MorrisF1

Well, not sure it necessarily qualified as entertaining or profitable. Sadly, my bet didn't come off, so the race was red. I got certain predictions right (hard to overtake, Williams genuinely competitive) but the team was strategically inept, in a rather silly, simple way. If they'd been wiser then a win was perhaps possible, and a better overall result likely. Still very good for Williams, but it could easily have been better. That said, I don't think my bet would've come off even if they'd been smarter. Off the line Hamilton got a flyer and Rosberg passed Bottas, only to be repassed on the very same lap by the Finn. From then on the top four had a private tussle. Williams were slow reacting to Mercedes' initial pit stops, ending up Rosberg-Bottas-Hamilton-Massa, and then repeated the inexplicable mistake at the second stops, resulting in Rosberg-Hamilton-Bottas-Massa, which was the end result. I think the only non-pit stop pass between them w...

Anything can happen in Formula 1, and it usually does. Got to admit, I never saw a Williams pole coming, let alone a front grid lock-out. Annoyingly, I immediately dismissed a 30 shot for the team to top score pre-qualifying, but that would be very tasty if I'd taken it. Q1 was business as usual, with Caterham and Marussia exiting the stage. Sauber's season of woe continues, with both drivers this team failing to escape the first phase of qualifying. Sad to see the Swiss team in such dire straits. Q2 was a bit more competitive, as might be expected. Both Lotuses departed (14 th and 16 th ), sandwiching Vergne, whose 15 th was not great considering where his team mate ended up. Perez, Button and Vettel all failed to reach Q3 as well, but recall that the Mexican has a 5 place grid penalty for the Canadian crash with Massa. Q3 was greatly surprising. On the initial run, Bottas was fastest, then Rosberg (I think), and Hamilton went over the white line and had...

We've got soft and supersoft tyres in Austria. Only four drivers (Button, Massa, Raikkonen and Alonso) have driven there before in F1, but it was an awfully long time ago. It's essentially a new track for everyone. Worth mentioning the lap seems to be pretty short and focused on straight line speed, so gaps may be smaller than elsewhere. In P1 Rosberg was a tenth ahead of Hamilton, but Alonso was only 0.3s off the top time. Massa was another tenth and a half down the road and was followed by Button, Perez, Hulkenberg, Bottas, Magnussen and Vergne. In P2 Hamilton was over a third of a second ahead of Rosberg, with Alonso almost a second off the top pace. Bottas, Massa, Vettel and Button followed, with Ricciardo, Magnussen and Vergne rounding out the top 10. At the end of Friday practice it looks like business as usual for Mercedes, and a decent showing by Alonso and Williams. Sauber and Lotus continue to struggle. In P3 Bottas was fastest, followed by H...

Rather weird feeling. Both tips came off, which is good (particularly as good fortune played more than a small role), but an early 34 bet on Perez to be the winner without Rosberg and Hamilton didn't come off despite looking very close. It was, narrowly, the greenest race of the season so far. Anyway, to the race. Off the line Hamilton had a good start and very nearly passed Rosberg who used his track position to force Hamilton to pull out, which enabled Vettel to sneak into third. Perez got the jump on his team mate and was eleventh. On the first lap Chilton crashed into his team mate, wrecking both cars and necessitating a safety car that stayed out for several laps. Chilton made excuses and claimed it was Bianchi's fault. It categorically was not. Bianchi was ahead, left plenty of room and Chilton was sliding. It was 100% Chilton's fault and his bleating is significantly unimpressive. At the restart Rosberg was over the hills and far away and it took...

Well, I was surprised by the final grid lineup. Gutierrez was unable to participate in qualifying because his car wasn't in a state to drive, following a P3 crash. Maldonado suffered yet again from mechanical gremlins, which ended his efforts to escape Q1 prematurely. Q3 also saw the departure of the pointless team and Marussia, although the latter were pretty close to 16 th . Q2 saw the unsurprising exit of Sutil. The Sauber really is an absolute dog this year, and their driver lineup is not strong enough to compensate for the car's deficiency. Added to that are rumoured financial difficulties, and it's sad to see the team in such a poor state. Kvyat was surprisingly low down the order in 15 th , with Grosjean 14 th , suggesting Lotus' slight improvement in form has not been maintained. Perez, Magnussen and Hulkenberg were 13 th to 11 th . Not great, but par for the course and Force India has managed some decent results from similar starting position...

Rather stupidly, I managed to miss all of the first two practice sessions. I blame Alistair and Morrigan for this. The tyres for this weekend are soft and supersoft. The soft tyres will be used at three out of four of the forthcoming races, so how well a car works with those tyres will play a significant role in determining their immediate term performance. http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12040/9339668/pirelli-nominates-tyres-for-upcoming-gps-in-austria-britain-germany-and-hungary In P1 Alonso was sixteen-thousandths of a second ahead of Hamilton, who was a tenth and a half ahead of Rosberg. Vettel was the lion's share of a second behind, followed by Bottas, Ricciardo, Button, Magnussen, Raikkonen and Vergne. In P2 Hamilton was fastest, with an almost identical gap to Rosberg as in P1. Vettel was three-tenths back, followed by Alonso and Raikkonen, with Massa, Bottas, Magnussen, Button and Vergne rounding out the top 10. At this stage it looks like Hamil...