"Cato Batista" 25/05/2012 20:33:59 ID #167
Ladies and Gentlemen,

A completely green track and then the rain made for very little running on Thursday, the opening practice day. Most of P1 was sat out by the bit teams to save tires on the green circuit, Alonso and Grosjean traded the top spot on the timesheets with Perez next. The Ferrari driver was working the wheel noticeable more than the Lotus’, but at least both red F2012s looked very drivable around the narrow streets and Massa was closer than usual to his teammate.
On P2 there was a rush by all the teams to set a time in the dry before the expected showers came 15 minutes into the session. Button, the only one on super-softs did a flyer 4 tenths faster than the ever present Grosjean and 8 tenths faster than the Ferraris. Pirelli recons the super-soft should be 3 tenths faster than the prime-soft around here, which gives Button’s time an indication of McLaren’s potential this weekend.
There’s no other GP where qualifying is more critical than Monaco. Seven of the last 8 victories came from the pole, and since 1986 all the winners with one exception started on the top 3 positions on the grid. That pushes the teams to dedicate a large part of their preparations for single lap, low fuel QF trim, even these days where races are won or lost understanding the narrow operating window of the Pirellis.
It’s difficult to measure Red Bull’s form at this stage, their customary approach to QF is not showing their cards until the last moment, but both their drivers are Monte Carlo specialists and you can expect them to be next to Lotus very close to McLaren. Ferrari is the big incognita, but it looks than Mercedes without it’s ‘double DRS’ wing advantage in this layout will not challenge the top 4 teams.
Recap of yesterday’s results:
P1- ALO GRO PER HAM MAL MAS KOB BUT VET ROS
P2- BUT GRO MAS ALO MAL ROS WEB KOB SCH VET (HAM 11th)
Missing from the picture is Raikkonen, who forfeit P1 to replace his steering system, he needed only 1 lap to know it didn’t suit his style on this track. He did 23 laps on P2, mostly on the mixed wet conditions to end 3.5 seconds behind Button. If you didn’t recognized him it’s because Kimi, like many other drivers, is wearing a helmet with a distinctive different design for this race only. Besides Kimi using a replica of James Hunt’s helmet from the late seventies, Vettel had his looking like a modern replica of Jean Alesi’s.
I had a little feedback from the recent changes to our CFA system that from now on will keep all picks secret, showing instead the number of votes for each driver and each position. It’s already in place for qualifying tomorrow, I’m confident that you’ll find it very entertaining and even more fun that before. You still have the option (because of technical issues or if you choose to) to e-mail me back or to any of the 4 administrators with access to the website: Santiago, Erik, Manbos or me.
Now let’s get to work, we have to predict the fastest 3 drivers in Q3 tomorrow. And to make it more interesting (!?) there’s rain in the forecast during qualifying!
Following tradition and exercising the right to make my bets public, here I go:
Cato – HAM BUT GRO
Good luck! Enjoy qualifying!