Brazil: pre-qualifying 2024

Bit annoyed with myself for not backing Piastri to win the race each way ahead of time, but this has become a minor habit of late. Was 9, now down to 6.5, which is likely too short (given we don't know how the grid will be).

Magnussen is unwell and replaced once more by Bearman.

Anyway, in first and only practice Norris was quickest, almost two-tenths up on Russell. Bearman was just a hundredth further back, with Piastri and a tenth and a half down the road but five-thousandths ahead of Albon. Leclerc and Sainz followed, then came Hulkenberg, Alonso, and Gasly.

In pretend qualifying for the pretend race, it was a McLaren 1-2 with Piastri three-hundredths ahead of Norris. Leclerc was two-tenths down the road, with Verstappen just half a tenth behind the Monegasque. Sainz followed closely, with Russell one place but two-tenths further back. Row four is Gasly and Lawson (Red Bull ghosts of Christmas Past and Future), with Albon and Bearman forming the fifth row. For those wondering, Hamilton was 11th, Hulkenberg 12th, and Perez 13th.

While rain is an outside chance it is around 30-40%, at the time of writing, for both the sprint and qualifying.



Anyway, no bet right now. I’ll hopefully have one to post tomorrow.

The pretend race is at 2pm, while qualifying is at 6pm, UK time.


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

Great Britain: post-race analysis

Image
Well, that was a dramatic race. Even better, it was profitable. When Hamilton’s tyre exploded it looked set to be yet another Vettel victory, but then the German’s car lost drive, gifting Rosberg the lead. He did well to retain it at the end against a strong attack from Webber. It’s also nice to benefit from some good luck when it comes to bets. The start saw Vettel instantly pass Rosberg into second (maybe because the odd-numbered side of the track is a significant advantage). Webber meanwhile had a terrible start, even by his standards, and Massa gained a huge number of places. To make matters worse, Grosjean nudged Webber off the track and damaged his front wing (replaced at the first round of pit stops). A big question was whether or not Mercedes would be able to maintain decent race pace, as this has proved their weakness so far this season. Hamilton seemed to have no real issues keeping Vettel behind him, until the Briton’s tyre burst apart. It did so at the worst
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