Germany: pre-qualifying 2019


An important note: Friday is hot and sunny, the weekend (whilst still warm) is significantly cooler, overcast, with a high chance of thundery showers on both qualifying and race days. So the first two practice sessions are probably going to be of limited utility in predicting either the grid or the final result. [On the basis of the wet situation I tipped Verstappen elsewhere to be top 3 in qualifying].

That said, Vettel was fastest in first practice, a quarter of a second ahead of Leclerc. Hamilton was next, closely followed by Verstappen. Bottas was some way further back, ahead of Gasly, Sainz, Grosjean, Stroll, and Ricciardo.

Leclerc topped FP2, a tenth and a smidgen ahead of Vettel. Hamilton was a hundredth behind the German, with Bottas half a second down the road (not a great start for the Finn). Verstappen was two-hundredths off the slower Mercedes. Grosjean, Stroll, and Raikkonen followed, with Hulkenberg and Perez rounding out the top 10.

Second practice also saw Gasly increase his insurance premiums by smashing his Red Bull. After a strong performance last time out, a shame to see this happen.

Third practice sounds like it was dry (current forecast for qualifying is that there’s a one in three chance of thundery showers). Leclerc was fastest, a tenth and a half ahead of Verstappen (genuinely surprised Ferrari seem so fast), with Vettel a tenth off the Dutchman. Bottas was a quarter of a second further back, and followed by Magnusse, with Hamilton not far behind. Sainz, Gasly, Raikkonen, and Grosjean were all very tight, as were the next half dozen cars.

Right now I think Hamilton/Leclerc look set for pole if it’s dry, with Verstappen coming into play if it’s wet.

I waited over 40 minutes for the market to appear, and it didn’t. So there we are.

As is now usual, the pre-race ramble will be up tomorrow morning.

Morris Dancer

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