MorrisF1

Pretty good race, with crashing, a safety car, a good helping of passing, a late duel, although it was a little sterile at the sharp end. On the betting front, both tips came off. Button’s car had a reliability problem, and Alonso has a rather alarming high speed crash with Raikkonen [fortunately both men are fine]. Rosberg enjoyed a flying start, passed Hamilton immediately, and retained the lead throughout, never truly coming under threat. Bottas slid back a few places, and Ericsson jumped the start, which earnt him a penalty. On the first lap Raikkonen appeared to lose control, at which point Alonso’s McLaren collided with the Ferrari, taking both cars out of the race (the McLaren parked atop the Ferrari). The safety car came out for several laps, and although it took a while for the wreckage to be removed both drivers were entirely unharmed. A few moments later Will Stevens peeled off and parked his Manor Marussia on the wayside due to a reliability problem. Fo

The track was still drying from the P3 showers, so if it rains in the race expect it to stay soggy for a long time. Unfortunately, it didn’t rain again, which could’ve put the cat amongst the pigeons. Q1 saw the departure of both Manor Marussias, Merhi ahead, as well as the surprising exit of Perez (16 th ), the less surprising exit of Button (17 th ) and the shock departure of Raikkonen (18 th ). It was suggested the Finn might not have been fuelled sufficiently for his final lap, which he aborted, but Ferrari denied there was any such issue, or a technical problem. Doesn’t bode well for Raikkonen’s contract extension (a decision will be made by the end of July). In Q2 every car that failed to escape was from a different team, which is unusual. Maldonado was the fastest of those to leave, followed by Ericsson, Sainz, Ricciardo (who has looked out of sorts this weekend) and Alonso. Q3, which featured two German drivers (Vettel and Hulkenberg) whose team mates left in Q1

Tyres for this weekend are supersoft and soft. Austria’s all about straight line speed, so I imagine it’ll be very similar to Canada. Lotus in particular may be a team to watch. Alonso gets a 20 place grid penalty due to replacing so much of his engine, and Ricciardo gets a 10 place penalty. Button has a 25 place grid penalty. The grid has 20 cars. In first practice Rosberg was three-tenths ahead of Hamilton, followed by the Finns Raikkonen and Bottas. Nasr and Kvyat were next, with Ricciardo, Verstappen, Massa and Perez rounding out the top 10. Second practice was led by Vettel, who was a hundredth ahead of Rosberg. Raikkonen was two-tenths down the road, with Maldonado just a tenth back. Hamilton was next, but didn’t get a clean lap (on pace he would’ve been a few tenths ahead of the field). Hulkenberg and Grosjean followed, with Verstappen, Nasr and Perez finishing off the top 10. Ferrari are reportedly looking really rather racy. However, that’s been said

Well, the race didn’t go to plan, but it was plain misjudgement on my part. The Force India was fast enough to keep the Lotus behind it but a strategic cock-up allowed Maldonado to pass. I also over-estimated the chances of technical woe at the sharper end (nothing really happened there). It would’ve been interesting to know how I might’ve bet on double score for a team (again, would’ve likely looked at Force India/Lotus, the former losing, the latter winning) but I’m not unhappy with the first green weekend of the year [the hedge was unmatched, incidentally]. Off the line it was more or less formation flying. Over the course of the first lap Hulkenberg managed to pass Maldonado and Sainz slid down a few places, but otherwise it was largely as you were. Within the first two laps Hamilton had broken DRS range, and retained that gap or more throughout the whole race, so, at the sharp end, it was not a thriller. The top four were all spread, especially the two Finns, and R

A mixed bag from the tips. Both came off, which is nice. The Hulkenberg tip was good judgement, the Perez tip good fortune (if both Massa and Vettel not suffered technical trouble then it’s near certain the Mexican would’ve failed to reach Q3). On a £10 stake basis, the difference is a £7.50 profit against a £35 profit, which goes to show just how much difference luck, good or ill, makes. The first session of qualifying was notable for technical trouble striking two leading drivers. Massa’s Williams suffered some sort of power problem, and Vettel likewise suffered a shortfall (uncertain if it was due to a similar issue as afflicted him in practice). As is traditional, both Manor Marussias exited at this stage, as did Button, who didn’t even start qualifying due to yet more technical woe. The second session saw the predictable departure of the under-powered McLaren of Alonso, as well as the anonymous [silly crash aside] Saubers. Neither Toro Rosso managed to make Q3, perhaps

The tyres for this weekend are soft and supersoft. It’s possible rain will affect things, although right now a dry qualifying/race appears more probable. The circuit is mostly straights and slow corners, so aerodynamics matter less and straight line speed is handy. Honda and Ferrari have both used some engine tokens to improve their power, though it remains it be seen just what impact the improvements will have made to performance. In P1 Hamilton was four-tenths up on Rosberg, who was over a second ahead of Grosjean. Hulkenberg and Vettel were next, followed by Massa, Kvyat, Maldonado, Alonso and Verstappen. The second practice session had Hamilton up on Vettel by four-tenths, with Raikkonen and Rosberg next. Maldonado, Bottas, Grosjean, Massa, Kvyat and Ricciardo round out the top 10. P2 was disrupted by rain, which saw Hamilton introduce his front wing to the barriers in a relatively low speed crash (no damage beyond the front wing). It was remarked in P2 t