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[andrew]

Yes, he is indeed the first F1 driver to have a good look at a competitors car in parc-ferme.

[spankyham]

I wasn't surprised. They were about half a second slower than Redbull and Mercedes throughout qualifying....their laps at the end of Q2 were simply because of track evolution. No way they would've competed for the front grid today, and taking into consideration Redbull's long running pace I think the logical thing to do is try something different. Lewis has his work cut out for him to keep the Redbulls behind after the first pitstop.

Not sure where you're getting the Ferrari's being half second slower in Qualifying. Given that RB didn't really run in Q1 (only ran on the prime tire) they were considerably slower than the Ferrari's. In Q2 the Ferrari's were both faster than both Red Bulls and both Mercedes. Are you saying that in the final 2 minutes of Q2 the track got half a second faster?

Long run pace, well, looking at Friday, I don't think there's much difference between the Red Bull's and Ferrari's. Vettel's long runs were .1 or .2 faster, but he started his long run on 8 lap old mediums while Fernando started on 15 lap old mediums. I said earlier that I thought it was the Mercs that seemed slow on the long run pace - perhaps they were running heavier fuel loads.

I'm still surprised by their strategy, but I guess it will lay out in the early laps - depending on when soft's start falling off under the heavy fuel load. I'm guessing the Ferrari's will leave their soft run til the end of the race when the car is lightest and when the track is most rubbered in. Still, it's a heavy penalty to overcome starting from the 4th row.

[racechick]

Yeah I saw him doing that! Nosey sod! He just beat you Seb, did a better lap, no errors, no missed apexes.
I wish he'd fallen in, he was so far in that cockpit he almost did!

[andrew]

He was looking for the air freshner to see what brand Merc' use.

[racechick]

You mean just in case the driver gets the problem Bianchi's been experiencing?.

[andrew]

What problem?

[Nin-Chin]

It was Webber peeking into the Merc, not Seb, if you can notice blue helmet with yellow top is actually Webber's helmet

And to say on Ferrari,they were fastest in Q2 with Massa by 0.15,Vettel set his time 4mins earlier and with every passing vehicle more rubber gets laid down,and in Q1 they were 0.5 faster than Merc on softer tyres,but I think if Ferrari had done Q3 in normal style they would be ahead of Kimi,but not Webber

[LRW]

It was Webber peeking into the Merc, not Seb, if you can notice blue helmet with yellow top is actually Webber's helmet

This is what I thought.....?

[CookinFlat6]

dammit Nin-chin, why ruin a good bashfest

[Hammer278]

Err yeah it was Webber, why did everyone think it was Vettel?

[CookinFlat6]

Because no one really cares what Webber does, as he is not really a player

[racechick]

he's a nice guy and he's leaving anyway
Andrew, Bianchi's problem was tummy trouble, hence the possible necessity of the airfreshner

[vaptin]

I don't think Mercedes are title challengers, they might be faster than Redbull for the rest of the season, but it's a big points gap, and well, who else will go faster than Redbull?

I wonder if Lotus can do something here, will be interesting to see how they compare to Ferrari at least, I guess those guys are racing each other, just behind Mercedes and Redbull who will be going for the win's as opposed to podiums for the former two teams, or Lotus have some extra relative race pace.

Weird decision by Ferrari I think too, their tyre wear is good, why not just qualify as high as possible? It clearly shows they aren't going for the win, I mean, they'll be too far back being held up at the start.

Hamilton has a good chance of winning, the race leader still has a clear advantage, and he starts well, Vettel isn't too good at winning from second, usually, but the Redbull might have extra pace, but they never set the car up so it can overtake, I guess the aim will be pit-stop strategy.

At least it isn't Vettel starting from pole, at least we'll see two cars in shot now, hopefully.

Real mess up by Mercedes with Rosberg, not going to help for the constructors at all.

Bianchi, Hulkenberg and Button all qualified well, I think showing ability for each of those drivers

Battle for Force India and McLaren looks interesting, surely McLaren won't go the whole season without a clearly faster car than Force India?

Main battle in championship terms I guess, is 2nd place in constructors, and the leading positions behind Vettel. Obviously Rosberg could get hurt a lot here, I disagree it's like Hamilton's tyre problem, since in that race there were a few safety cars and similar problems for other drivers ahead of Hamilton, in this case, the driver was let down by their team.

Wonder how far Webber will fall back, and how many places Massa will gain; I'm guessing Grosjean will be given clear instructions not to go anywhere near Kimi at the start.

[geetface9]

dammit Nin-chin, why ruin a good bashfest

Took everybody long enough!! I sure as H3LL wasn't going to ruin the vettel bashfest!!

Vettel's helmet is black this weekend, and it's clear to see that the helmet is blue in the pic!

[vaptin]

I recall seeing Redbull driver's doing that, when the car's were on pole position too (a Redbull car on pole).