Tell you what, I was pretty convinced Lewis was going to drive off and make a dull race of it tomorrow. Now, I'm really not so sure.
Bottas failed when it mattered, again. Lewis looked strong in practice on the mediums, a lot better than Max. The question will be how long can Max make those soft tyres last. The race is likely to be decided by race strategy around pit stops. Lewis still has a good chance being on the mediums.
I'm curious how the rest of the grid behaves in this one. If you're Norris and get a good jump off the line, do you risk going late on the brakes into the first corner knowing that a lock-up could decide the title?
Hmm...I think he wants to take a watching brief, but at the same time, he's a racer at the end of the day.
Especially tricky as (unless the new formula alters the balance significantly) Norris might want to race for one of those two teams in a couple years!
Recently MV has had some problems off the start line, the softs will help with grip but if Lewis gets a good start, Turn 1 is not so far from the start line, so could be interesting.
Agreed, Lewis has a better long term strategy on the mediums so does not need to take additional risks, but Norris will be behind MV... could be interesting if he gets up inside him. Also would be interesting if Lewis gets to the bend first, MV will have to give him room, all drivers have been warned about pushing opponents off the track.
If I heard correctly, the pundits made much of the “tow” Max had from riding Perez’s slipstream, which helped him improve the middle section time, helping him to the pole. That being the case, other than the start, will there be much advantage with the soft tyre? How much advantage, time wise per lap, would soft tyres have over medium?
It really didn't give him that much of an advantage - worked out at about 8 hundredths of a second. The bit he absolutely nailed was the third section of the track, so nothing to do with the tow. He was also going quicker on his final lap that he aborted to save the tyres, which was without a tow. He was just mind-bogglingly quick, but whether he can sustain that and manage the tyres well enough in the race, that's the question.
Given how much effort F1 has put into appealing to the North American market, having a title-decider that airs at between 4 - 8 am in the populated bits of NA is a bit silly.
More the result of putting a heavy emphasis on the Middle East at the end of the schedule. European races air when the sun is up in NA. Having spent millions to appeal to Americans and having the most important race in years airing when most Americans won't see it wasn't brilliant.
Looking forward to this. Yesterday's events means that (crashes aside) we should have a race with interest until the latter stages.
Hopefully it will come down to the best driver/car/strategy and no crashes, especially no red flags. I don’t follow F1 as closely as others, but definitely don’t think a team should be allowed to change tyres etc, when pitted under a red flag, especially when an opponent has already made a tyre change under normal race conditions, in an attempt to give themselves a strategic advantage.
