"Cato Batista" 21/05/2011 17:11:43 ID #31
Ladies and Gentlemen:

It was the other RedBull on pole, but it’s clear that Adrian Newey’s cars are in a league of theirown. They sail through Q1 on hard tires and needed only 1 set of softs to lockthe front row, leaving plenty of new primerubber for the race. Apparently VET had a KERS issue earlier in QF but thatshould not take anything from WEB who has shown his best form from the go onFriday. HAM was 3rd as many expected, but the happiest guy was ALOsplitting the McLarens in forth with a very impressive last lap on option tires, bringing a lot of speculationthat Ferrari could have a very strong car on race trim for tomorrow. PET againsolid behind the big names and in front of the Mercedes. The surprise wasrookie MAL in the Williams making the Q3 cut.

Three colleagues score QF plenums: Joe, Santi and reigning champFernando, but in general it was a toughsession for us with many ‘ones’ and ‘zeroes’.

The Grid: WEB VET HAM ALO BUT PET ROS MAS MAL SCH

We are starting to get a better picture of what thestrategy for tomorrow could be when McLaren and RB were extracting 14 laps out of thesoft tires. With 66 laps to cover, that means 3 stops leaving the hard compoundfor the closing stint with 18 laps. This is a very abrasive surface and hasn’tallowed the rubber to build up leaving the teams with little options. At 2 secondsa lap faster than the hard tires, RB and Ferrari will have an advantage if theycan use their 3 new sets of soft compound.

Since the new changes were announced for 2011 (DRS, KERS andPirelli), it was apparent that the Circuit de Catalunya was going to be theplace to evaluate its effects. The average number of on-track passes in here for the last12 years has been a dismal 2.3 per race. We’ll confirm tomorrow how effectivethis formula could be. The DRS activation zone has been set exiting the lastchicane going into the main straight, at 850 meters it is the longest area so farthis year. Let’s see.

Ready?

I invited our old friend GP winner Johnny Herbert to startthe wagering for us: VET WEB HAM ALO BUT ROS

Cato – WEB VET ALO HAM BUT ROS

Have a good one!

Check QF results:

http://f1.manbos.com/userbets.asp?t=2011&gpn=Spain&nevent=qualifying