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The Mercs were 1-2 in both Friday practice session, with Lewis being the faster of the two. Vettel in P1 was nearly a second slower in 5th and 0.883 off Hamiltons pace in 3rd place in P2.
If reliability goes their way, Mercedes and Hamilton now look to have pretty much sealed this years championship.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Porcupine
(Post 4472913)
The Mercs were 1-2 in both Friday practice session, with Lewis being the faster of the two. Vettel in P1 was nearly a second slower in 5th and 0.883 off Hamiltons pace in 3rd place in P2.
If reliability goes their way, Mercedes and Hamilton now look to have pretty much sealed this years championship.
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Absolutely, its weird how Ferrari have dropped back by so much. Hamilton was clocking his fast laps on the harder soft compound as well.
Its Hamilton 5 time champ this year. Only reliability can stop him and it doesn't seem like the Mercedes is going to crack.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fullrevs
(Post 4472949)
Absolutely, its weird how Ferrari have dropped back by so much. Hamilton was clocking his fast laps on the harder soft compound as well.
Its Hamilton 5 time champ this year. Only reliability can stop him and it doesn't seem like the Mercedes is going to crack.
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And let's say they have reliability issues, knowing Mercedes the max extent of it would be one DNF or a grid penalty, at this point that would only be a minor dent.
And let's not forget, Suzuka last year was arguably the nail in the coffin for Vettel when a £52 spark plug caused him to retire in lap 4, so a Ferrari reliability issue would more or less just wrap up the year.
"This track is awesome - I'm having the best day” These are the comments Hamilton provided after Day 1 and he means business. Its gonna be his own mistake (Unlikely) or a Merc retirement to stop him from winning this one.
This FP2 Timesheet puts perspective into Mercedes' dominance so far. Vettel is still not even able to get into 1:28, while Lewis is already pushing the lower end of 1:28
Vettel is claims the Ferrari is damaging the tyres more than the other teams, and having gone with an aggressive tyre choice strategy they have only one set each of Soft and Medium compounds left for the rest of the weekend.
Meanwhile, Lewis downplays their dominance by basically claiming Ferrari are sandbagging.
Source
What on earth Ferrari was thinking when they chose to stack up the Super Softs and picking only 2 Softs. Now, with Vettel claiming that the car is harder on tyres, they are at risk and may go for 2 stop strategy while others around them may go for a single stop strategy with enough Softs at their disposal. Add to this the Pit wall blunders in recent races, Ferrari is starring down the barrel and their chances are looking bleak and may end up behind the RBRs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jpcoolguy
(Post 4473068)
What on earth Ferrari was thinking when they chose to stack up the Super Softs and picking only 2 Softs. Now, with Vettel claiming that the car is harder on tyres, they are at risk and may go for 2 stop strategy while others around them may go for a single stop strategy with enough Softs at their disposal. Add to this the Pit wall blunders in recent races, Ferrari is starring down the barrel and their chances are looking bleak and may end up behind the RBRs.
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They could pull off a two stop with a SS-S-SS or some variation of that with two SuperSofts and one Soft, with a long stint on the Softs so they shouldn't need two sets on race-day. What it does mean however, is that they can't do anymore running on the Softs in tomorrows FP3 to collect any data, or check any changes in tuning on the Soft tyres.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Porcupine
(Post 4473086)
What it does mean however, is that they can't do anymore running on the Softs in tomorrows FP3 to collect any data, or check any changes in tuning on the Soft tyres.
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Per the weather forecasts for tomorrow, its going to be a wet FP3 & Qualifying, so that would mean no softer compounds to be used tomorrow clap:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bubby
(Post 4473172)
Per the weather forecasts for tomorrow, its going to be a wet FP3 & Qualifying, so that would mean no softer compounds to be used tomorrow clap:
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Wet qualifying can give us viewers a masterclass from Hamilton and Verstappen! Rain would put a damper on Vettel's plans anyway with or without the Soft compound lol:
So, it's a clean sweep by Hamilton in all the three FPs and with the wet weather playing hide and seek, the qualifying looks interesting and not so rosy for Ferrari though.
Weather decided the top 10, but Merc made the critical call of starting Q3 on slicks, while Ferrari went conservative and put both on Inters.
Starting 4th and 9th on inferior tires from the Mercs. Race blown unless it rains or the Mercs DNF.
Master strategy from Ferrari once again. Bravo !
Ricciardo never looked more frustrated. God knows how his stay at Renault turn out. He might even quit the sport if not offered good alternative in couple of years.
Good showing by Honda powered Toro Rosso.
It's Hammertime!! So, P1 and P2 for Hamilton and Bottas. Vettel is P9 possibly caused by strategic error by the team. Just shows that Ferrari doesn't deserve to win the championship. Interesting to see how Vettel storms through the field in the race tomorrow.
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