"Cato Batista" 25/07/2014 23:41:34 ID #634

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Mercedes dominated the opening day as always, this time Lewis had the upper hand on both session by around 2 tenths over Nico (it is not much for this long, slower circuit). Red Bull is making good prediction that its superior downforce will  play part in this intricate layout, VET is ‘only’ over half a second behind the silver cars. Ferrari and Alonso invariably appears near the top on Friday -just to fade away Saturday and Sunday, but this time may be a reason for optimism since Raikkonen is matching his teammate’s times, a sign than the F14T is coping well with the high temperatures. Williams was not expecting to be as competitive here, this track is completely different from the last 3 GPs without long straights where the FW36 normally excels (top speeds are ‘only’ 310 kph). McLaren on the other side is making progress in Magnussen’s hands. The last spot in the top 10 was alternated by Toro Rosso ahead of Force India.

P1- HAM (1.25.814) ROS RAI ALO VET MAG VER RIC BUT MAS

P2- HAM (1.24.482) ROS VET ALO MAG RAI RIC BOT BUT MAS

To get a picture of what the teams have to deal with at the Hungaroring let me quote Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Sauber’s Head of Track Engineering: “  …(we expect a)... “hot” event temperature-wise. Compared to Hockenheim, the set-up of the car isn’t that different, although the time spent on straights is considerably less and the low to medium-speed corners dominate. The aerodynamic requirements can be briefly summarised to be high downforce wings and efficient cooling. The track surface is more abrasive than in Hockenheim, therefore, the Pirelli medium and soft tyres have been allocated for this track.”

Track temperatures today ranged between 40-57c, and if they continue this way we could see important changes in the running order as those conditions will benefit Ferrari and Force India (we assume none of this will threaten Mercedes at the front). But looking at the latest local weather forecast there may be a very interesting development for the race: thunderstorms are on their way for Sunday around race time. Will keep you posted.

Now let’s go for the points:

The last 2 GPs our QF sessions were very disappointing, nobody could get more than one point (collectively 10 & 12 points) and before that in Austria we got zero points! And it looks so simple...

Cato - HAM  ROS  VET

Good luck!