MorrisF1

In some ways, a slightly dull race that burst to life at the end, but also a deeply frustrating one from a betting perspective. The Kvyat bet was plain wrong, he drove well throughout. The Force India double points bet really should’ve come off, but for Alonso pushing Hulkenberg into the barriers on the first lap. And even then he finished 11 th . I try to be objective about when I’m just wrong and when I’m unlucky, but it does feel like every 50/50 is going wrong so far this year (the late safety car at one race, the Maldonado retirement last time when Lotus had the pace to double score, Hulkenberg today). Still, I think luck evens itself out over time, so hopefully I’ll end up with some flukey wins later this season, but it’s pretty frustrating right now. Off the line Kvyat passed Ricciardo, otherwise station was more or less held. Annoyingly, Alonso barged Hulkenberg out of his way (both started on the soft [prime] tyre), costing the German about a minute and a new nose. Becau...

A plain misjudgement on my part with Vettel. The colder temperatures may not have helped, and if it had been rainier that could’ve swung it, but, then, if I’d offered a winning tip that would’ve been nice too. Q1 saw the traditional departure of Manor Marussia. Both Saubers, whose car appears to be struggling in the tight streets [worth remembering when we reach Singapore], also exited, as did, surprisingly, Bottas. He didn’t have a car issue, except in that it wasn’t very fast. In Q2 Alonso was first out when his engine decided to go on strike. Massa also failed to escape, as did Hulkenberg [who was outclassed by his Mexican team mate]. Button would’ve made it through, most likely, but a late yellow flag forced him to slow. Grosjean was fastest of the Q2 departures, making this the first time in 2015 he’s been out-qualified by Maldonado [who’s actually been driving pretty well, I think]. In Q3 things were very tight between the two Mercedes drivers, until Rosberg locke...

Quite a bit of news since the last race. Hamilton signed a new three year contract for more than double the pay of Rosberg, and F1 will return to refuelling in 2017 and allow free tyre choice for teams from all four compounds in 2016 (pending further approvals). Tyres are supersoft and soft, I think. Hamilton was fastest in P1, a tenth ahead of Verstappen. Ricciardo and Vettel followed closely, then came Sainz, Maldonado, Kvyat, Raikkonen, Rosberg and Massa. The second practice session was wet, but I’ll include the top 10 for sake of completeness. Hamilton was fastest again, a day and a half ahead of Rosberg, who was three-tenths up on Vettel. Then we had Raikkonen, Kvyat, Sainz, Verstappen, Alonso, Hulkenberg and Grosjean. Alonso was 11 th in P1 and 8 th in P2, so keeping a beady eye on him for making Q3 may be an idea. The Toro Rossos look rather tasty. Top 6 bets for Sainz/Verstappen are something I’ll keep in mind. In P3 expectations were confounded when...

It seems this year must be the most frustrating so far. The Lotus double score bet didn’t come off. Both drivers and the car were performing well enough. Maldonado lost 30s in a prolonged pit stop after suffering some damage (odd damage) to his rear wing, and later had to retire. On pace, he and Grosjean were dead certs (before the pit stop) to get into the points. Whilst it doesn’t feel like a misjudgement, it’s another red result, which is a little disappointing. Off the line, Hamilton had a slightly tardy get away, enabling Vettel to pass him into the first corner. The Briton shifted to a three stop strategy, and whilst this eventually enabled him to claim a comfortable 2 nd , it also meant that Rosberg cruised to his first victory of the season. Vettel was relatively untroubled in 3 rd , albeit grumpy on the radio. Ferrari didn’t have the pace for the win but Vettel did a good job of annoying Hamilton until the team screwed up his strategy (that said, I think he would’ve...

Glad I didn’t bet on qualifying, as it went somewhat differently to my expectations. In Q1 we had the familiar sight of both Marussias exiting, and Force India will be disappointed to lose both drivers at this stage. Marcus Ericsson qualified 16 th . Q2 was rather more competitive, as might be expected. Nasr was the slowest [bit of a bad circuit for Sauber, it seems], with the two McLarens ahead of him, and the two Lotuses ahead of Alonso (very two-by-two). However, there was a pretty large margin between Grosjean and 10 th place. In the final part of qualifying, Rosberg beat Hamilton to pole by a quarter of a second. Impressive stuff from the German. Vettel was 3 rd and Bottas 4 th , followed by Sainz and Verstappen, with Raikkonen only 7 th . Kvyat, Massa and Ricciardo round out the grid. Poor from Raikkonen and Massa, it seems (both well down on their team mates). Good for Rosberg, and if the Ferrari’s got the race pace this could see the title get a bit more comp...

It’s been three weeks since the last race, and teams will’ve been doing all they can to upgrade their cars (with the possible exception of Force India, who have a B-spec car coming sometime during the European leg of the season, perhaps after Austria). McLaren will be desperate to keep making up ground, although that’s largely an engine issue, and Ferrari/Mercedes will both want to have the fastest car on the grid. Tyre compounds are hard and medium. Worth mentioning Spain’s circuit is tricky to overtake on, and generally not very exciting. So, much passing will be in the pit stops due to strategy. That said, a Mercedes behind almost any other car (barring Ferrari and Williams) will probably have a shot of muscling its way through, especially if Hamilton’s driving. Starting position and strategy will be at a premium. In P1 Rosberg was seven-hundredths ahead of Hamilton, who was almost a second ahead of Vettel (himself barely three-hundredths faster than Raikkonen). Thre...