By Matt Jones
April 6 2006

An explosive Australian Grand Prix left Honda Racing F1 fans with a lot to talk about. Never one to shy away from a challenge, here's RealHondaF1.com reader Matt Jones' views on the Melbourne event. Another early start for us Formula One fans as the last round was brought to us from the other side of the globe, on the Albert Park street circuit in Melbourne, where it is particularly vital to get a decent qualifying spot in order to have a strong race.

An early start at 3:30am for the third instalment of the new qualifying system which, for me, has lost a bit of the novelty, although it’s still an improvement over the single lap qualifying of 2005.

I feel that the sessions are too long, especially the final one, with the top teams only giving what they need to progress to the next round of qualifying in rounds one and two, and nothing more. You’re left a bit disappointed, with top drivers posting times that are over two seconds off the eventual pole time.

The third session is also a very disappointing spectacle, and David Coulthard hit the nail on the head last weekend when he said, “If I’m not in the final ten for the shootout for pole, then I want to see a shoot out for pole.”

With speeds so low, we’ve also seen a number of drivers going off circuit, perhaps with cold tyres.

Unfortunately for Honda Racing F1, Rubens Barrichello failed to make it out of the first session - very surprising, and very disappointing. It wasn’t all Rubens’ fault, as a Super Aguri lapping almost 10 seconds off the pace held him up for a substantial amount of time. Vitantonio Luizzi was left to benefit from Rubens’ misfortune, and ended up as the surprise that went through into the second session.

Another surprise was Toyota showing a bit more pace over the weekend and, at the moment, they seem to be going from strength to strength. After Sepang, I thought the relatively cool track temperatures at Albert Park would bring their performance levels right down but it seems they have solved some of their problems with regards to getting heat into the tyres, although they are still a long way off from getting any of the success they had last season.

Ferrari showed a slump in form, with a general lack of pace and an erratic Felipe Massa once again spinning off and ruining his race weekend. Whether the change in the controversial wings has hurt Ferrari’s pace I am unsure. Ross Brawn claims they had in fact gained performance from changing wings, something the other teams took with a pinch of salt. They were right to do so, as Ferrari couldn’t even break into the final 10 for the pole shoot out.

Nico Rosberg was also a victim of the qualifying sessions unpredictability with a red flag ruining his original run and then traffic and a bit of wide running through corners ruined his other.

Perhaps the surprise package was the BMW-Sauber’s, both making the final ten for the shootout for pole. With both drivers making the final session Jacques posted a lap time to ensure he started ahead of Jarno Trulli, who pulled out of the final session with gearbox problems. Nick Heidfeld was unable to make any impression on drivers ahead after using all his fresh tyres in the earlier sessions. The team seem to have pace, but are lacking any reliability from their V8 engines, and it proved so again this weekend with Jacques Villeneuve having to change his unit.

The surprise of the weekend was perhaps Jenson Button’s pole position. With the team not impressing with either car in the previous qualifying sessions, to suddenly put in the lap for pole by a comfortable 4 tenths was unexpected.

Onto what will probably be one of the most incident filled races this season - a truly bizarre race where only two or three drivers were able to lap consistently because of a complete lack of grip out on the track.

Juan Pablo Montoya handed us a spin in the formation lap, giving the rival teams a bit of a giggle. Surprisingly he made his way back up through the pack on the second formation lap after Giancarlo Fisichella stalled on the grid. Though no penalty was issued to Montoya a couple of team principles were shaking their heads as if to say, “that’s not right”.

With four safety car periods in the race, Button was passed four times, with a complete lack of grip on cold tyres compared to other drivers. We saw a much more aggressive side to Button as he tried to regain another place he lost after the safety car, amazingly putting his car right up the inside of Kimi Raikkonen. Both cars touched but unfortunately Button had to yield. Both Ralf and Montoya were able to gain from Honda’s poor laps after the safety cars, both disposing of him easily.

It was a race where the weakness of the RA106 was exposed, handing places to the competition. Hopefully the problem is only minor and can be sorted for Imola, where we will have a fresh engine after Jenson pulled up just feet from the finishing line, his engine letting go in spectacular fashion at the final corner, spitting out oil over the track and almost sending Fisichella spinning into the wall.

Whilst Fernando Alonso was running away with the race under control, Giancarlo Fisichella in the sister Renault was lapping two seconds a lap slower, the team on the radio openly criticising Fisichella for us all to hear. It was still a solid result after starting from the pit lane, due to his stall on the grid, but strong results came pretty easily to people in the right place at the right time.

Another team to benefit from the incident filled race was Toyota, with Ralf Schumacher putting in a strong drive and finishing on the podium, despite suffering from a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Ralf was not the only one to benefit, with Nick Heidfeld in the BMW-Sauber able to leap both McLaren’s after Kimi’s required a nosecone change. While the Finn was busy with that, Montoya was forced to queue for his pit stop. Heidfeld eventually finished a strong fourth place. After his retirement from fifth in Sepang, it’s good to see he was able to take a strong result.

Mark Webber’s home race was looking extremely promising. Running with a heavy fuel load, a podium finish was in reach until a failure retired him from the race. Michael Schumacher, whilst chasing a podium, completed Ferrari’s disappointing weekend, getting caught in the dirty air of Jenson Button and running wide in the final corner, ploughing heavily into the wall.

Alonso’s win means he is now 14 points ahead, and the Renault is not showing any signs of weakness at all. With almost double the points in the drivers and constructors championship, the other teams are making it more and more difficult for them to challenge.

McLaren looked good in stages of the race and were on for two very strong points positions until Montoya’s car cut out after hitting a bump off road. Another solid result keeps Kimi in touch with the on form Alonso.

Two double retirements in two races for Williams was certainly not what they were expecting after a competitive race at Bahrain.

Toyota looked in bad shape after Trulli’s first lap exit but, due to the circumstances in the race, Ralf was able to move up the grid. I expect Toyota to be a lot weaker in Imola, but take nothing away from them - it was an extremely strong result for the team.

Ferrari completed a disappointing weekend, with the team choosing the wrong tyre followed by a double retirement. It was certainly a race weekend to forget. They do have pace, as shown by Schumacher when, two laps into his second stint, he posted the third fastest lap of the race with a heavy fuel load onboard.

BMW will be extremely pleased with two strong points positions, Jacques Villeneuve putting in a very strong race from near the back of the grid.

Red Bull Racing have made a slip down in performance this year, with David Coulthard making up the final points position after retirements ahead. They will be disappointed that they could not have scored more points with such an opportunity.

The Super Aguri of Takuma Sato was impressing yet again, keeping Rubens Barrichello behind him for his entire first stint. Another extremely solid display, and it was also great to see Yuji Ide finish his first Formula One race.

Midland and Toro Rosso both had relatively quiet runs. Scott Speed will be disappointed that his points position was taken away due to overtaking under the safety car, and Toro Rosso will now have to look to Imola to score their maiden points. However, I doubt Imola will present a opportunity to score points like we saw today, so I imagine they will be disappointed for not have taken full advantage.

Overall it was a fantastic race to watch if you’re a neutral fan, incident filled and with some exciting racing. For the Honda fans it was extremely painful to watch, the inevitable happening every time the safety car came into the pits. We knew what was going to happen into turns one, two and three. Honda may be a tad disappointing, but I think Melbourne’s circumstances hurt us more than anyone else. Hopefully we can sort out this problem for Imola and start challenging for stronger positions now.

We just have to wait three weeks for it to come around.