Canada: pre-qualifying 2023, and EPL title bet

Due to a CCTV camera glitch cutting short FP1 running time, second practice was extended by half an hour. Bit weird, but these things happen.

For what it’s worth, Bottas (with 3 laps completed) topped FP1, followed by Stroll, Alonso, Perez, Verstappen, Piastri, Magnussen, Hulkenberg, Zhou Guanyu, and Sainz.

In the rather lengthier second practice Hamilton and Russell were top dogs, the elder Briton just two-hundredths ahead of his team mate. Sainz was a tenth further back, with Alonso a third of a second off the ultimate pace. Leclerc and Verstappen followed, then came Bottas, Perez, Stroll, and Gasly.


More limited information than usual but I do think Mercedes will probably edge Ferrari to be best of the rest if second practice is representative. I do find it hard to believe the Red Bull times are anything but sandbagging. And Alfa Romeo do look competitive in the midfield.

Hamilton and Russell are 9 and 11 respectively to ‘win’ (each way) third practice. Somewhat tempting, although Perez was just a tenth off Verstappen and if that’s replicated and the Red Bulls actually try they may well end up 1-2. Plus, Sainz’s proximity means he or Leclerc could get in the way. Perhaps something worth backing with a free bet.

So, no qualifying tip.

 

NB I probably won’t be able to watch the qualifying live so the pre-race tosh may well be up later than usual.

Morris Dancer

 

PS for those bothered, I’ve backed Manchester United at 10.5 to win the EPL (each way, third the odds top 2) with Ladbrokes. After a terrible start last season they were very solid thereafter.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

F1 2014 - Second and Third Tests

Image
Bit of a whopper of an article, but it didn’t make sense to write two for the Bahrain tests, as they were so close together. Many of the rule changes are helpfully outlined here: http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/22058/9077826/gearing-up-for-2014-the-rule-changes-uncovered-and-explained-part-one This is one more reason why reliability is to critical. Losing a whole power unit (exceeding the 5 per season limit) means starting the next race from the pit lane. Losing a component, such as the turbo, means a 10 place grid penalty. On day one of the first test in Bahrain it appeared the Renault/Red Bull woe might continue. However, both Red Bull and Toro Rosso got in good running on the second day. Any remaining issues seem more to do with the car rather than the power unit. It’s been suggested the Renault requires significantly more cooling than rival engines, but apparently there are upsides. If the horsepower rumours were true (Mercedes being mighty and Ferrari better
Read more

America: pre-race

Image
Q1 saw the pointless teams ditched as usual, but there was a stark divergence between the Williams’ drivers. Bottas was 1st (in Q1 only), and Maldonado 18th. Turns out money can only buy seats, not speed. Surprising to see such a difference between the two drivers, though. Sutil went out in 17th, and may have suffered some sort of technical problem as he peeled off after his final lap. During Q2 it was confirmed Sutil had a problem, namely a slow puncture. Q2 saw the surprise departure of Rosberg. The Mercedes seemed to be the best of the rest, so that’s quite a shock. Not only that, he’s 14th, behind Ricciardo, Di Resta and Button (although Button suffers a 3 place grid penalty for ignoring red flags during practice). Massa is behind Rosberg, followed by Vergne. Impressively, Sauber got both of their cars into the top 10. Q3 was surprisingly close, but Vettel narrowly got pole ahead of Webber. Grosjean continues his strong form with 3rd, followed by Hulkenberg, who is
Read more

Japan: early discussion

Image
As we enter the latter stages of the season we have multiple pairs of back-to-back races, hence this discussion starting a day after the Korean Grand Prix (which may be the last, incidentally. The circuit’s too isolated, surrounding developments haven’t been built and the organisers are annoyed by the high cost of staging the race which is the only use of the circuit all year). The Suzuka circuit is a proper one, with lots of elevation changes, a very fast flowing section (similar to Silverstone) and some very high speed corners. Sadly, I expect this will mean it’ll suit Red Bull. However, given their resurgence, it’s worth mentioning that last year Sauber had a strong result at Suzuka, when Kobayashi got third. Perhaps Hulkenberg will be able to get good points again (thanks to him Sauber are now tied on points but ahead of Toro Rosso in the Constructors’) and Gutierrez could nab his first point or two. Lotus benefited from some fortune with the safety car timing in Kore
Read more