F1 Pit Lane Reporter

Keep your ear to the ground with Pit Lane Reporter from First4F1.com. We’ll be providing a regular round-up of F1 news on this page, so bookmark us and keep up to date with the Pit-Lane!

BMW were flying high in Melbourne with Robert Kubica putting in a sensational lap to secure second place on the grid alongside Lewis Hamilton. Kubica and his team were convinced that if he had not put his car off track and onto the artificial grass in spectacular fashion he could have taken pole. The team’s strong performance has given them renewed optimism that this season they could claim their first win.
The loss of traction control for the 2008 season along with automatic engine braking has resulted in the cars and drivers looking far more spectacular as they put down the power on the exit of corners, it’s great to see drivers using handfuls of opposite lock again and it’s likely to give the better drivers an opportunity to show that class counts.
Despite his great pole position Lewis Hamilton is still adamant that there is more to come as the season unfolds. The atmosphere at McLaren is already far more focussed on the job in hand with the arrival of the level headed Finn Heikki Kovalainen following the departure of Fernando Alonso.
Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello and the Honda team appear to have moved on from their disastrous performance last season. The arrival of Ross Brawn seems to have created an air of confidence and optimism throughout the team despite not making the final qualifying shoot out in Melbourne qualifying.
Timo Glock’s return to F1 attracted it’s fair share of punishment during qualifying when the German ace first suffered a 5 place grid demotion for a gearbox change and then a further 5 place demotion for obstructing Red Bull’s Mark Webber during qualifying.
Jarno Trulli, Jenson Button, Giancarlo Fisichella and Nico Rosberg were all under the steward’s spotlight during Melbourne qualifying as they set their fastest laps under yellow flag conditions, happily all escaped without penalty.
World Champion Kimi Raikkonen’s problem in Q1 at Melbourne was caused by a failure of the electronic fuel pump. The Flying Finn’s wings were clipped and he just managed to cruise to the entry of the pit lane. The fact that he needed external assistance to get his car back to the team’s garage meant that he was excluded from the rest of the qualifying session, not a great way for the world champion to start the defence of his title, but Kimi is no quitter as he proved last season.