2014 Australian Grand Prix Saturday - Qualifying
Live Text
Sort by
Wild trip across the grass on the exit of Turn 11/12 for Maldonado, but at least he's "racking" up the laps. That's five now for the Lotus man, who is 10th, 4.025s off the pace set by Rosberg.
Breaking news
Gutierrez is out for the session. That gearbox issue won't be fixed before qualifying.
Stopwatch
But then Rosberg in the other Mercedes is 0.153s quicker than Hamilton!
The benchmark immediately changes to 1m31.583s.
The benchmark immediately changes to 1m31.583s.
Stopwatch
Hamilton goes 0.8s quicker than Button to comfortably go P1 on a 1m31.376s.
Stopwatch
Button shows there's no major issue with the McLaren despite that trip over the grass, going 0.001s quicker than Kvyat to go fastest on a 1m32.604s.
Kobayashi and Ericcson immediately make Saturday a better day for Caterham with three and five laps on the board respectively.
Now the other McLaren takes a trip across the grass at Turn 9 as well! Button also recovers without issue.
And Button follows suit by running wide at Turn 9 too.
Magnussen pushing very hard to regain P1 and flies across the gravel at Turn 9. He carries on OK.
Stopwatch
But through comes Kvyat to knock the McLaren off top spot with a 1m33.079s.
Stopwatch
First times of the day. Magnussen is top on 1m33.130s, 2.375s faster than Vergne.
Doesn't seem like he'll make it back to the Sauber pit.
Quote
"Something with the gearbox" Gutierrez tells the team over the radio as he slowly cruises along.
Gutierrez showing up as travelling quite slowly on track at the moment.
Ericsson, Kvyat and Button leave their garages.
Vergne is back out, as are Gutierrez and Magnussen.
Ricciardo pits, but the rain clouds look ominous. Is it now or never for some dry running?
Ricciardo pits, but the rain clouds look ominous. Is it now or never for some dry running?
This is not exactly a flat-out lap from the Australian though. Team-mate Vettel joins him on the track.
Ricciardo proves us wrong by continuing onto a second lap.
Only Vettel and Raikkonen stay tucked away in their respective garages then. Though there's no threat of a timed lap just yet.
Hamilton, Perez and Ricciardo head out.
Installation laps done, the cars return to their garages almost as swiftly as they left.
And a practice start for each of Rosberg and Magnussen at the end of the pitlane as they join the fun.
Loads of drivers hit the track - in fact, only Vettel, Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Perez and Hamilton don't leave the pits.
Vergne is first out in the Toro Rosso. Brake-by-wire refinement on the agenda for the team.
Green flag
Plenty of drivers strapped in, and the session is underway.
Quote
With a few spots of rain in the Albert Park paddock on Saturday morning, and a larger downpour still predicted for race day, there has been plenty of debate ahead of the season about how well-prepared teams are for some wet running.
Following the official wet weather track day in Jerez (and who can forget the comedy tractor that was used to soak the track), teams only really got a vague idea about the performance of the intermediates.
But although a fully wet qualifying or race would be a step into the unknown for a lot of teams, Pirelli is confident teams will not face too much trouble.
Paul Hembery, its motor sport director, said about the lack of proper wet running so far: “We did a lot of work previous on the full wet tyre, and certainly what we saw on the testing that we did with the previous generation of cars it is a very substantial improvement on aquaplaning and grip, trying to close the gap to the intermediate.
“We would have loved to have a Paul Ricard-dedicated wet session for everybody, probably less for us but more for everyone else to understand what it means with the type of delivery we have got, the power delivery we have got.
“But everyone is up against the clock and that was never going to be realistic. Hopefully we will get some rain over the first few races."
Not exactly clear blue skies in Melbourne for the start of FP3, which is just five minutes away now.
There's plenty of cloud overhead, and wind around too, with a serious threat of rain later just to add a bit more unpredictability into the mix.
All the more reason to bank as much track time as possible in now.
There's plenty of cloud overhead, and wind around too, with a serious threat of rain later just to add a bit more unpredictability into the mix.
All the more reason to bank as much track time as possible in now.
The aforementioned problems that hit Caterham yesterday were not specific to the team in green - Lotus failed to trouble the timesheets (especially with Pastor Maldonado) and while Toro Rosso racked up the laps, their drivers struggled with the new brake-by-wire system.
We'd be surprised if the prediction by some that few teams will run for fear of hurting the car pre-qualifying comes true. Toro Rosso may opt not to risk any qualifying-hampering offs (Kvyat and Vergne had many trips off the road in practice yesterday), and some teams might just plan fail to get out...but surely running is too valuable at this stage.
We'd be surprised if the prediction by some that few teams will run for fear of hurting the car pre-qualifying comes true. Toro Rosso may opt not to risk any qualifying-hampering offs (Kvyat and Vergne had many trips off the road in practice yesterday), and some teams might just plan fail to get out...but surely running is too valuable at this stage.
If the driver line-up tweaks are still catching you out - and AUTOSPORT Live doesn't blame you for that, as it's still only day two of the new season - then we've got just the thing for you.
Our comprehensive grid guide runs through all the teams and drivers, which should get you up to speed in time for qualifying.
AUTOSPORT's 2014 F1 grid guide
Our comprehensive grid guide runs through all the teams and drivers, which should get you up to speed in time for qualifying.
AUTOSPORT's 2014 F1 grid guide
Breaking news
Friday running is rarely, if ever, a guarantee of what's to come, but yesterday's sessions did indicate what could be the situation in qualifying.
Even more importantly, the longer runs in FP2 gave us a good insight into what we might see in tomorrow's race.
As expected, Mercedes led the early running. But who'd have banked on Red Bull emerging as its closest threat? Vettel certainly didn't, but that's how EDD STRAW and GARY ANDERSON read the situation after Friday:
Form guide: Red Bull back in the game
Twitter
Marussia makes its plan for third practice - which starts in just over 15 minutes - perfectly clear:
"Our plan for #FP3? Fully focused on preparing for qualifying and maximising the power unit."
"Our plan for #FP3? Fully focused on preparing for qualifying and maximising the power unit."
If today's sessions don't sway you, perhaps those points from STRAW could be the tipping point for your Castrol Edge Grand Prix Predictor choices?
Speaking of predictions, maybe you'll find inspiration in AUTOSPORT's attempt to guess this year's top 10 championship order.
Speaking of predictions, maybe you'll find inspiration in AUTOSPORT's attempt to guess this year's top 10 championship order.
Breaking news
After such a manic pre-season, we anticipated a hectic day of running for all the teams yesterday - and were not disappointed.
There were driver errors, big improvements, expected mechanical faults on cars that toiled throughout pre-season and shock breakages for those that had run without trouble.
We also had drivers finding their feet in a different environment to 2013, and signs that six teams could be in podium contention come tomorrow's race.
All that, plus a bit more, can be found in EDD STRAW's analysis of the main storylines from the first day of action in Oz.
Ten things we learned on Friday
There were driver errors, big improvements, expected mechanical faults on cars that toiled throughout pre-season and shock breakages for those that had run without trouble.
We also had drivers finding their feet in a different environment to 2013, and signs that six teams could be in podium contention come tomorrow's race.
All that, plus a bit more, can be found in EDD STRAW's analysis of the main storylines from the first day of action in Oz.
Ten things we learned on Friday
The third non-championship V8 Supercars Challenge race is coming up shortly, with the cars now being released onto the track. Shane van Gisbergen, winner of the first two races of this quadruple header, lines up on pole position ahead of Craig Lowndes, Fabian Coulthard and Michael Caruso.
Twitter
It was a disastrous Friday for Caterham, with electrical and hydraulics problems plaguing Marcus Ericsson and a fuel system issue in FP1 for Kamui Kobayashi that stopped him from taking part in the second session as well.
However, the team is optimistic of a more productive day today:
"30 minutes until FP3.... both cars are ready and we have everything crossed for a better day!"
However, the team is optimistic of a more productive day today:
"30 minutes until FP3.... both cars are ready and we have everything crossed for a better day!"
We've already had some drama today. Rachael Finch (who according to Wikipedia is an "Australian beauty pageant title holder and television reporter") emerged unscathed after putting her Mazda 3 on its roof on the final lap of the Celebrity Challenge support race.
Former pro cyclist Robbie McEwan overcame ex-English Premier League footballer Brett Emerton to win the race.
Former pro cyclist Robbie McEwan overcame ex-English Premier League footballer Brett Emerton to win the race.
Breaking news
Our trackside team members wasted little time in sinking their teeth into Friday's big talking points. But first - a recap of yesterday's action:
It was Fernando Alonso who topped the first practice session of the new season, the Ferrari man beating McLaren's Jenson Button to top spot in FP1.
But when the soft tyres went on and the track improved, it was Lewis Hamilton who led the way, recovering from a disastrous morning to lead Nico Rosberg in a dominant Mercedes one-two in the afternoon.
Hamilton on top in Melbourne practice two
Our bigger and better Live service for this season means we can bring you much closer to the action.
That means you can expect plenty of quotes and analysis from our paddock team, in addition to the weekend's biggest stories. Which is just as well, as there is plenty to look forward to as we gear up for the first qualifying session of F1's new era.
That means you can expect plenty of quotes and analysis from our paddock team, in addition to the weekend's biggest stories. Which is just as well, as there is plenty to look forward to as we gear up for the first qualifying session of F1's new era.
Hello and welcome to the second part of AUTOSPORT Live's revamped, rolling coverage of the opening round of the 2014 Formula 1 season - the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
By: Scott Mitchell, Ben Anderson, Edd Straw, Jonathan Noble, Andrew van Leeuwen, Matt Beer
Published:
Lap:
