Australia practice 2 live

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It’s time for the second practice session from Melbourne and happily ITV’s video stream seems to work better this time.

Are you following the second practice session as well? Leave your comments below.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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58 comments on “Australia practice 2 live”

  1. After doing very little in the first session Williams are back on-track with Kazuki Nakajima although he’s some way off the pace – is this the start of a long stint?

  2. Replay shows Sebastian Vettel’s Toro Rosso running wide at turn seven.

    The McLarens are out and Lewis Hamilton goes quickest with a 27.917 – still 1s off his best from FP1.

  3. It’s much quieter on here now than before!

    Everyone bar the Super Aguris, Piquet, Button and Coulthard have done installation laps.

    Replay shows a shower of sparks coming from the back of Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren as he comes down the main straight. He had previously run wide at the fast chicane in the middle of the lap.

  4. Nico Savidge
    14th March 2008, 3:19

    Watching F1 on SPEED, and I’ve noticed a few things

    1. the Force India looks great on TV
    2. the cars look REALLY twitchy under breaking
    3. Ferrari has gotten rid of their "barcode" branding on the F2008 that they used to disguise the Marlboro logos. Now that it’s gone, I’m realizing that the barcode actually looks pretty cool! It was a lot better than what they’re using – just a big block of white.

  5. A couple of things to keep an eye on:

    – No-one has used the soft tyres yet as far as I can see – presumably because the track isn’t at its fastest yet.
    – Fastest time in FP1 this year was Raikkonen, 1’26.461: last year it was Fernando Alonso with a 1’29.214 – a 2.8s difference!
    – Last year Felipe Massa was quickest in FP2 with a 1’27.353.

    Team radio from Williams indicates the team are struggling with front tyre graining – so were BMW in FP1, presumably as the track hasn’t rubbered-in yet.

    Vettel puts his Toro Rosso seventh with a 1’29.193, 0.006s slower than Robert Kubica’s BMW. The team have been widely tipped to do well this weekend and could be in with a shout of making Q3.

  6. Glad I’m not here on my own good to see you Nico!
     Agree with you about the Ferraris can’t believe that’s the best they could come up with – although so far you have to admit everything else about the car looks great…

  7. Nico Savidge
    14th March 2008, 3:22

    sideways action from a Force India (couldn’t see who) and a quick little off from Vettel… the wunderkid is still learning… 

  8. Nico Savidge
    14th March 2008, 3:25

    oh my goodness – SPEED just showed a picture of the Honda mechanics, who are wearing some of the most ghastly, lime-green shorts I’ve ever seen… Peter Windsor had a quick interview with Alex Wurz and he joked that his not wearing the shorts was a sticking point in his contract – I can see why!

  9. Drivers are still exploring the limits of the track – Vettel and Giancarlo Fisichells have both had moments off the track.

    Others are now trying the softer tyres: Sebastien Bourdais and Kazuki Nakajima. At Melbourne this weekend Bridgestone have brought their ‘medium’ and ‘soft’ compound tyres, and the ‘soft’ tyres are the ones with the white stripes through them.

  10. Anyone remember Ghostbusters? The Honda mechanics look like they’ve been slimed…

  11. Hi Keith and Nico,

    Watching network 10’s HD channels. Glorious!

    Webber’s wuick lap this morning was on the soft tyres. There has been lots of understeer in the slow corners.

    Agree that the Ferrari’s don’t look as good as last year.

    Lewis sparking down the main straight was as glorious a sight as Massa twitching sideways out of turn 8.

  12. HD? Lucky you!

    You don’t usually see sparks coming from the backs of cars these days I’m wondering if Hamilton had a problem?

  13. Lovely in-car shot of Mark Webber from underneath his steering wheel – would be great if they could show that split-screen with an external shot of the car.

    He’s fast as well – quicker than Hamilton in FP2 and at the line has a 1’27.614 to go quickest. On hard tyres as well…

  14. Keith, I’m in Melbourne and the soles of my shoes just about melted in the heat out at lunch, so I’m not surprised noone is using the soft rubber yet. :)

  15. Hamilton on-track: peach of a powerslide coming out of turn 12. Rejoice at the banning of traction control!

    Meanwhile David Coulthard ploughs through the gravel at turn 9.

  16. Thanks for that Teamorders are you actually at the track then?

  17. Hmm site seemed to have a bit of an ‘ITV moment’ then.

    Rosberg has finally shown some of Williams’ pace with a 1’28.495 to put him fifth.

    There are still a lot of mistakes going on – Sutil and Trulli both running wide – is this all down to the green track or is it also the absence of traction control and engine braking causing drivers to make errors?

  18. My mistake, I’m watching a SD transmission on a HD channel.

    There are LOTS of empty seats in the grandstands.

    Apparantly it is significantly bumpier then last year.

    We are in a heat wave right now in OZ and it is very VERY hot. track temp 45o and air 37o. Makes the lime green shorts a little more comfortable? maybe not.

  19. Keith, no not actually at the track, in the city which is about 3 kms away. It is unseasonably very hot for this time of year in Melbourne.

  20. Still not much from Piquet after his problems in the first session – he’s only done three laps and is 21st.

    The cameras follow Robert Kubica on a new best lap of the session for him – a 1’28.911, 0.2s slower than Heidfeld, both using soft tyres.

  21. Webber has done another belter of a lap.

    Glad to see that Williams has some pace.

  22. Thanks for the information guys really useful. FOM is showing a track temperature of 48C, air temp 36C, but as Interlagos taught us last year you never know how far to trust these things!

    I wonder if it will push teams towards having a very first short stint (partly influenced by the changes to qualifying) to get the soft tyres done with early in the race.

    Especially with the high probability of there being a safety car early in the race, what with the drivers all having to do a traction control-free start – and the fact that so many of them seem to be going off in this session!

  23. Nico Savidge
    14th March 2008, 3:55

    having just seen that helicopter footage above the grandstands – there are a TON of empty seats! i hate to say it, but this doesn’t bode well for Aussie GPs of the future

  24. Bourdais seems to have a problem with the Toro Rosso – he’s cruising around the track quite slowly. Nico Rosberg has out-braked himself at turn 15.

    Just over half an hour to go.

  25. Kovalainen runs wide, Fisichella goes off… the cars look a real handful!

  26. In contrast to previous years, Turn 9 is proving to be a real challenge. Normally it’s turn 1.

    Moment for Heikki

  27. Nico Savidge
    14th March 2008, 4:01

    I was thinking that the lack of TC wouldn’t make a ton of difference for these guys – after all, they’re the best drivers in the world. But having seen Lewis, Heikki, and quite a few others have incidents under braking/acceleration, I can tell that the first few rounds are gonna be interesting – especially if theres rain….

  28. Why do you think there are so fewer people there this year? Ticket prices?

  29. Hamilton stays third with a 1’27.742 but his middle sector was the fastest of the session – that’s interesting because that’s where he was losing most of the time to the Ferraris earlier.

  30. Nico Savidge
    14th March 2008, 4:03

    Fisichella spins…

  31. Close up of one of the Force Indias shows the paint flaking away behind the cockpit surround – if any more come off you’ll be able to see the Spyker paint job underneath! Giancarlo Fisichella had another moment, spinning at the exit of turn 6.

  32. Did anyone see what tyres Trulli was on? He’s just gone fifth with a 1’28.292.

  33. A combination of 3 factors Keith
    1. The price of a ticket is very high and Australia is sliding into a recession now, interest rates and petrol prices going way up.
    2. Lots of negative press about Melbourne losing the race.
    3. Most punters aren’t that keen on the Grand Prix any more, they have been once or twice and that is enough for them. Die hards still go, but not the general sports fan.

    Speculation that the muck on the track is slowing it down, hence no-one can beat Webber’s banzai earlier effort.

  34. Nico Savidge
    14th March 2008, 4:07

    I’d like to see the onboard camera that shows throttle, revs, and braking – we saw it earlier with Kimi, but I think it’s interesting to see how the drivers lay down power now that the TC is gone

  35. Mark Webber’s top of the times right now, will that not entice a few people into showing up? I see your point about the negative press – subtlety is not Ecclestone’s thing.

  36. F***! can’t see that vido feed outside UK!

  37. Interesting information from the speed sensors: Massa is fastest at S1 (283kph), S2 (302 kph) and the Trap (305kph), but Kovalainen is fastest at S3 (290 kph).

  38. Nico Savidge
    14th March 2008, 4:15

    big off by Felipe – too quick, off into the gravel, spin… recovered to limp back to the pits

  39. Replays show both the former champs going off – Raikkonen at turn 13 and Alonso, like so many others, at turn 9.

    Alonso is down in 11th and Piquet 20th.

    Massa has had a big spin at turn 12 and goes backwards through the dirt but comes to a stop without hitting anything. He’ll have dragged some muck onto the track though. He lost it in the middle of the corner and went into the gravel at some speed – was lucky not to have a bigger accident.

  40. Nico Savidge
    14th March 2008, 4:17

    nice little powerslide for Heidfeld!

  41. Massa’s pretty fast at spinning too

  42. The grandstands do look empty, but coming form someone who hasen’t yet attended his first GP, are the stands normally jammed for practice on friday?

  43. (Raikkonen is of course not merely a former champ, he is the champ.)

    Big oversteer twitch from Heidfeld on the exit of turn three.

    Barrichello jumps up from 19th to 13th, 0.068s ahead of Button. Sutil on softs then goes from 19th to 16th, 0.4s ahead of Fisichella. The Force India looks an enormous handful.

    And Jarno Trulli’s Toyota has got away from him entirely – the Italian has spun into the gravel at turn three. He did it by putting two wheels into the dirt on the way into the corner – just as he did earlier in the session and just as Raikkonen did in the first session. Have they forgotten how wide their cars are?

  44. Nico Savidge
    14th March 2008, 4:20

    I was at the USGP for practice – kinda hard to judge because the grandstands at Indy are massive, but there were a lot of people there. I’d say there were more people at the USGP than there are Oz today.

  45. Gman – depends which track. Silverstone and Monza, which I went to last year, were buzzing on Friday. But some of the new tracks (Bahrain for examlple) struggle to get decent crowds on Sunday, never mind Friday. Of course in Bahrain it doesn’t help that Sunday is a weekday.

  46. Eight minutes to go – are we going to see any last-gasp flyers?

  47. Nico Savidge
    14th March 2008, 4:22

    [correction] i’d say there were more people at the USGP practice than there are at Oz today

  48. Nico Savidge
    14th March 2008, 4:25

    wow – one of the SPEED guys has just said that the F2009 is already in the wind tunnel in scale model form…

  49. A quick reminder – tomorrow’s practice session is at midnight British time and qualifying is at 3am. Hope to see you back here again for both sessions.

  50. Thanks for the info on the crowds at practice everyone. And Keith, you hit it on the head with the Ghostbusters theme!

    I thought the paint job was bad, but this…….???

  51. Lewis Hamilton goes fastest on all three sectors – 28.7, 23.2 and 34.6 for a 1’26.559. That compares to Raikkonen’s 1′26.461 in the first session.

  52. Giancarlo Fisichella has put his Force India sixth! 1’28.469. But Rosberg immediately demotes him to seventh.

  53. Raikkonen does a 1’28.208 on softs. Seemed to have a bit of understeer. Chequered flag is out.

  54. And that’s the end of the session with Hamilton fastest from Webber, Massa, Kovalainen, and Coulthard popping up in fifth.

    I’m going to write up my notes on practice and get some much-needed sleep!

  55. Nico Savidge
    14th March 2008, 4:35

    as a Ferrari fan, I feel the need to bring up that Kimi did a 1:26.461 – beating Hamilton’s 1:26.559 :)

    very interesting practice session – great to see the drivers fighting the cars (and the cars winning, sometimes…). just to brag: quali for me is gonna be at 8pm… this when its good to be an American F1 fan!

  56. Ok let’s play,

    Who’s smiling and Who’s got the grump

    Smiling
    Red Bull, 2nd and 5th
    Force India, 9th
    Toyota, both cars in top ten
    Honda, Jenson 11th

    Got the Grumps
    BMW
    Renault
    Williams
    Shown up in the battle of the midfield

  57. Button outperforming the car once again it would seem, he really should of gone to Williams.

    I’m so looking forward to qualifying!

    my predictions for the race:
    1st: Hamilton
    2nd: Raikkonen
    3rd: Webber, maybe Rosberg!

    going to see some interesting fights with Williams v Red Bull with Toyota & Renault in the mix.

    it’s going to be a long few hours :'(

  58. If you get crappy F1 coverage in your part of the world,

    Watch it on Wheels, available on TVU.  (http://www.tvunetworks.com)

    You can watch that from anywhere in the world. :)

    Although it shouldn’t be as much of an issue tomorrow, as most networks cover qualifying anyway.

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