F1 - Abu Dhabi Qualifying 22 Nov 2014 23:30 AEDT ONE HD

[gary]

Coverage of the Qualifying session for the final round of the F1 season
in Abu Dhabi will be on Saturday night starting at 23:30 AEDT on ONE.

Coverage of the race itself on Sunday night will be on TEN starting at 23:30 AEDT.

Practice 1 will get underway at 20:00 AEDT today on Friday.

Two things are certain for this weekend's race.

Firstly, that the weather will be fine.

Secondly, that Ron won't be happy if Hamilton does not win. :lol:
See http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=128414

In other news, it has been confirmed that Vettel has signed for Ferrari on
a three-year deal.

He will drive along side Kimi Raikkonen in 2015.
See http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2014/11/16648.html

No announcement has been made but it is expected Alonso will
join McLaren.
See http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/30128844

[CJ]

You can add me to that!

[gary]

At the end of FP1, Hamilton was 0.138 seconds ahead of Rosberg.
Alonso, Vettel & Ricciardo were some 1.8 seconds slower.

[astroron]

Round one to Lewis. ;)
Cheers:thumbsup:

[gary]

Hi Ron,

Plus in free practice two, which took place there after sunset, Lewis
was 0.083 seconds ahead of Nico.

They will be racing on softs and the red supersofts. The later were about
a second faster a lap, but from what I watched last night, it looks like by
around 15 to 18 laps and they have gone off.

So it looks as if we will see at least the front of the pack start off on
the supersofts because that is what they are most likely to qualify
on and from then after that tyre strategy will kick in with the usual
trade-offs of speed versus endurance.

[astroron]

I hope Lewis doesn't go all "Fragile" on me when the race comes ,Mr Jones would be pleased.;)
Looking good so far though Gary.:D
Cheers:thumbsup:

[Andy01]

Red bulls excluded from qualy for flexible front wings... Schmettel was a good chance for a podium in Austin last race after starting from pit lane until his last pitstop, so still plenty of speed for the Red Bull boys to play with. Should be an interesting race. Go Dan & for the title- go Lewis!

[gary]

Hi Andy,

The cameras caught it last night in a slow motion replay where Ricciardo's
wing flexed and touched the ground.

It will be interesting to see if the two Red Bull's change strategy and
decide to start from the pit lane on the yellow softs and go for the
longer stint during the first half. However, with the prospect of a Safety
Car being high, it may not be worth doing that.

You will also possibly recollect that in 2012 Vettel started from the back
of the field at Abu Dhabi because of a fuel irregularity during qualifying.

He made his way up to 14th with a damaged front wing but then
during a Safety Car period went off the track to avoid running up the
back of Ricciardo who was doing a tyre warm-up, ploughed through the
foam DRS sign, damaged the car and returned to the pits again.

This saw him at the back of the pack again but he managed to cut
his way through the field a second time and went on to come third.

There have been some spectacular crashes at Yas Marina, so if the
Safety Car comes out, it could play a big part in tonight's race.

The first corner at the start is rarely without incident. The Hamilton/Rosberg
showdown will hopefully provide some edge of the seat viewing.

In other news, the BBC last night awarded their Overtake Of The Year
Award to Daniel Ricciardo for his gutsy overtake of Vettel at Monza. :thumbsup:

[astroron]

Eat your heart out Mr Jones. :D
Cheers:thumbsup:

[AstroJunk]

On ya Lewis!

(but I did love AJ's final remarks about the Cr#**y (Cr@**y) engine sound!)

[gary]

What an incredible start by Lewis!

With his performance all year, he clearly was meant to be world champion.

Daniel Ricciardo climbed 16 places during the race, more than any
other driver. The next was Vettel, who climbed 10 places.

[astroron]

But he had to say something negative,he has been saying things that way all year.
Well I wonder what they will come up with to get around that engine noise problem.:question:
They could do what kids do with their bikes and stick some sticks or other in the wheels to make a louder noise.:P
Well Done Lewis:D
See ya all next year for another exciting season of F1. :D
Cheers:thumbsup:

[Andy01]

Congrats Lewis, well deserved :)

Great drives from Dan and the Williams boys as well, roll on next season and bring back the noise!

Andy

[clive milne]

fwiw) In the last 11 races of the season Dan outscored Nico by 3 points in a car which was a second a lap down in pace. Also, since Spa Lewis outscored his team mate by 96.

I would like to see mr Jones reconcile that with his view of Nico being the mentally stronger driver.

[Kunama]

I think the driver of the year was Ricciardo, his overtakes on Fernando, Seb and others reminded me of a young Brazilian guy in the 1980s who left no doubt in anyones mind that if there was a gap left by anyone, the nose of his car would be in it.

[Larryp]

Quite true, Matt. I just hope Red Bull can come up with a competitive car without Adrian Newey, and Renault can improve their engine.

[gary]

Ricciardo's performance this year was stunning.

One of the most respected drivers would have to be Fernando Alonso.

It is a rare thing when an F1 driver praises another.

So after the German Grand Prix, it was high-praise indeed when Alonso said -


Story here: -
http://www1.skysports.com/f1/report/24184/9388708/fernando-alonso-hails-unbelievable-daniel-ricciardo-after-close-german-gp-duel

Video here :-
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x21xond_f1-germany-2014-alonso-ricciardo-battle_sport

Daniel's overtakes were consistently some of the most skilful all year and
it was often breathtaking to watch their execution. For example, check
out this set he did in Monza including the one he made on Vettel for
which the BBC awarded him the "Overtake of the Year" :-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCVzpXkPWFY

Jeremy Clarkson described him earlier this month as "the best
driver in F1".
See https://twitter.com/jeremyclarkson/status/529029194622451714

His overtake of Rosberg in the final laps at Canada and his subsequent
first win was a wonderful moment.

Speaking of Nico, it was a nice moment to see him come up to
Lewis after the race and congratulate him. The BBC quoted them
as saying that in their karting days they dreamt that one day they
would both become F1 drivers and be battling together for the
world championship.

Suffice to say, Lewis Hamilton must be on a high today. What a year!

Given the pace of the Mercedes and the skills of both Lewis and Nico,
I am sure we will see them many times on the podium in 2015.

The Australian Grand Prix will take place on March 15th.

[gary]

EMC, a sponsor of the Lotus F1 team, have released this short
advertising video of a racing car transport truck making
a record-breaking jump whilst at the same time an F1 car dashes
beneath it.

Don't try this at home.
http://www.emc.com/microsites/lotus/redefine-records.htm

[gary]

Been so busy that I had missed McLaren's Dec 11th announcement that they
had re-signed Jenson to drive alongside Fernando in 2015.

Button managed 8th in the world championship ahead of Magnussen's 11th
but before Abu Dhabi all the talk was whether he would ever get another
drive in F1.

See http://www.mclaren.com/formula1/team/mclaren-honda-announces-fernando-alonso-and-jenson-button-for-2015/

See http://www.mclaren.com/formula1/team/