Its been a few weeks since my last entry, and so its time for a catch up. After Thursday and Friday practice at the Melbourne Grand Prix, Saturday rolled around and it was finally qualifying time in Melbourne. After the two previous days of intermittant (and at times heavy) rain, Saturday was a glorious day, inviting the F1 cars out on to the track to really show what they could do.

I met up with Luke for the second day running at the gate entrance to the circuit, however things were definitely different from the previous two days. Although I had arrived at the same time as Thursday and Friday, where previously only 20 or so people had been at the gate waiting, Saturday saw hundreds of people queing up outside the gate. Luke and myself forced our way through the crowd, near to the entrance ready for opening. After the gates opened, we sprinted for our usual spot.

Before qualifying, there was free practice 3, as well as various other on track events and even some events in the air. In addition to the RAAF Roulettes that had been on show on Thursday and Friday, the FA-18 Super Hornets came to play, and by god can they make a sound when they fly past.

When the skys settled down and the cars took to the track for Free Practice 3, it was the first indication of just who could really be fast this year. Mclaren and Mercedes both showed a strong turn of form, with Red Bull and Ferrari clearly underperforming. Around 10 minutes from the end of the final practice session, non other than Micheal Schumacher parked his car right in front of me in turn 9 - just as Felipe Massa had done previously.

Luke is a big Michael Schumacher fan, so I offered to watch his stuff whilst he ran down and vaulted a fence to grab some video of the Mercedes driver sheperding his car to safe harbour off the gravel trap. Luke managed to grab some very good video, and at the time of writing his youtube video has amassed 150 000 views. Impressive stuff - and you can watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5gjPrb43LA (though I recommend you turn down volume control - the video is LOUD!).

After free practice 3 there was a 2 hour break before qualifying started. When it did finally start, it took almost another 10 minutes from the track opening before anyone set a realistic time. In the end the biggest looser turned out to be none other than Kimi Raikkonen on his return to Formula 1, having dropped a wheel in the grass on his out lap and so not making it to the start finish line before the end of the session to set a hot lap.

In the second part of qualifying, it was to be Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso and Paul DiResta who were the shock loosers, highlighting Ferrari's underperformance. Fernando Alonso had made a mistake on the home straight, dropping the car in the grass towards the entrance to turn one. He looked like he had been fighting the car for even mechanical grip. More interestingly though, Felipe simply could not get the drive or performance out of his car, not making any real mistakes.

When the final part of qualifying rolled around, it was to be Lewis Hamilton, second on track, who ended up setting the fastest time of the session and going P1. He was over half a second quicker by the end of the session to his nearest rival, his teammate Jenson Button. The big surprise was Roman Grosjean in third, coming from nowhere to set a blistering lap in the Lotus (formally Renault). The red bulls were left 5th and 6th on the grid, and again they did not demonstrate any real speed.

After qualifying, I headed off over to the paddock to explore for a while. I wanted to see what else was on offer other than the on track action, and after the previous days success with grabbing a photo with Jake Humphery, I was motivated to see who I could see. It turned out to be a good idea.

In the end I saw a great number of F1 celebraties - including: Georgie Thompson, Natalie Pinkham, Lee McKenzie, Jaime Alguersuari, Damon Hill, David Coulthard, Ted Kravitz, Martin Brundle, Mark Webber, Jake Humphery again, Heinz Harold Frentzen, Niki Lauda, Heiki Kovalienen and Éric Boullier.

By the time I left the circuit it was 10:30pm, and I still had a walk home from Canterbury Road to South Yarra, finally arriving back at about 11:30pm. I was so tired I crashed out quickly, passing the buck of blog post writing till the next day (or so I thought).

Ian.