MorrisF1

A far more exciting race than we might have had, and very much improved on Australia. Mixed bag from a betting perspective, a small red result (if you put £10 on every put you’d be a couple of quid down. Not bank-busting but not good either). I’m doubly irked with myself, though. I lacked the patience to wait a few more hours for Ferrari to top score to emerge on Ladbrokes, and the judgement to back Vettel for the win at 10.5. On the other hand, I was very confident about Raikkonen, and that did come off. Congrats to Mr. M, who’s doing rather better than me at this betting business so far this season. The start saw Maldonado fly up the order, only to take a slight knock, receive a puncture and later retire. Bottas went backwards, and Hulkenberg made up many places, but the top three maintained their running order. Surprisingly, Hamilton couldn’t make a large gap to Vettel, who wasn’t that far ahead of Rosberg. In the early stages, Raikkonen received a puncture at t

The predicted thunderstorm turned up during qualifying, which adds an intriguing dimension to the race: will anyone have gone for a wet set-up to optimise qualifying, but potentially costing them pace in the race? Q1 went pretty much to form, with the Manor of Merhi off the pace (to the extent he’s outside the 107% rule and must apply for permission to start) and Will Steven’s Manor Marussia failing to even set a time due to a technical fault. Both McLarens again failed to escape the first part of qualifying, with Button marginally faster than Alonso. Nasr will be disappointed to be the chap who got 16 th , particularly after his great weekend in Australia. The Brazilian’s looked a bit out of sorts in Malaysia. The second part of qualifying began with a long queue in the pit lane, due to an imminent storm, which duly turned up. Despite some traffic issues for Hamilton, the Briton made it through, although Raikkonen did not. Maldonado also left the stage here, as did both Force

Good news! Not only have Alonso and Bottas been cleared to race, Manor Marussia have turned up and brought working cars with them. As expected, the Marussias are rather slow, but at least McLaren will feel better knowing they’re not at the back of the grid anymore. Red Bull and Renault continue their hissyfit. Both are hinting they may quit, although the engine chaps are also considering buying a team of their own (maybe Toro Rosso). In the first practice session Rosberg was three-tenths up on Raikkonen, who was half a second ahead of Vettel. Grosjean, Sainz, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Bottas, Kvyat and Ericsson followed, all of whom were pretty close together. Hamilton suffered an engine problem which meant he set no lap time in the first session. The second practice session was better for the Briton, who was fastest, about four-tenths up on Raikkonen. From driver-to-driver, a tenth separated Raikkonen and Rosberg, then Kvyat, Bottas, Massa and Vettel. Verstappe

Not a classic race, although there were a few incidents of interest. The bet failed, but not by miles. So, a red start to 2015. Always a bit tricky at the start, though. Huge kudos to Mr. M, whose comment-based tips (especially Nasr to be top 6) worked very nicely. And there was I expressing my lack of confidence, and being wronger than the Thirteenth Earl of Wrongcaster. Bottas failed to start due to his bad back, Kvyat and Magnussen didn’t start because of mechanical issues, and the Manor Marussias, as we knew, didn’t start either. I woke up just in time for the early start, which was notable for minor contact between the Ferraris causing Raikkonen to slide down the order, and leading to Maldonado crashing out on the first lap. This prompted a lap 1 safety car. Grosjean pitted and retired, and when the racing resumed the top four remained in starting order, but Nasr had climbed well up the running order and Raikkonen had lost several places. Nasr led a trai

This is up a bit later than expected due to some minor technical issues. Glad I didn’t back that 2.87 on a small gap between the top two cars now. In case you missed the corrective comment, apologies for a cock-up on my part: qualifying started at 6am, not 5am. The race will start at 5am. Sadly, neither Manor Marussia was in shape to participate. The cars seem to be fine mechanically, but there are software issues, and, unlike with the old KERS, if the electronics aren’t working then losing the ERS will cost seconds a lap and there’s little point running without it. Hopefully they’ll be ready for Malaysia. Sauber finally got some good news. Van Der Garde voluntarily dropped (for Australia, at least) his claim on a seat, enabling Ericsson and Nasr to race as planned, with the Dutchman hoping to reach a mutually acceptable agreement with Sauber in the coming days and weeks. Q1 was notable for the McLaren being terribly slow, finishing last (17 th and 18 th , Butto

Unfortunately, both Sky and the official F1 site have been redesigned to make them worse. In a perplexing move, the official site’s results page now no longer shows the gap between the top time and those following. Practice 1 had Rosberg about three-hundredths ahead of Hamilton, but Hamilton was 1.2s ahead of third-placed Bottas. Bottas was three-tenths up on Sainz, with Vettel and Verstappen close behind. Massa, Raikkonen, Maldonado and Ricciardo rounded out the top 10. In second practice Rosberg was fastest again, exactly one-tenth up on Hamilton, who was seven-tenths ahead of Vettel. Raikkonen was four-tenths off his German team mate, and was followed by Bottas, Kvyat, Sainz, Maldonado, Grosjean and Hulkenberg. The McLarens have been very slow, 14 th and 15 th , and 13 th and 16 th . Point of order: at the moment, Sauber are still running Ericsson and Nasr. Van Der Garde does not have a super licence. Whether this’ll change, I don’t know, but without one, he

The three pre-season tests are over, and there’s less than a fortnight until the first weekend of the season proper begins in Australia. I cannot stress enough that headline times should be almost entirely ignored. The very large fuel tanks, substantial variation in pace due to tyres and new upgrades/changing weather conditions mean that very very little can be taken from the times. Mood music is the way to go, although this is obviously not very precise. It’s also worth considering that we know, more or less, how good the drivers are and are uncertain of the cars, but the cars are more important than the drivers when it comes to determining pace. Here’s a concise summary of my views on how things are likely to stand for the first race*: Title Contenders Mercedes – still fastest. Perhaps by a long way, perhaps by a little less. I still think they’ll dominate the season, although the margin may be less comically enormous than last year. Off-chance they’ll face