MorrisF1

  In a pleasant surprise I was able to watch most of qualifying. And it was largely we, varying between briefly ok for slicks in Q2 and full wet territory at the end of Q3. This meant the teams used almost no dry tyres at all, and we had a very mixed up grid. Not especially surprising to lose Tsunoda, Gasly, De Vries, Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu in the first part of qualifying. However, two big names did fail to escape Q2. Leclerc and Perez were the fastest eliminated chaps, and both have had iffy qualifying form of late. Canada is not one of the Mexican’s better circuits. Stroll, Magnussen, and Bottas also exited. However, due to some smart strategy from Williams, Albon cruised through by an early adoption of the dry tyre. Q3 started wet and got wetter. The elements were no trouble for Verstappen who found himself claiming a seemingly inevitable pole. He was joined on the front row by Hulkenberg, who had a very impressive lap. However, this was deemed contrary to a Piastri-induced re...

Due to a CCTV camera glitch cutting short FP1 running time, second practice was extended by half an hour. Bit weird, but these things happen. For what it’s worth, Bottas (with 3 laps completed) topped FP1, followed by Stroll, Alonso, Perez, Verstappen, Piastri, Magnussen, Hulkenberg, Zhou Guanyu, and Sainz. In the rather lengthier second practice Hamilton and Russell were top dogs, the elder Briton just two-hundredths ahead of his team mate. Sainz was a tenth further back, with Alonso a third of a second off the ultimate pace. Leclerc and Verstappen followed, then came Bottas, Perez, Stroll, and Gasly. More limited information than usual but I do think Mercedes will probably edge Ferrari to be best of the rest if second practice is representative. I do find it hard to believe the Red Bull times are anything but sandbagging. And Alfa Romeo do look competitive in the midfield. Hamilton and Russell are 9 and 11 respectively to ‘win’ (each way) third practice. Somewhat tempting, although P...

Not going to try and post comprehensive results for the 2022-23 football season, the first time I’ve tried seriously to cover football. This is because I lost half the results, from pre-November, when my computer decided to temporarily die. Aggravating, but here’s what I remember. At the start, I was betting on five leagues: the EPL, Serie A, Ligue 1, La Liga, and Bundesliga. At the time of computer woe, the EPL was super green, about 30 stakes positive, while the Bundesliga was ultra-red (almost everything had failed). I believe the other three were very slightly green, or perhaps just dipping into the red. I dropped both the Bundesliga and La Liga in February and March, respectively. The Bundesliga was also woeful, so I think my odds window was wrongly calibrated. For La Liga, it’s possible a persistent string of bad results was misfortune rather than than misjudgement (lack of experience makes it hard to be sure). I did have about four reds in a row that were each one goal fro...

  Qualifying was very much the Max Verstappen show, but some surprise eliminations and a surprising (mostly) top 10 did make things shape up quite nicely for tomorrow. Apart from a Dutch victory procession, of course. Q1 was punctuated by a red flag after Albon decorated the track with gravel. It was also notable for Leclerc’s bizarre and consistent lack of pace which saw him take an early exit. Less surprising was losing Magnussen, both Williams, and Bottas. In Q2 things were tight. So tight that Perez got eliminated by half a tenth. So did Russell, both men some way off their team mates. Zhou Guanyu, De Vries, and Tsunoda also failed to proceed. We also saw a clash between the Mercedes cars as Russell moved over, eliminating a gap Hamilton was going for. This weird mini-collision (which did nothing serious but did damage Hamilton’s front wing) was because Russell had abandoned a hot lap and was going for another, Hamilton didn’t realise and Russell didn’t know his team mate was t...

  And so to Spain. Worth noting they’ve nixed the chicane near the end which is believed will have the effect of improving overtaking opportunities. We’ll only find out come the race, but something to keep in mind.   During first practice some chap called Verstappen was 700 years (or 0.768s) ahead of everyone else. The 2 nd  to 10 th  of everyone else were covered by about three-tenths. In order, these were Perez, Ocon, De Vries, Gasly, Alonso, Magnussen, Leclerc, Sainz, and Russell. So far, so ominous. Verstappen also topped FP2, albeit by around one and a half-tenths over Alonso, with Hulkenberg precisely a tenth further back. Perez, Ocon, Leclerc, and Sainz were all within a tenth. Russell, Bottas, and Gasly rounded out the top 10.   I think Hulkenberg or Ocon to make the top 10 is worth considering. Both have driven well in different ways. Hulkenberg’s been good at qualifying on his return, though race performances have been lacking, while Ocon had a great q...