Best lap of the weekend - Melbourne

Best lap of the weekend - Melbourne

Q: How does the best lap of the whole weekend (3 practice sessions, qualifying
and race) compare to the best lap of the weekend in 2007?

Here are two tables - one compares driver with driver; easy enough if the same
driver remains in the same team. If not compare the 2007 driver with the guy
who replaced him.

Note: Spyker-Ferrari was renamed to Force India-Ferrari.

'S' is the session when the best lap was achieved (P1/P2/P3/Q1/Q2/Q3/R)
'Lps' are the total laps in all sessions (2007 excludes any third drivers)
'Diff' is the gain/loss in seconds
'%Diff' is the difference in time as a percentage of the 2007 time

Negative Diff/%Diff mean that the driver/team improved. Positive means they
got worse.

There can be several reasons for the variations seen.

Apologies if the tables wrap - save it and reformat if you are interested.


2007 Team 2007 Driver S Lps Time 2008 Driver S Lps Time Diff.
%Diff
=========================================================================================
Spyker-Ferrari Albers P3 66 1'30.547 Fisichella P3 83
1'26.682 -3.865 -4.27
T Rosso-Ferrari Speed Q1 81 1'28.305 Vettel Q2 98
1'25.842 -2.463 -2.79
Red Bull-Renault Coulthard R 98 1'27.706 Coulthard Q2 88
1'26.063 -1.643 -1.87
Honda Barrichello Q1 106 1'27.679 Barrichello Q2 134
1'26.173 -1.506 -1.72
Spyker-Ferrari Sutil P3 142 1'28.678 Sutil P3 80
1'27.489 -1.189 -1.34
Honda Button Q2 137 1'27.264 Button Q2 86
1'26.259 -1.005 -1.15
Williams-Toyota Wurz P3 119 1'27.322 Nakajima Q2 121
1'26.413 -0.909 -1.04
Ferrari Massa P3 117 1'26.547 Massa Q2 114
1'25.691 -0.856 -0.99
T Rosso-Ferrari Liuzzi R 102 1'28.282 Bourdais Q1 125
1'27.446 -0.836 -0.95
Williams-Toyota Rosberg R 104 1'26.721 Rosberg Q2 130
1'26.059 -0.662 -0.76
Toyota Trulli Q2 140 1'26.688 Trulli Q2 92
1'26.101 -0.587 -0.68
Toyota Schumacher Q2 127 1'26.739 Glock Q2 119
1'26.164 -0.575 -0.66
BMW Sauber-BMW Kubica Q2 100 1'25.882 Kubica Q2 127
1'25.315 -0.567 -0.66
McLaren-Mercedes Hamilton Q2 129 1'25.577 Hamilton Q2 140
1'25.187 -0.390 -0.46
Red Bull-Renault Webber Q2 120 1'26.623 Webber P3 70
1'26.407 -0.216 -0.25

McLaren-Mercedes Alonso Q2 135 1'25.326 Kovalainen Q2 134 1'25.452 +0.126
+0.15
Renault Fisichella Q2 144 1'25.944 Alonso P3 141 1'26.082 +0.138
+0.16
BMW Sauber-BMW Heidfeld Q2 136 1'25.358 Heidfeld Q2 130 1'25.518 +0.160
+0.19
Renault Kovalainen P3 110 1'26.937 Piquet P3 84 1'27.284 +0.347
+0.40
Ferrari Räikkönen R 129 1'25.235 Räikkönen Q1 126 1'26.140 +0.905
+1.06
S Aguri-Honda Sato Q2 122 1'26.758 Sato Q1 77 1'28.208 +1.450
+1.67
S Aguri-Honda Davidson P3 119 1'26.491 Davidson P3 39 1'28.912 +2.421
+2.80

Notes
=====
Fisi improved the most compared with Albers - note that Albers didn't do very well
last
year.

The bottom seven drivers went slower - the Super Aguri's were lucky to be able to run
at all, so no surprise that they slowed down the most. Both Renaults, Heikki, Alonso
Heidfeld & Räikkönen all slowed - Kimi would have had a better lap if he had been
able to complete Q2/Q3.

Note which drivers failed to go faster in qualifying than they did in practice -
Fisi, Sutil, Webber (brake failure), Alonso, Piquet & Davidson.


The second table takes the best lap time from both drivers in each time and compares
with the equivalent team last season. Probably a better comparison.

2007 Team 2007 Driver S Lps Time 2008 Driver S Lps Time Diff.
%Diff
=========================================================================================
T Rosso-Ferrari Liuzzi R 183 1'28.282 Vettel Q2 223
1'25.842 -2.440 -2.76
Spyker-Ferrari Sutil P3 208 1'28.678 Fisichella P3 163
1'26.682 -1.996 -2.25
Honda Button Q2 243 1'27.264 Barrichello Q2 220
1'26.173 -1.091 -1.25
Williams-Toyota Rosberg R 223 1'26.721 Rosberg Q2 251
1'26.059 -0.662 -0.76
Toyota Trulli Q2 267 1'26.688 Trulli Q2 211
1'26.101 -0.587 -0.68
Red Bull-Renault Webber Q2 218 1'26.623 Coulthard Q2 158
1'26.063 -0.560 -0.65
McLaren-Mercedes Alonso Q2 264 1'25.326 Hamilton Q2 274
1'25.187 -0.139 -0.16
BMW Sauber-BMW Heidfeld Q2 236 1'25.358 Kubica Q2 257
1'25.315 -0.043 -0.05

Renault Fisichella Q2 254 1'25.944 Alonso P3 225 1'26.082 +0.138
+0.16
Ferrari Räikkönen R 246 1'25.235 Massa Q2 240 1'25.691 +0.456
+0.53
S Aguri-Honda Davidson P3 241 1'26.491 Sato Q1 116 1'28.208 +1.717
+1.99

Toro Rosso improved the most, probably partly that Vettel is a much better driver
than
Speed/Liuzzi.

Renault & Ferrari (plus Super Aguri) were slower than last year - perhaps Ferrari's
engine problems are more serious than they seemed (both cars had failures).

--

Brian W Lawrence
Wantage,
Oxfordshire, UK
Brian_W_Lawrence@msn,com