Austria: pre-qualifying

We've got soft and supersoft tyres in Austria. Only four drivers (Button, Massa, Raikkonen and Alonso) have driven there before in F1, but it was an awfully long time ago. It's essentially a new track for everyone.

Worth mentioning the lap seems to be pretty short and focused on straight line speed, so gaps may be smaller than elsewhere.

In P1 Rosberg was a tenth ahead of Hamilton, but Alonso was only 0.3s off the top time. Massa was another tenth and a half down the road and was followed by Button, Perez, Hulkenberg, Bottas, Magnussen and Vergne.

In P2 Hamilton was over a third of a second ahead of Rosberg, with Alonso almost a second off the top pace. Bottas, Massa, Vettel and Button followed, with Ricciardo, Magnussen and Vergne rounding out the top 10.

At the end of Friday practice it looks like business as usual for Mercedes, and a decent showing by Alonso and Williams. Sauber and Lotus continue to struggle.

In P3 Bottas was fastest, followed by Hamilton, Massa, Kvyat. Rosberg was next, then Alonso, Ricciardo, Magnussen, Raikkonen and Vettel rounded out the top 10. It was very tight at the top, with the first four covered by less than a tenth of second, and the first six covered by just over two-tenths.

However, I think Mercedes are sandbagging and will still be over the hills and far away come qualifying and the race. But, it's still good news for Williams, who are apparently also tasty on long runs. Alonso was fast, but he was in practice in Canada and that didn't lead to a strong qualifying/race.

Red Bull were a bit off the pace. Not sure if that's them hiding form.

Qualifying is expected to be dry.

As I said, I reckon Mercedes will again take pole with relative ease, so top 3 and to get into Q3 (or not) are the markets I'll be looking at.

Raikkonen and Magnussen could be laid and backed, perhaps, for the top 10, with a bet on a Williams making the top 3 also potentially interesting.

Button was unable to do a qualifying simulation run in P3 due to a brake issue. In previous practice sessions he had outqualified his team mate.

The most tempting bet was laying Raikkonen for Q3, but odds of just 1.95 were simply not good enough.

Similarly, top 3 bets for the Williams drivers were 2.3-2.5, and given that any of Alonso, Bottas and Massa might get it (or a sandbagging Red Bull) that did not appeal.

I've only offered a couple of bets on qualifying this year, and have generally avoided it. Can't say if that's purely because the Mercedes dominance makes things tricky, but there we are.

My guess would be a Hamilton pole, Red Bull doing better than in practice, strong result for Williams, and Ferrari slipping back.

Qualifying starts at 1pm UK time.

Morris Dancer