Formula One: Australian Grand Prix, Raceday Part 7
The Pit lane was getting busier by the lap. Next in line was Jenson Button as the former World Champion made his second stop; replacing the soft compound tyres with a hard set of Pirellis this time.
Renault’s Petrov was down in 5th place after his pit stop. Alonso was effectively right behind Webber. Meanwhile, rookie Sergio Perez set the fastest lap of the race with a 1 minute 29.962 seconds run.
Looking at the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) graphics of Webber and Button, it was evident that Red Bull didn’t have to rely on the energy boost compared to Alonso’s Ferrari – Fitting for a company that specializes in energy drinks?!
As the race headed into lap 41, Mark Webber was subjected to consorted pressure from Fernando Alonso. The Australian soon dived into the pits for a set of soft compound tyres seeing as the hard rubber was hampering his speed. However, on his first lap out
of the pits, Webber lost rear grip under braking at turn 3 and ran wide. Thankfully for the Red Bull driver, he was able to recover quickly without losing much ground.
Ferrari on the contrary, opted for reverse psychology as Alonso dived into the pits and slapped on a set of ‘hard’ compounds. Thankfully for the Scarlet camp, their driver came out ahead of Webber but the latter had a good chance of passing him with his
softer, grippier tyres – During the course of this pit-lane poker, Petrov seemed to be the biggest beneficiary as he went up to P-3.
The DRS was brought into action yet again as Webber looked to get a good run on the front stretch to try and get past Alonso – The Ferrari team advised to counter technology with technology and urged their driver to use the KERS as Webber was getting close.
The McLaren team radio had advice of their own as they reminded their driver to make full use of his soft compound tyres – Is this how Formula One will be from now on?
The atmosphere had changed completely. With just 10 laps of the race to go, tension was mounting. For some, it was all about keeping it together; for others, it was simply ‘do or die’.
Seventeen cars were still running on track out of the 22 that started the race. 10 cars were effectively on the lead lap.
Continued in part 8
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