2014 Brazilian Grand Prix - São Paulo

[marcush.]

http://www.formula1.com/results/season/ ... times.html

Ultimate lap (best sectors added together):

Nico Rosberg - 1:09.861
Lewis Hamilton - 1:10.010 (+0.149)

Massa 1:10.155
Bottas 1:10.172

I have the gut feeling Mercedes might only propelling the winning car tomorrow..it is about time to win a grand prix for williams .. not counting that birthday present Frank received a few years back..

ultimately neither Hamilton nor Massa or Bottas had a smooth second run in Q3 so these sector additions do not reflect the true potential .

[atanatizante]

So it's right to say ... he just sets his car more towards the race? if not entirely ...

No. Mostly they have the same setup.

Watching RTL I could argue that Niky Lauda and Toto Wolf doesn't agree with you on this matter, as they constantly said they have very similar setup but not the same setup ... one could tell this after seen the top speed traps right after the qualy, hence different DF levels, but most of all after the race outcomes ...

And in addition could we say Nico is more affected by the radio couch ban rule introduced in the last races?

No. Lewis had the same radio guidance during the races, maybe even more. And Lewis had the edge on the Medium tire before the radio ban...there is nothing new with radio ban.

Same guys Niky and Toto admitted that lately (not to mention many Sky F1 pundits and former F1 drivers) when they told us that Nico it's a more technical driver rather then a instinctual one like Lewis ... like Prost vs. Senna if you may like it

Nonetheless thanx for the info ... and something else : don't you think this season resemble with the 2013 with the mithy RB role taken now by the Mercs and for the last year Mercs they've been swapped by Williams now ... and I said so bearing in mind both their results but most of all their setup strategy, with a high DF setup and better preserving tyres for RB (yes, only in the second part of the season) and with a low DF setup and a worse rear tyres wear in the Mercs case ?

[dan]

I don't think there is anything between rosberg and hamilton in qualyfing when both are on form. To me it looked like hamilton was taking a leaf out of rosberg book and sandbagging all weekend. Then he went for it at the end but couldn't quite get him, should be a good race between them on a real racetrack!!

[prince]

One thing is very clear, Lewis is not having the best of times in qualifying. The amount of locking he is having was unseen in McLaren days. He was late and he was hard on brakes, but there never were as many lock up situations. Whole of last year, he was struggling to get that perfect feeling with brakes. Although the situation is much better in races, he is struggling in Qualifying. May be it is to do with Akebono Vs Brembo/Carbon Industrie and may be this year, it is to do with Brake by wire, who knows.

Yesterday's was a big lock up that clearly spoils anyone's qualifying lap, but when Bruno was doing a comparison of Nico and Lewis' quali laps, it was strange that even in that lock up situation, Lewis just took just the same time to get in and out of that corner as Nico!

[Montyinct]

I my opinion, I think Hamilton focuses more on race day rather than qualifying as he knows his car will guarantee him p2 at worst, and I suspect that he might have learnt from last year when they used to take poles and sink in the race like a stone. I don't agree with some here who say that Rosberg is the better 1 lap driver. Ham didn't take part in 2, so the stats are a bit affected by that

[NathanOlder]

I think Lewis aims at sunday more than Nico. As many have said on Sky and other media sources, Lewis.has a slightly different setup and it seems to help him on sundays. 10 wins vs 4 backs this up as the qualy is almost the opposite. (11.7)
I also think when you see Lewis happy enough after being beaten by his rival in the same car, I read it as Lewis thinking "wow, 0.033 off with a setup thats maybe a couple of tenths slower in qualy trim"
Once the medium tyres and heavy fuel is in, Lewis will be faster.

Just my Opinion.

[Hail22]

Teds Notebook post-quali:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa1ARDz_gnw[/youtube]

[Unc1eM0nty]

Yesterday's was a big lock up that clearly spoils anyone's qualifying lap, but when Bruno was doing a comparison of Nico and Lewis' quali laps, it was strange that even in that lock up situation, Lewis just took just the same time to get in and out of that corner as Nico!

Yeah I saw thee same piece and his position to Nico before and after the corner looked the same, Lewis also mentioned an error at turn one, I've looked at it again and couldn't see any thing obvious though.

I love it when it's close like this, someone has to be first but when the margin is so fine I do't think you can put any driver down, i'd be interested to see the average gap over the season, it would be hard though as they've both had set up issues at some point.

Are their any locals to the track who can give us a weather update, I know it's fickle out there so forecasts are no use.

[Oakstreet]

Did any of you guys saw the amount of time both Massa and Bottas gained in the final sector? Both were +/- 0.4s behind at the 2nd sector split time, but gained 0.3s on the final stretch. If they can keep this up I could see them attack the Mercedes cars on the long straights.

[Harsha]

Did any of you guys saw the amount of time both Massa and Bottas gained in the final sector? Both were +/- 0.4s behind at the 2nd sector split time, but gained 0.3s on the final stretch. If they can keep this up I could see them attack the Mercedes cars on the long straights.

Me , if race is dry and Mercs couldn't pull away then they have a big trouble

[marcush.]

I think Hamilton is the better racer of the two -so Nicos chance is to start from the front and keeping Lewis behind far enough to deny him of any serious attack..
the start will have a big influence todays I think the williams boys have a real chance -mercedes seems to struggle a bit with tires here and that may well play into Massas and Bottas hands this time.
Massa seems to find something extra here as he did in Monza .I bet he had the win visualized last night.Let´s hope they get a clean start .

[wda04]

Hey, does anyone know if it's meant to be a wet or dry race? Or a changeable conditions race?

[Hail22]

Hey, does anyone know if it's meant to be a wet or dry race? Or a changeable conditions race?

http://www.bbc.com/weather/3448439

Looks to be a dry race with a 20-25% chance of rain.

[MadMatt]

Damn it. But well, as always on this track the cars are closer than anywhere else on a pace point of view so hopefully the merc' haven't hidden their game too much and we'll have a good race!

[atanatizante]

Some questions:

1. Nico said that he worked more then the usual at the setup race and even in FP3 when he normally won’t do that unless something special occurred … so maybe now he is : a.) more focused towards a wet race, bearing in mind not to repeat Suzuka setup race mistakes or b.) more focused on race setup coz he noticed that Lewis is doing that lately winning races rather then poles?
2. Niky Lauda said on RTL that Lewis did some changes at his car in FP2 and even in FP3, special on dampers, according to Ch.Danner-RTL expert. Now in Q3 you could clearly see that Lewis was locking in turn 10 and left the right front tyre in the air and afterwards in turn 13 doing the same thing now with the left front tyre … this made Chris Danner to say that Lewis opted for a softer rear suspension setup, in order to get a bigger traction or just to be better prepared for a wet race? Or both …
3. Now what’s puzzles me is the fact that Nico did the fastest times for sector 2 in all Q sessions, and bearing in mind this sector is all about traction how could one explain that he didn’t faced the same front tyres issues (like Lewis did) and reported an overheated rear tyres on Q2?
4. Did the flat spotted Lewis right front tyre was a major factor for the 0,033 sec. delay to the pole time? Lauda said he lost at least 2 tenths in turn 10 for he must correct the racing line again, but Bruno Senna proved on Sky Pad that in the end there were both in the same spot after the turn …
5. I know it’s a similar situation like in Austria, facing a short and traction focused circuit, where the time over a lap is very short (hence Williams is very close on Mercs), but could we say after those close times in qualy that Merc boys were focused more towards the race generally speaking and a wet race in particular?
6. In addition to that above mentioned could we say that a car with bigger DF needs lesser changes between a dry setup and a wet setup?
7. Had it’s a dry race they said it’s a 3 stop race … a OPPP strategy?