MorrisF1

Almost immediately after putting up the post-race analysis for Brazil, Hamilton received a 5s penalty for the Albon collision, promoting Sainz to his first ever podium position and putting the Briton down to 6 th . For this weekend, Bottas starts at the back due to taking a new engine. Mr. Sandpit has suggested backing him for a podium, which seems a reasonably good idea. In first practice, the Finn was fastest, half a second ahead of Verstappen, who was narrowly faster than Hamilton. Albon, Vettel, Grosjean, and Leclerc followed, with Magnussen, Giovinazzi, and Hulkenberg rounding out the top 10. Bottas also topped the second session, a third of a second ahead of Hamilton. Leclerc and Vettel weren’t far behind, and Verstappen was following closely. Albon, Grosjean, Perez, Kvyat, and Gasly were next. Third practice saw Verstappen fastest but with both Hamilton and Bottas within a tenth. Albon was over a third of a second off his team mate, but narrowly ahead of Vett

The race was quite interesting towards the end. The bet failed, and never looked like coming off, but given how topsy-turvy the last few laps were it easily could’ve. A lot happened, so do forgive me if I get one or two details wrong. Off the line Vettel was passed by Hamilton, but otherwise it was formation flying. Leclerc began devouring those ahead of him with little effort, and within perhaps a dozen laps was behind Albon. Hamilton was within a few seconds of Verstappen and pitted first, switching to fresh softs (as did Verstappen). The Dutchman exited the pits behind the Englishman but took no time at all to retake his leading role. There was interesting strategic differentiation, with Vettel and Albon (then 3 rd and 5 th ) on medium tyres, and Bottas and Leclerc (4 th and 6 th ) on the hard. Ricciardo locked up trying to pass Magnussen and ended up spinning the Dane and buggering his own front wing, necessitating a pit stop and a 5s penalty. Hamilton never q

Qualifying was a little unexpected, for me, at least. The first session had the usual departures of the Williams, and the more surprising exit of Sainz, who suffered a reliability failure. Kvyat and Stroll also failed to make the cut. In Q2 it was as competitive as ever. Norris was a hundredth off Raikkonen, but couldn’t progress, whereas the Finn did. Behind Norris were Ricciardo, Giovinazzi, Hulkenberg and Perez. The first runs in the final part of qualifying had Verstappen top dog, eight-thousandths ahead of Vettel, Leclerc being next. On the final run only two of chaps at the sharp end could improve, Verstappen extending his triumph by a tenth, and Hamilton nudging ahead of Leclerc (who has a grid penalty of 10 places in any event). Bottas and Albon will be behind this year’s champion, followed by Gasly, Grosjean, Raikkonen, and Magnussen. The weather should be dry. Leclerc, as mentioned, has a 10 place grid penalty. Sainz races despite not setting a qualifying

Leclerc has a new power unit, so he’ll face a grid penalty. First practice was mixed (wets, inters, and slicks), and saw Albon achieve the distinction of being fastest and having a crash. Bottas was half a second off the Thai, with Vettel a few tenths further back and a similar margin ahead of Leclerc. Sainz was best of the rest, ahead of Hulkenberg and Ricciardo, with Gasly, Kvyat, and Norris rounding out the top 10. [Hamilton only completed a couple of laps]. Vettel was fastest in second practice, two-hundredths ahead of Leclerc. Verstappen was a tenth further back, two-hundredths ahead of Bottas, who was less than a tenth ahead of Hamilton. Less than a quarter of a second covered them all. Magnussen was seven-tenths down the road, ahead of Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Albon and Sainz. Unfortunately the way the timings work out make it unlikely I’ll be able to be online between final practice and qualifying, so no tip. Also, the pre-race ramble will probably be up tomorrow

Quite a good race, with some excitement at the end, but the main reason it’ll be remembered is that it was the scene of Hamilton’s sixth title triumph. On the betting front, the blog bet did not come off (although if you followed the earlier tip that did). Before the race began Red Bull replaced Verstappen’s rear wing after noticing, on the out lap, that it had a fracture. Off the line the right hand (odd) side had good starts. By coincidence or not, this meant the Ferraris had poor starts, with Verstappen passing Vettel immediately. At the first corner Albon and Sainz came together, necessitating a first lap pit stop (the first of three, I think) for the Thai. Vettel was bizarrely slow and got passed by his team mate, and then Hamilton, with seemingly little effort. He then fell prey to Norris and Ricciardo, complaining on the radio of his car understeering like crazy, which was especially strange because he did not appear to have had any contact with anyone. The top t

Ha. Well, don’t I feel like a banana. I even backed Bottas with a £1 free bet, then thought to check his recent form at the Circuit of the Americas and decided I’d been stupid. Anyway, the 13 shot got pole. Good for him. The penalty meant Perez wasn’t really trying too hard in the first session and left during it, as did both Williams and both Alfa Romeos. Q2 was rather more competitive with Hulkenberg a tenth off Gasly and fastest of those eliminated. But as Perez showed last weekend, 11 th is far from the worst position. Magnussen and Kvyat followed (the Russian just a hundredth off the Dane) with Stroll and Grosjean the slowest of the departees. In Q3 the first run saw mistakes from Vettel and Verstappen, putting them a hundredth and half a tenth behind surprise fastest chap Bottas. Leclerc was behind them, with Hamilton a lacklustre 5 th , three-tenths off his team mate. The track had been rubbering in all of qualifying, yet seemed to have hit its peak as practical

It’s being suggested there’ll be a cost cap for 2021, but teams will be able to spend money in 2020 towards the 2021 car, operating under a substantially new rule set. As we’ve seen with Vettel and Hamilton, a critical head start under a new set of rules can lead to multiple title victories. Because Red Bull have lagged currently and haven’t been in a genuine title fight for years, I suspect they’ll shift more resources than their rivals into the 2021 car and it might be an advantage for them and Verstappen. Ferrari/Mercedes could be distracted by contending for the 2020 title. Pre-practice I backed/tipped Verstappen at 10, each way (fifth the odds top 3), on the basis that was just too long given his unexpected performance at Mexico a week ago. Of course, that might have been due to the altitude, so we’ll see. Verstappen topped first practice. He was a tenth and a half ahead of Vettel, with Albon third. Gasly was seven-tenths behind, followed by Ricciardo and Grosjean. Lec