"Cato Batista" 26/08/2011 20:05:39 ID #106
Ladies and Gentlemen,
There was very little dry time between the 2 session for the teams to run their full programs, typical Ardennes wet weather was the order of the day. All we have to give us an idea of what to do for our QF picks were a few flying laps on slicks to set the times you see below, although there was a dedicated effort by every team to find a wet-weather set up in case there’s a repeat of today’s conditions for QF and Race day (very likely...)
In P1 Schumacher celebrated his 20th anniversary in F1 writing his name on top of the sheets, but in reality it was a matter of going out at the beginning in dry rubber before the showers came in.
P1- SCH (1.54.335) ROS BUT VET HAM SUT MAS BAR ALG KOB
There was another 25-min dry window in the middle of P2 to assess the performance of the top 3 cars, and it’s Red Bull with their top speed on sector one that has the upper hand. In the wet conditions it is McLaren the best car (Button in particular, he was flying on ‘inters’), just a of Red Bull. No doubt the RB7 is the best chassis in average, able to generate more downforce than its rivals with less wing.
P2- WEB (1.50.321) ALO BUT HAM MAS ROS PER HUL DIR VET
The big decision either for QF or race will come from your correct guessing of the weather (good luck!); if dry this will be between ALO, VET and WEB. If wet, then you’ll have to decide among BUT, VET, HAM and then WEB. So far the difference between the top 5 (let’s leave MAS out of this) is minuscule, probably the closest we’ve seen all year. They are all separated by just a few tenths in this, the longest, fastest track.
It may be early to talk strategy, but if it doesn’t rain it will be a 3 stopper leaving the primes for the last stint and the minimum number of laps. Ferrari is struggling in the medium compound although ALO might just have the faster car in the soft one.
Vettel has never been on pole in Spa, his best is a 4th on the grid. Webber was the 2010 poleman. Red Bull have started the last 12 races from the pole.
Wet or dry? ready to flip your coin?
Cato – WEB VET BUT
‘See’ you tomorrow