MorrisF1

My record of predicting things that very nearly but don’t quite happen remains intact, as Button was 12 th by a tenth of a second. Glad the odds weren’t there now. In Q1 it was no surprise to lose the Saubers and Manors, although Ericsson being last must be slightly alarming for the Swiss team. The Renaults, who remain woeful this year [but may bounce back fairly well next] also exited the stage here. In Q2 Haas were the slowest to depart, the team continuing their terrible Chinese form after a great first two races to the season. Bit perplexing, to be honest. Both McLarens failed to reach Q3, though Button came close, and Hulkenberg and Sainz also failed to progress. Hamilton suffered yet more bad luck. One can only imagine he killed a witch’s black cat with a mirror then made his escape under a ladder repair shop. His engine failed to work, meaning he starts 10 th (unless there’s a penalty). As you might expect, this made Q3 as climatic as an ascetic’s meditat

Ah, Russia. Where it’s easy to crash and hard to pass. Not a stellar circuit, and, unlike Singapore, doesn’t have a pretty backdrop either. Still, a race is on this weekend. The circuit seems somewhat similar to Australia (not really high speed, bit stop-start, but with less of a natural flow, and rubbish right angle corners). I expect the final result to closely resemble the starting grid. In P1 Rosberg was seven-tenths ahead of Hamilton, with Vettel and Raikkonen a few tenths back. Massa, Ricciardo and Bottas were next, with Kvyat, Perez and Sainz finishing off the top 10. The second practice session had Hamilton seven-tenths up on Vettel, with Rosberg a little further back, followed by Raikkonen. Ricciardo, Bottas, Kvyat, Button, Massa and Alonso were next. Bad news for Ferrari in second practice when Vettel’s car ran out of electricity. Given an early engine upgrade was brought for the Prancing Horse following poor reliability, this is deeply unwelcome for the

A highly entertaining race which was terrible from a betting perspective. The start was great, especially for Ricciardo who leapt into 1 st . Rosberg slid, but only to 2 nd , and Vettel found himself caught in a Raikkonen-Kvyat sandwich. He hit his team mate, which put Vettel back several places and lost Raikkonen a bunch more, not to mention his front wing. As Raikkonen returned to the track, having narrowly evaded the gravel traps, Nasr had to take avoiding action which meant he hit Hamilton, breaking the Briton’s front wing (which was also trapped under his car for part of the trip back to the pits). Mayhem, calamity, woe undsoweiter. There was a slightly odd delay of a couple of laps before the safety car trundled out due to the extensive amount of carbon fibre strewn across the circuit. Can’t recall if this was before or after, but Ricciardo (either 1 st or 2 nd at the time) suffered a puncture which ended up with his tyre being torn off, shunting him well

Qualifying was interesting, if prolonged by two red flags. In Q1, Wehrlein discovered that a bump in the road plus a damp patch minus rear downforce (due to the DRS being open) equals a slightly embarrassing crash on a straight. The stewards then spent about half an hour faffing about trying to mop almost the only damp part of the track, which had the impact of annoying everyone and achieving nothing. The red flag period gave more time for the Mercedes team to try and fix a power deficit Hamilton had reported immediately before Wehrlein’s mistake, but to no avail. Lacking ERS and 160bhp down, the Briton was forced to return to the pits after a brief foray onto the circuit, and will start 22 nd out of 22 runners (Wehrlein being 21 st ). Ahead of Wehrlein is Haryanto, Palmer, Gutierrez and Magnussen, who starts 16 th . A bad day for Renault, and a bad circuit for Haas. In Q2, there was another red flag, this time a late one. Hulkenberg’s left wheel fell off, which will l

The poison dwarves have retreated. Todt and Ecclestone have buckled, the team principals have won, and the qualifying format returns to the sanity of the 2015 approach. Huzzah! Alonso has fractured ribs, but that won’t stop him racing. He has been told, however, that if his situation worsens he has to stop immediately. Hamilton has another sort of pain, taking a five place grid penalty due to a gearbox change. If he makes another bad start from there, it may not be as terrible because the super long straight should play into the Mercedes’ hands. Rain is a possibility for both the third practice session and qualifying. Could be light, could be heavy. The race is likely to be dry. Because of early start times, the pre-qualifying piece is up today. Both Friday practice sessions were entirely dry. In P1, Rosberg was top, a tenth up on his team mate, with Vettel half a second down the road and Ricciardo half a second off the German. Raikkonen, Kvyat and Sai

A cracking race to watch, bit mixed on the betting front. One came off. The other didn’t due to a DNS (some mishap caused the engine to explode on the formation lap, which hampered Vettel’s chances of winning the race quite substantially). The formation lap was interesting, as it featured two retirements. Vettel’s hopes and engine faded in a puff of smoke, and Jolyon Palmer pulled into the pits due to a reliability failure. With Magnussen (Palmer’s team mate for Renault) starting from the pit lane anyway, a mere 19 cars were on the grid. The start and first corner were dramatic. Raikkonen had a slightly dodgy start, Hamilton likewise. Rosberg had a clean get away and passed Hamilton. The Williams cruised past Raikkonen. At the first corner, Bottas struck Hamilton, and the Briton fell to around 7 th or 8 th . Raikkonen took a while to get past the Red Bull of Ricciardo and the Williams, and this allowed Rosberg to scamper away. Although the Finn (later on) closed within

In protest at the qualifying shambles, I decided not to watch qualifying. I did follow the BBC livefeed instead, however, and will watch the race tomorrow. Worth noting Magnussen will start from the pit lane tomorrow, because he missed a mandatory weight check yesterday. In Q1, Nasr was eliminated first, then Haryanto (Manor driver). Palmer was next and then Magnussen (so, pretty atrocious for Renault). Perez was out next. Ericsson and Wehrlein were the last to be eliminated (great performance from Wehrlein). In Q2, Kvyat was eliminated first. Then Button, Gutierrez and then Stoffel Vandoorne, standing in for the injured Alonso (great début performance). Sainz, Verstappen and Grosjean were eliminated next. Q3 saw Hulkenberg eliminated first. Then Massa was out, Bottas and Ricciardo. The pole position went to Hamilton, less than a tenth ahead of Rosberg. Bit irked I went for the wrong bet, but there we are. Vettel lines up third and Raikkonen fourth. After the

Two big pieces of off-track news to get out of the way. First off, from 2019, UK live coverage will be limited (until 2024) to Sky (pay TV). Lovely. On a more positive note, my book, The Adventures of Sir Edric , came out yesterday. And you should buy it. Not only will this enable me to buy items such as food, clothing and shelter, but it will also keep you thoroughly entertained. Besides, if you’ve been putting £10 on each of my tips since 2009, they’ve made you over £1,000. Just think of all the profit you’ll lose if low sales make me too miserable to post any more ;) Leaving aside the vileness of exclusive pay TV live coverage or the splendiferousness of my book, we have a race which requires our attention. Bahrain’s much faster than Australia, and straight line speed is more important. This should, relatively, advantage Williams and disadvantage the likes of Red Bull, Renault and McLaren (and perhaps Toro Rosso, who have last year’s Ferrari engine). Haas and Manor m