"Cato Batista" 20/05/2011 17:22:18 ID #25
Ladies and Gentlemen:

It was Red Bull with WEB in front on both sessions. Therewere signs of progress from the teams with revised aero parts, as ROS was 3rd,ALO 4th, PER 5th & HAM 6th in P1. It was busywith most teams averaging 30 laps per driver per session mostly testing the best setup for the critical last stint of the race with low fuel and hard tires.

On P2 WEB set the bench mark early on that was 2 secondsclear of the field, but near the end HAM bolted prime tires to close the gap to 4hundreds of a sec. The most revealing fact of today’s practice sessions was thehuge 2 seconds gap in laptimes between the 2 compounds. Pirelli has broughttheir new harder rubber out for the first time that is supposed to last longer,but so far the unanimous opinion among all competitors is that it is too slowand with an unpredictable wearing pattern. We might see many of the driversmaking the Q3 cut setting only one QF lap to save precious sets of softs forthe race, a continuation of the latest trend that places more importance onsaving rubber for race day that seeking the best starting position.

P1 – WEB 1.25.142 VER ROS ALO PER HAM SCH HEI BUT BAR

P2- WEB 1.22.470 VET BUT ALO ROS SCH MAS KOB HEI

The best 2010 time was set by VET at 1.19.965

Weather forecast will give little to talk this weekendwith Saturday being the nicest at 23 Celsius. There may be cloud coverage bySunday at race time but is expected to be dry throughout.

So, WEB or VET for pole?, and then comes the hardest choicefor 3rd between McLaren Ferrari and Mercedes, this weekend all clearlya of Renault.

QF picks- Cato – VET WEB HAM

What you say?

After last GP I assume we all feel at home using our websitef1.manbos.com to post our predictions, but as always you can e-mail Santi ormyself if in any doubt.

‘Till tomorrow

Cheers

Cato