australian gp qualifying
 

starts in 15 minutes. red bull and ferrari are safe picks. mcclaren has been running open wing during practice in parts of the course they won't be able to during qualifying or the race.

i'll predict a red bull front row and take a flyer on petrov sneaking in with the renault next to alonso to complete the 2nd row.

been a mcclaren fan a long time and hope i'm wrong but i think they've been all out in practice.

f1 rookie sergio perez 6th after 1st round of knockout qualifying. petrov teammate nick heidfeld relegated. hrt should be out of the race under the 107% rule but i doubt that happens.

schumacher misses q3. perez qualifies 13th. somewhere on the internet a guy posts a triple crown update on a car racing board. a tree falls without a sound.

red bull-mcclaren
red-bull-mcclaren.
ferrari-renault

vettle-hamilton
webber-button
alonso-petrov

they did allow unrestricted open wing in qualifying. odd since you can't race that way. massa is a hopeless mess. sad to see the drop off. germany last year got in his head.

I watch God, but am not knowledgible enough to comment. I don't follow it at all in the offseason, so the first couple races, I just try to figure out who's who's and what cars they are in.

That describes me...I watch but the tech stuff is way over my head and I just don't know the drivers well enough to comment intelligently. I hope you enjoy the race!

there's no driver changes on the top 4 teams from last year.

the biggest technical change is pirelli supplies tires instead of bridgestone and were asked to increase wear to force more pit stops. you won't see 1 or 2 pit strategies. it'll now be 3 or 4.

the double diffuser's from last year are banned. kers is back. the back wing can now be opened to reduce downforce on straights. some of the teams are venting exhaust to the front of the car which is supposed to help aerodynamics. watch the first 15 minutes of any race early in the season and you'll know as much as anyone.

That should make it a bit more interesting.