F1 - Qualifying Austria Sat 21 Jun 2014 21:30 AEST ONE HD

[gary]

Coverage of the F1 Qualifying session for the Austrian Grand Prix begins
on Saturday at 21:30 AEST one ONE HD.

Coverage of the race itself on Sunday begins on TEN at 21:45 AEST.

We haven't seen a return to Austria since 2003 and the track itself is
owned by Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz.

The Red Bull team therefore will feel very much at home here and
Vettel describes the circuit as "actually very pretty, not only the track, but
the whole area - a beautiful natural landscape. There are not many
distractions there, it's just about racing. It is a short track, with only a few
turns, but it's very challenging. There are also a lot of elevation changes,
which makes it interesting and fun."

Not that you have much time to admire the scenery at 325 km/h.

Ricciardo says he has only ever driven the track on filming days and
not with the aggression that will take place on the weekend. After
his astounding win in Montreal, a third in Monaco and a solid performance
all year, here's hoping he can continue the run.

Mercedes have been busy "bullet-proofing" their cars so they don't see
a repeat of the failures in Canada.

Weather for the weekend is expected to be partly cloudy but fine.

In an article by Andrew Benson at the BBC, he reports that F1 bosses
decided against reducing the number of Friday practices from two to
one. The minor teams had said reducing practice otherwise
would have been a major disadvantage to them. Many lack the sophisticated
simulators of the major teams and some receive much needed cash
from new drivers looking for a drive.

See http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/27928788

Meantime Fernando Alonso has announced he plans to move to
Le Mans racing when he retires from F1. But he is adamant he wants
to win one more F1 title.

"I think I will - that's 100% decided. But I need to wait until I finish F1."

Alonso went on to say -

Originally Posted by Fernando Alonso in article by Andrew Benson at BBC

"Le Mans requires some test, some training and some dedication," Alonso said. "I am a person who if I decide to do something I do it 100%; I don't do it 50-50.

"So first I will try to do some more years in F1, try to win championships, try to help Ferrari but after that I won't be able to sit on the sofa, and endurance is a category you can race when you are a little bit older with no big problems. That will be my intention."

Article here -
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/27930836

[SpaceNoob (Chris)]

Why can't we get Sky Sports F1 here in Oz, on foxtel.... One HD coverage is lame in comparison. All that aside, lets hope it's as good a race as Canada!

[simmo]

Good racing yesterday in quali. Well done Massa and Williams in general. It was great to see such a happy event for Massa, his family and the team last night. Been a long time and quite deserved. Probably only Bottas was a little down but who could blame him.

Also good was the congratulations to Massa from Alonso at the weigh in. He's a great ambassador for the sport and sportsmanship.

I think I might have to remove my previous remarks that this season was boring as it seems to be far from lately.

What happened to Hamilton? Bizarre lock up coming into that corner?

Today's racing might be quite interesting and how many cars will need extra laps as they go outside the line with all wheels?

[Exfso (Peter)]

Could be a very interesting race, great to see Massa up there. Nice gesture by Fernando as well, he really is the top end as far as F1 competitors go. One rarely hears him whining about stuff, he just gets into the car and drives the living hell out of it. In my opinion is the best driver at present. Time for Kimi maybe to hang up his gloves and make room for someone like Hulkenburg, who I think deserves a good car, not that the Ferrari is at present anything to crow about, but definitely it would be a huge step up for him to get into that team. Interesting times ahead. I note that RB are seriously looking at engines once their current contract with Renault expires, their head honcho has even expressed that maybe they could build their own. That would be one for the books. Time will tell though. Renault seriously need to pull their finger out and get something happening with their current power plant, they had the same time as the Mercedes to get it sorted. This really is the only thing stopping them from being up the top of the time sheets at present.

[MrB (Simon)]

Very much looking forward to tonights race, but I'm more looking forward to September....
http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/f...rive-2014-6-20
This, for me, is the future of racing and it excites me. Some of you that already miss the screaming mosquitos will not be so enthusiastic

[simmo]

I think you may have the diehards howling for your blood Mr B. but I'm with you. Very interesting times indeed E class racing.

I follow motorcycles a lot more than cars and interestingly the worlds fastest production bike at the moment is a E bike named the lightning. 350km/hr from the showroom floor.

I think motorcycles have probably an easier path to becoming viable due to less weight. The E motorbikes are coming out now with as much hp as a internal combustion bike with twice as much torque. The only thing stopping them is the range which I'm sure will change with time but you can still get over 100 Km's out of them. A Perth entrepreneur has actually created his own bike to race in the local e bike series and I think (don't quote me been a while since I read the racers post) it has like 400nm of torque which is incredible.

Interesting to see if the new series will get some coverage.

[Astro_Bot]

Wow, what a great start to the race! Hamilton up 5 spots into 4th by the end of the 1st lap, and Vettel out on lap 2! Wait ... Vettel has drive back on lap 4 ...

Glued to the screen ....

Edit: And Vettel retires on lap 36 ... actually, I'm surprised the team kept him out that long since he was a lap behind after that power problem.

Edit: Good racing to the end. Mercedes 1 & 2 ... again ... but at least they raced to get there, and didn't just sit out in front from pole.