Abu Dhabi: pre-race

I thought Massa was going to end up third on the grid, but Bottas pipped him at the end. The Williams were more competitive than I thought they would be.

Q1 had five eliminations this time. Unsurprisingly, both Caterhams went out, dead last, as did both Lotuses. Gutierrez also left at this stage, although his team mate made it through.

In Q2 neither Force India progressed, Sutil was last, and Vergne and Magnussen also failed to get any further. Bit of a poor result for the Dane, to be honest.

Q3 had a surprisingly comfortable Rosberg pole, nearly four-tenths up on Hamilton. Bottas, who starts third, is closer to Hamilton’s time than the Briton was to Rosberg’s. Massa lines up alongside his team mate, and may feel disappointed that he didn’t match earlier pace to end up third himself.

Ricciardo and Vettel are next up, with Kvyat and Button on row four. Raikkonen leads Alonso at the back of the top 10, a pretty shoddy result for the prancing horse.

The Williams is the fastest car in a straight line, so if a Mercedes falls behind one or both that could be hard to pass (the Mercedes is far better in the corners, but it’s harder to pass there). Despite lining up side-by-side, there was six-tenths between Vettel and Ricciardo, so perhaps the top five will cruise off into the sunset at the start.

Initial bets that leapt to mind were:
Bottas for a podium
Safety Car (if decent odds, 2/5 races have had one)
Lay Raikkonen points
Hulkenberg points

Even two and a half hours after the race, Ladbrokes still didn’t have its markets up. No idea why, but it’s a bit ropey. For whatever reason, Betfair also hadn’t got going.

After waiting a few more hours, they’d woken up. Alas, none of the odds looked nice. It also emerged that the reasoning behind the delay was understandable: both Red Bulls were put to the back of the grid for having illegal cars (specifically, the front wings were too flexible).

Bearing that in mind, Ricciardo to be top 6 at 2.2 with Betfair (no hedging) looks promising. There’s scope for shenanigans amidst the top four and the other cars aren’t a match for the Red Bull. Even though it’s slow in a straight line, I think he could cut through the field.

Let’s hope it’s a cracking, and profitable, race tomorrow.

In monumentally unrelated news, I’m part of an hour long Twitter Q&A/debate about humour in genre fiction (if you haven’t already, why not give my comedy Sir Edric’s Temple a look?) at 11am tomorrow. My Twitter handle is MorrisF1. Three or four other authors will also be taking questions/discussing stuff.


Morris Dancer

Comments

  1. Firstly I wish you well with the Twitter Q&A Mr Dancer. As you know I am a great fan and the delighted owner of your works.

    On the subject of F1 and the race: I believe that Rosberg will achieve back to back wins. The mercedes are too good and Hamilton doesn't have to do anything silly. He should resist the temptation to finish it all off in a burst of glory and win the title the safe way.

    This may be a bit off-piste but Vettel has won this race 3 out of the last 5 times. I've taken him (with WH) to be best placed without the Mercedes. I took that on the nose, then weakened and took it each way.

    As it's the last race of the season I've followed you in on your Ricciardo tip. It wasn't on my radar but I'll give it a go. Best of luck to us both on that one :)

    Enjoy the race Mr Dancer and the other readers here.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cheers, Mr. M.

    I'd be surprised if Vettel managed that, given Ricciardo's performances this year and the strength of the Williams. But, if he gets ahead of Hamilton and gifts Rosberg the title, I certainly won't complain.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well done on your Ricciardo tip and well done to me for taking it :)

    I said that the Vettel idea was off-piste and it turned out to be just that. But who cares? It was a cracking race at the end of a great season and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope you did too...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks, Mr. M.

    Eyes were a bit fuzzy yesterday, hence the lack of a post-race piece, which I'll put up this morning.

    ReplyDelete

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