France: pre-qualifying 2021

We’re off to France, whose Grand Prix circuit isn’t stellar. Or wasn’t last time. We shall see how it goes in 2021.

The running order in first practice had Bottas top (he’s been fastest in this session a lot this year, I regret not taking the 3.25 on him doing it again), a third of a second ahead of Hamilton. Verstappen was next, a tenth off his rival which isn’t too bad if reflective of real pace. Perez followed but was three-tenths behind his team mate and just a tenth ahead of Ocon. Ricciardo, Alonso, Gasly, Norris, and Tsunoda rounded out the top 10.

Second practice was interesting, with Verstappen edging Bottas by a whole eight-thousandths of a second, and Hamilton a quarter of a second back. Alonso was fourth, two-tenths off, followed by Leclerc, Ocon, Gasly, Sainz, Raikkonen, and Norris. (Perez was 12th).

At this stage it’s looking nice and tight at the top, with the midfield typically competitive as well. So qualifying may be tricky to predict but entertaining. Worth noting that Mercedes have swapped chasses between their drivers which may benefit Bottas.

Third practice and Verstappen looked in a league of one at the top, three-quarters of a second ahead of Bottas. Sainz was a tenth behind the Finn, followed closely by Perez and then Hamilton, who has looked second best to his team mate all weekend long so far (concerning for him given everyone thought this was going to be a strong circuit for Mercedes). Norris, Alonso, Ocon, Gasly, and Ricciardo followed.

Worth noting track limits saw quite a few times deleted in the final practice session.

Bottas at 3.75 for pole would be tempting but hard to go against a 0.7s margin. No tip from me.

Morris Dancer

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

F1 2014 - Second and Third Tests

Image
Bit of a whopper of an article, but it didn’t make sense to write two for the Bahrain tests, as they were so close together. Many of the rule changes are helpfully outlined here: http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/22058/9077826/gearing-up-for-2014-the-rule-changes-uncovered-and-explained-part-one This is one more reason why reliability is to critical. Losing a whole power unit (exceeding the 5 per season limit) means starting the next race from the pit lane. Losing a component, such as the turbo, means a 10 place grid penalty. On day one of the first test in Bahrain it appeared the Renault/Red Bull woe might continue. However, both Red Bull and Toro Rosso got in good running on the second day. Any remaining issues seem more to do with the car rather than the power unit. It’s been suggested the Renault requires significantly more cooling than rival engines, but apparently there are upsides. If the horsepower rumours were true (Mercedes being mighty and Ferrari better
Read more

Japan: early discussion

Image
As we enter the latter stages of the season we have multiple pairs of back-to-back races, hence this discussion starting a day after the Korean Grand Prix (which may be the last, incidentally. The circuit’s too isolated, surrounding developments haven’t been built and the organisers are annoyed by the high cost of staging the race which is the only use of the circuit all year). The Suzuka circuit is a proper one, with lots of elevation changes, a very fast flowing section (similar to Silverstone) and some very high speed corners. Sadly, I expect this will mean it’ll suit Red Bull. However, given their resurgence, it’s worth mentioning that last year Sauber had a strong result at Suzuka, when Kobayashi got third. Perhaps Hulkenberg will be able to get good points again (thanks to him Sauber are now tied on points but ahead of Toro Rosso in the Constructors’) and Gutierrez could nab his first point or two. Lotus benefited from some fortune with the safety car timing in Kore
Read more

Monaco: pre-race 2023

  Just as well I didn’t back Perez or Sainz given how things played out. An entertaining qualifying leads to a mixed up grid, but I will have a book on hand for the race itself. Q1 was notable for Perez crashing and bringing out a red flag. Rather odd, as he was simply attempting a corner with a superabundance of speed, and clobbered it. So he shall start last, as track revolution reduced his pretty good time (when set) to slowest of all. Rather less surprising were the departures of the Haas chaps, Logan Sargeant, and Zhou Guanyu. And so to Q2 with Verstappen looking strong but the Ferraris and perhaps Alonso also in contention. Interestingly every eliminated car in this session was from a different team, with Piastri just losing out, ahead of De Vries, Albon, Stroll, and Bottas. Verstappen’s first run in Q3 was surprisingly lacklustre and enabled Alonso to be on course for his first pole since the Cretaceous. He even improved on his second run, but Verstappen found a huge lump of tim
Read more