soon if they want to finish in Podium at Indian GP. I still feel for Nico Hulkenberg, he should have been given the drivers seat for Force India.

On the other hand HRT will be sitting out for the whole season because of 107% rule if they don't improve there car.

[vivekz]

Fingers crossed for the race. It seems like Vettel is gonna run away with it. But Lewis is a fighter and we have seen many times he won't back down easily.

Toro Rosso have shown amazing place. It seems both the Red Bulls teams have enough wings this year.

I was really dissapointed with Schumi's pace. I hope he finds some in the race, just for old times sake

But Pirelli tires would be gamble and I think that is what is gonna shuffle up the order by the end of the race. Hoping for an exiting race.

[speedmiester]

Great start to the 2011 season.
Redbull and Vettel on to a fantastic start to the season.
Good drive by Hamiltona and vetrov to take the podium positions.
Ferrari need to pull up their socks if they have to catch up with the redbulls and mclarens.

Good drive by rookie perez on its debut to take 7th place.

[GTO]

Superb race! Vettel drove well. Unlike so many times last year, he converted a pole into an indisputable victory and zero mistakes. Probably, having the championship under his belt has settled his nerves. Decent race for Hamilton as well. But the hero was undoubtedly Petrov. For a guy who has never fought with the big boys before, he convincingly kept Fonso behind him in the final stages.

Thumbs down to Button, Webber and, to an extent, Massa. Felipe drove well in the opening laps and was almost Fonso-like in blocking the aggressive Button from overtaking him. But the strategy wasn't as talented. For no fault of his, he slowly slid down the field eventually. Webber!! Was he driving the same car as Vettel? Sure didn't seem like.

For all the talk of Red Bulls being hard on tyres, it's actually Ferrari who should be worried. Red Bull was alright, but Mclaren seemed to be tops in tyre preservation. Notice how Hamilton was closing in on Vettel around the pitstop envelopes.

Force India's loss of technical talent is showing. Unless they maintain the same development pace as 2009, they are going to be pushed lower down the grid.

Too bad for Narain, though the joker of the season is Karun for crashing out on the 4th corner of the out lap...even without a race drive!!

[SchumiFan]

The need to make a lot more pitstops than the previous years is certainly making the races more unpredictable.

Ferrari got the strategy spot-on for one time. Was very happy to see Button being given the penalty for passing Massa illegally and Ferrari made sure he got the penalty by quickly bringing in Massa although I doubt that was their intention.

Alonso could have been on podium had he got a better start but he got a decent result and managed to keep out Webber in the final stages of the race though Webber was on soft tires. RBs will surely be looking at having KERS with them as it proved effective for Alonso to ward off Webber. And I hope that addition and its weight will affect the balance and also bring their pace down, which should be good news for the other teams.

Massa looked good initially, but he was awfully out of pace losing 1+ sec to Petrov over every lap. Schumi has got bad luck continuing him and it was a tough day for Mercedes with Rubinho turning Mad Man.

Vettel drove a very good race and Lewis kept him on his toes. DRS is working as it should and am very happy that something positive has gone into making overtaking possible.

Looking forward to Malaysia and Ferrari to mixing it up with the top runners.

Vamos Alonso!!!

[amrisharm]

I was not happy with ferrari's pit stop strategy for alonso (3 stops). Clearly you could see towards the end of the race that the ferrari was doing fast laps even on the harder compound. Alonso managed a 1m 29s lap time, one of the fastest, if not the fastest. So Ferrari should have gone with a 2 stop strategy exactly like V.Petrov in the renault lotus and maybe alonso could have finished in 3rd place.

Besides that, a very good race for Vettel. He deserved the win. But the exciting bit was the fact that the Red bulls were using the tyres much more than Mclaren and Ferrari, and that could mean more closely fought races in the coming months.

Mclaren had a good race all thanks to a very talented Hamilton. And am very surprised button not letting Massa pass after he cut the corner to overtake him. It was a very obvious infringement. Even though button was much faster than massa that is not how you overtake as you know the stewards are going to punish you.

Also very impressed with Sauber. But feeling sad for Force india as they seem to be moving backwards. Hope they get their act together before the indian gp.

All in all, a nice opening race. I am very happy to see KERS back and being used. The short lasting soft tyre seems to be doing exactly what it was supposed to, making racing exciting by adding pitstops. Though the movable rear wing did not have too much impact in melbourne, i think it was more to do with the short front straight (800m). On other tracks like malaysia, shanghai, bubai etc i am sure it will have an even bigger impact.

All in all a good race

GO ALONSO

[anachronix]

Superb race from Vettel and great comeback from Mclaren after their disappointing winter test! Congratulations to both Vettel & Hamilton.

Petrov did extremely well do get the first podium for the Lotus Renault team!

Ferrari hard on its tires, thats just unbelievable! However, I would wait till Malaysia & China is over before coming to any conclusion. Alonso did well to finish right behind Petrov being the best finishing 3 stopper and I am sure he could have done better if he got a clean exit through Turn 1. Well, there are always IFs & BUTs in F1, so lets see what he can do best in the next GP!

I loved the fight between Jenson & Massa, Massa made the people who proposed the DRW idea look like fools! However, he needs to do a better job than that. He was nowhere in the 2nd half of the race.

Bad start for Mercedes with both cars failing to see the checkered flag at the starting race of the season. I would expect them to bounce back well!

Finally, lets talk about a man who did his 308th race today in OZ, I dont understand why he is still racing. The way he collided with Rosberg looked pathetic, the rookies did much better than this old crap on the grid!

Anyone missed HRT today?

[Dippy]

Good drive by Vettel to win from pole to finish. They guy didnt put a wheel wrong today. Massa did provide some entertainment at the start but slowly went out of shape. Ferrari need to look back and see what went wrong although Alonso did drive a strong race today.

What can I say about Mercedes GP? Its difficult to believe that this team is actually run by the genius they call Ross Brawn. Two DNFs in the opening race is a big cause for concern. After the pre season testing I was really looking forward to seeing Schumi having a strong finish. If this trend of MGP continues, its better that MS hangs up his helmet for the final time. Its better to quite than race like an also ran.

Did anyone hear Steve Slater's version of HRT during yesterday's qualifying? He said HRT = Hardly Ready Team

Whatever said and done I miss the good clean battles that we used to have during the Schumi Hakkinen era. All these new driving aids, KERS, DRS and the so called refuelling ban has taken away the fun from racing. Earlier i used to sit at the edge of my seat watching but now I've actually started to yawn quite a bit during the race.

Hope to see better racing in the coming races.

[pranavt]

Originally Posted by anachronix

Anyone missed HRT today?

Tata, probably. LOL.

[mgh]

Sauber 7th and 8th
Perez, 7th, single pit stop.
Sutil 11th
di Resta 12th

Notice the 'Key' difference

Sauber has Key, Force India no longer does

[speedmiester]

Both the saubers have been disqualified from the results as the FIA stewards found the cars infringing the technical regulations for the rear wings. Bad luck I must say, Perez and Kobayashi both drove well for their points.

The disqualification of Sauber cars puts both the Force India cars into the final point scoring positions 9th and 10th, with Massa bumped up to 7th position.

Ferrari's have the race pace, but they need to qualify better to give a fight to the Redbulls and Mclarens.