Russia: pre-race
Sainz remained, as
expected, in hospital undergoing checks during qualifying. He appears
to be fine, and is intent on performing in the race, though I’m not
sure if the team or medical staff will agree.
As expected, both
Marussias left in Q1, as did Ericsson and Alonso. Only the Mercedes
managed to make it through without using the substantially faster
supersoft tyres.
Q2 was rather more
competitive, with every departing driver from a different team. From
11th to 15th, we lost Kvyat, Nasr, Button,
Maldonado and Massa. Massa reportedly had bad traffic, and by the
time he cleared it his tyres had gone. There was a second from
Maldonado to his team mate, and nearly two betwixt Massa and Bottas,
so that seems credible, given how closely matched the Williams
drivers have been this year.
In Q1 we had a slight
surprise, with Rosberg getting his second consecutive pole. He was
faster than Hamilton in all sectors, and topping the time sheets in
every session. No fluke this. However, he started pole last year,
buggered up the braking for turn 1 and lost the race then with a very
early pit stop.
Behind the Silver
Arrows we had Bottas, leading Vettel and Raikkonen. Hulkenberg and
Perez came next, a strong starting position for the Force Indias.
Grosjean starts 8th, with Verstappen outqualifying both
Red Bulls and Ricciardo only 10th.
The race is expected to
be dry. The long and tricky pit lane entry suggest one stop, if
possible on the tyres, will be the preference of teams.
Initial thoughts that
sprang to mind were:
Rosberg win
Vettel podium
Force India double
score
Safety Car
Rosberg was only 2.3 or
so for the win, which is too short given Hamilton’s advantage
wheel-to-wheel.
Vettel’s 1.8 for a
podium. Bit tight.
And 1.72 for Force
India to double score is also mean, given reliability and crashing
potential.
Safety Car was 1.68
with Betfair. Which is somewhat tempting (the 1.5 on Ladbrokes is
not).
So, nothing leapt out
at me. In line with standard operating procedure, I browsed the
markets hoping someone had horribly mispriced something.
The following seemed of
interest:
Nasr for points at 4
(4.3 with Betfair).
So, tip:
Back Nasr at 4.3,
hedged at 2 [NB if liquidity runs out, I’d back at 4 on Ladbrokes]
Really hard to call the
race due to lack of running. Could be entertaining if all the set-ups
are wrong.
Morris Dancer
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