holy fudge, where did that time come from? Hamilton casually comes out and destroys them all.... that's party mode then.
called it 121.1 is a low 1:21. q1.. i was oh dear. procession. q2 hmmm this is bloody interesting. q3. hmm wheres the time theres more in this... oh there it is. clearly merc have quali speed over the rest. q2 makes some hope for a very tight race. kimi in 2nd.. well lets see the start now.
Wow so so close. At least qualifying will potentially be fun this year. Did anyone notice on Bottas crashed car there was a pipe spewing fumes upwards which was exposed after the rear wing was ripped off?
That's a special lap. A very special one. Even with 2000bhp, I doubt any current chassis/tyre combination could have been physically quicker. What Hamilton did there must be close to the limit of what is humanly possible. But despite the difference for Pole, as we open the new season I believe there's very little between the top teams. Even without his costly error, I'll stick my neck out and say Bottas could not have achieved that and would probably have Mercedes looking third quickest. I've got to risk being labelled by Bando. Yes, there's more… In this day and age, being 2/3rds of a second ahead in the dry is unheard of. A "driver's lap" if ever there was one. Senna would have been proud of himself for it. Absolutely outstanding. No, I'll correct that… Astonishing.
I thought it possible from what was seen in practice. I would have in general assumed bottas would be behind anyway but he was well off in q1.
I think how special the lap from Hamilton is will only become apparent over the next few races once we get a clear idea of how competitive the field is. Unfortunately being 7 tenths ahead in the dry when the other Mercedes doesn't get a lap in isn't unheard of at all. Rosberg did it twice in 2016.
Probably the perfect lap, but all things considered that’s a worrying sign of things to come for this season. I don’t want to jump the gun, but it’s highly unlikely Bottas will offer any type of challenge and us effectively trying to find just enough to keep his seat - being 5/10 of Lewis but in front of the rest might just seal it? Biggest issue really is the close battle we are going to get between RB and Ferrari, as fascinating as this will be it just plays into Mercs hands over the season.
I have thought for a while now , the only way Bottas will keep his seat next year , is if Hamilton want's him to stay .
Another amazing thing about Lewis' lap was that he was just told that his teammate had crashed heavily and I am sure that would have had him thinking, especially in the specific corner where Bottas crashed. To come after that and improve by a second is massive, regardless of what ever engine mode. Also Kimi seems to be driving much better than last year...at least his qualifying laps are right up there so far.
Do these Sky comme Probably hydraulic fluid for DRS spraying. So it looks like Williams and Macca are going to be bloody awful once again. Oh how the mighty have truly fallen. One question for you lot, does David Croft ever stfu? First time watching the footage from sky, and boy does he go on. Already missing the NBC footage.
After the first runs in Q3 I thought we were going to have an interesting season, I changed my mind 6 mins later.
The Ferrari isn't good enough and the RBR will never have the power with a Renault in the back , which Horner knows. reliability is your only hope. This season is as over as Bottas career in the upper echelons of F1.
shush, allow us to live in bliss for another 12 hours You never know, it might have just been a biblical lap and tomorrow they'll all be evenly matched. You never know, stranger things have happened (whilst praying to all know gods)
All the race pace running from testing and free practice suggests the front 3 teams are quite close, and Ferrari won at Melbourne last year despite a dominant Mercedes pole. I don't think we can write the season off just yet! Clearly Mercedes are going to be in a strong position if "party mode" is going to give them half a second on their final Q3 runs. I guess the question will be whether they can tactically use it in the race at all. As for this race, Hamilton doesn't have a rear gunner to help him, and if Kimi can take his quai pace into the race then Ferrari could split strategies to force Hamilton to cover one of then. Verstappen usually starts strongly and he has a tyre advantage too. As for the rest of the field, Bottas, Ricciardo and Alonso all expect to make significant gains, and potentially the weather might throw a curve ball too? I think it's shaping up nicely!
Lewis was interviewed by C4 and he said that he didn't have an extra mode for Q3 just same one as Q2!!! So if that is true it was a megga lap. I am hoping Red Bull starting on the harder tyres might make things interesting. McL don't seem to have improved enough and TR are not showing the performance that testing suggested but at least they haven't broken down yet.
Don't know why Lewis said that, because Wolf says they do and Lewis did indeed use Party Mode to set his lap. It seems that Lewis is trying to play games with Vettel. Edit to add the source. http://www.planetf1.com/news/wolff-hamilton-did-use-party-mode-in-q3/
