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Ruslan

Race 5 - 2018 Spanish Grand Prix

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Results from first practice:

 

Friday Practice Session 1

POS DRIVER NATIONALITY ENTRANT TIME
1. Valtteri Bottas Finland Mercedes 1:18.148
2. Lewis Hamilton Britain Mercedes 1:18.997
3. Sebastian Vettel Germany Ferrari 1:19.098
4. Max Verstappen Netherlands Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:19.187
5. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari 1:19.499
6. Fernando Alonso Spain McLaren-Renault 1:19.858
7. Daniel Ricciardo Autralia Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:19.871
8. Romain Grosjean France Haas-Ferrari 1:19.906
9. Stoffel Vandoorne Belgium McLaren-Renault 1:20.083
10. Pierre Gasly France Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 1:20.508
11. Kevin Magnussen Denmark Haas-Ferrari 1:20.637
12. Charles Leclerc Monaco Sauber-Ferrari 1:20.665
13. Sergio Perez Mexico Force India-Mercedes 1:20.924
14. Marcus Ericsson Sweden Sauber-Ferrari 1:20.984
15. Carlos Sainz Spain Renault 1:21.053
16. Esteban Ocon France Force India-Mercedes 1:21.144
17. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Renault 1:21.159
18. Brendon Hartley New Zealand Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 1:21.373
19. Robert Kubica Poland Williams-Mercedes 1:21.510
20. Kevin Magnussen Denmark Haas-Ferrari 1:22.756

 

A few observations:

1. Mercedes is clearly faster than Ferrari (but this is only Practice 1)

2. Maybe all the new aero parts on the McLaren are helping.

3. Not sure how Magnussen ended up in both 11 and 20. I am guessing one of those is Lance Stroll.

4. Good to see Kubica back.

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Results from second practice:

Friday Practice Session 2
POS DRIVER NATIONALITY ENTRANT TIME
1. Lewis Hamilton Britain Mercedes 1:18.259
2. Daniel Ricciardo Autralia Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:18.392
3. Max Verstappen Netherlands Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:18.533
4. Sebastian Vettel Germany Ferrari 1:18.585
5. Valtteri Bottas Finland Mercedes 1:18.611
6. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari 1:18.829
7. Romain Grosjean France Haas-Ferrari 1:19.579
8. Kevin Magnussen Denmark Haas-Ferrari 1:19.643
9. Stoffel Vandoorne Belgium McLaren-Renault 1:19.722
10. Sergio Perez Mexico Force India-Mercedes 1:19.962
11. Esteban Ocon France Force India-Mercedes 1:20.024
12. Fernando Alonso Spain McLaren-Renault 1:20.035
13. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Renault 1:20.183
14. Pierre Gasly France Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 1:20.373
15. Marcus Ericsson Sweden Sauber-Ferrari 1:20.501
16. Charles Leclerc Monaco Sauber-Ferrari 1:20.514
17. Carlos Sainz Spain Renault 1:20.672
18. Brendon Hartley New Zealand Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 1:21.265
19. Lance Stroll Canada Williams-Mercedes 1:21.556
20. Sergey Sirotkin Russia Williams-Mercedes 1:22.060

 

A few more observations:

1. Mercedes remain ahead of Ferrari (British vs German and Finn vs Finn).

2. The Haas-Ferrari's are again having a really good weekend. Maybe it will carry through to Sunday.

3. McLaren-Renaults are still ahead of most.

4. How sad is it with the Williams. Kubica time in first free practice was faster than either Stroll or Sirotkin (although I gather FP2 was the slower session).

 

Finally, we get this odd quote from Hamilton on Ferrari: "....but they're probably sandbagging or something."

http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view/637210/Hamilton_Ferrari_are_probably_sandbagging_or_something/

 

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Practice three results looks kind of the same as practice 1 and 2:

 

Saturday Practice Session 3

POS DRIVER NATIONALITY ENTRANT TIME
1. Lewis Hamilton Britain Mercedes 1:17.281
2. Valtteri Bottas Finland Mercedes 1:17.294
3. Sebastian Vettel Germany Ferrari 1:17.550
4. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari 1:17.581
5. Daniel Ricciardo Autralia Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:17.981
6. Kevin Magnussen Denmark Haas-Ferrari 1:18.357
7. Romain Grosjean France Haas-Ferrari 1:18.706
8. Carlos Sainz Spain Renault 1:18.783
9. Fernando Alonso Spain McLaren-Renault 1:18.847
10. Pierre Gasly France Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 1:18.886
11. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Renault 1:18.905
12. Max Verstappen Netherlands Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:19.013
13. Esteban Ocon France Force India-Mercedes 1:19.121
14. Stoffel Vandoorne Belgium McLaren-Renault 1:19.236
15. Charles Leclerc Monaco Sauber-Ferrari 1:19.292
16. Sergio Perez Mexico Force India-Mercedes 1:19.376
17. Brendon Hartley New Zealand Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 1:19.428
18. Marcus Ericsson Sweden Sauber-Ferrari 1:19.744
19. Lance Stroll Canada Williams-Mercedes 1:19.900
20. Sergey Sirotkin Russia Williams-Mercedes 1:19.909

 

 

A few observations:

1. Mercedes over Ferrari over Red Bull

2. Haas remains best of the rest

3. Williams seems hopelessly lost.

4. Renault and McLaren over Toro Rosso.

5. Not sure what is going on with Force India.

 

Anyhow, qualifying should be interesting.

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Qualifying results:

Saturday Qualifying Session
POS DRIVER NATIONALITY ENTRANT TIME
1. Lewis Hamilton Britain Mercedes 1:16.173
2. Valtteri Bottas Finland Mercedes 1:16.213
3. Sebastian Vettel Germany Ferrari 1:16.305
4. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari 1:16.612
5. Max Verstappen Netherlands Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:16.816
6. Daniel Ricciardo Autralia Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:16.818
7. Kevin Magnussen Denmark Haas-Ferrari 1:17.676
8. Fernando Alonso Spain McLaren-Renault 1:17.721
9. Carlos Sainz Spain Renault 1:17.790
10. Romain Grosjean France Haas-Ferrari 1:17.835
Q2
11. Stoffel Vandoorne Belgium McLaren-Renault 1:18.323
12. Pierre Gasly France Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 1:18.463
13. Esteban Ocon France Force India-Mercedes 1:18.696
14. Charles Leclerc Monaco Sauber-Ferrari 1:18.910
15. Sergio Perez Mexico Force India-Mercedes 1:19.098
Q1
16. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Renault 1:18.923
17. Marcus Ericsson Sweden Sauber-Ferrari 1:19.493
18. Sergey Sirotkin Russia Williams-Mercedes 1:19.695
19. Lance Stroll Canada Williams-Mercedes 1:20.225
20. Brendon Hartley New Zealand Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda No Time

 

Kind of surprising in that there were no surprises. The qualifying clearly reflected the times we were seeing in practice and in testing a couple of months ago.

Some observations:

  1.  Mercedes over Ferrari over Red Bull and all a second to a second-and-a-half over the rest of the field.
    1. Is this the norm for the season?
  2. Haas, Renault and McLaren fighting for the best of the rest.
    1. Is this also the norm for the season?
  3. Not sure what happened with Force India.
  4. Williams could not be doing any worse.

Bigger questions:

  1. Does the qualifying reflect the impact of the oil consumption rule changes and the mysterious blue smoke.
    1. Mercedes started the beginning of the season with a qualifying advantage....it then disappeared...FIA then "clarified" the regulations....and now Mercedes again has the qualifying advantage.
    2. Does this mean the Ferrari was the team benefitting?
  2. It does seem that the Ferraris are more consistent and predictable on their tires than the Mercedes. Mercedes seems to be more affected by the wrong temperatures, getting the tires to work, etc.
    1. Does this mean that we will see a little bit of a race between the consistent tortoise and the less consistent hare?
  3. If the "order has been re-established" what does this mean for F1 politics?
    1. Marchionne and Arrivabenne do not seem all that patient or particularly compromising. I gather they have agreed to the engine regulations for 2021 but have not agreed to the monetary and budget changes. Does this mean that the argument with Liberty is going to drag on for a while?
    2. What is Ferrari's attitude if it can never seem to win?
  4. Are we looking at this season turning into another Mercedes stomp (which was a common prediction before the start of this season)?
  5. If the "order has been re-established" what does this mean for driver moves?
    1. Hamilton re-signs with Mercedes.
    2. I gather Alonso stays with McLaren because there is really not another option.
    3. The only thing in play is the second seats at Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull?
  6. Why is everyone else pretty consistently a second to a second-and-a-half slower than the top three teams?
    1. Is this going to change as the season continues?
    2. They have all had their "start of the European season" upgrade packages and nothing has seemed to change. 

 

 

 

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funny that we're in a situation where the soft compound is faster than the supersoft, but hey, hang on a second, if's the new Pirelli tyres with slimmer thread... who had asked for such a change because otherwise they were overheating their tyres? 

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6 hours ago, Publius Cornelius Scipio said:

funny that we're in a situation where the soft compound is faster than the supersoft, but hey, hang on a second, if's the new Pirelli tyres with slimmer thread... who had asked for such a change because otherwise they were overheating their tyres? 

Yea, it appears that nothing can occur in Formula One without controversy or questions: http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view/637437/Special_Pirelli_tire_Mercedes_pole_causes_rumors/

 

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Just riffing on the controversy issue a little bit.....every sport has them. It is the nature of competition that people try to manipulate things to their advantage. I coached little league baseball teams for six seasons....and believe me, it lowered my opinion of the ethical standards of some sports people. But......in the days when I had much more time (read: I was single), I used to follow a lot of different racing series, and I don't recall one that quite had the non-stop controversy of F1. It does appear that there is a new controversy or new issue almost every single race. How can that be? What other series can't go a month without a new controversy. This pre-dates Liberty, even Ecclestone and Mosley. Why is that? The money? The intensity? The people and organizations involved? Has it just become a habit?

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yes F1 has a lot of controversies, I don't know why, maybe it's down to a very weak regulator, maybe if the FIA had some backbone we would see things like the current tyre controversy (IMHO they should have kept the same tyres throughout the season)

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1 hour ago, Publius Cornelius Scipio said:

yes F1 has a lot of controversies, I don't know why, maybe it's down to a very weak regulator, maybe if the FIA had some backbone we would see things like the current tyre controversy (IMHO they should have kept the same tyres throughout the season)

True. I mean... How the hell????

How on earth can a soft tyre be faster than the Supersoft in certain conditions, resurfaced track or not???

How the hell can they change the width of the thread for a certain circuits? If they experience blistering, race on the harder compounds! I mean, is'nt that the point !! Is this change of thread now a once-off thing, or is it for the whole year???

 

How the hell???????

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To compound the problem...

"Mercedes had struggled in qualifying since taking pole in Melbourne, finding it hard to get the Pirelli tyres into the right operating temperature window to get the maximum performance out of them.

Ferrari and Vettel capitalised, but today recognised that those results were outliers; this result showed that the combination of tyres, car and conditions had played to Mercedes’ strengths more.

“Looking back you have to admit that the last two qualifying sessions, they lost something,’ he said. “If they got that back it doesn’t necessarily mean that they found something, it’s just that they were back to normal. At the start of the season they were very strong in Australia and then we took over but they were struggling.

“The tyres are different. They are different for everyone so everyone needs to cope with that. I think it was exceptional that Mercedes were struggling in the last events as much as they were – but thinner tread, basically the tyre is harder, so, we still have the same tyres, if you look at the colours, but they are harder than they used to be.”

https://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2018/05/analysis-getting-a-grip-in-season-f1-tyre-changes-catch-a-few-teams-out/

 

This is just plain wrong

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Ok, so they racing on these tyres for 3 races of the season

"The Italian manufacturer will supply similar tyres at Silverstone and Paul Ricard also." Note the word... similiar... we not even sure if it will be the same

https://www.pitpass.com/61754/Mercedes-dismisses-talk-of-Pirelli-aid

Vettel's remark is quite telling... And why change the tyres because it does'nt suit two of the top teams..

Anyway, let me stop my ranting

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Well....not a particularly good race....but interesting results:

 

Spanish Grand Prix Results - 13 May 2018 - 66 Laps
POS DRIVER NATIONALITY ENTRANT LAPS TIME/RETIRE
1. Lewis Hamilton Britain Mercedes GP 66 1h35m29.972
2. Valtteri Bottas Finland Mercedes GP 66 20.593
3. Max Verstappen Netherlands Red Bull-Tag Heurer 66 26.873
4. Sebastian Vettel Germany Ferrari 66 27.584
5. Daniel Ricciardo Australia Red Bull-Tag Heurer 66 50.058
6. Kevin Magnussen Denmark Haas-Ferrari 65 1 lap
7. Carlos Sainz Spain Renault 65 1 lap
8. Fernando Alonso Spain McLaren-Renault 65 1 lap
9. Sergio Perez Mexico Force India-Mercedes 64 2 laps
10. Charles Leclerc Monaco Sauber-Ferrari 64 2 laps
11. Lance Stroll Canada Williams-Mercedes 64 2 laps
12. Brendon Hartley New Zealand Toro Rosso-Honda 64 2 laps
13. Marcus Ericsson Sweden Sauber-Ferrari 64 2 laps
14. Sergey Sirotkin/td> Russia Williams-Mercedes 63 3 laps
R Stoffel Vandoorne Belgium McLaren-Renault   Gearbox
R Esteban Ocon France Force India-Mercedes    
R Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari    
R Romain Grosjean France Haas-Ferrari 0 Accident
R Pierre Gasly France Toro Rosso-Honda 0 Accident
R Nico Hulkenberg Germany Renault 0 Accident
FASTEST LAP:
  Daniel Ricciardo Australia Red Bull-Tag Heurer 61 1m18.441

 

I find that my rather premature conclusions after qualifying pretty much hold up. The surprise here was the lack of surprise. Not much of a race. I believe there was only one pass on track among the top five runners, and that was Vettel on Bottas at the start. Hamilton looked very together, and Vettel looked like he had 2nd until Ferrari's two pit stops messed him up. Weird stuff. Mad Max managed to only hit one person this race (which is low by his current standards...and I am not sure this one was really his fault) and took 3rd. Don't know why Ricciardo was so far back compare to Vettel. Good races by Mangusssen, Sainz, Alonso (who did some good passing), Perez and Leclerc. Stroll again proves that he has some talent, but it is still debatable if he should be in F1. It looks like he was a little erratic in his driving, which tripped Verstappen up. I am disappointed in Bottas' driving (again) and debate if he really should be in a (the) top team (especially as there are so many good drivers who deserve a chance).

I am sure Monaco will be very different.....but I fear that Barcelona represents more of what the rest of the season will be like.

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23 hours ago, Publius Cornelius Scipio said:

yes F1 has a lot of controversies, I don't know why, maybe it's down to a very weak regulator, maybe if the FIA had some backbone we would see things like the current tyre controversy (IMHO they should have kept the same tyres throughout the season)

But there were lot of tires controversies under Max (remember Indy 2005?). It is not like this is anything unusual....it is pretty much the type of controversies that go on decade after decade. I wonder why?

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10 minutes ago, Ruslan said:

....it is pretty much the type of controversies that go on decade after decade. I wonder why?

Do U REALLY wonder Y or is it sarcasm ???

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7 hours ago, lipstick79 said:

Do U REALLY wonder Y or is it sarcasm ???

I actually do wonder why.

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16 hours ago, lipstick79 said:

decade after decade

Past were simple;
Bernie WERE running the show.
New owners, CLEAN slate

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6 hours ago, lipstick79 said:

Past were simple;
Bernie WERE running the show.
New owners, CLEAN slate

Well, I like Liberty. Now they did do an interview of the Liberty "marketing manager" before the race, and there was some fluffy marketing talk....but....I don't recall there ever being a marketing manager to interview in the Ecclestone era. In fact, Bernie's stated market was 70-year olds who buy Rolexes...which kind of disqualifies me and a lot of other people on this board. To start with, I don't wear a watch.

Anyhow....FIA is still FIA and they are in charge of the technical regulations. So not sure who it in charge of the tire saga...FIA or Liberty. But.....the Pirelli tires were blistering during the testing at Barcelona. This is odd.....as Pirelli has been doing this for years, it is a spec tire for everyone, and not sure why the tires for one year should be different than any other year. So, I really don't understand how they showed up at Barcelona with blistering tires to start with. Obviously, they needed to change the tires before the race in Barcelona, as you would not want to run a race with everyone on blistering tires (although it probably would have been more entertaining than the race they did run). But.....now, there is another controversy, as some think the tires favor Mercedes. And I gather they are going back to the old tires for Monaco. So......

 

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3 hours ago, Ruslan said:

Well, I like Liberty. Now they did do an interview of the Liberty "marketing manager" before the race, and there was some fluffy marketing talk....but....I don't recall there ever being a marketing manager to interview in the Ecclestone era. In fact, Bernie's stated market was 70-year olds who buy Rolexes...which kind of disqualifies me and a lot of other people on this board. To start with, I don't wear a watch.

Anyhow....FIA is still FIA and they are in charge of the technical regulations. So not sure who it in charge of the tire saga...FIA or Liberty. But.....the Pirelli tires were blistering during the testing at Barcelona. This is odd.....as Pirelli has been doing this for years, it is a spec tire for everyone, and not sure why the tires for one year should be different than any other year. So, I really don't understand how they showed up at Barcelona with blistering tires to start with. Obviously, they needed to change the tires before the race in Barcelona, as you would not want to run a race with everyone on blistering tires (although it probably would have been more entertaining than the race they did run). But.....now, there is another controversy, as some think the tires favor Mercedes. And I gather they are going back to the old tires for Monaco. So......

 

No, they did'nt need to. RBR and Merc experienced blistering, far as I know. If they struggle, race on harder tyres. This accounts to manipulated racing events. The rules are suppose to be the same for everyone!

And it's not a matter of thinking the tyres favored Merc. IT DID!

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21 minutes ago, BradSpeedMan said:

No, they did'nt need to. RBR and Merc experienced blistering, far as I know. If they struggle, race on harder tyres.

or they could have stopped twice, not a very big deal, Ferrari stopped twice it's not the end of the world

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I watched the race last night, I could have gone to bed earlier since the race was rather boring

Hamilton - he didn't make any mistake, the fact that his car was a mile ahead of the competion helped him quite a lot

bottas - wow that was bad, the guy simply doesn't have what it takes, and that was further proven when Hamilton, caught off guard, said that he was very disappointed that in qualy he was only 1 tenth faster than Bottas :lol:

Versbatten - even if it wasn't his fault nevertheless he still managed to hit another car, just not to lose an old habit

vettel - I have heard a lot of poeple wondring why Vettel was fast during the first stint and then he couldn't even get close to Versbatten, Jarno Trulli (i.e. the mving chicane) and Ivan Capelli suggested that after Kimi blew 2 engines in a week end the pit wall might have suggested to Vettel a conservative engine mapping. Other than that great start from Vettel

Ricciardo - what was wrong with him yesterday? did Horner's pep talk do this?

Leclerc - I like the guy, he knows what he's doing, if he keeps on like that sooner or later he might end up at Ferrari

Grosjean - what an i...t, fairn enough you can spin, I have no problem with that, but when you realise that you're spinning and you try to do a 360 in front of 10 cars it's plain stupid, flooring the throttle was the most stupid thing that he could have done (either he would be catapulted into the track and cause an accident or if he went into the gravel he would get stuck because the rear wheels would dig a hole) and Grosjean managed to do it. When he's on song he can drive but he doesn't come across as the smartest guy around. I think that he deserved to sit a couple of races. And if he goes on like this he deserves to be sacked

Stroll - he must be related to Grosjean, very very silly

the stewards - htey punished Vandoorne for failing to keep a bollard to his right yet Versbatten had done exactly the same the day before and he got away with it, disgusting double standards. F1 doesn't even try to look like a fair sport

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1 hour ago, Publius Cornelius Scipio said:

Versbatten - even if it wasn't his fault nevertheless he still managed to hit another car, just not to lose an old habit

Versbatten... It's starting to grow on me hehehehehehehe:lol:

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Well, the tire flap is going to continue to haunt this series as they are also using the thinner tires for Silverstone and Paul Ricard. So, I started a separate thread on the subject.

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