"Cato Batista" 13/04/2012 20:53:39 ID #145
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Overnight showers left the circuit still wet for the opening practice session. It was damp, cold and most teams postponed their programs for the 90min P2. Hamilton was the fastest using the soft tire towards the end of P1 session followed by the Mercedes, Saubers and Red Bulls. In the afternoon, with the track still very green, it was the same 3 big teams (Ferrari used to be one of them) taking the top of the charts.
McLaren is running a new floor/diffuser and revised front wing; no doubt they have the best balanced package, but Red Bull is looking closer and maybe a bit faster on long runs and tire conservation. As for Mercedes don’t be surprised if you find them on pole tomorrow, the W03 is flying with its DRS-special rear wing in combination with the 2 long straights, Schummi was the quickest overall today. Compared to the competition it makes its tires to reach optimal working temperature in only lap, all the ideal conditions for a strong QF performance, but it’s still suffering from high degradation particularly with the harder compound, as we have seen in race conditions (and no DRS). And where is Ferrari? Alonso was brutally honest in keeping the tiffosi down to earth: they don’t think they will even make it to Q3 tomorrow.
P1 – HAM (1.37.106) ROS SCH PER KOB WEB VET BUT RIC VER (ALO 11, MAS 12)
P2 – SCH (1.35.973) HAM VET WEB ROS BUT KOB DIR HUL ALO
After 2 races the picture starts to get a bit clearer: McLaren good in QF and race conditions; Mercedes super fast in QF but struggling in race trim; Red Bull (running different aero-exhaust systems for both drivers) with a strong race package but not able to capitalize so far with poor grid positions; Lotus has a potential winner in their hands but they still can’t dialed properly. For Ferrari, 1 second off the pace, it all will come down to their revised car in Barcelona. From the mid-field teams, only Sauber is looking like a challenger to the established names under pressure from Force India.
The good news is that there will be a Grand Prix in Bahrain after all the following week, so have a sit, relax, we have a lot of work in the next 10 days. I love it.
QF picks for Shanghai:
Cato: HAM (remember he’ll pick a 5-grid position penalty) SCH WEB
Enjoy