European GP 2016 - Race

The pole is for ROS but it is really the walls of Baku that are grabbing the headlines.

So far nobody has been able to avoid making contact with the wall or taking the narrow escape roads. After dominating every session since Friday, all fell apart for HAM going off in every segment of QF. Under pressure in Q3 he clipped the barrier breaking the front suspension and now will have to start in P10. The fastest man in this treacherous track apart from the much superior Mercedes is PER, but he too crashed towards the end of FP3. His mechanics rebuilt the VJM09 in record time and the Mexican was flying again in QF to take P2, the best performance of his career, but his earlier mistake has cost him dearly as they had to replace the damaged gearbox losing 5 grid positions. “We are mystified by our performance” they say at Force India unable to point at what is making them so fast around here, their top speed of 345kph I’m sure is helping, but in their typical way they made a mistake leaving HUL out of Q3 when was just as quick as PER. Ferrari struggled more than anybody as track temperatures kept going down, VET was beaten by a brilliant RIC for 3rh place (his Red Bull losing 8 tenths in the straight alone) both their lap times identical to the thousandth of a second, the Australian having set his earlier than the German. RAI was far behind in 4th. Williams straight line speed made it to the shootout with both cars. The surprise of the day came from KVY in 6th, but VER, one of the few not needing repairs in his Red Bull so far, got caught in traffic (same as BOT) to finish a disappointing 9th. 

Our CFA qualifying results were a complete disaster. We favoured the traditional HAM-ROS combo at the front (except for one brave Ferrari fan…) and then were divided between PER, BOT, VET and RIC for third. In the end only those picking this last one got something out of today's session, not much, 1 point each for Fernando, Manbos, Matias and Rodrigo. That’s right, a total of 4 points was all we’d got!

The grid for tomorrow:

ROS RIC  VET RAI  MAS  KVY PER BOT VER HAM

All tyre compounds are showing a long life in this smooth pavement, so 1 stop will be the norm for the 51 laps and nobody is expected to use the medium compound, the red/super soft will do enough laps to be able to switch to the yellow/soft to complete the distance. 

The main factors to consider for the outcome of the race are these (brainstorming time):

-The longest run ever in F1 between the start and the first corner. It’s not who’s will have the best take off, rather who will get the best acceleration before the braking point, and then let’s see how many cars make it out of the Turn 1 funnel...

-Lots of passing. Two DRS zones in two very large straights, faster cars will be able to overtake, no problem.

-Safety Car & Virtual Safety Car. We will see both situations tomorrow, probably several times…

-HAM will start the race in a flat-spotted set of super-soft, the same he spun on in his best qualifying Q2 lap.

I heard some of our members are already crossing bets in the number of accidents we shall see during the opening lap. If Monaco is a race of survival, this place is far worse, and at twice the speed!

Cato - ROS VET HAM PER RIC RAI

I have the feeling there will not be 2 forecast alike among our 23 selections…

Enjoy, and do not miss this race!

Cheers

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