Singapore: pre-qualifying 2016

Verstappen has the only upgraded Renault engine, said to be worth 0.1s a lap. I’m sure Ricciardo is thrilled.

In first practice Verstappen led Ricciardo by half a tenth, both Red Bulls a few tenths ahead of Vettel, with Hamilton and Rosberg following on. Raikkonen, Sainz and Kvyat were next, with Massa and Gutierrez.

Hamilton had a hydraulics problem in P2. It doesn’t appear to be serious but it did prevent him getting in long run practice.

Rosberg was fastest in P2, three-tenths ahead of Raikkonen. Verstappen and Ricciardo were a short distance back, again separated by less than a tenth. Vettel and Hulkenberg were next, the German pair followed by Hamilton, Sainz, Alonso and Kvyat.

At this stage, the Red Bull looks tasty and Toro Rosso may well return to the points.

In third practice, Hamilton didn’t get a proper run-in as his qualifying simulation was derailed when he made a mistake and went into a run-off area. Rosberg was fastest, half a tenth ahead of Verstappen. Raikkonen was third but four-tenths down the road. Then came Ricciardo, Vettel and Hulkenberg, Kvyat, Hamilton, Sainz and Bottas.

Bit surprised the McLaren isn’t looking better, to be honest.

Tempting to back Verstappen for pole (5.5 with Betfair) but I think any of the Red Bulls/Mercedes stands a chance and there’s the outside possibility of a Ferrari doing well (as well as the ever-present risk of introducing one’s car to the wall).

I still think Mercedes are likeliest to get pole.

So, no qualifying tip.

I’ll likely put the pre-race piece up this evening. Note that whilst qualifying starts at 2pm today, The race begins at 1pm tomorrow.


Morris Dancer

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

F1 2014 - Second and Third Tests

Image
Bit of a whopper of an article, but it didn’t make sense to write two for the Bahrain tests, as they were so close together. Many of the rule changes are helpfully outlined here: http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/22058/9077826/gearing-up-for-2014-the-rule-changes-uncovered-and-explained-part-one This is one more reason why reliability is to critical. Losing a whole power unit (exceeding the 5 per season limit) means starting the next race from the pit lane. Losing a component, such as the turbo, means a 10 place grid penalty. On day one of the first test in Bahrain it appeared the Renault/Red Bull woe might continue. However, both Red Bull and Toro Rosso got in good running on the second day. Any remaining issues seem more to do with the car rather than the power unit. It’s been suggested the Renault requires significantly more cooling than rival engines, but apparently there are upsides. If the horsepower rumours were true (Mercedes being mighty and Ferrari better
Read more

Japan: early discussion

Image
As we enter the latter stages of the season we have multiple pairs of back-to-back races, hence this discussion starting a day after the Korean Grand Prix (which may be the last, incidentally. The circuit’s too isolated, surrounding developments haven’t been built and the organisers are annoyed by the high cost of staging the race which is the only use of the circuit all year). The Suzuka circuit is a proper one, with lots of elevation changes, a very fast flowing section (similar to Silverstone) and some very high speed corners. Sadly, I expect this will mean it’ll suit Red Bull. However, given their resurgence, it’s worth mentioning that last year Sauber had a strong result at Suzuka, when Kobayashi got third. Perhaps Hulkenberg will be able to get good points again (thanks to him Sauber are now tied on points but ahead of Toro Rosso in the Constructors’) and Gutierrez could nab his first point or two. Lotus benefited from some fortune with the safety car timing in Kore
Read more

America: pre-race

Image
Q1 saw the pointless teams ditched as usual, but there was a stark divergence between the Williams’ drivers. Bottas was 1st (in Q1 only), and Maldonado 18th. Turns out money can only buy seats, not speed. Surprising to see such a difference between the two drivers, though. Sutil went out in 17th, and may have suffered some sort of technical problem as he peeled off after his final lap. During Q2 it was confirmed Sutil had a problem, namely a slow puncture. Q2 saw the surprise departure of Rosberg. The Mercedes seemed to be the best of the rest, so that’s quite a shock. Not only that, he’s 14th, behind Ricciardo, Di Resta and Button (although Button suffers a 3 place grid penalty for ignoring red flags during practice). Massa is behind Rosberg, followed by Vergne. Impressively, Sauber got both of their cars into the top 10. Q3 was surprisingly close, but Vettel narrowly got pole ahead of Webber. Grosjean continues his strong form with 3rd, followed by Hulkenberg, who is
Read more