2017 Spanish Grand Prix - Catalunya, 12-14 May

[ClarkBT11]

Isn't the front left tire the one that suffers the most? I'm almost sure of it, Vettel pushed the front left too hard, which cost him on the final 3 corners, where Hamilton balanced it by sacrificing a bit at the start of the lap.

It's going to be an interesting race, will Alonso hold off everyone else, or will he fall behind in the race? Which of the front runners will have the right strategy? Safety car shenanigans? Two stopper tire wear issues? The odd cloud?

I think the Ferrari and Mercedes is still too close to call, the cars are faster than each other in different ways.

I think it differs between different chassis were they loose time compared to each other and the temperature of the tyres. Ferrari under rotates and the Mercedes over rotates, most were going into turn 12/13 with hot rears plus the tail wind effectively loosing time going wide. Also the replay of Vettel's qualy lap in the end of S2 and S3 showed oversteer, were Mercedes were a lot tighter to the apexs.

You gave a good example were Lewis personal best the first two sectors on his second run in Q3, then had no more tyres for S3, that's why he didn't improve his time.

The front left will suffer more in the race.

The best thing about it is we don't have any idea who's going to win.

I think Alonso will race with the highest engine strat until he runs out of fuel, you might as well have some fun if your not going to score points.

[f1316]

Fingers crossed for a pass from Vettel on Hamilton at the start. Im curious how that Merc performs in dirty air.

What is there to know. Current car cannot follow each other. It wI'll be like Russia Zero overtakes

Apparently this is actually unlikely to be the case:

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/unus ... gp-905691/

It's interesting that, by bringing two sets of tyres that are too hard for the circuit (one of which is wildly so), Pirelli's choices could actually make for an interesting race *without* having had to artificially engineer tyres made of jelly that drivers can't use properly (albeit, more through luck than judgment).

It reminds me of something Martin Brundle always used to say, which was that having a big delta between the two sets of tyres always made for more interest.

Perhaps Pirelli's new mandate ought to be that delta between tyres is always targeted at two seconds, rather than 0.8-1.0?

[Unc1eM0nty]

I soooo hard to overtake here though, I don't think the tyre delta will be big enough.

Lead into the 1st corner then dictate pace with track position, this should be enough for the win.

[atanatizante]

Those 3-4 km/h top speed difference between Merc and Ferrari would let us think that Merc now have a traction advantage or they just setup the car for that particular thing?
This reminds me how RB was setup in their best years for the last turn and that epic battle between Vettel and Lewis in 2011 had I`m not wrong and I think it would be the same story this year (but in reverse order) even we have a longer DRS zone I don`t think 100m will be sufficient to make a pass ...

[atanatizante]

There are another 2 interesting questions:
1. We will have a 1 or a 2 stop race?
2. Which one strategy will prevail: the undercut or the extended first stint?

[psychemedia]

A quick recap on how they qualified, showing laptimes as recorded during the session and the evolution of the session cut-off time:









via http://www.f1datajunkie.com/2017/05/f1- ... fying.html

[Juzh]

Bottas and massa

[JonoNic]

Not Bottas fault. Verstappen being unlucky this time for being on the outside. Kimi was squashed

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[WaikeCU]

What are Merc trying to do with Lewis? Going one stop less than Seb?

[f1316]

Great to hear how out of breath Lewis is - and likewise to see Seb pushing so hard.

Even if no one overtook anyone (and btw seb's move on Ricciardo at the first attempt was VITAL) this is real racing!

[JonoNic]

Wow. You can see Lewis loosing that gap at the moment. Two stop is the only viable option for Hamilton.

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[Juzh]

Wow. You can see Lewis loosing that gap at the moment. Two stop is the only viable option for Hamilton.

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Vettel is 100% on a 2 stop, and hamilton is possibly on a 1 stop now.

[JonoNic]

Brilliant Vetted. Glad Hamilton needs to win his race on his own. Bottas did the best he could.

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[seventhsin]

This race is far more fascinating than I had anticipated.

[henra]

Bottas already accepted being #2 @Merc. Sacrificed any own chances in the race to help his teammate and shouldn't expect for one second to get this favor back in the opposite case. Wow. Big Mistake from him. Will be difficult to revert. He should have learned from Nico's mistakes.