F1 Oz

[rossybee]

Just watched qually on sky+

Carmen!

Great effort by Carlos Sainz Jnr too

Oh and Suzie with the new specs

[Mr Momo]

No live Oz, no live Monza ?

Jeezo BBC. Stuff this - more intertesting stuff on Eurosport cycling !

[ryallm]

Just watched qually. McLaren 5 seconds off pole . Shockingly sh*t by any standards. Jenson was amazingly upbeat about it although I cant think why. Very rarely f1 cars which are slow out the box can be developed into something at least respectable over the course of a season but I can't think of a single example of a car at the back of the grid in the first race ever troubling the podium in the same year. Button deserves better but I can't deny there is some pleasure in seeing Ron squirm

[Claws]

I think they have the engine in the McLaren turned down to about '4' to try and get some reliability at the moment.

Impressive save by Bottas!

[C7Steve]

Anybody up and watching the race live?

Steve.

[j2 lot]

Sadly yes.

[C7Steve]

I was up early to go cycling and watched it from half way.

Steve.

[Andrew C]

Is it sad to say but the interview with the big A and the drivers was good made up for a poor race .

[tut]

Pretty boring.....

tut

[tut]

Horner saying that the Renault engine is no way up to the job, and that the FIA should look at engine equalisation across the manufacturers.

No way hosay, afraid that you are all going to be second runners to Mercedes once again and we could be getting very boring races.

tut

[ryallm]

That really was the dullest Grand Prix for a long time. Good to see a resurgence at Ferrari, even if Kimi's mechanics seem to have forgotten how to refit a wheel on their first day back at school .

If Hamilton doesn't walk this year's title I'd be very surprised. He still looked a complete tool wearing that spectacularly naff gangsta-rap style gold chain in the post race interviews though.

[robin]

Surely Red Bull with all their cash could have found a better engine for this season? Whatever Renault has done has converted a slow engine into a slow and unreliable one. At least Ferrari managed to increase the power output of their engine without (yet) making it into a grenade, which is nice to see.

[Lazydonkey]

Horner saying that the Renault engine is no way up to the job, and that the FIA should look at engine equalisation across the manufacturers.

No way hosay, afraid that you are all going to be second runners to Mercedes once again and we could be getting very boring races.

tut

I did laugh a lot when I read that. Apparently even when they were winning they didn't have the advantage merc had..... And yet the rules were changed to slow them down. Apparently.

I remember it being that they had interesting and possibly illegal interpretations of the rules! Either way it's stunning sour grapes.

[Corranga]

It was a rather boring race

It seems pretty obvious that Merc have it sewn up again, and their advantage, to my memory is far greater than any advantage I've seen in F1. the only saving grace is that the race directors realised this early on, and we barely saw a Merc and could concentrate on actual racing instead.

The Arnie interview at the end was fun though.

Good to see Ferrari doing well of course, and Sauber too, though the former continue to embarrass with silly things like not putting wheels on properly!
I also think it's quite refreshing to see McLaren at the back. I've never been a big fan, but I'd rather see them at the back with a chance to come good in a season or 2, than languishing around the mid field feeling sorry for themselves like the last couple of seasons. It also means some great comments from smarmy Ron along the lines of "I think that's the least of our problems"
Button's antics with Perez pointless, and would inevitably end in tears. He should have simply moved out of the way and continued the official Honda Melbourne Test Session with a car that was the right shape to gather a full race worth of telemetry.

Hopefully Williams can continue to shine as the lead British (registered..) team in McLaren's absence.

[graeme]

Sh*t, there's two of them... Paging Sarah Conner, Sarah Conner to the pitlane please.