It was an early morning here in Finland when I got up to watch the third free practice session. How come it is so easy to get up early when it´s because of Formula 1 racing ;) On work days I find it hard to get out of bed and feel so tired! Formula 1 racing always makes me cheer up, no matter how late it has been when going to bed the previous night!
I had a strong feeling that either one of the Red Bulls was going to be on pole, their pace had been so promising the whole weekend. In Q1 it was kind of a surprise for me that also some top drivers used the supersoft tyres. Kimi at the wheel of his E21 set the fastest time of the first session with the option tyres. Also Rosberg in his Mercedes and Hulkenberg in his Sauber had a similar tyre choice. Vettel in his RB9 was the fastest man on the prime tyres (6th). The Williams drivers were the first ones to be knocked out of Q2. Bottas in P17 was half a second quicker than his team-mate Maldonado. Initially I thought that Maldonado had the new front wing in his car in the qualifying as well so I was wondering how Bottas could beat him with half a second. It turned out, however, that Maldonado didn´t like the new front wing so it was put in Bottas´s car for qualifying.
Q2 was a tight battle for the place among the top ten. Sebastian gave a glimpse of his true pace by setting the fastest lap time in the second session. Kimi´s driving didn´t look too perfect whilst his team-mate Grosjean performed extremely well and showed that Lotus could be able to fight for the place on the second row. Surprisingly, both Sauber drivers made it among the top ten, even Gutierrez! Button in his McLaren was the first one not to make his way in to the final session. Perez was out of Q3 as well. Neither one of the Force India drivers made in in to Q3, either.
In Q3 Sebastian´s strategy was similar to that in Singapore: the German went out at the beginning of the session and claimed the provisional pole by setting an extremely competitive lap time! Kimi had only one attempt in Q3, although that one-run strategy has never proved to be a good strategy for Kimi. I have to admit Kimi´s performance was a disappointment: the Iceman did a mistake on his flying lap and went wide, which destroyed his lap. So a disappointing 10th place for the Finnish Lotus ace. Once again there was no one who could beat Sebastian´s lap time! Hamilton in his Mercedes qualified 2nd being two tenths of a second slower than Sebastian. Seb´s team-mate Webber qualified 3rd but he´ll face the 10-place grid penalty due to getting the ride from Alonso at Singapore. Grosjean made a magnificent job by snatching P4 and thanks to Webber´s penalty the Frenchman will start from P3 tomorrow! Rosberg qualified 5th, Alonso 6th, Massa 7th, Hulkenberg 8th, Gutierrez 9th and Kimi 10th. They all will start to the race from one place higher on the grid due to Webber´s penalty.
I think we´re going to see another Sebastian Vettel show tomorrow, although Hamilton will do everything he can to overtake the German at the start. But Yeongam circuit has always suited Sebastian perfectly so I believe he´ll cruise to victory tomorrow :) Maybe not in such a dominant way as in Singapore but I´m confident that he´ll win. Alonso is always a threat as the Spaniard has made the most staggering starts of all this season. It is a piece of cake for Alonso to gain 3 positions at the start and Ferrari´s race pace is always very consistent. Let´s see what Webber will be capable of starting from P13. Kimi started from the same grid slot in Singapore and he ended up on the podium...! I´m also very impatient to see what kind of magic Kimi will do tomorrow. I don´t know why the Iceman has fallen into errors so easily this weekend, that´s really not typical of Kimi at all! But I hope and trust that there´ll be no mistakes tomorrow! Kimi definitely knows how to amaze his fans!
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti