"Cato Batista" 31/10/2015 3:23:03 ID #849

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is fun watching the F1s sliding around, not even in the wet we’ve seen GP cars taking corners in angles like that. The circuit is great but it’s got no grip. None. Mercedes power made for 2 tenths in the straight to get ROS the fastest lap of the day, but the Red Bull chassis was the quickest in the next two sectors to put KVY and RIC ahead of HAM. Ferrari never really shines on Fridays, but they are still good for 5th & 6th ahead of Williams and McLaren (no, no a type error)

The Pirelli compound selection seems to be too hard and with the brand new asphalt that resulted in the most unique slippery conditions. The high altitude eliminates downforce and to add to that there were isolated showers before FP1 and at the end of FP2.  RIC said: “The track was always slippery so there were many mistakes. You hope the grip is there, but it isn’t. Even though we have more wing than Monza the actual downforce numbers are less (because of the altitude)” The drivers were happy with the track, but they all expressed wanting the rubber to bed-in to make it faster “and more fun”. To make matters more difficult rain showers are expected in the next two days. Because of the Valley of Mexico’s own microclimate showers are almost impossible to track accurately, as it happened today when rain randomly hit in separate sectors of the Autodromo.

VER was fastest in the mostly exploratory FP1, when neither the wet or slick tyres were adequate for the conditions as the track was dry bone in parts and others was slick as oil. The 18-year old rookie hit the wall in the outlap of FP2 and had to miss the session.

P1- VER (1.25.990) KVY RAI VET RIC ROS BOT SAI PER MAS

P2 - ROS (1.21.531) KVY RIC HAM VET RAI BOT ALO BUT MAS

The fastest lap times were set on the option soft/yellow rubber, which was 2 full seconds faster than the prime medium/white. Since rain is expected at some stage during Sunday’s race most teams sent their drivers to try the intermediate/green tyres when heavy rain was coming in isolated parts of the circuit, the result was the rubber shredding to pieces and lasting barely 2 laps!. Forget Austin, if it rains Sunday this will be the hardest race of the year, by much!

Still many things to learn in FP3 Saturday morning. If the grip increases as the weekend progresses some teams will find or lose speed and that will change the running order. An important indicator is the top speed at the end of the long main straight. Fastest were BOT & ROS at 356kph, MAS, HUL 355kph and HAM 354kph.

It’s a tough call. This could be another Singapore for Mercedes, they suffered cooling problems today but raw horsepower kept them at the top. Red Bull looks menacing, same for Ferrari. This is looking really good.

Cato - ROS HAM RIC (...waiting to check FP3)

Cheers