Australian F1

[Mikie711]

Epic qualifying session, right up till the end. Some surprises on the grid.Can't wait for the race tomorrow

[graeme]

[j2 lot]

Good to see (one half of) Lotus doing so well and Schul better placed too

[campbell]

And Beeb coverage and editorial items remain in the quality bracket too. Ben Edwards seems comfortable, although I do miss Brundle for the insight and comedy value to some extent.

Certainly looking forward to tomorrow. James and I have requested (and been granted!) Pit Passes for our living room The girls are out, so it's a crate of beer for me and a pack of Fruit-Shoots for him, and we're sorted, LOL.

[tut]

Watched it live on Sky, and now the BBC late version that they are allowed, and it just feels like being back with old friends.

tut

ps:- missed the prelim, is Eddie still part of the team?

[campbell]

Yes he most certainly is.

Their replacement for MB's gridwalk was very good. EJ, DC, Lee Mac and Jake all talking to different drivers at different places. Slickly cut, nearly as informative, and lacked only Brundle's bluster and regular love-ins with Bernie

James and I were entertained for the full two hours, well until the race ended at which point I didn't want to subject him to the "talkie bits" and we headed out to the driving range It's a good format for the youngsters, IMHO!

[campbell]

Forgot to comment on the race!

Thrilled for Button, couldn't have happened to a better guy. Impressed by Schumy until mech failure sent him to early bath. Gutted for Maldonado, very impressive for Williams and gave the lumbering Fezza of Alonso something to think about.

Plenty passing / challenging, I thought...but maybe that's a feature of the Beeb extended highlights format

Oh and got an impression from the brief post-race chatter which I did hear, that Hamilton was a bit off-form on the podium? I thought he'd grown out of all that?

[robin]

Alonso did well to finish where he did - just look at where Massa ended up. It just shows what a skilled driver he is, IMHO. His trip to the gravel in qualifying was a rare mistake and even so he out-qualified Massa who used up all his tyres and did 10+ more laps. Massa's coat must be on a shoogly hook now ... once Kimi starts to kick his butt race after race, Ferrari will wish they had never axed him.

Good drive from Button - the whole tyres and strategy thing really plays to his strengths - perhaps he's not the absolute fastest driver, but still deserved his win today.

I felt sorry for Hamilton - he was never going to enjoy being beaten by his team mate and off poll position but the team's decision to double pit them cost him double, though nobody could have known that! Had he decided to pit on the next lap, it would have been under the safety car and he would be ahead of Vettel and Button. Instead he ends up behind them both. Hopefully it won't cause an immediate toy/pram divorce, but he didn't look that happy to be 3rd! With Button liking the car, you can see this could easily be Hamilton's last season with McLaren I think. I don't know who'll take him on though ...

I listened to the 5 live commentary on iplayer - pretty good, though Jaimie (sp?) is a bit dull - he needs to say it how it is rather than always just "wait and see" - we can all wait and see, we want to know what he THINKS is going to happen

Cheers,
Robin

[Stewart]

I listened to the 5 live commentary on iplayer - pretty good, though Jaimie (sp?) is a bit dull - he needs to say it how it is rather than always just "wait and see" - we can all wait and see, we want to know what he THINKS is going to happen

Cheers,
Robin

I thought I read somewhere that James "The Cock" Allan was at 5 Live now?

Sky coverage was ok, and as much as I like David Croft, I don't think he and MB are a good pairing. As we now know, MB can easily take care of lead commentary. Strange I really enjoyed Croft and Davidson for the practice sessions over the past 2-3 years. Ben Edwards is my long time favourite commentator but the desire to see the race early meant I didn't see any of the Beeb coverage.

I have to say that this is the first F1 race in a long time that I didn't zip through 80% of it at x12 on Sky+. Great action from the drop of the flag and no guarantee that one particular driver was going to win.

I'm really not keen on Hamilton. You just get the feeling that a race like today will really play on his mind and have a knock-on detrimental affect to the rest of the season. I do like Button, even in his dark days he just rolled up his sleeves and plugged away seldom moaning about his lot.

Anyway, enough of this boring European nonsense, I am off to the IndyCar GP of St Petes in Florida next weekend. We'll see if Dario Franchitti can fair better than his wee cousin did today. As reigning champ I would hope so