Ladies and Gentlemen,

Qualifying has returned to normality and it’s very entertaining again. Mercedes has one car at each end of the grid; RIC’s Red Bull beat the Ferraris to share front row to make 2 Red Bull, 2 Toro Rosso, 2 Force India and 1 Williams in the top 10.

ROS was flawless in Q2 and Q3 placing his Benz half a second in front in the partially wet track, but HAM had an MGU-H (power unit) that prevented him to post a time in Q1. He could start either from the pitlane or 22nd on the grid, the team has opted for the last option to give “him more opportunity to overtake into the first corner”. RIC nailed a fantastic last minute lap to push RAI and VET to the second row. It was an eventful QF session that started in wet track conditions. In the last moments of Q2 HUL’s Force India lost a wheel (for what he's being penalized) ending the session prematurely for several of the top-10 contenders like ALO, BUT, GRO and MAS. The Force India driver was given a 3 place penalty for releasing the car under “unsafe conditions” demoting him to 13th.

Our QF results were terrible, we have RIC’s skill to blame as nobody remotely bet for him in the top 3, even with rain in the forecast, but Fredrik and Hector made the best of the situation brilliantly picking ROS 1st and RAI 3rd to collect 2 points. Maria, Alberto, rookie Luis, Rocco/Joe Jr and Tim save 1 valuable point with ROS, and Curro another one with RAI in 3rd. The rest of us nothing got nothing, thank you very much.

The grid for tomorrow:

ROS RIC RAI VET BOT KVY PER SAI VER MAS

ROS has now not only the pole but will start the race in the ideal tyre choice. In Q2 took a big gamble going out in the soft compound instead of the faster sofer-soft like everybody else. His lap was so good that sent him to Q3 and will start the race on that 3-lap old yellow set of tyres. Ferrari didn’t cover that move and now both its drivers will have to start on used red-tyres and will have one less new set of the super-softs for the race.”It was not my best lap of the weekend” admitted VET, Team-mate RAI also felt he threw away a shot at pole with an error on his last flyer. Track conditions were very difficult to read which makes ROS’s and RIC’s Q3 laps even more remarkable.

Last year HAM won here with a grand slam: pole-fastest lap-victory. This time he faces what he claims he loves in motor racing: a fight through the field to score points, and certainly he’s got the equipment to do it tomorrow. “There hasn’t been a race where I’ve started from the back and enjoy it” - he said very convincingly.

Strategies for the 56-lap race will follow the 2016 pattern, that is, all over the place. Temperatures will be lower on Sunday making the little-used up to now medium/white tyre (strange, I know, the hardest compound working better in low temps) but in general we expect a 2-stopper as the default mode. The start will be very exciting again thanks to the new regulation that forces the drivers to use the same engine mapping as in the race, which is probably the only weak link on the Mercedes armor. In any case, this circuit with its 2 DRS-long straights (one, the largest on the calendar) allows for overtaking. In the past 12 editions, the poleman has won 5; the probability of SC intervention is a high 45%, but most likely not this year since we are expecting a dry, sunny day tomorrow.

Crunching time. This doesn’t look easy at all, forget a repeat of the 6 perfect scores of last year! Time to use all you lucky charms.-  Cato ROS VET RAI HAM RIC BOT

Enjoy, good race!

Cato