Raikkonen Rules Albert Park

Kimi has made the perfect start to his Ferrari career with a clean sweep- pole position, fastest lap and race win. But the star of the day was Lewis Hamilton as he raced to P3 on his Grand Prix debut. It looked for a while that he would pull of the impossible- defeating Alonso. But, then it was always felt that Alonso had reserves and was just waiting for him to peel off into the pits.
Poor old Kubica was made to pay for BMW's poor reliability. He was on his was to a well deserved fourth place when his gearbox failed bringing to an end his season opener. Team-mate Hienfeld though drove solidly for a fourth place and BMW must be pleased with their effort.
Trust Giancarlo Fisichella to have a solid undramatic race. He started sixth finished fifth (Kubica retired- so effectively never gained position on track). But he did show a good measure of resiliance to fend off Massa in the closing stages of the race. Had he surrendered the position good old Flavio Briatore, who described his protege Heikki Kovalinen's dubut as rubbish would have had some choice words to say.
Coulthard did provide some excitement- almost killing Alexander Wurz in the process. His move on Wurz was, to put it mildly, too optimistic. Reminded me of one Mr Yuji Ide who tried an optimistic pass on Albers at last years San Marino GP. But for the fight of the Mc Laren team-mates it was essentially a drab affair upfront. At no point was Kimi under pressure and even the most ardent of fans would have found the race boring. Something has to be done to make F1 more exciting upfront- and no- Night Races is not the answer. But anyway, the stage is set for a two way battle all the way upto Interlagos.

Ohhh I almost forgot- Kimi said that his radio stopped working before the start of the race and he had to rely on pitboards. We did hear Chris Dyer congratulating him over the radio and Kimi mumbling something back, didn't we?

Australian GP : Kimi on Pole

The Tifosi rejoice, for it is Kimi on pole for the Australian GP. But it is not all rosy, Massa, who many predicted would outperform Kimi Raikkonen, suffered from mechanical problems and was unable to post a time in Q2 relegating him to 16th on the grid.

The World Champion Fernando Alonso will line up alongside Kimi on the front row and it would be interesting to see who leads into the first corner. Lewis Hamilton's fairy tale continues- it looked for a while that he might actually beat Alonso. His is the most spectacular F1 debut since Jacques Villeneuve burst into the scene 1996. These are still early days, but Hamilton does look like a potential race winner and a worthy team-mate for the world champion.It would be a feast to watch the battle of the team-mates develop over the season.

BMW must be pleased with their form in qualifying, with Nick Hienfeld splitting the two McLarens for third spot on the grid and the young Pole Robert Kubica finishing fifth. What BMW has achieved in the course of a season is phenomenal. They are well and truly the third fastest team on the grid right now.

Sir Frank Williams surely and quite understandably must be livid watching the Super Aguri of Takuma Sato finish tenth while neither of his drivers made it into the final qualifying. Oddly both the Super Aguris outqualified their parent Honda team. Honda bosses surely won't be ammused. Don't expect the customer car row to die down soon.

All in all the Australian GP promises to be a cracker of a season opener with the best two drivers lined up on the front row. But unfortunately, despite all the pre season hype-it looks as though 2007 again will be a two horse race.

PS : Spyker F1 has lodged an official protest against Super Aguri

Formula 1 2007 : Crystal Ball Gazing

With just two weeks before the start of the 2007 F1 season I have decided to stick my neck out.Winter testig has made it rather obvious that Jenson Button will not be fighting for the drivers title and Toyota as always will be saying that this year they plan to consolidate their operations, next year they will be scoring points and the year next they plan to win races.
Based on the winter testing I make the following predictions :

Drivers Championship : Kimi Raikkonen
Massa may be consistantly outperforming Kimi when it comes to winter testing, but I believe when it comes to actual racing it is going to be an all together different story. Kimi has better race craft than Massa and would prevail during the races. Maybe Kimi was never interested in grabbing P1 during testing, choosing instead to understand the car and tyres better.

McLaren finally seem to got it right-they have the pace, the reliability and indeed the driver to do it for them. But at the moment it appears that Ferrari are ahead of them. Kimi would be looking to build an early lead on Alonso whilst they have this pace advantage because by mid season or maybe earlier McLaren would have closed the gap.

Constructors Championship : Ferrari
No doubt in my mind about this one. The constructors championships are often decided by the quality of the second driver and thats wher Ferrari are ahead of the competition. Lewis Hamilton and Heikki are rookies and are surely gonna make mistakes and cost their teams valuable points. Massa on the other hand has improved vastly over the course of 2006 and he would be scoring podiums consistantly. Ferrari have one hand on the constructors title.

Surprise of the Year : Kubica winning his first race. BMW have proved in testing that they have a real pacy car and if they are able to sort out their reliability issues, it wont be long before we wake up to the headline "Pole on pole".

Flavio Briatore maybe suggesting that Fernando's departure hasn't undermined the Renault's chances but they now left with a proven SLOW driver and an untested talent. I just hope that they don't fade in to oblivion as was the case following Schumacher's departure from Benetton.

Let's all wait and see how things span out, and, hope for a cracking season.

Comments, praises and rants are welcome.