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
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.
ReplyDeleteOn 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.
Cheers, Mr. M.
ReplyDeleteI'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.
Well done on your Ricciardo tip and well done to me for taking it :)
ReplyDeleteI 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...
Thanks, Mr. M.
ReplyDeleteEyes were a bit fuzzy yesterday, hence the lack of a post-race piece, which I'll put up this morning.