"Cato Batista" 21/07/2012 4:21:28 ID #237
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Get ready to play “Qualifying Tombola”.
Yet another weather-compromised Friday has left us with no clues as who’s got a good car in Hockenheim. The times from both sessions do not reflect their relative performance; it was more the result of who was out at the right time in the ever changing conditions.

McLaren was the team most affected by the lack of dry testing since they have so much at stake with their heavily revised MP4-27. BUT & HAM were quickest in P1 setting the best time of the day in the only opportunity under full dry conditions, but they admitted they are still having problems getting the tyres to work at the right temperature.

The rest of the sessions where run under either intermediate or full wet tyres.

P1- BUT (1.16.595) HAM ALO SCH PER HUL ROS MAS MAL GRO (VET 12th RAI 15th WEB 20th)

P2- MAL (1.27.476) ROS VET PER GRO HUL RIC BUT WEB RAI (HAM 19TH ALO 20TH)

There are smiling faces at the Ferrari camp, their car was quick on dry, inters or wets, the opposite of Mercedes: SCH damaged his car and could be extensive by the looks of the accident (they are tight-lipped on how bad it really is) and ROS has a new gearbox and will have to take a 5-grid penalty. Lotus was trying on RAI’s car their new ‘double DRS’ rear wing but the wet conditions didn’t allow for a convincing evaluation. Their RS27 has been consistently the best on race trim, it’s just a matter of time before the victories start to come. The biggest question mark is Red Bull, they didn’t get any serious running but the track’s combination of slow and medium speed corners is expected to perfectly suit the RB8. The black horse this weekend could be Sauber, particularly if they can put together a good QF session.

To make matters more complicated...or fun for us (!?) QF is expected to be wet but the race forecast calls for a dry Sunday.

This is the best time ever to bring out your lucky charms:

Picks – Cato- VET ALO HAM

Good luck! (I mean it)