Tough debut for Van der Garde

Giedo van der Garde was lucky to reach the end of his debut Grand Prix after suffering damage during the early part of the race.

It was a learning experience for the Dutchman, who admitted he was almost caught out at the start. "Normally you wait, look in the mirror, see the last ones are coming, then select first gear and there you go," he laughed. "Here it was like neutral, oh shit the lights (have gone) on!"

 

The Caterham driver was then tagged by fellow rookie Max Chilton, thereby damaging both cars. Chilton was forced to pit for a new front wing, though he escaped comparatively lightly in contrast to Van der Garde.

"It broke my rear diffuser quite badly," he explained. "The piece dropped off completely on lap 20."

With the diffuser effectively gone, tyre wear went through the roof, allowing a recovering Chilton to catch and finally pass the Caterham with ten laps to go. However, even without the damage it's possible Chilton would have caught the Dutchman, Marussia seemingly enjoying an early season advantage over its rivals.

Van der Garde however is taking positives away from his debut, while looking forward to the Spanish Grand Prix when an update package is expected.

"We're looking forward to that," he said. "We still have two races (after Malaysia) like this, which won't be easy for us. But for me it's good to learn as much as possible and from Barcelona look to make a good step."

"The team is quite confident about what is coming," he added. "I've heard good stories about it."

 

Pitpass.com

Melbourne: Giedo on the race

Giedo: For me that was a reasonable start to my F1 career. It was really important to finish my first race and that’s exactly what I did so I’m pretty happy with how it ended up.

“I started the race on the supersofts, passed a few people in the first turn and was keeping up with Bianchi until the first pitstop, even with the deg levels on the option tyres. Unfortunately I had a slow puncture on the first set of mediums and that cost me time and position. We had to stop much earlier than planned to put a new set of mediums on and that meant a change to the strategy, but it’s all good experience for me.

“I’ve said all through pre-season that the first races are a chance for me to learn and today was really good for that. I feel good physically and now we have a lot more information about tyre wear and how to manage that so we’ll take that to next week’s race Malaysia and see what we can do at our first home race of the season.”

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Melbourne: Caterham race report

Weather

Race: Dry (start), overcast, occasional very light rain (mid race); air temp 17° / track temp 23° (start), 18° / 21° (lap 29), 18° / 19° (lap 58)

Photo: CaterhamF1

Runplan

Charles Pic

Start on supersoft tyres

Lap 8: pitstop 1, medium tyres

Lap 33: pitstop 2, medium tyres

Finished: 16th

Fastest lap: 1.32.261 (lap 55)

Giedo van der Garde

Start on supersoft tyres

Lap 7: pitstop 1, medium tyres

Lap 16: pitstop 2, medium tyres

Lap 34: pitstop 3, medium tyres

Finished: 18th

Fastest lap: 1.32.636 (lap 39)

Team Quotes

Charles Pic, car 20, chassis CT03-#6: "That wasn't too bad a race for us. Of course we'd prefer to finish higher but I think that at this stage of the season this reflects our current performance levels.

"We started on the supersofts and our pace was ok for the first stint but the tyres dropped off very quickly. In contrast, when we went onto the mediums the degradation levels were very good so we were able to push the second stint much longer than we'd planned and that gave us a chance to fight. Unfortunately towards the end of the race we had a KERS failure which obviously cut our outright pace and prevented us from taking full advantage of the good tyre wear we saw on the primes.

"We know that it's going to be similar to this for the first few races, but with what we have coming it's going to be a really interesting season. We have quite a few small details we need to work on for the next race but it's good to have a real fight on our hands, good for the team and the fans so let's see how this progresses."

Giedo van der Garde, car 21, chassis CT01-#5: "For me that was a reasonable start to my F1 career. It was really important to finish my first race and that's exactly what I did so I'm pretty happy with how it ended up.

"I started the race on the supersofts, passed a few people in the first turn and was keeping up with Bianchi until the first pitstop, even with the deg levels on the option tyres. Unfortunately I had a slow puncture on the first set of mediums and that cost me time and position. We had to stop much earlier than planned to put a new set of mediums on and that meant a change to the strategy, but it's all good experience for me.

"I've said all through pre-season that the first races are a chance for me to learn and today was really good for that. I feel good physically and now we have a lot more information about tyre wear and how to manage that so we'll take that to next week's race Malaysia and see what we can do at our first home race of the season."

Caterham

Rain causes chaos at F1 season opener

The start of the new Formula One season was thrown into chaos today as adverse weather in Melbourne forced the second and third sessions of qualifying to be postponed until tomorrow.

Photo: CaterhamF1

Heavy rain initially delayed the opening 20-minute Q1 session, which began 30 minutes late but was ultimately completed only for conditions to worsen again almost as soon as it finished.

Race control at Melbourne's Albert Park announced delay after delay before deciding Q2 and Q3 will now take place tomorrow at 11am local time (midnight tonight Irish time).

Twice in recent years qualifying has had to be postponed on Saturday and held on Sunday morning, on both occasions in Japan.

In 2004 Typhoon Ma struck the Suzuka circuit, whilst three years ago conditions similar to today resulted in a continual stream of delays until the call was made to wait until race day to hold qualifying.

On this occasion the circumstances are somewhat unusual as Q1 found a window in which it could be completed, but with the remainder to now take place tomorrow.

Appreciably the opening 20-minute session was chaotic and ended with the track strewn with carbon fibre given the number of incidents.

One of the issues given the circuit is not a permanent one - it is effectively a street track housed in the middle of a park - was the lack of drainage.

Just as the first session was scheduled to start a number of marshals were out and about using brooms and squeegees to try and sweep away the standing water, albeit to no avail.

When it finally did begin the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Giedo van der Garde, Charles Pic and Esteban Gutierrez all suffered accidents.

For Hamilton in particular, for a few heartstopping moments it appeared as if his debut qualifying session with Mercedes would end with him floundering like a fish out of water.

On the approach to turn two Hamilton struck a patch of water, forcing him to lock his brakes and slide backwards across the track where he ended up striking a barrier with his rear wing.

As he came to rest, beached on a kerb with his car half on the grass and half on the track, initially it seemed the 28-year-old would be unable to free himself.

Instead, after an attempt to rock himself forwards, Hamilton selected reverse and gingerly manoeuvred backwards and into a position where he could again carry on his way, even with the slight damage to his rear wing.

As for Massa, the Brazilian was fortunate to lose only the front wing of his Ferrari after twice hitting a wall as he spun through 360 degrees before being able to trundle his way back to the pits for repairs.

Six drivers, however, will effectively have the morning off tomorrow, led by Williams' Pastor Maldonado, who went for a lengthy excursion across the grass at one point.

The Venezuelan, who declared his car "undriveable" after finishing Q1, will start 17th.

Behind him will be four of the five rookies in F1 this year, with Gutierrez 18th in his Sauber after ending his first qualifying with a spin into the same wall that accounted for Massa.

For Marussia, in what will be a season-long battle for 10th place in the constructors' championship with Caterham, the team struck an early blow with both their cars outqualifying their main rival.

Jules Bianchi and Britain's Max Chilton will line up 19th and 20th, whilst on the back row will be Van der Garde and Pic, both of whom spun at various points, losing their front wings.

Van der Garde actually contrived to run over the dislodged part, providing a suitably bizarre image to sum up the evening's mayhem.

Breakingnews.ie

Caterham duo splash out of rain-hit Q1

Caterham Racing's two cars will line up on the back row of the grid in Albert Park for the start of the 2013 F1 Australian Grand Prix, after both Giedo van der Garde and Charles Pic suffered accidents during the rain-hit Q1 session. 

Van der Garde was the first driver to hit problems in the atrocious conditions in Melbourne on Saturday when he slid off the road at turn 5 just three minutes into the session, damaging his front wing. He was able to tour back to pit lane and have a new nose fitted to the car to enable him to carry on. 

"The delays at the start of qualie obviously weren't ideal, but I was very calm and looking forward to getting out there," said the Dutch driver. "It was obviously the same conditions for everybody and it was very tricky out there. 

Qualifying was difficult for all the teams, but it was Caterham that bore the brunt of it with accidents sidelining both cars in Q1.

"I hit a puddle on my first run and span off, which meant I had to pit for a new nose," he continued. But the boys did a good job to get me out again quickly and we were looking good." 

The rain eased toward the end of the session, with the full wet tyres throwing enough water off the race line to entice all the drivers into a risky late switch to intermediates to try and steal a place in Q2 as the times tumbled with every passing second. 

"With a few minutes left in Q1 we switched to inters and the car felt great," said van der Garde. "On my last run I was well up but I had to back off for double yellow flags and that was the end of my chance. It's a shame as I know we'd have finished higher, but sometimes it's like that." 

One of those double yellow flag incidents was for van der Garde's team mate Charles Pic, after the Frenchman spun on the back stretch and ended up hitting the wall. 

"We made the call to switch to inters with about five minutes left of the session," explained Pic. "For the first lap it was very tricky - there was a lot of standing water and it was hard to keep the car on track, but it improved pretty quickly and I was starting to push." 

But then it was disaster for Pic as he battled hard to get within the 107 per cent cut-off time: "I touched the white line which caused me to spin and I made contact with the barrier which meant I had to pit.

Crash.net

Preparing for Melbourne

Giedo via Twitter: Next week this time I will race. Looking forward to it. Always push yourself to the limit, Never give up.

Giedo Twitter