Max Verstappen has dominated the Malaysian Grand Prix to win the second race of his career. Second place finisher Lewis Hamilton led for 5 laps before seeing the Dutchman pass by. Daniel Ricciardo finished third to complete the party for Red Bull Racing.
Shock horror, times changed in the 20 mins between our posts. The track temp also went up a lot in between, with everyone slower, Verstappen very near the end now went slower than Ham. In order of the times the latest fastest laps were done I believe it was Ricciardo, Kimi, Vettel, Bottas, Ham, Verstappen, with the track getting hotter and slower over that period.
Assuming they don't blow something, Vettel's engine didn't sound good at all.
bah no worries, sorry for the super tired crabbiness. The plan was to go to sleep and wake up for qualifying, but apparently tonight was one of those nights my body wasn't going to allow me to sleep, I've been up for far too long already.
Its pretty clear that Vettel will get a penaly sooner or later. Bad news for him. It will be interesting to see how the new PU behaves.
The gaps between different teams have been smaller in general. Yesterdays difference was unreal. But as you have said Ferrari should have the edge here, I am curious to see if Mercedes can beat Red Bull on qualy.
Why was the spec 4 planned for Suzuka, just simply to have a fresh engine at that track ? Or are they holding it back as long as possible as they are not happy with the spec 4 ?
As a general rule, you want the best bits on the car all the time. It's a puzzle that, Ferrari has been holding their Spec 4 for such a long time. What if the current engine had survived another 24 hours before giving up? They should count themselves lucky.NathanOlder wrote: ↑30 Sep 2017, 09:36Why was the spec 4 planned for Suzuka, just simply to have a fresh engine at that track ? Or are they holding it back as long as possible as they are not happy with the spec 4 ?
There was no massive improvement by Mercedes. Hamilton improved by .138 from P2 to P3. Vettel went .981 slower in P3 which created the illusion that Mercedes have improved. And Kimi did almost exactly the same time that he did in P2....nice try though : )
The later they introduce the engine the more they can push it and extract more juice as we approach tracks that may suit Mercedes (Suzuka for example). I don't believe the engine No.3 was close to its life cycle because they wouldn't risk it. Perhaps the damage in Singapore contributed because yesterday they were using a Friday engine (spec 2) and this morning was no.3's first outing since the crash.GPR-A wrote: ↑30 Sep 2017, 09:51As a general rule, you want the best bits on the car all the time. It's a puzzle that, Ferrari has been holding their Spec 4 for such a long time. What if the current engine had survived another 24 hours before giving up? They should count themselves lucky.NathanOlder wrote: ↑30 Sep 2017, 09:36Why was the spec 4 planned for Suzuka, just simply to have a fresh engine at that track ? Or are they holding it back as long as possible as they are not happy with the spec 4 ?
