Singapore: pre-qualifying 2017
Bottas has signed a new
deal with Mercedes and will drive for them next year. Not too
surprising, to be honest. After a slightly iffy start, he’s been
driving very well. That said, it sounds like a one year deal which is
a bit shorter than I’d expected.
In more surprising
news, an engine rumour is making the rounds. But not the Toro
Rosso-Honda/McLaren-Renault one. It seems Renault may ditch Red Bull
at the end of 2018, forcing Red Bull to take on Honda engines. A
season or two ago, Red Bull were whining excessively about Renault.
The engine then was a bit lacklustre, but nothing like the horror
show of Honda (which McLaren have been extremely patient about). With
the Renault-McLaren deal apparently already signed, Red Bull might
just regret not exercising their veto over Renault taking on McLaren
and opting for Honda engines for Toro Rosso. Not only that, unless
Honda narrow the performance gap swiftly, Ricciardo and Verstappen
will be looking for new teams. [The confirmation of this came on Friday].
This may explain the
surprisingly short deal for Bottas. Mercedes may have an eye on the
Red Bull drivers. Speaking of which, Sainz has moved to Renault,
displacing Palmer.
The Singapore circuit
has extended its agreement to be on the calendar until 2021. Not
unexpected.
I offered three early
tips on PB (all each way): Verstappen to ‘win’ FP1 at 7,
Verstappen and Ricciardo to win the race at 8.5 and 8 respectively.
The each way aspect of the practice bet came off, mildly.
[Ricciardo’s got lay odds just under 4 on the exchanges.
Personally, I’m not hedging just yet, but thought I’d flag it up
for those interested].
In first practice
Ricciardo was a tenth ahead of Vettel, with Verstappen close behind.
Hamilton was fourth but some way back, then came Perez, Bottas,
Raikkonen, Alonso, Hulkenberg and Kvyat.
Second practice was
even better for Red Bull, with Ricciardo top and over half a second
ahead of his team mate. Hamilton was third, with a large gap back to
Bottas. Hulkenberg, Vandoorne, Alonso, Perez, Raikkonen and Ocon
rounded out the top 10. It’s worth noting Vettel was on a very
competitive lap but got held up severely by a Sauber, so his absence
from the top half of the time sheet is not representative of his
pace.
Right now it’s
looking rather good for Red Bull. I think Vettel will be ahead of
Verstappen and behind Ricciardo, if all goes smoothly in qualifying.
McLaren’s looking good too.
In third practice it
was ultra-tight, with Verstappen fastest, then Vettel and Hamilton,
but the gaps under a tenth each. Alonso and Vandoorne were next, but
Ricciardo’s 6th was not representative of his pace and
he should be right there in qualifying. Hulkenberg was next, ahead of
Bottas and Raikkonen, with Perez 10th.
Ricciardo’s failure
to clock a proper lap is interesting because he was the class of the
field in earlier practice. Hard to say if he would’ve retained that
advantage.
It’s looking like a
four horse race for qualifying.
Elsewhere, Mr. Sandpit
tipped Hamilton on Betfair for pole at 20, but this has collapsed, at
the time of writing, to 9 (still might be worth a look).
There’s no tip that’s
outstanding for me, so I’m not betting on qualifying (beyond a tiny
sum I put on Hamilton at Mr. Sandpit’s suggestion, but that’s not
my own tip and won’t count in the records). The 3.7 on Ricciardo
for pole was quite tempting, but it’s a four horse race, so I
decided against it.
Incidentally, it’s
just one week until Sir Edric’s Kingdom comes out. Pre-order here:
Due to time constraints
I’m not sure if the pre-race ramble will be up this evening or
tomorrow morning.
Morris Dancer
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