Japanese GP 2013 - QF

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Not much change since 5 days ago, pretty much the same old story: Red Bull is the fastest machine around Suzuka.  Mercedes got its two cars at the front in P1 just ahead of Red Bull but when the option tyres came out in P2 to test low fuel settings the status quo was restored with Vettel in front of teammate Webber.

The challenge that represents Suzuka is already claiming its first victims. World Champions Alonso, Hamilton and Raikkonenwent off track spinning, but Maldonado, Bianchi and Perez were not so lucky as they all hit the barriers at different parts of the circuit. As BUT said “(Suzuka) It’s unforgiving, you have to give it a lot of respect”. That’s five drivers (ALO, RAI, PER, MAL & BIA) losing their Friday’s valuable track time, let’s see how this affect them. Perez’s accident at Spoon was severe enough for the team having to switch chassis.

P1- HAM (1.34.157) ROS  VET  WEB  MAS  ALO  GRO  RAI  PER  RIC

P2- VET (1.33.852) WEB  ROS  RAI  GRO  HAM  RIC  MAS  BUT  ALO

Temperatures are expected to drop after the hot Friday conditions and this could help Mercedes closing the gap to the runaway Championship leaders. On today’s long run simulations Rosberg was faster than both Red Bulls, and Ferrari wasn’t too far behind. Lotus has lost some ground as they struggle with the harder of the compounds chosen by Pirelli for this race (hard-orange are the prime, med-white the options).  The fact is nobody has the speed and balance of the RB9; Mercedes so far looks like the ‘best of the rest’.

In the last four years the combination Vettel-Red Bull has been unbeatable in Suzuka: 4 straight pole positions and 3 victories (he was 3rd in 2011 with the title already in his pocket).  Alonso hasn’t been in the front row in 24 races. His last pole (in the wet) was Germany 2012, and his last pole in the dry goes back to 2010. No wonder the rumors are placing his back at McLaren by 2015...

We don’t have a lot of options here; let’s see how we fare this time. QF picks – Cato –VET WEB HAM

‘Till tomorrow

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