2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Baku, April 27-29

[Zynerji]

Eww! Vettel has something nasty on his lower lip!

I've seen this on several drivers, and I think RIC just had surgery for something similar.

Drink straw maybe?

[Harvester]

So sad Kimi didn't get the pole. It would also be very interesting situation in race to have Kimi first and Seb second. I wonder what would Ferrari do in that situation.

[Morteza]

[MtthsMlw]

After Australia I read some speculation that some insider said that Ferrari expects to be as fast or even faster than Merc in Baku already, remember they were quite a bit behind Merc at this point.
Seems like they were right

(I know that was probably just wild speculation)

[Vettel165]

I think with a perfect lap the gap to the Mercedes would be around 0,4s on this track in qualy. Its amazing as last year we were 1,2s down on Mercedes here. Ferrari had done an awesome job with the car really. Strategy will have to be perfect tomorrow, hope Kimi with US will pass RBR cars on the start already. Its gonna be hard, dont know what to expect really, will see.

Happy day for me, but the race is tomorrow. Shame for Kimi as we had 1-2 in the bag.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

The cars are a second slower than last year. Mercedes should go back, bring W08 and bolt halo, should still be able to get pole.

[NathanOlder]

Merc will surely be strong tomorrow. They have been stronger in the race compared to qualy in all but 1 race so far
Lets hope for a clean start and round 2 for Ham vs seb in Azerbaijan

[lio007]

Unfortunately I haven't seen Q.
The top 6 used SS and US in Q2.

Can anybody tell if they did their fastest laps on US or SS?

[Harvester]

I think with a perfect lap the gap to the Mercedes would be around 0,4s on this track in qualy. Its amazing as last year we were 1,2s down on Mercedes here. Ferrari had done an awesome job with the car really. Strategy will have to be perfect tomorrow, hope Kimi with US will pass RBR cars on the start already. Its gonna be hard, dont know what to expect really, will see.

Happy day for me, but the race is tomorrow. Shame for Kimi as we had 1-2 in the bag.

Yes, it seems they finally have a car that is better in qualifying than in race and that has been recipe for winning championship last 8 years.

Tommorow they should be very precise with their strategy if they want to win.

[JPBD1990]

Unfortunately I haven't seen Q.
The top 6 used SS and US in Q2.

Can anybody tell if they did their fastest laps on US or SS?

All of the top six bar Kimi set their times and will start on SS. Kimi locked up and went to US.

[Shrieker]

I think with a .179 gap, Merc will be content for now - especially considering it's an effective 2 vs 1 against Vettel, assuming neither lose places at the start.

Kimi must be gutted. His time @ the second split was mega. Too bad he was a tad too eager on the throttle coming out of the last turn.

[Shrieker]

Eww! Vettel has something nasty on his lower lip!

It looks like a cold sore. You've never had one ?

I think the race should be fascinating. IMO Mercedes might have the better set-up. They are running less wing, thus with the speed advantage and DRS, they might be able to overtake. Ferrari will have to be quick in the corners to pull out enough gap to not be vulnerable.

Merc seemed to struggle in Sector 2 so I'm not sure they'll be able to stay close enough to overtake. Assuming Vettel gets off the line I think he should be clear to run to the finish. Will be interesting to see if Hamilton can keep Bottas behind him.

I'd like to disagree. Assuming they can at least keep their places at the start, Merc can bully Vettel with alternate pit strategies.

[MtthsMlw]

I think with a .179 gap, Merc will be content for now

But they know that if Kimi hadn't made the mistake he would be around 4 tenths faster than them.

[figo]

Expectations about pole time?
In my opinion, Baku will be the only track of the calendar in which the pole time will not improve, because of heavier cars and increased drag due to halo device. Of course this year's cars have much more downforse, so i expect to be faster through corners, but probably the losses along that endless straight will not overcome the gains of the sector 1 and 2.
My guess is 1.41 flat and i expect a close fight between Mercedes and Ferrari with Red bull 0.5 behind.

I told you

[Shrieker]

I think with a .179 gap, Merc will be content for now

But they know that if Kimi hadn't made the mistake he would be around 4 tenths faster than them.

While that looks true on paper, Kimi might've taken out too much out of the tires in the first 2 sectors, so his last sector might've been slower than the mercs in the best case. Guess we'll never know.