Melbourne Grand Prix

[PD]

Can't say that I've every been a big fan of F1,(trying to deliver to the place doesn't endear you to it either )
Although I'd be dissappointed if Graham's hero failed to 'raise the Bar'
Or if the overated BBQ kettle made it onto the podium

[Graham Las Darrington]

Weather affected first qualifying results:

1 G Fisichella (Renault)
2 J Trulli (Toyota)
3 M Webber (Williams)
4 J Villeneuve (Sauber)
5 C Klien (Red Bull)
6 D Coulthard (Red Bull)
7 N Heidfeld (Williams)
8 J Button (BAR)

00D 13h 56m 27s to start.

Controversy reported over court action regarding Minardi's attempt to race with last year's spec car. FIA reckons it will have to think hard whether or not to ever have FIA races in Australia again.
Amazingly Minardi suddenly complies with new rules changing their cars overnight! Brinkmanship, politics and dummy spitting! What more could we ask for? Maybe just a good race.

[Thunderstruck]

What right does a Victorian court have over international regulations on major sporting events? Minardi wanted to play outside the established rules and the court lets them?

[Graham Las Darrington]

Result of 2005 Australian GP, Melbourne:

1 G Fisichella (Renault)
2 R Barrichello (Ferrari)
3 F Alonso (Renault)
4 D Coulthard (Red Bull)
5 M Webber (Williams)
6 JP Montoya (McLaren)
7 C Klien (Red Bull)
8 K Raikkonen (McLaren)

[Buzz]

A Victorian court has every right under the sun to make judgements on an event held within it's jurisdiction. Heck - an Australian court has found in favour of an Australian over a libel case based on a newspaper published in the US - but the article was published on the net - hence viewable by Australians, hence slander in Australia. The whole issue was a lot of posturing and posing by both sides - FIA, and Minardi.

As for the race, was very annoyed with the Schumaker / Webber incident (don't know who was to fault, since I was at the cricket at the time), but I feel it's finally Webbers time to stand upon the podium this year! He's finally with a good team, with a good car... looks good!

[jellyhead]

As for the race, was very annoyed with the Schumaker / Webber incident (don't know who was to fault

Schumacher and Heidfeld and I (hubby and the commentators) thought it was most definitely MS' fault and something that will be looked at by the stewards apparently.

[Buzz]

See - that's what happens when you don't have the sound up. I was scoring cricket at the MCG, was trying to make sure I didn't miss any deliveries, but managed to look up and see bits every now and then. One of those bits was the incident which has both Schumacher and Webber's names on screen. Didn't realise that it was actually Heidfeld.

Feel even better that Shumy didn't win and didn't even finish the race.

[Thunderstruck]

The way I understand it is Stoddart wanted his out of spec cars in the race. Everyone else followed the rules but he made a big whinge about it and took it to court. FIA said they were never given the chance to put up their case before the judge so I think it was quite unfair for the judge to pass a ruling having only listened to one side. If that is really the case then I wouldn't be surprised if the FIA up and leave.

[Buzz]

The judge only granted the injunction to allow Minardi to participate in the sessions prior to the hearing which was supposed to be Saturday afternoon. Both parties came to an agreement prior to that, and Minardi withdrew their petition. The judge is quite within his rights to grant an injunction pending the hearing to ensure that Minardi weren't disadvantaged if they were to have won the petition.

From my understanding, Minardi and Soddardt are firmly in favour of supporting the lower end teams like themselves, who cannot afford all the testing that's required every time they change rules and regulations. It was a ploy to bring their plight to the forefront of discussion. FIA and Ferrari run the sport and really don't care if they eliminate the smaller teams.

[Surandy]

The judge only granted the injunction to allow Minardi to participate in the sessions prior to the hearing which was supposed to be Saturday afternoon. Both parties came to an agreement prior to that, and Minardi withdrew their petition. The judge is quite within his rights to grant an injunction pending the hearing to ensure that Minardi weren't disadvantaged if they were to have won the petition.

As mentioned on ABC, or SEN, on Saturday this is a common feature of legal systems in most (all?) countries that use a similar legal system to Australia, eg Britain, USA, Canada, etc.

[Graham Las Darrington]

What the Minardi case shows is the great amount of ill feeling in the sport.
At times in the last few weeks its been Ferrari versus the rest, Minardi v Ferrari, FIA v Minardi, F1 v Proposed new organisation setting up a rival series at end of current agreement. This is hardly the best run up to a new season. It's not Australia/Victoria's fault that there's so much turmoil behind the scenes. The fact that a team took the FIA to court speaks volumes!

Formula 1 could do with just getting on with racing, and probably setting up a new series which gives a fairer deal to all and encouragement to Minardi/Jordan etc.

I'm not sure it should be a case of if the FIA will ever race in Australia again, but whether Australia ever wants to run them again, given the unpleasantness.

[steaming stormer]

Minardi knew the rules, and chose not to do anything about it until the last minute. It took just 6 hours for them to eventually make the changes the night before the race.

Plain and simple, Minardi knew the rules, but didn't want to follow them... should never have gone to court, and should not have been allowed to partake until the changes occurred. End of story IMO

[thinga87]

Just a question - why was the race the weekend before the Labour Day holiday? (which I'm missing on Monday )

[Surandy]

Just a question - why was the race the weekend before the Labour Day holiday? (which I'm missing on Monday )

Coz there's 19 races this year, instead of the 17 last year. The had to start the season earlier to accommodate the two extra races.

[Thunderstruck]

Actually it was to accomodate the Storm vs Knights game so fans of both won't have to miss either one