"Cato Batista" 09/05/2015 22:12:17 ID #751

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Finally Nico has scored one on Lewis. Mercedes advantage seems to have grown here, both cars could afford to run the harder tyre and still outpace everyone in Q1. ROS found his best set-up since the morning P3 session but HAM couldn’t find a solution to his oversteering. Still the Mercedes are almost 8 tenths in front of VET’s Ferrari and 1 second ahead of BOT’s Williams. Kimi wasn’t happy with the major upgrade  package Ferrari brought to Spain and last moment decided to revert to the same set-up they used in Bahrain but to no avail, he fell behind the surprising duo of Toro Rosso rookies and will have to deal without one full set of primes for the race because the team burnt them under the heater blankets. MAS was 1 second slower than teammate BOT to split the Red Bulls in closing the top 10.

From all of us at the CFA there was but one brave soul to dare against HAM taking his 5th straight pole, Tim’s trust in ROS gave him a clear victory in QF and 4 big points to his account. The rest of us had to resign ourselves with singles (13) or no points at all (8).

The grid for tomorrow:

ROS HAM VET BOT SAI VER RAI KVY MAS RIC

Pirelli planned this GP to be a 2 stopper for the 66 laps. Ferrari’s advantage over Mercedes on the medium compound this time is not worrying Mercedes as the race will be decided on hard tyre performance. This year’s Ferrari chassis is a marvel of balance, preserves rubber better than anybody’s. But still VET admits the distance to Mercedes has grown coming to this GP.  

Time to make decisions.

We may don’t have many choices when it comes to forecast the top 4 for the Spanish GP, but the prospect of two rookies out-qualifying one Ferrari, one Williams and both Red Bulls  (with Renault engines and a third of the budget by the way) will make or break this CFA race. Both SAI and VER were full of confidence at the press room after taking 3rd row, they think their SRT10 is even faster in race trim!

So, who’s going to win? Nico (starting from pole) or Lewis (starting from the clean side)?

Will tyre wear decide the race (on Ferrari’s favour)?

ROS finished every race this year in the same position he started. Eight different drivers had won the last 8 Spanish GPs; only RAI & ALO from the current group of drivers had won two times. ROS & HAM one each.

My ticket- Cato: ROS HAM VET BOT RAI SAI

Enjoy, good luck!