Abu Dhabi: pre-qualifying 2017
Hartley has another 10
place grid penalty, this time for the MGU-H.
In first practice,
which is a lot hotter than qualifying or the race will be so is not
especially useful as a guide, Vettel was fastest, a tenth ahead of
Hamilton, Verstappen following close behind. Raikkonen, Bottas and
Perez were next, with Alonso, Vandoorne, Massa and Ricciardo rounding
out the top 10.
In second practice, the
order was reversed at the sharp end, with Hamilton two-tenths up on
Vettel (but the Briton looked substantially better on long runs).
Ricciardo was next, with Raikkonen and Bottas next and Verstappen
sixth. Perez, Ocon, Hulkenberg and Alonso came next.
At this stage I think
it’s looking nice and tight, though I think Hamilton has the
advantage.
Hamilton was again
fastest in third practice, three-tenths up on his team mate.
Raikkonen was two-tenths off Bottas, and a hair’s breadth ahead of
Vettel. Ricciardo and Verstappen were a few tenths down the road and,
half a second back, Alonso and Vandoorne were fast in the McLarens.
Sainz and Perez finished off the top 10.
Looks like a Hamilton
pole. With a dry race and one stop probable, scope for upsets is
limited but it should be tight at the sharp end. Crashing, safety
cars and perhaps reliability could all be factors, but remember
Hamilton has a fresher engine than everyone else which won’t hurt
his prospects.
Hamilton’s odds for pole are
just 1.33, which is too short to tempt even though I think he’s a
strong favourite. Bottas or Raikkonen each way (third odds, top 2) at
7 and 17 respectively is a bit more appetising. I was sorely tempted
by splitting one stake between backing both but decided against it
(just got a feeling it’ll be Vettel up there with Hamilton).
On an utterly unrelated
note, I might be redoing an old comic I wrote some years ago (drawing
it rather than using graphics). It’d be very helpful if anyone
reading this could vote in the Twitter poll (or just mention their
preference here if you don’t have Twitter):
Qualifying and race are
at the normal UK times of 1pm each so the pre-race ramble should be
up this afternoon/evening.
Morris Dancer
Comments
Post a Comment