Brazil: pre-race

Qualifying went more or less to form, with some woe for Grosjean and McLaren, and a good performance by Hulkenberg. Grid penalties and overtaking potential, and perhaps weather, may present opportunities come the race.

In Q1 we saw the traditional McLaren engine calamity, which forced Alonso to sunbathe before joining Button on the podium for larks. As well as the two McLarens, both Manor cars failed to progress, and Maldonado, disappointingly, was fastest of those to leave at this stage.

Q2 was rather more competitive. Grosjean should’ve been in with a chance of reaching Q3 but left it late to go out, then spun and ruined his tyres, to the extent he qualified a paltry 15th. Nasr did well to qualify 11th, ahead of Sainz and Perez (who was comprehensively outqualified by his team mate), with Ericsson between Perez and Grosjean.

Worth noting that as well as Bottas’ three place penalty and Ricciardo’s 10 place drop, Nasr may suffer a penalty for badly blocking Massa in Q2.

At the sharp end, Q3 was tighter than a miser’s purse strings. Rosberg was a tenth faster than Hamilton on the first run, and less than a tenth faster than him on the second, so the German maintains his superb qualifying form for yet another pole. Also worth recalling that whilst overtaking is eminently possible here, last year Rosberg drove brilliantly to keep Hamilton behind him.

Vettel, as you may well have guessed, was next up, but half a second down the road. He was followed by Bottas, Raikkonen and Hulkenberg. Kvyat, Massa, Ricciardo and Verstappen round out the top 10.

Rain seems unlikely.

Initial bets that took my fancy:
Hulkenberg top 6
Kvyat top 6
Grosjean points
No Safety Car

Hulkenberg and Kvyat were hovering around evens to be top 6, which is too short to tempt.

Grosjean was 2.37 for points, which also seems a shade tight.

No Safety Car is 2.75. It’s been a few years since there’s been one and no rain is forecast. On the other hand, it seems eminently likely one or both McLarens will explode at some point.

Given that, the 2.75 available (each) for Alonso and Button not to be classified seems very good value.

So, two tip (Ladbrokes)s:
Alonso, not to be classified, 2.75
Button, not to be classified, 2.75

Race starts at 4pm tomorrow. Interlagos is perhaps my favourite circuit, so it should be a good race.


Morris Dancer

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