2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

[basti313]

So did the teams go full bean, knowing qualifying cancelation is a possibility? Looking at the times I would say no because 2017 pole lap was almost half a second faster than today's fastest lap by Bottas. Last year's pole was as fast as today's fastest lap, but conditions weren't that good in 2018 with incoming rain.

No. The only top team that did fast laps in the end was Ferrari. For them it lookes a bit like the usual FP3 stuff in the end: Out, lap, in, 7 min gap for setup changes, out again.

Bot and Ham did something like FP3 in the beginning. Then a fast lap, filled the car and then a race simulation with a tire exchange. Then only maybe something like a setup lap (no timed lap) in the end. So just usual FP2 procedures.

Looking at the time:
Ferrari was super slow in the long run, on average 0.7sec behind the Merc and slightly behind the RedBull. But still they filled the car only 7 minutes while really filling the car for race simulation usually takes 12-15minutes. So either they were running with some fuel load in their fast laps or they are simply really slow.

[saviour stivala]

All Saturday’s activities have been canceled due to safety concerns. Qualifying was given a ‘provisional’ slot of 10:00am on Sunday. If that qualifying provisional slot will be canceled, Bottas is already on ‘provisional’ pole as per the FP2 times.

[Phil]

The problem with doing qualy laps in FP is that there is a high probability that you might encounter traffic and then need to abort the lap, so i am guessing the cars were not doing qualy runs with an empty tank, but with enough for that kind of eventuality.

[saviour stivala]

“The problem of doing qualifying laps in FP2”. It is better expressed as “The problem of knowing what teams were actually doing in FP2 today”. Some may have been running their Friday power unites and gearboxes, while some might not, according to one of SKY sports pundits one particular top team according to GPS traces seen had not turned-up their engines to qualifying level at all.

[LM10]

“The problem of doing qualifying laps in FP2”. It is better expressed as “The problem of knowing what teams were actually doing in FP2 today”. Some may have been running their Friday power unites and gearboxes, while some might not, according to one of SKY sports pundits one particular top team according to GPS traces seen had not turned-up their engines to qualifying level at all.

That being?

[saviour stivala]

“That being?” Your guess.

[Polite]

i really dont think Ferrari is so far away. Also in Singapore they were 1" off but.. in race mercs and ferrari were so near with Ferrari on top with soft tyres while mercs were on top with medium and hard tyres.

[LM10]

“That being?” Your guess.

Normally I would say Mercedes, but given that they already were fastest, I guess (and hope) Ferrari?

[Juzh]

some laps from fp2

P01 bottas 1.27.785
https://streamable.com/ro0eo


P03 verstappen 1.28.066
https://streamable.com/b100i


P04 leclerc 1.28.141
https://streamable.com/16tuu

[iotar__]

“The problem of doing qualifying laps in FP2”. It is better expressed as “The problem of knowing what teams were actually doing in FP2 today”. Some may have been running their Friday power unites and gearboxes, while some might not, according to one of SKY sports pundits one particular top team according to GPS traces seen had not turned-up their engines to qualifying level at all.

That being?

- Ferrari or Mercedes . I'd say Ferrari.
- Red Bull are too close or not close enough with no benchmark Albon.

[RZS10]

One could also argue that it was Mercedes since their FP1 advantage disappeared - and it wouldn't make sense for the others, would it? ... hopefully we'll get a proper qualifying sunday morning/night we'll see then

[izzy]

“That being?” Your guess.

Normally I would say Mercedes, but given that they already were fastest, I guess (and hope) Ferrari?

It was Ferrari Ted was talking about, the secret was the team who told him from their gps. So Ferrari do have some more to come i think. I get the impression their modalità festival has to be used pretty sparingly

[dans79]

It seems the FIA can't handle any dissent, so they fined Guenther €7,500.

[dans79]

For all those saying Ferrari didn't have their engines turned up, Leclerc's comments sure don't make it sound that way.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/14652 ... a-surprise

"I think we made the most out of our day, which was the most important [thing], but it seems we are lacking pace this weekend, which is a bit of a surprise,"

"Because we were very strong in the last four races, we expected to be quite good here, but, yeah, it's less the case.

"The long run was not great compared to Mercedes. I think we were quite OK compared to Red Bull, more or less the same - I need to check the data, I haven't checked everything.

"On low fuel it seems that we are lacking a little bit of pace at the moment, so we need to work on that and to try to understand [why].

"The car didn't feel bad, the balance was quite good, but it seems that we are maybe lacking a little bit of overall grip."

Leclerc thought the competitive order in FP2 was "more or less the real picture of the weekend",

Asked whether Ferrari could make big strides in the absence of Saturday practice, Leclerc said: "It's going to be difficult, realistically.

"But I believe that I didn't drive very well today, so I need to work on driving first.

"Then we've got a few set-up changes to do on the car, and hopefully putting everything together we'll do a step forward."

[Sierra117]

some laps from fp2

P01 bottas 1.27.785
https://streamable.com/ro0eo
https://streamable.com/ro0eo

P03 verstappen 1.28.066
https://streamable.com/b100i
https://streamable.com/b100i

P04 leclerc 1.28.141
https://streamable.com/16tuu
https://streamable.com/16tuu

This track is SO GOOD! Hair-raising experience just watching it; imagine actually driving on it!