Australian Grand Prix Raceday: Formula One (Part 1)
Bettor.com welcomes you to Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia for the opening round of the 2011 Formula One season. No rain is expected during the course of the race and conditions promise to remain between clear and cloudy all afternoon.
Starting on pole position was Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel, who impressed everyone on Saturday with a blistering lap that broke the old track record for the circuit set by Michael Schumacher in 2004, and was also over half a second quicker than second
place qualifier Lewis Hamilton.
Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber started on the inside of the second row in third place. It was rumoured that Red Bull Racing were running a 'start-only' KERS system to ensure maximum boost for the driver down the first corner. The advantages of such a system
would be that it would be lighter and more compact than normal KERS systems, since there would be no need for on-board cooling or recharging elements and it could be charged in the pits before the race.
Starting behind the leading pack in fourth position was McLaren’s Jenson Button, who won this race last year using some clever strategy. Fan favourite Michael Schumacher was set to start in 11th place after he failed to make the top 10 in the dying moments
of Q2.
Only 22 cars started the race as the two HRT F1 cars were disallowed from starting the event due to their qualifying times failing to meet the new 107 percent requirement put in place this season. It seemed that everyone that qualified in the top 10 opted
to start on soft tyres, with the possible exception of Sebastien Buemi. The Toro Rosso driver’s best time was two seconds off the average of the nine drivers ahead of him indicating that the hard compound was a relatively more sensible option.
Before the start of the race, Mercedes’ rookie driver Nico Rosberg expected a top 5 finish at least. Meanwhile, Aussie F1 legends Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones were also seen walking on the grid.
With 10 minutes to go until the start of the race, the Australian national anthem started reverberating in the stands. The Drag Reduction System (DRS) detection zone is between Turns 14 and 16 and it can be activated on the front-stretch. It cannot be used
on the first two laps however.
The cars finally sprang into life and were on their warm-up laps...
Continued in Part 2
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