2019 United States Grand Prix - Austin, 1-3 November

[MtthsMlw]

Lec is down 5km/h on Vettel before turn 12 maybe due to his older engine but he is faster in almost all slower corners.

Both ferraris had ~5 kmh lower top speeds on their second Q3 runs. It's just that leclerc improved on his second lap and vettel didn't. Here's leclerc's first q3 lap with purple S1 and same top speed as vettel.
https://streamable.com/ngueu
https://streamable.com/ngueu

and hamilton's lap
https://streamable.com/z1vry
https://streamable.com/z1vry

Interesting, thanks.
Looks like these speeds just came from each fastest lap.

[Wass85]

Hamilton doesn't look better setup for the race there, little snaps here and there and twitchy when putting down the power.

Bottas just looked cleaner and smoother throughout the lap.

I don't know how much it cost him but without that little lock up Max would have been pole IMO.

[NathanOlder]

Yea, yesterday I wrote the same regarding finish line speed which is what really matters as it tells us something about acceleration which still was siginificantly better than others.

More downforce is a pretty realistic reason for the less gain on the straights compared to Friday. In S3 Ferrari was as fast as Mercedes. Only Verstappen was a tenth up.

Adding more downforce would hurt top speeds more than it would acceleration surely. With more downforce you can exit corners faster and put the power down harder which both help the initial acceleration.

It would be interesting to know the difference in top speeds across all 4 sessions so far.

Yeah, it’s also noticeable how close Ferrari are on time through all the corners - that speaks to running higher downforce, given their usual deficiency in those. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they also have half a mind to better protecting their tyres (by running more downforce to prevent sliding) since that’s where they’ve been really losing out despite all the poles.

As ever, it’s a far more nuanced picture than these articles would have you believe.

But how do you explain Ferrari beating Merc in sector 1 at Suzuka, and if I recall corectly , blowing them away on the straights, and every straight since the summer break.

Im sure sky will do a piece on it today, so we might see a little more on the matter.

[cooken]

Ferrari beat Merc in S1 Suzuka because with head wind it became more power limited and also gusts sisterly affected the Merc and Red Bull more.

S1 here is quite similar with most of the first sector (including first part of esses) being at full throttle.

[NathanOlder]

Hamilton doesn't look better setup for the race there, little snaps here and there and twitchy when putting down the power.

Bottas just looked cleaner and smoother throughout the lap.

I don't know how much it cost him but without that little lock up Max would have been pole IMO.

How about Bottas has a car that puts more energy in to the tyres, helps on 1 lap and doesn't need to push so hard on the outlap. We saw Lewis passing Max and Kvyat on an outlap in a desperate attempt to get heat in to his tyres.
Come race day, Lewis will be fine for pace once up to temperature, and will make his tyres last longer so mid way through each stint he will likely be easily faster than Bottas.

[Just_a_fan]

The race will be decided, in part, in turn 1 on lap 1. Anyone getting greedy could end their race, or someone else's, quite easily. There are a couple of drivers with a reputation for being, erm, aggressive near other drivers...

[Wass85]

Hamilton doesn't look better setup for the race there, little snaps here and there and twitchy when putting down the power.

Bottas just looked cleaner and smoother throughout the lap.

I don't know how much it cost him but without that little lock up Max would have been pole IMO.

How about Bottas has a car that puts more energy in to the tyres, helps on 1 lap and doesn't need to push so hard on the outlap. We saw Lewis passing Max and Kvyat on an outlap in a desperate attempt to get heat in to his tyres.
Come race day, Lewis will be fine for pace once up to temperature, and will make his tyres last longer so mid way through each stint he will likely be easily faster than Bottas.

Just speculation though pal, he was faster than Lewis at the end of the day. We don't go deep in to explaining why Hamilton was faster on a particular day when he out qualifies Bottas. Massively disappointed with Lewis still after such a great Friday.

I still can't believe you think Hamilton sacrificed himself, qualifying 5th for race pace advantage. If Bottas gets away cleanly Hamilton will be nowhere to be seen.

[Wass85]

The race will be decided, in part, in turn 1 on lap 1. Anyone getting greedy could end their race, or someone else's, quite easily. There are a couple of drivers with a reputation for being, erm, aggressive near other drivers...

Yep and that's Lewis' best chance, hopefully the front runners get in to a tangle and he's at least 3rd by the end of the 1st lap. If not he will do well to get on the podium.

[f1jcw]

Hamilton doesn't look better setup for the race there, little snaps here and there and twitchy when putting down the power.

Bottas just looked cleaner and smoother throughout the lap.

I don't know how much it cost him but without that little lock up Max would have been pole IMO.

How about Bottas has a car that puts more energy in to the tyres, helps on 1 lap and doesn't need to push so hard on the outlap. We saw Lewis passing Max and Kvyat on an outlap in a desperate attempt to get heat in to his tyres.
Come race day, Lewis will be fine for pace once up to temperature, and will make his tyres last longer so mid way through each stint he will likely be easily faster than Bottas.

Just speculation though pal, he was faster than Lewis at the end of the day. We don't go deep in to explaining why Hamilton was faster on a particular day when he out qualifies Bottas. Massively disappointed with Lewis still after such a great Friday.

I still can't believe you think Hamilton sacrificed himself, qualifying 5th for race pace advantage. If Bottas gets away cleanly Hamilton will be nowhere to be seen.

Give up. You are full of speculation, so don’t try and say anything that doesn’t suit your bias is Just "speculation"

And no, if Bottas gets away cleanly it doesn’t mean it’s over, we have also seen in the past Bottas struggle with race pace, so no it isn’t a far gone consultation, so stop trying to make your speculations fact.

[dans79]

I still can't believe you think Hamilton sacrificed himself, qualifying 5th for race pace advantage. If Bottas gets away cleanly Hamilton will be nowhere to be seen.

Stop looking at it in such a simplistic way, more than likely he made a conscious set up choice and it didn't work out as well as he expected.

[Wass85]

How about Bottas has a car that puts more energy in to the tyres, helps on 1 lap and doesn't need to push so hard on the outlap. We saw Lewis passing Max and Kvyat on an outlap in a desperate attempt to get heat in to his tyres.
Come race day, Lewis will be fine for pace once up to temperature, and will make his tyres last longer so mid way through each stint he will likely be easily faster than Bottas.

Just speculation though pal, he was faster than Lewis at the end of the day. We don't go deep in to explaining why Hamilton was faster on a particular day when he out qualifies Bottas. Massively disappointed with Lewis still after such a great Friday.

I still can't believe you think Hamilton sacrificed himself, qualifying 5th for race pace advantage. If Bottas gets away cleanly Hamilton will be nowhere to be seen.

Give up. You are full of speculation, so don’t try and say anything that doesn’t suit your bias is Just "speculation"

And no, if Bottas gets away cleanly it doesn’t mean it’s over, we have also seen in the past Bottas struggle with race pace, so no it isn’t a far gone consultation, so stop trying to make your speculations fact.

How am I full of specualton? Hamilton has admitted he performed badly in qualifying, get over it.

Nothing to do with the car, it was me," he said. "I just didn't pull the laps out today.

"Clearly the car had the capability to be on the front row and I just didn't do it today. It was my fault but I'll try and rectify it tomorrow."

[Wass85]

I still can't believe you think Hamilton sacrificed himself, qualifying 5th for race pace advantage. If Bottas gets away cleanly Hamilton will be nowhere to be seen.

Stop looking at it in such a simplistic way, more than likely he made a conscious set up choice and it didn't work out as well as he expected.

You think Lewis is the only driver who sets up his car for race day? All drivers set their car up with the best compromise for qualifying and race day.

[RZS10]

According to the AMuS liveticker the track temperature dropped in the last 10 minutes of quali which lowered the grip so you were right assuming it was the track temps that changed

What is AMuS liveticker? I've searched and only could access a german website.

It's literally the first thing you see on the website



https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/formel-1/ticker/ the bit about track temp was from yesterday 00:16

[dans79]

I still can't believe you think Hamilton sacrificed himself, qualifying 5th for race pace advantage. If Bottas gets away cleanly Hamilton will be nowhere to be seen.

Stop looking at it in such a simplistic way, more than likely he made a conscious set up choice and it didn't work out as well as he expected.

You think Lewis is the only driver who sets up his car for race day? All drivers set their car up with the best compromise for qualifying and race day.

You're the one that seems to not understand that drivers have biases!

[dans79]

Waiting for the gates to open.