Russia: pre-qualifying 2018


Greetings, fellow cathedral enthusiasts.

During the break, Sauber announced they had signed Giovinazzi as Raikkonen’s team mate, with Marcus Ericsson slipping to reserve driver. Giovinazzi has driven a couple of race weekends previously. He was pretty quick but also crashed quite a bit.

Haas have confirmed they’re keeping both drivers for next year. Toro Rosso recently declared that Kvyat would be making something of a surprise return in 2019.

For the race, both Toro Rosso and Red Bull will be taking new engines and starting from the back.

In first practice Vettel was fastest, edging Verstappen by half a tenth, with Hamilton a quarter second back from the Dutchman. Bottas was next, but Ricciardo was half a second off the Finn and a second off the ultimate pace. Ocon, Raikkonen, Magnussen, Hulkenberg and Giovinazzi rounded out the top 10.

Second practice had a Mercedes 1-2, with Hamilton two-tenths up on Bottas, himself two-tenths ahead of Verstappen, with Ricciardo close behind. Vettel and Raikkonen were next up, followed by Perez, Gasly, Ocon, and Ericsson.

At this stage it seems Force India may be top of division two.

Third practice had Hamilton a quarter of a second ahead of Bottas and six-tenths ahead of Vettel. Raikkonen was just a couple of hundredths off his team mate, and a couple of tenths ahead of Verstappen (Ricciardo half a second further back). Leclerc, Ocon, Magnussen and Perez round out the top 10.

Decided to back Bottas, each way (third the odds for top 2) to ‘win’ qualifying at 5.5 (5.75 with boost). He’s got a good shot of being top 2, and a small chance of pole.

Morris Dancer

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