Round 3: Foster's Australian Grand Prix

After two rounds of the FIA Formula One World Championship, the pecking order has started to become established. Renault are again the dominant force, however McLaren and Honda have shown the pace needed to challenge. They simply need too bring it all together.



The Australian Grand Prix has been held at Albert Park in Melbourne since 1996. At the innaugural event Jacques Villenueve announced himself to F1 by qualifying on pole and leading his debut grand prix at Melbourne in 1996. He eventually finished second to team-mate Damon Hill after being told to back off because of an engine problem. Since then David Coulthard has took a win in '97, followed by Eddie Irvine who kicked off a series of wins for Ferrari. This was only recently broken at last years stunning display by Giancarlo Fisichella.

This may be the race for Honda however. Jenson Button took his third career pole position for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne with an extraordinary lap in the top-ten shoot-out. The Englishman took the wind out of his rivals sails by setting a 1m25.229s lap on his penultimate run, 0.4s faster than second place man Giancarlo Fisichella. The McLarens' had a chance however both drivers were caught out in the final sector of the track. Ralph Schumacher showed that Toyota has finally found some form this season, with a great drive to sixth on the grid. Jacque qualified 9th, however has made an engine change this weekend and therefore will suffer a 10 place grid penalty. Both Ferraris failed to make it through to the top-ten shoot-out in qualifying as rain ruined Michael Schumacher's flying lap in the final minutes of the second knock-out session. His team-mate Felipe Massa caused the second red flag of the day when he crashed out at Turn 9. The Ferrari driver lost out on the entry to the chicane and skated across the gravel before smaking the wall and ripping off the right rear corner. Nico Rosberg also got caught out by the rain and for the first time this year the Williams driver has not made the top ten shoot-out. Rubens Barrichello was knocked out of Australian Grand Prix qualifying after the first 15-minute segment. The Brazilian Honda driver, who has once again been struggling with the handling of his car, left his fast lap very late in the session and was then held up half way through it by Yuji Ide. The Japanese rookie appeared to be struggle on the cold surface having spun three times on his flying lap!

Round 1: Bahrain Grand Prix Presented by Gulf Air

After months of research, design, development, and testing the teams finally converge on Sakhir, Bahrain for the first round of the 2006 Grand Prix season. Loacated on the middle of an island the track is constantly plagued by sand blown onto the circuit from the high winds. Designed by Herman Tilke, it debuted in 2004 to a sell out crowd.

Once again the powers-that-be have shaken up F1 in an atempt to create a better show. Luckil for us, this time they got it right. And after a very interesting qualifying the results are below. In the new format all 22 cars must set a time in the first 15 minutes with the 6 slowet cars being eliminated and their positions cemented on the grid. After a 5 minute break, all the times are reset and the 16 remaining cars must again set a time with 6 more grid positions being determined. These cars are allowed to start the race with whatever fuel load the wish. The reamining 10 cars must designate a fuel level and begin the final 20 minute session at that level. A competition then ensues between the ramaining drivers to set the fastest lap. As fuel loads burn off, drivers one-up each other and then come in for fresh tires to set their final flyer.

Ferrari seem to have regained the pace that they enojeyd so much in seasons past. The pole for Micheal is his 65th career pole and ties the late Ayrton Senna for the most pole positions in a career. Unfortunetly the sands of Bahrain were not as kind to the Mclaren team, with Kimi have problems in pratice and finially breaking the rear wing and suspension leaving him with no time and to start from the back of the grid. This is not an uncommon situiation for him however and it will be interesting watching him work his way up. One can never discount the defending champion Fernando Alonso, and Jenson Button would love to get his first win in over 100 starts. They will all e facing an up-hill battle however as they will need to pass the 7 time WDC with an eager young teammate nipping at his heels. It should make for a very exciting opening round to the 2006 Formula 1 season.

Click here to watch 'Coulthard---Bahrain-Onboard-Lap'



1. M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1m31.431s
2. MASSA Ferrari 1m31.478s
3. BUTTON Honda 1m31.549s
4. ALONSO Renault 1m31.702s
5. MONTOYA McLaren 1m32.164s
6. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m32.579s
7. WEBBER Williams 1m33.006s
8. KLIEN Red Bull 1m33.112s
9. FISICHELLA Renault 1m33.496s
10. HEIDFELD BMW 1m33.926s
11. VILLENEUVE BMW 1m32.456s
12. ROSBERG Williams 1m32.620s
13. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m32.850s
14. TRULLI Toyota 1m33.066s
15. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m33.416s
16. SPEED Toro Rosso 1m34.606s
17. R.SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m34.702s
18. ALBERS MF1 1m35.724s
19. MONTEIRO MF1 1m35.900s
20. SATO Super Aguri 1m37.411s
21. IDE Super Aguri 1m40.270s
22. RAIKKONEN McLaren no time