Formula 1: Australian GP Qualifying Results

At the inaugural race of every Formula 1 season you never really know where each team stands in terms of performance. Sure, there are the favorites, the also-runs, the back markers and oftentimes, the wild cards.
Well, the qualifying race of the Australian Grand Prix that kicked off this year's F1 season certainly had all of the above. But not necessarily in the way most seasoned F1 fans might have expected.
Lewis Hamilton claimed the 20th pole position of his career and Jenson Button lined up right beside him, making it an all-McLaren front row. Not too surprising, as despite the fact that Sebastian Vettel took most pole positions last year, the McLarens had proved to be very fast during testing.

Formula 1: Australian GP Race Results

Every year FIA, the sport’s governing body, changes Formula 1’s technical regulations with the purpose of leveling out the playing field. This forces designers to work within a very strict set of parameters that make gaining an advantage a great challenge.

Despite FIA’s efforts to increase competition even more, F1 is far from becoming something akin to a one-make series. Some teams always make a better job than others do, but we have to wait until each year’s first race before drawing any conclusions.

At the 2012 Australian Grand Prix, the Saturday qualifying session showed us certain things like that the McLaren is currently the fastest car out there, while Red Bull Racing seems to have lost some of its pace due to the rule changes that affected the design of the RB8.

Formula 1: Carscoop’s Preview of the 2012 Season

When the red lights go out at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia on Sunday (17:00 local time, 06:00 GMT), it will not only mark the start of the 28th Australian Grand Prix but of the 2012 Formula 1 season as well.

It will also mark the first time in the 62-year history of the sport that six world champions line up on the same grid: Michael Schumacher (7 titles), Fernando Alonso (2 titles), Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Kimi Raikkonen (1 title each) and, of course, the reigning champion, Sebastian Vettel, who also won the 2010 world title.

In Formula 1, things can change dramatically from one year to another. And FIA is certainly trying hard to make any advantage held by a single team evaporate: thus it made the standard ECUs even simpler, compelled all teams to use “periscope”-style exhausts eliminating their aerodynamic effect on the diffuser, made changes to the front wing’s minimal strength and height and outlawed ride-height suspension systems.

Despite all these changes, some of which were clearly aimed at Red Bull (and made most cars sport an ugly face), the 25-year old German and the all-conquering these past two seasons RBR team are starting out as the ones to beat.

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New Lotus Exige S Roadster and Carbon-Bodied Evora GTE Unveiled in Geneva by Kimi Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 Formula 1 World Champion who after a three-year foray into the WRC returned to F1 with Lotus for the 2012 season, was on hand at the Geneva Motor Show to unveil the British carmaker’s two new models.

The first was the open-top version of the Exige S. The Roadster is the first Exige ever to be fitted with a soft-top roof, which Lotus claims, is both lightweight and easily removable.

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Lotus Goes Rallying with the Exige R-GT and Endurance Racing with the Evora GTE

Six Drivers' and seven Constructors' Formula 1 World Championships won by legends Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti are enough to secure Lotus' place in the history of F1 racing, even if it currently isn’t ranked among the title contenders.

Yet, the Hethel-based sports car maker has another world title to show for itself in a completely different form of racing: it won the 1982 World Rally Championship with the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus.

Confirming previous reports, Lotus is returning to special stages in partnership with the Italian team United Business, which won the 2011 title. It will enter the FIA European Rally Championship with the Exige R-GT painted in its iconic black and gold colors.

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