Really poor qualifying from Leclerc today, which is a real shame as he seemed like the best option to challenge Verstappen. Sainz on the other hand was excellent, but you wonder if he'll have the stamina to be at full steam ahead for the whole race. Still, at least Perez got a 3 place penalty.
I wish Sainz wasn’t racing . I’m no medical expert , but just because he says he’s in no pain , doesn’t mean he won’t be damaging the tender area .
Still has the potential to be quite close I think. Max pulled out couple of great laps in Q3 and I’m sure the Ferrari’s were slightly under par due to Carlos’ recovery and Leclerc’s mistake. Removing Sergio’s T1 mistake would have put him about level with Sainz, which suggest the cars were quite closely matched on Qualifying pace and it seems like the RedBull’s have traded some downforce expecting not to be on pole so the deg, might be more matched than normal too. Good from McLaren at a track they would have been expected to struggle at, conversely this should have been a good track for Merc
I think everything we've seen suggests the mclarens will be better than the ferrari. the ferrari might just go hard for a few laps thrn fall back. we've two "chargers" t9 make the first few laps interesting and a tight field. if the camera never look at verstappen and we stick a bit of tape over no 1 on the timing sheet we could pretend that it's a race I guess. but I do think it'll be very hard get by here and it'll be drs and tyres thst generate racing
Call me a cynic but I think the Red Bulls keep their PU turned down to about 7 until the last run of quali then turn it up to 9. It's like they know they are about 0.5sec faster then the rest but don't want to show that to the world as that would lose even more viewers. Carlos did very well, I have always thought he is as good if not slightly better than Charles. I still can't believe Merc haven't worked out these regs yet. The McLarens and Ferrari have made steps forward but Merc just seem lost - it's like they just don't understand how to generate downforce from the floor. I think we will have another Red Bull 1, 2, with McLarens 3rd and 4th with Ferrari dropping down due to tyre wear.
sounds about right. a massive red bull aero package inbound after this as well. that nose failed a test and cannot be the intent. merc seems to have been hard to set up for about 5 years. they seem to have slammed it up the floor again so any Bumps or wind and they are goners. Red bull seem very happy to run it high and get bags of ground effect.
You’re too nice . If I was in Albion’s position , I would Drive my team mates car and not care 1 bit . I would ultimately be thinking of #1 in that situation .
You think McLaren on long runs will beat the Ferrari around here? Be nice if they could all keep Perez behind.
all I know is the ferrari tyres in fp2 went off quicker if they are on an equal footing with mclaren. the mclaren did very consistent times so we will find out when we take up and check the result.
I’m not convinced RedBull are sandbagging on pure pace, in the past when we’ve seen teams have half to a second qually advantage the number 2 is generally 2nd/3rd on average and Perez is struggling to achieve that. I do think they’re managing their pace on Race day though.
its close as the engines are all similar largely. the teams on a single lap are able to put in a good time as there's only so much you can do with aero until you have loads on ground effect and you start reducing drag all round. that's imo what mclaren have done. they were like a brick last year until the big upgrade and that made a massive difference for them getting closer. I just think the Red bull are very stable, very kind to tyres and very low drag so are looking like they gain more time in the high speed than in the corners. who knows.
You never know fellas - the talk from Max was that Ferrari long run data was strong on Friday. Of course it may turn out Max has chunks of time up his sleeve but Ferrari looked so solid that it would be so disappointing if they weren’t a factor.
Lewis starting on the soft tyres.Should move him forward early. Needs to get a good window to go to hards early for a one stopper.
