Turkey: pre-qualifying 2021

Some off-track news in the shape of Qatar arriving. We’ll see how the circuit stacks up. Bahrain is sometimes good (and sometimes very good) but otherwise the Middle Eastern tracks aren’t spectacular.

In bad news, it seems F1 wants to stuff half the calendar with sprint races next year. I hope that doesn’t go ahead. Pointless, time-consuming tedium to squeeze money out of ticket sales. Humbug!

Anyway, to Turkey.

Pirelli believe the tyre choices may end up being too aggressive, so we may see plenty of pit stops, which could be good for the race.

First practice saw Hamilton a whopping four-tenths ahead of Verstappen, who was barely ahead of Leclerc. Next up was Bottas, then Sainz, followed by Ocon, Norris, Gasly, Alonso, and Perez.

Second practice again saw Hamilton top the timesheets, this time a tenth and a half ahead of Leclerc. Bottas and Perez followed, with Verstappen only fifth. Norris, Alonso, Ocon, Gasly, and Giovinazzi rounded out the top 10.

Unusually high overlap between the top 10s of first and second practice (90%). Looking slid for Ferrari, Renault, McLaren, and Gasly.

Penalties: Hamilton has a 10 place penalty for changing engine parts, and Sainz starts at the back for making an engine change.

Third practice was slippery on intermediates, and saw Russell cause a red flag when he got beached in the gravel. Gasly topped the session, a tenth ahead of Verstappen with Perez a similar amount further back. Sainz and Leclerc were next, then Alonso, Raikkonen, Tsunoda, Bottas, and Ocon rounding out the top 10.

Not sure if/how wet qualifying will be. Drizzle is possible, but rain can always be more or less than anticipated.

Hamilton’s car may be set up more for overtaking, although given the pace advantage the top two have over the rest this may not be a huge change.

The weather and Hamilton penalty make betting on qualifying tricky. There’s also no each way aspect, on Ladbrokes, which is displeasing. If it’s wet at the end of Q3 then there’s an element of lottery, which can also affect who gets eliminated at each stage.

That being the case, no tip in qualifying, which starts at 1pm UK time. Let’s hope we managed a qualifying session without a red flag.

Morris Dancer