I know...without KERS ...that hurts, but bitch take into account the early pit-stops for the top ten, hehe lol. Jokin.
Schuey imo will get into the top 10 easily (barring crashes etc) he will get a good start and have the tyres to keep up with the mid fielders (6-10) and jump them at the pits. Who's on hard or soft? I fell asleep after Q for 30min and didnt see anything about it
You have boosted my confidence in Schumacher mate, thanks, glad I got to see an outside/neutral view on his position ahead of tomorrow. Schumacher ****ed his soft tyres in Q2 and I have heard he had KERS issues, many people were on softs through Q3. In Q2 people started on hards to save he softs for the last few minutes.
I still wish Alonso was on Hards, would be better than softs at the start. Even if he did qualify 7th/8th. Who thinks Ferrari knew they were slow(ish) in testing and put less fuel iiin than normal? Could be another 05 for them
The whole top ten are on softs. And Fred a neutral outsider? hahahahaha! He should finish higher than he's started as they should be able to fix the KERS problem. Tomorrow is still a massive learning curve for everyone and I didn't see too many race sims going on. But Rosberg will still kick his ass.
Hi guys, struggling with the internet at the moment, so just to say it looks like the Red Bulls and especially Vettel are streets ahead at the moment, Vettel didn't even use Kers in qualifying, could be the start of the Vettel domination years?! Looks like a lot of teams can't work with the tyres in lower temperatures at the moment.
Vettel was so fast today. The rest of the field will need him to reliabilty issues to have a chance tommorow.
I doubt he will dominate, the FIA won't allow it. They will change the rules in some way to prevent it. They don't want another Ferrari/Schumacher scenario. He looks very fast though. Let's see what the race brings.
The race will be a different ball game. I can see a few front runners locking up and flat spotting on the first corner
As a Vettel I always want him to win, but I hope he doesn't dominate in the way Schumacher did; it's not good for the sport when the same person romps to title after title. Hopefully he'll beat Schumacher's record by repeatedly nicking the title at the last race like last season.
I've read that the stewards have turned down HRT's request to race. I take it this is final and we will only see 22 cars tomorrow? EDIT: Yeah, it's definite. Poor HRT, they brought it on themselves, but it won't help with their lack of sponsors.
Some guesstimates: Hamilton needs to get Vettel immediately, otherwise it's a walk around the Albert Park for the Red Bull driver. If he's alongside by turn 1, he could be properly ahead by turn 3. This needs a very good start from Hamilton and a tardy one from Vettel. Hamilton's starts are not his strongest suit, so he'll need to get off the line very cleanly. If he does, expect him to try to out-brake Vettel immediately into 1. Even so, I don't think Hamilton will win the race unless Vettel gets rattled by finding himself behind (which is possible). - Vettel is superb when in front but he doesn't fight too well when he's behind. Of course there are three others to consider: Webber could win but only if Vettel has some mishap. Button could win if he does a significantly better job with his tyres. And although Alonso has looked a little ragged at times over the weekend so far, I think it's too early to discount him from getting on the podium. Red Bull are awesome through the corners but if a McLaren is within a second of a Red Bull, it could claw back some time on the 867meters of DRS window first time around with the stronger engine/KERS combination. If Vettel survives this first lap still leading - including Hamilton's likely DRS attack; he'll vanish into the distance to a comfortable win - so long as his stops go to plan as expected. Exactly the same applies to Button and Webber. Meanwhile, Alonso will be waiting to pick off any pieces and may try something on Button at turn 1 if he gets a better start. I don't expect Rosberg to set the world alight, but the Mercedes is a very good car. He'll likely play a waiting game and hope for attrition to spoil others efforts. Don't miss the first lap!
I don't think Hamilton can outrace Vettel tomorrow, the performance advantage of the Red Bull is too much. He'll need unreliability/fortunate safety car/collision/something else to beat him. I don't think the Pirelli tyres will make the races the lotteries a lot of people are expecting, even if Hamilton beats Vettel into the corner the randomness of the strategies means that Red Bull will have plenty of opportunities to slot Vettel into the clean air he needs to leap frog him. I'm too young to really remember the Senna-Prost days, but I believe there was high degradation and no refuelling back then, and Senna and Prost, two of the greatest of all time and the greatest of their era, won seven World Championships between them. I think the race being split into more stages provides more opportunity for the cream to float to the top. If you look at Singapore last year, Alonso was able to win despite having a slower car, because he wrangled it onto pole and then pitted at the same time as the faster Vettel. If there'd been two stops that day I think Vettel would've won, he wouldn't have made the mistake of following Alonso into the pits a second time.
I have just thought of a way Vettel could lost the race tomorrow though. If Hamilton has him into the first corner, he and Webber could get backed into the rest of the field. With no KERS, the weakest engine and the cars behind being able to use DRS they could drop like a stone if they can't pull out a small gap to the car behind. I suppose it does all hinge on the first corner. If Seb hangs on to the lead it will be a walk in the park, if Hamilton manages to pass him Vettel can still win but he'll have to fight for it.
Seb will need to close the door on hamilton or webber will stick to hammy's gearbox and sneak past seb. I think thats what you have meant AB. I know a way they all could f the race up. Less grip> more locking up and rear ending someone. In a way I am glad MSC has not made the top ten.
i disagree.lewis is normally great off the line.so many times he's gained a few places by being quick off the line. also lets not forget how poor vettel was last season when he started in pole position.
