The Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit is a street circuit around Albert Park Lake, only a couple of kilometres south of central Melbourne.
It is used once a year as a racetrack for the Australian Grand Prix and associated support races.

The circuit uses everyday sections of road that circle Albert Park Lake, a small man-made lake just south of the Central Business District of Melbourne. The road sections that are used were rebuilt prior to the inaugural event in 1996 to ensure consistency and smoothness. As a result, compared to other circuits that are held on public roads, the Albert Park track has quite a smooth surface. Before 2007 there existed only a few other places on the Formula 1 calendar with a body of water close to the track. Most of the new tracks, such as Valencia, Singapore and Abu Dhabi have imitated that feature.

The course is considered to be quite fast and relatively easy to drive, with drivers having commented that the consistent placement of corners allows them to easily learn the circuit and achieve competitive times. However, the flat terrain around the lake, coupled with a track design that features few true straights, means that the track is not conducive to overtaking or easy spectating unless in possession of a grandstand seat.
Michael had quite a good weekend on Melbourne, Qualifying second, and finishing in points!

Free Practice
“I knew I was fast, I just didn’t know the other guys paces, but seeing the lapchart, some had to be faster”, is what he told before he went into free practice.
Being in free practice, we noticed he was ahead of the guys driving at that moment, but not everyone was on track yet, so we’d have to wait to after the free practice to see the real comparisons.

Just after the start, Michael leading the race!

Qualifying
Going into qualifying, with the final setup, the telemetry readouts were very clear, we needed to push the car just a bit over the max, then we’d be safe.
After a couple of laps, we noticed he gained a lot of confidence in the car, and he kept going faster. He had just a few minutes left before he pulled out a monster of a lap, pushing the car further over the limit than intended, which placed him first for that moment.
A few laps later, Robin van Brenk, was just a bit faster, beating his time by 0.002 seconds.
“I’m happy with what we achieved, starting from second place is the best place reached so far, and I feel confident for the race”.

Race
Going into the race, we knew it would be a hard battle, and that it would be anything but a easy drive home.
“We have a lot of speed, but we aren’t the fastest guys around, I expect Robin to be much faster, though only time will tell.”
Michael had a brilliant start, beating Robin to turn one, and having a slight gap there already, behind him was Nick Oldenhuis already using his slipstream.
The first few corners went good, not too much stress on the car, and keeping the same split times, then at turn 6, a massive 4-wheel brakelock caused Michael to go into the gravel.
He slowly returned to the track, but he came back in 9th place, having to fight the way back up again.

Overtaking Maurice Zondag

With no damage on the car, and the brake bias set a bit more forward to prevent it from happening, Michael quickly returned up to pace again, and started catching up with the guys in front again.

Last to be beaten in the race, was Maurice Zondag, which would bring Michael to the 4th position. Despite trying to keep up with the guys in front, Nick Oldenhuis, Malcolm Rice and Robin van Brenk were just too fast.

Sunday, is the next race on Sepang, which will be another thrilling round for both GRIDline, and Michael!

Stay Tuned!

Michael Pieneman

3 Responses to “Melbourne, fighting forward.”