Qualifying report: Hamilton grabs P1

  • Published on 19 Mar 2016 09:33
  • 7
  • By: Calle Nilsson

Lewis Hamilton's lifestyle do not appear to hinder his performance in F1, as the brit once again managed to grab Pole in Australia. This is Hamilton's 50th pole in F1. 

Q1 began in a hectic fashion as teams hurried to get their drivers out on track. Wehrlein was the first driver to be eliminated in this new musical chairs style system, followerd by team mate Rio Haryanto. Due to erroneous timing, both Haas drivers failed to go back out on fresh tyres in time, and they were eliminated shortly after the two Manor drivers. Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat was eliminated in a similar fashion, and shortly after him, Sauber's two drivers were eliminated.

In Q2, a problem quickly arose with the new system, as most teams used their softer tyres in Q1 and would be unable to score sufficient times on harder compounds, and neither of Renault's or McLaren's drivers bothered to go out in time. Williams' Bottas and both Force India drivers were also eliminated.

Q3 saw very little action: Most drivers, including Räikkönen and Vettel from Ferrari, decided to not go out anymore. This left Hamilton with an easy pole and left Rosberg with an easy second place.

What is your opinion about the new qualifying system? Let us know in the comments section!

Albert Park - 19 March 2016

Replies (7)

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  • Qualifying was... not gonna lie... utterly and hopelessly shite! They want to stop cars sitting idly in the garage? So simple, anyone caught sitting idle in the garage more than say 2-3mins get penalties unless they can prove force majeure.

    Simple.

    We don't need no elimination and what not, the aim is to have cars compete for time. Also increase the number of tyres available for qualifying proposes ONLY. That should ensure faster times too, no one will be able to merely put the engines tuned down and run on ultra hard tyres going in circles and circles wasting a chance to go for the fastest time when you can. Some team might be overconfident to waste around in circles and then put 1-2 charges to the end but that will cost them time to enter and exit the pits, so that sort of sneaky practice can also be put in check with a time based penalty for being in the pits for too long.

    There this is just off the top of my head, when the smarter people in F1 really try to think of the sport and not themselves we can surely get even better ideas! Alas everyone is a selfish S.O.B, such is life.

    • + 0
    • Mar 19 2016 - 11:23
  • Q1 was sort of interesting, but Q2 and Q3 was ruined by the lack of soft tyres. They either need to fix that or bring back normal quali for Q2 and Q1. But I never disliked the old format, so wont complain if they decide to revert to the old one completely.

    • + 1
    • Mar 19 2016 - 11:50
  • Barron

    Posts: 625

    I thought it was fine and threw in some variables to make it less predictable and somewhat strategic in places, but what do I know? I'm just an 'ordinary' F1 fan with a long (read normal) attention span. If 1 minute 30 seconds of 'inactivity' spoils your day I would suggest consulting a medical practitioner to sort out your A.D.D.

    Perhaps Q3 is 4 mins too long for just 8 cars and perhaps Q3 should be a pure shootout with no eliminations.. That's it really..

    • + 0
    • Mar 19 2016 - 14:50
  • f1dave

    Posts: 782

    Worst qually ever ! In the old system the teams may not have rushed to get on track but as the sessions progressed excitement grew. With this system everybody rushed to get in a lap then it just fizzled out. Both Q2's final two minutes and Q3's final four minutes had no cars on track and the drivers just sort of wandering off. Martin Brundle was right, forget this stupidity and go back to the previous system. I promise not to laugh too hard at another failed attempt at making the sport exciting by introducing silly things instead of addressing the real problems in F1.

    • + 0
    • Mar 19 2016 - 16:35
  • New qualifying not quite right yet... Maybe 2x slowest cars every 3 minutes (in last half of Q1 & Q2) will give more cars incentive/opportunity to react & try to improve their time. Q3 should be a straight shoot-out with 2 sets of new tires... One set MUST be run in first half of session, 2nd set MUST be run in last half of session. No one is safe as best time could be early or late in Q3.

    • + 0
    • Mar 19 2016 - 17:42
  • Pompey

    Posts: 84

    I don't need to add to the general opinion that qualifying was b*****ks. If the idea is simply to mix up the grid why not just have each driver pull a car number from the pot. First number out is placed last then keep going until you reach pole. Imagine a driver pulling his team mate out and putting him behind. Better still let's stick to the old tried and tested method, with times tumbling and the quickest car on pole.

    • + 0
    • Mar 19 2016 - 18:45
  • khasmir

    Posts: 893

    They tried, they failed, this new format sucked bigtime, let's get rid of it.

    • + 0
    • Mar 19 2016 - 23:21

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