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Who's going to win this one then, folks?


Renault were good in Australia last year, with the less then stellarly talented Petrov getting a podium, and now this year, the renamed Lotus team are looking quick out of the box.

Can the Kimster shock the world?!

And here is the McLaren garage for the weekend!

Getting excited now.

BlackKnight - if you like pictures, how would you like a fully interactive 3D fly-though of Albert Park that you can access through your web browser, that also traces the racing and provides all the corner breaking speeds etc...?

BlackKnight - it is something we have in development here at PortalF1. I can PM you a link to an early prototype, it wont be the final version.

Meanwhile, Mercedes chassis arrive in Melbourne...

Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull.

Behind him, it's gonna be tight but I except Button, Hamilton and Webber to contest for the remaining places on the podium. However, they might get a good challenge from Mercedes and Force India, whose car looks very promising and who have a very interesting driver pairing. Never count out Alonso, either, but judging by testing it looks like the car might not be up to it.

I would like to see Kimi in the top-3 more than anything but that's an unrealistic scenario. Schumacher's case already demonstrated that getting back to pace after long absence doesn't happen in a blink of an eye. I'm expecting a difficult qualifying followed by slightly stronger race pace and a potential points finish.

I guess no-one is clearly ahead, judging from testing...
But it will probably be Vettel, followed by the Macs. Weather could play its part, too, so anything it's possible.
I wish the Enstone team have delivered a good car to Kimi, too. And I must mention Grosjean is one of my favourite drivers, too.

That and he has also continued racing throughout his sabbatical, which is something Schumacher did not do, except for the odd test once a year. I doubt Schuey would have struggled as much had he been racing for those 3 years.

I've just posted my Virtual Championship prediction - Seb for pole, but Hamilton to win it from Vettel, Webber, Button and Raikkonen.

Very exciting!

McLaren seems solid. It's even a bit surprising as I remember reading they had a lot of problems in testing but now it's looking good for them. Only half an hour to go now...

I'm not sure if McLaren's 1-2 was expected but a great performance from them nevertheless. Their decision to not use a stepped nose seems to have paid off. Also, very good stuff from Mercedes, Schuey in particular. Rosberg had potential but made mistakes. Red Bull was much worse than what I expected and it was a slight surprise to see Webber ahead of Vettel.

It is fantastic to see Williams improving. 8th for Maldonado is a great position and I hope they can have a succesful season in 2012. The unexperienced line-up at STR impressed; 10th for the slightly more experienced Ricciardo and 11th for newbie Vergne. Future looks bright.

The situation between the three minnow teams seems virtually unchanged; Caterham leads by a clear margin, Marussia comes there in between and HRT struggles. Karthikeyan - for crying out loud, at least try to stay out of the way...

Saving the best for the last: Grosjean's performance was near perfect. Shame on me for underestimating him. Räikkönen, on the other hand, I always expected to struggle but not so much that he gets stuck in Q1. It seemed like a combination of poorly selected qualifying strategy combined with a severe mistake and the only positive thing to draw from that is that we get to see how his overtaking skills have been preserved.

I think it's going to be a fine, unpredictable race tomorrow.