German GP 2013 - QF

Ladies and Gentlemen,

There are new tyres but not much else has changed. The Mercedes are flying chased very closely by the Red Bulls.

In P1 the Silver Arrows were a second faster than everybody else; in P2, when we saw the teams’ QF simulation runs it was Vettel on top but even then the Championship leader concedes Mercedes looks hard to beat for the pole. Lotus is showing good form, perhaps benefited by the low temperatures that are expected for the entire weekend (low 8 to high 15 deg C).  Alonso’s Ferrari had a double electrical glitch on P1 that prevented him from completing a single lap. The red cars are showing progress after their Silverstone disappointment finishing 0.6 secs behind the lead in P2. Button’s McLaren was faster than the Force India and Toro Rosso for the first time for quite a while.

P1 – HAM (1.31.754) ROS  WEB  SUT  RAI  MAS  BUT  VET  GRO  PER

P2 – VET (1.30.416) ROS  WEB  GRO  RAI  ALO  MAS  HAM  BUT

The most revealing fact from today’s session was how soon the prime tyres (yellow-soft) are losing their grip, in as little as 4 or 5 laps!, in contrast to the option (medium-white) that apparently can go on and on with no drop in performance. This new batch introduced by Pirelli has the old style Kevlar belt instead of steel and clearly Mercedes and Red Bull had no problem quickly adapting to them. As we know Friday’s sessions provide the best picture for what to expect on Sunday’s race because the teams dedicate most of their efforts on setting the cars to simulate med & heavy load long-runs. In this regard Webber (on pole here on ’09 & ’11) was the most impressive with average lap times better than team-mate Vettel and ahead of the best Mercedes of Rosberg. Lotus was next with Ferrari very close behind.  The best times you see above came half way through P2 when they all tried a few laps in low-fuel and options; Hamilton was obstructed by traffic  but otherwise was a little faster than ROS in 2 sectors,  a similar situation to the Red Bull duo who are as close between them as to the Mercedes boys.

Looks like a Silverstone QF repeat: we have 4 names to slot in the top 3. 

Let’s playing bingo once more:

Cato-   ROS  HAM  VET

Good luck (we need it!)

Cheers

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