Qatar: pre-qualifying 2021

Glad not to have another race weekend besmirched with the filth of a sprint race. Anyway…

In off-track news we now know Bottas’ Alfa Romeo team mate for next year. As many had suspected it’s the first Chinese chap to make the grid, in the form of Guanyu Zhou (pronounced ‘jo’ if my memory of pinyin is correct). He does bring money but is also second in F2 at the time of writing.

Slightly surprisingly, despite the new cockpit camera footage of Verstappen the FIA deemed no new investigation was necessary.

In first practice Verstappen was fastest by four-tenths over Gasly and Bottas, with Hamilton three-tenths down the road. Tsunoda, Sainz, Leclerc, Perez, Ocon, and Norris rounded out the top 10.

Second practice had fastest, but once again it was Gasly as best of the rest (two-tenths down), with Verstappen and Hamilton within a tenth of one another. Norris, Stroll, and Tsunoda followed, then came Perez Vettel and Sainz.

Too early to call pace at the sharp end, I think. And likewise between Ferrari and McLaren.

Third practice makes things seem very promising for Mercedes, with Bottas less than a tenth ahead of Hamilton and Verstappen a third of a second off the Finn. Gasly was next, a hundredth ahead of Perez. Two-tenths further back was Sainz, then Alonso, Ocon, Leclerc and Tsunoda.

 

Time to check Bottas’ odds for pole, I think. Only, at 12.41pm Ladbrokes still hadn’t got the markets up. Which is rubbish. Betfair’s Exchange, of course, was up and running but I wanted to see the each way odds. Bottas at 4.1 *may* be value, hedged, but I do wonder if there’s any Red Bull sandbagging.

Anyway, no bet, therefore.

 

Morris Dancer