Germany: pre-qualifying 2018


Ahead of the German Grand Prix, Hamilton signed a new deal with Mercedes. Not too surprising, although it’s only until the end of 2020, so it could’ve been longer.

Bottas has also signed a new deal with the Silver Arrows, making it very likely Ricciardo will be staying at Red Bull. The Finn’s new contract is for 2019, with an option to extend it to 2020.

That’s quite interesting as they could’ve almost certainly ditched the Finn and gone for Ricciardo. However, it’s worth pointing out Bottas has been driving very well indeed and he really should be a title contender, but for misfortune (two DNFs and the collision which saw Vettel put him to the back of the field).

Speaking of Ricciardo, engine penalties mean he’ll start from the back. The penalties are being taken now as the team feels they’ll be more competitive at Hungary and so prefer to take the pain now.

At the time of writing (Saturday morning) there’d s roughly 50% chance of rain in qualifying, and a lower chance of it occurring during the race. One imagines Red Bull are busy doing a rain dance.

In first practice Ricciardo was fastest, just four-thousandths ahead of Hamilton. Verstappen was a little further back, followed by Vettel, Bottas and Raikkonen. Grosjean and Magnussen came next, with Leclerc and Hulkenberg rounding out the top 10.

Second practice had Verstappen fastest, two-hundredths ahead of Hamilton. Bottas, Vettel, and Raikkonen were close behind. Grosjean, Magnussen and Leclerc came next, followed by Hulkenberg and Ocon. Ricciardo was 13th but got in a reasonable number of laps, so he must’ve been focusing on long runs. He also didn’t try the ultrasoft, just the soft and the medium.

Contrary to the weather forecast (beginning to wonder whether it’s worth trusting the BBC on such things any more, since they left the Met Office [update – seems bloody worthless), it was very soggy in third practice. For what it’s worth, Leclerc, Ericsson, Sirotkin, Vettel, Gasly, Hartley, Hulkenberg, Raikkonen, Stroll and Grosjean topped the session.

Somewhat peeved given I backed Leclerc and the other Sauber/Williams drivers at 326/2501 respectively to top P1 (hoping for rain). Still, it’s not as if I’m in dire need of money, so...

Very pushed for time, alas. The only bets worth considering for me were the 251 (326 with boost) on Leclerc, Sainz and Hulkenberg to ‘win’, each way (third the odds top 2) qualifying. That’s contingent upon both rain and fortune. May be worth a tiny sum but can’t really tip it.

Anyway, if you fancy those long odds bets I’d advocate just a pound or two.

Let’s hope qualifying is entertaining.

Morris Dancer

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