70th Anniversary Grand Prix: pre-qualifying 2020

 

There have been repeated protests regarding Racing Point’s apparent copy and paste design technique and, to my surprise, this has enjoyed a success. The team has received a fine and had 15 points docked when the FIA upheld Renault’s complaints regarding brake ducts. The team has leave to appeal (so this means they can run the unchanged ducts at this race weekend) but this won’t make their rivalry with McLaren any easier to win.

Ironically, Racing Point haven’t decided whether to appeal or not yet but other teams are appealing, wanting clarification/harsher punishment.

Tyre strategy will be interesting as both Mercedes and Sainz suffered failures last time, after long periods on the hard tyre, and Verstappen may have suffered likewise had he not pitted late on. Pirelli have brought tyres a grade softer than last weekend, so last time’s medium is this race’s hard. Because of this, the hard is thought likely to be used twice during the race and the medium rather than the soft used in Q2 (certainly by the likes of Mercedes).

Ricciardo did pretty well last weekend. I wonder if he might be one to watch. And Bottas was always close to Hamilton until the tyres came into play.

 In first practice, Bottas was a tenth ahead of Hamilton, with Verstappen half a second off the Briton. Hulkenberg’s Racing Point was just half a tenth off the Red Bull, however, which is interesting. Leclerc and Albon followed, with Vettel, Stroll, Kvyat and Ocon rounding out the top 10.

Second practice had Hamilton a tenth ahead of Bottas so perhaps qualifying will be what determines the race winner. Ricciardo was third fastest but also more than half a second off Bottas. Verstappen and Stroll followed closely, with Hulkenberg a few tenths slower. Leclerc, Norris, Sainz, and Ocon had very similar times, as did Albon and Kvyat behind them.

Before third practice Verstappen was 8 (fifth the odds top 3) to win it. Unfortunately he was cost a fast lap by a trundling and obstructive Stroll, which is a shame (the stewards noted the incident). More traffic affected another attempt.

Hamilton led Bottas by a tenth at the end of third practice, Norris four-tenths further back and achieving his time on medium tyres (everyone else except Sainz, tenth, was on the soft). Hulkenberg was next, seven-thousandths ahead of Stroll. Leclerc followed closely, and then came the unfortunate Verstappen, just barely ahead of Albon. Ocon was next, with Sainz behind.

Bottas is 3.7 to be fastest qualifier. This is quite tempting as his pace during the race last weekend suggested he’s very close to his team mate. Unfortunately, it’s too short to back each way and finish ahead if he’s second. I don’t think it’s unreasonable but I’ve decided against backing it. If it interests you there’s also 4.75 on Bottas to win tomorrow, which may be worth considering.

Intrigued to see how the grid lines up behind Mercedes.

Morris Dancer

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