Jordan's Track Talk

Tag: Round 9

  • F2 Le Castellet – Day 2 & 3

    F2 Le Castellet – Day 2 & 3

    Day 2-

    Daruvala got a great start from pole position but Lawson lagged behind him, the Carlin driver fell down the order into Turn 1, losing second to Armstrong and third to Drugovich momentarily, but a wide moment on corner exit left the MP Motorsport driver in the hands of Pourchaire.

    Lawson kept in touch with Armstrong ahead and made a late lunge into Turn 1 on lap 4. The pair battle through the first sector and somehow avoided contact, just millimetres apart at Turn 4. After making the move, the gap to race leader Daruvala stood at 2.2s but Lawson set about hunting him down, to cut it down by 1.6s by Lap 6 and by Lap 8 the Carlin driver broke into DRS range.

    The Safety Car offered a brief pause in action, deployed on Lap 9 following contact between Robert Merhi and the recovering Enzo Fittipaldi. The pair had been fighting for 15th position but a slide and spin in the North Chicane on the Mistral Straight left the Charouz in the middle of the track. Amaury Cordeel behind couldn’t avoid him and made contact, putting both out of the race.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Lawson, P2: Daruvala, P3: Drugovich, P4: Doohan, P5: Vesti, P6: Iwasa, P7: Pourchaire, P8: Sargeant, P9: Sato and P10: Beckmann.

    Pourchaire, Vips, Armstrong and Fittipaldi have all been penalised, Pourchaire originally crossed the line in P3.

    Day 3-

    After warmer temperatures played havoc earlier on in weekend, the field would have been thankful to have been greeted by cooler morning conditions in Le Castellet – allowing the grid to split their strategies.

    The top five opted to get things underway on the softer compound, but that didn’t help Logan Sargeant, who suffered wheel spin off the line and dropped down to third. There were contrasting fortunes at the front of the pack, as Doohan got a blistering start to streak into the lead in the opening two corners. However, the Australian driver had company in the form of Iwasa, who immediately put him under pressure.

    The Safety Car was swiftly deployed as the marshals picked up both Armstrong, and the stricken Marino Sato, who’s race ended early in the run-off section. Firing up his tyres early, Iwasa streaked ahead of Doohan on the restart, as Lawson boldly dived to the inside of Drugovich to take seventh.

    The pit stop was the undoing of Sargeant’s day as well on Lap 13. The Carlin driver was unable to pull away from his pit box and was forced to retire, having looked solidly in the fight for a podium spot.

    But it was Ayumu Iwasa who took the win and his first Formula 2 win! Theo Pouchaire cmae home to finish 2nd, and his teammate Frederick Vesti rounded out the podium in P3, a double podium for the ART GP team.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Iwasa, P2: Pourchaire, P3: Vesti, P4: Drugovich, P5: Doohan, P6: Lawson, P7: Daruvala, P8: Novalak, P9: Nissany and P10: Fittipaldi.

    We are back next weekend and we are in Hungary for Round 10, our last before summer break!

  • Beckmann replaces Hughes

    Van Amersfoort Racing took to social media to announce that Jake Hughes will not be racing the next two rounds due to having a positive covid test. David Beckmann will be replacing him for the double header in France and Hungary.

    As France and Hungary are consecutive race weekends, Hughes won’t be able to recover in time and will miss both rounds.

    After finishing sixth in Formula 3 in 2020, Beckmann has yet to compete in a full season of Formula 2, budget issues saw him dropped by Charouz halfway through the 2021 season, despite taking two podiums for the team.

    These rounds will be Beckmann’s third and fourth this season, having already been a stand-in already this season. In Imola, he replaced Cem Bolukbasi after his injury in the previous round. Then Beckmann took Amaury Cordeels spot, as he had to serve a race ban after acquiring 12 penalty points on his license.

    Beckmann has managed to grab points already this season, but another four points could easily bump him up to 19th in the standings, which is very impressive considering he’ll have only competed in four out of ten rounds.

    Also still driving as a substitute for the next two rounds in Roberto Merhi, who is replacing Ralph Boschung until he recovers from his neck injury.

    Wishing Jake Hughes well and we will see him back on the grid soon!

  • Round 9- Canadian GP

    Round 9- Canadian GP

    What a race! The Canadian Grand Prix has come back with a bang, and I can honestly say it’s good to have it back!

    Max Verstappen stormed his way to victory making it Red Bull’s sixth in a row, can they get past Vettel’s 9 with the team? Carlos Sainz comes home to finish 2nd after he had a last minute battle for the win but it wasn’t meant to be this time. Lewis Hamilton joins them on the podium in P3, his second of the season!

    The full top 10 are- P1: Verstappen, P2: Sainz, P3: Hamilton, P4: Russell, P5: Leclerc, P6: Ocon, P7: Alonso, P8: Bottas, P9: Zhou and P10: Stroll.

    Red Bull, now I was excited to see what Perez could do and see some nice overtakes from him but this weekend really wasn’t his, he ended up DNF’ing quite early into the race and I think there are some question marks coming up about RB’s reliability after they had seemed to sort it quite early on.

    A good weekend for Ferrari overall, especially Charles, him starting P19 after his penalties for him to finish 5th is good, and it’s even better for them that only one Red Bull finished…

    Now onto Merc, very different pace compared to Friday, maybe a sign of things to come? A great drive from both drivers, obviously George had a bit of work to do after qualifying 8th but he kept it consistent and finished in the top 5 once again. Lewis, seemed a lot happier this race, less bouncing and he just loves this track which makes this podium even better!

    Now Alpine, I kind of expected a bit more from Alonso, we’ve seen before in the past he defends like a lion but today I didn’t see that much and heard that there fight wasn’t with the Bulls or Ferrari but both Alpines ended up behind the Mercs?

    Alfa Romeo! Double points finish, they had good pace throughout and done some nice overtakes, happy for Zhou though as he has had it rough with mechanical DNF’s so this weekend as a whole should boost his confidence going into the next round!

    Now Haas, I think we expected at least one car to finish in the top 10… but they didn’t. Mick suffered a PU issue, after doing well to stay in the top 10 at the beginning of the race. Where as for Magnussen, had a bit of contact on lap 1 and then got shown the black and orange flag to pit for a new front wing, which saw him tumble to the bottom…

    McLaren, wasn’t really anywhere today which is a shame as they looked promising with their pace yesterday, Ricciardo finished 11th and Norris 15th…

    The Championship-

    Theres no change at the top, as Max Verstappen still leads and extending his lead now on 175 points. His teammate is still in 2nd but that gap between them grew due to the DNF. Charles Leclerc is sat in third on 126 points, closing in on Perez as there is just 3 points between the pair. Russell stays in 4th on 111 points and Carlos is on 102 points now and in fifth, so it’s getting closer as the races keep on coming.

    Red Bull lead the Constructors still, with 304 points, Ferrari closed down the gap a little but they are sat on 228 points, 76 points between the two teams… Mercedes sit comfortably in third and with their big points haul over the past two weekends are starting to close in on Ferrari as they sit on 188 points.

    McLaren are still sat in 4th on 65 points, but points are needed soon as Alpine are coming to hunt them down. They are currently sat in 5th and are on 61 points…

    We are back in two weeks for the British Grand Prix! Round 10 of 22 and we all remember what happened last year at Silverstone? Will Max get the victory this year? Or can Charles get the win? Where will Mercedes be, and will their new upgrades see them fighting with the front two teams? It’s all to play for!

  • Round 9- Canada Qualifying

    Round 9- Canada Qualifying

    Well well well, I think Canada thought they would make their comeback a rather good one, and so far it has been! We saw a wet qualifying today and it did not disappoint!

    Charles Leclerc and Yuki Tsunoda are starting at the back of the grid due to taking penalties for new power unit elements.

    But, Max Verstappen clawed his way to pole position as he made his way round the track without any costly mistakes. He is joined on the front row by Alpine’s, Fernando Alonso for the first time since the 2012 German Grand Prix. And Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz rounds out the top 3, making it count for the Italian team as his teammate has a penalty.

    The full top 10 are: P1: Verstappen, P2: Alonso, P3: Sainz, P4: Hamilton, P5: Magnussen, P6: Schumacher, P7: Ocon, P8: Russell, P9: Ricciardo and P10: Zhou.

    Lets just take a moment to appreciate, Fernando Alonso, what a man and what a driver. I could see him battling for the win today and I honestly can’t wait, is this El Plan really coming to life now?…

    Haas deserve a round of applause what a qualifying session for them! Both drivers in the top 10 and also Mick’s best qualifying session ever! Big points on offer for the pair of them today, and a certain German driver needs to make it count…

    Ohhhhh Daniel Ricciardo! Top 10, that is what we like to see, and so far he has had a good weekend, and looks to be enjoying himself, could this be the comeback for him now? His teammate starts down in 14th due to an issue with the car, so Norris will be trying to get through the field.

    Zhou Guanyu, in Q3 and I am sure he is happy with that one! Things haven’t exactly gone his way in the past few races so his been quite unlucky, but with a good qualifying and starting ahead of his teammate he will have an extra boost of confidence for today.

    Predictions-

    My top five are- P1: Verstappen, P2: Alonso, P3: Hamilton, P4: Sainz, P5: Russell. I could see todays race be taken over by the more experienced drivers, Alonso, Hamilton, Ricciardo and Vettel, it looked like they were doing that yesterday during FP3 and Qualifying.

    I think seeing Charles Leclerc come through the field will be good, we get a feel for how that Ferrari actually is and lets hope we get to see some killer moves.

    Timings-

    Race- 19:00pm (BST)

  • Leclerc to take 10 place grid penalty

    After much speculation, it has been confirmed that Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will drop 10 places on the Canadian Grand Prix grid for taking new control electronics.

    With the Ferrari power unit that let go in Baku last week whilst Leclerc was leading got deemed ‘beyond repair’ the team and driver arrived this weekend and was surrounded by talk of potential grid penalities.

    Initially it appeared that this would not be the case, Leclerc having received a new Internal Combustion Engine, MGU-K, MGU-H and Control Electronics, though none of those components took him over the imits for the season.

    Obviously, we are not in the best situation possible. For the power unit change I think there are still ongoing discussions, we’ll try to push (back) as much as possible the decision. For now, no decisions are taken. But it’s not the best situation for me. It’s up to us to choose the best track where you want to get a penalty – if you get a penalty. And this is one of the tracks where it’s actually quite easy to overtake. But there are also some of the tracks in the next three or four races where it’s easier to overtake too. We’ll discuss and try and take the best decision from there.

    Charles Leclerc on the possible penalty

    But, the FIA confirmed another new Control Electronics for Leclerc, taking him to three for the season and thus pushing him over the permitted number of components. As such, he drops 10 places on the grid for the first Canadian GP to be held since 2019.

    A new Control Electronic has been fitted to Charles’ car prior to FP2. It is the third of these elements used so far this season – only two are permitted – therefore Charles takes a grid penalty.

    Ferrair’s statement.

    This now gives Red Bull’s Max Verstappen a major boost in the race for the 2022 Drivers title, the reigning world champ comes into this weekend with a 34 point buffer over Leclerc.

  • Canadian Grand Prix

    We are back in Canada, after not being here since 2019! It’s a new track to some of the drivers, as well as being the home Grand Prix of both Nicholas Latifi and Lance Stroll.

    Will Ferrari bounce back after their double DNF last weekend? Or will Red Bull continue on their run of race wins? Can Mercedes have another strong weekend? It’s all to play for this weekend…

    Who needs a good weekend?

    Ferrari for sure, they need to be worried about the power unit and what effect it could have on the championship. A big points haul is needed for the Italian team and in the past at Canadian GP, Ferrari does like it here so hopefully they can turn things around here?

    Alfa Romeo, need a good weekend for both of their drivers, Bottas was no where in Azerbaijan and Guanyu Zhou had to retire in the pits which is unlucky for him as it could of been a ‘what if he continued’ situation.

    Magnussen needs a good weekend, 3 DNFs in the last four races isn’t good for Haas. Hopefully this weekend will be a different story for the American team!

    Predictions for qualifying-

    My top five are- Pole: Leclerc, P2: Verstappen, P3: Perez, P4: Sainz and P5: Russell.

    At this moment in time, Charles is the best qualifier, only qualifying 1st and 2nd so far this season, he seems to put it all together when it counts. Where as for his teammate, he does a few little mistakes on his lap, which could and has knocked him down a few places.

    I could see a McLaren getting in the top 10, and possibly Bottas? If Alfa Romeo sort out their car in qualifying whilst on the soft tyre there will be no problem, but at the moment we don’t know what were going to get from them!

    Times for the weekend-

    Friday 17th-

    • FP1- 19:00pm – 20:00pm (BST)
    • FP2- 22:00pm – 23:00pm

    Saturday 18th-

    • FP3- 18:00pm – 19:00pm
    • Qualifying- 21:00pm – 22:00pm

    Sunday 19th-

    • Race – 19:00pm

  • Canada Tyre Allocation

    After a two year absence, Canada is back on the calendar and we have the tyre allocation ready for us.

    Pirelli have chosen the softest tyres in the race, which was the same last time here in 2019, it is also the same as the past two races (Monaco and Azerbaijan.) C3 (Hard), C4 (Medium) and C5 (Soft). In 2019, the winning strategy was a one stopper, starting on mediums and finishing on the hard.

    Montreal has some similar elements of Baku, thanks to its heavy traction and braking demands, on a rapidly-evolving surface but with lower speeds and cooler weather.

    Talking about the weather, it often has been a major feature of the Canadian Grand Prix: the 2011 race is still the longest in F1 history. Which saw six safety car periods and a lengthy interruption that neutralised the action for several hours. It’s never easy to predict the conditions and there’s also a reasonable chance of rain.

    Canada will pose a number of question marks for the teams: the weather is often variable, all previous data is three years old, and we have a completely different range of tyres with new compounds and structures, on a track that is hardly ever used – which will lead to a very high degree of evolution. Compared to their last visit to Montreal, the drivers should find compounds that are more stable with a wider working range, enabling them to push harder throughout each stint with a much lower risk of overheating. One interesting aspect to Montreal is that it has one of the lowest pit lane time loss penalties on the calendar, meaning that a car can be in and out of the pit lane in less than 20 seconds. This could open up a few options in terms of strategy.

    Mario Isla, Motorsport Director.
  • Round 9- Jakarta E-Prix

    Round 9- Jakarta E-Prix

    FP1-

    Mahindra’s Oliver Rowland fired to the top of the timesheets in the first Free Practice ahead of the inaugural Jakarta E-Prix, with a 1m 08.433s. But it wasn’t all glorious, as the drivers had to battle tricky, dusty conditions.

    The circuit has been designed with bumps, banking, camber and all the typical twists of a street circuit, with fast flowing sections where poise and balance are key.

    Rowland’s benchmark came late into the session, with Buemi firing in his lap right a the last minute. Lucas di Grassi had sat atop the timing screens for the latter part of FP1 before those final runs came through but wound up third, although just a tenth of a second back.

    The full top 10 were- P1: Rowland, P2: Buemi, P3: Di Grassi, P4: Dennis, P5: Vergne, P6: Evans, P7: Da Costa, P8: De Vries, P9: Wherelein and P10: Frijns.

    FP2-

    DS Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne left it late to top the timesheet and when he did he was a huge four tenths of a second clear of his teammate, Antonio Felix da Costa. The Frenchman’s 1m 07.549s lap was almost a second quicker than Oliver Rowland’s in FP1.

    Da Costa set his lap late to pip Jake Dennis to second, with the Brit looking handy and haing been at the sharp end of the times in both practice sessions, as has Mitch Evans who made the top six again.

    The top 10 were- P1: Vergne, P2: Da Costa, P3: Dennis, P4: Evans, P5: Mortara, P6: Ticktum, P7: Turvey, P8: Wehrlein, P9: Giovinazzi and P10: Vandoorne.

    Qualifying-

    Jean Eric Vergne beat his teammate, Antonio Felix da Costa in the Final Duel in qualifying for the first Jakarta E-Prix with a 1m 08.523s, by eight tenths of a second.

    The DS Techteetah duo made it an all black an gold finale in the session – the first time two teammates had squared off against one another in the Final Duel and Vergne’s collected lap was more than enough for his 15th Julius Baer Pole Position – a new record.

    Da Costa’s lap was lost after he dropped a couple of tenths through Turn 3, despite managing to drag the car to the apex of Turn 4. His DS Techteetah looked more of a handful than his teammates.

    The top 10 were- P1: Vergne, P2: Da Costa, P3: Evans, P4: Mortara, P5: Dennis, P6: Wehrelin, P7: Buemi, P8: Vandoorne, P9: Lotterer and P10: De Vries.

    Round 9-

    Mitch Evans fended off the close attentions of Jean-Eric Vergne and Edoardo Mortara to take his third win of the season at the inaugural Jakarta E-Prix.

    The Jaguar driver made a late-race lunge that caught then leader Vergne off-guard at Turn 7 on Lap 31. From there, energy management became increasingly critical for the lead duo as they fought between themselves and against searing track temperatures.

    That allowed Mortara to join the party and look to pick up the pieces as Evans and Vergne squabbled. Evans had five minutes plus added time to hold the pair off, with the race anybody’s heading into the final turn and his rear tyres fading fast. The Kiwi held on though, to head Vergne home with Mortara right with both of them – all three drivers within a second of one another.

    The top 10 are- P1: Evans, P2: Vergne, P3: Mortara, P4: Da Costa, P5: Vandoorne, P6: Dennis, P7: Di Grassi, P8: Wehrelin, P9: Bird and P10: Buemi.

    We are back in just under a month for Round 10, where we will be going to Marrakesh on the 2nd of July!

  • A look into Jakarta

    Round 9 is here and we are in Jakarta, Indonesia, home to 273 million people and its the first taste of the leading electric racing series and a return to motorsport’s world stage.

    It’s uncharted territory for all the drivers and teams, just 16 points split the top three drivers as we are just over the halfway mark of the season – with only one victory up for grabs this weekend who could possibly take it?

    Eight rounds, and five different winners could we possibly see that number going to 6? Or will a previous driver take that win. Nyck de Vries won Round 8, and Edoardo Mortara Round 7, that Mercedes engine looks very powerful, will we see them take to the podium?

    The Circuit-

    With the Jakarta International E-Prix Circuit making its debut, the drivers will be facing a challenging 18 turn circuit with the back drop of Jakarta Bay.

    The circuit is a purpose built track pulling together all the best elements of street racing to the Ancol Beach City resort. The 2.37km circuit kicks off with a long run into the tight opening sector into a following series of turns and banked corners which then lead up to a tight complex to round out the lap with a long run down the fast start/finish straight.

    Jakarta

    Formula E has been a regular in Asia since the championship’s first campaign, with 16 races at five locations so far in the region. The circuit’s development is aimed at leaving a lasting legacy in the city.

    Timings-

    Saturday 4th June-

    • Free Practice 1- 01:15am – 01:45am (BST)
    • Free Practice 2- 03:00am – 03:30am
    • Qualifying- 04:40am – 05:55am
    • Round 9- 09:04am

  • Le Castellet added to F2 Calendar

    Formula 2 has announced that they will be racing at the French Grand Prix alongside F1, following the cancellation of the Sochi round.

    Yesterday, Formula 1 confirmed that they will not be replacing the cancelled Russian Grand Prix on its schedule, F2 had also been set to race at Sochi until the September event was cancelled in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However Formula 2 had indicated it intended to replace its lost round.

    The French Grand Prix had been the only European round where no Formula 2 or Formula 3 races were billed, but F2 will now join W Series as the support categories.

    With the new round added, it means F2 will have four double header rounds in the space of five weeks. Starting off with Silverstone from 1st to 3rd July, the Spielberg round from 8th to 10th, Le Castellet then two weeks later on the 22nd to 24th and the Budapest from the 29th to 31st.

    The last time F2 was at Circuit Paul Ricard was in 2019. The feature race was won by that years eventual champion and now Formula E Champion and driver, Nyck de Vries. The sprint victory was taken by French driver, Anthoine Hubert, his final win before the Spa crash.

    Since it was announced that we would drop one event, we have been working on finding a venue to replace it, keeping in mind the costs. Le Castellet came out as the best option, and we are really pleased to return to the Circuit Paul Ricard. With this added round, we go back to fourteen events as announced before the start of the season. This means that the 2022 season calendar is the most sizeable one we have had since the start of the FIA F2 back in 2017. It will be a very busy month of July for the teams and the drivers, but a very exciting one for the fans and everyone involved in F2.

    Bruno Michel, FIA Formula 2 CEO on the latest round.

  • Round 9- Austria Race

    WHAT A RACE!!! Wow just wow, so many overtakes and battles on track with lots of penalties too…

    P1 goes to Verstappen again! Then we had Valtteri Bottas joining him on the second step with Mr Lando Norris adding another podium to his collection in P3!! The rest of the top 10 are: P4- Hamilton, P5- Sainz, P6- Perez, P7- Ricciardo, P8- Leclerc, P9- Gasly and P10- Alonso. With also the fastest lap point going to Verstappen aswell

    Honestly wow! Norris is on fire this year! After having an unfair penalty at the beginning of the race his managed to get on the podium! He also grabbed driver of the day!

    Absolutely gutting for the other two Brits on the grid, Hamilton picked up damage and couldn’t excel as well as we know he could! And for Russell he missed out on the points today towards the end, but he drove an absolute wonderful drive after loosing places at the beginning then running in the points and battling Alonso toward the end, his time will come!

    Ricciardo drove beautiful today his definitely got the pace there so now he just needs to work on the qualifying and hopefully soon he will be fighting for podiums!

    We had 19 finishers today, with Esteban Ocon out due to having contact with Giovanzzi on lap 1!

    There was some lovely battles on track and good over taking too, however there were a couple of penalties given out which some I think some were unfair like Norris’ but Perez got two five second penalties for pushing Charles Leclerc twice…

    Tsunoda also got two five second penalties for going over the Pit Lane entrance line on two separate occasions…

    Now, we have a two week break until Silverstone and I’m happy to say I will be there at Silverstone this year, so I’m looking forward to giving you all pictures and updates as i’m there on my blog and blogs social media too!

  • Round 9- Austria Quali

    And what a qualifying that was! No Mercedes on the the front row and no Red Bull 1-2 either!

    Max Verstappen adds another pole to his collection with Lando Norris joining him on the front row for the first time ever. The rest of the top 10 are: P3- Perez, P4- Hamilton, P5- Bottas, P6- Gasly, P7- Tsunoda, P8- Vettel, P9- Russell and P10 to Stroll

    I am very impressed with George! Finally made an appearance in Q3 and what a man! Big well done to Williams and George for getting the car into a very good position.

    I can imagine that Norris is very happy with P2! I did not expect that this weekend and it’s very nice to see him getting the praise he should, every weekend he delivers for the team and it’s being recognised, unfortunately his team mate starts P13

    Both Alpha Tauri drivers in the top 10 and starting P6 and P7 which is very good for the team! I did think they would of got higher but tomorrow is where it counts

    Both Ferrari drivers missed out on the top 10 with Sainz starting P11 and Leclerc P12, they are both very good in the race here in Austria so it will be interesting to see what strategies they have

    Very shocked for Alonso, he didn’t manage top 10 due to an issue with Sebastian Vettel on his flying lap but his starting P14, Alonso will be another to watch tomorrow!

    My Predictions-

    My top 5 predictions are: P1- Hamilton, P2- Norris, P3- Bottas, P4- Perez and P5- Gasly. I think fastest lap might go to Bottas!

    I would love to see George in the points tomorrow, we saw how well he done last week until he had to retire, so I’m hoping he does well tomorrow!

    Ricciardo as-well I would like to see in the points, it’s so important for the constructors but the Ferrari are very strong in the race…

    Times for tomorrow are: 14.00 (BST) and 15.00pm (CEST)

  • Austrian GP

    So we are back at the Red Bull Ring and unfortunately it’s our last race out of our first triple header! For some reason I feel like there has been a massive break in between the second and third race but the weekend is finally here!

    Will Red Bull be victorious again and at their home grand prix? Or will Mercedes pull something out of the bag and surprise us? Can McLaren score a podium? This weekend could be very different to last weekends so it may play into some drivers and teams favours.

    Who needs a good weekend?

    Daniel Ricciardo needs a good weekend, I feel having two races back to back at the same track will benefit him a lot, I’m hoping him and the team have sorted out what went wrong last week and hoping for a good weekend but most importantly a good race!

    Esteban Ocon, last weekend he finished 14th where as his teammate finished in P9. I’m not to sure whats gone on with him recently, maybe his had a confidence knock since his home Grand Prix? I’m just guessing here but it’s a shame his not finishing in the points, but hopefully the team and him have fixed it.

    Track Limits-

    The track limits haven’t changed since last week they are the following:

    The track limits here always catch a lot of drivers out, meaning times will get deleted. Turn 9 will be monitored, any driver that sets a lap time by running out past the red and white kerb will have their lap time deleted. The same rule will apply to turn 10 with the same punishment.

    There has been a small change to the circuit at Turn 6 exit, the kerb has been reduced in width by half, meaning that the gravel is closer to the circuit.

    Predictions for Qualifying-

    Pole I think will go to Hamilton, P2: Bottas, P3: Verstappen, P4: Perez and P5: Vettel

    I’m hoping again that Russell will get into Q3, as he was so close last week and we all know his got the pace there to manage it! I’d like to see either of the Alfa Romeo driver’s near the top 10 so either P11 or P12 or even get into a Q3 session!

    I think Tsunoda will be near the middle of the top 10 so around P6, we saw last week he had pace and he did qualify in top 10 but unfortunately he had his three gird place penalty, so lets hope he can improve on that!

    Times for Saturday sessions are: FP3: 11.00am (BST), 12.00pm (CEST), Qualifying: 14.00pm (BST), 15.00pm (CEST)

  • Tyres for Austria

    This week we have got a different set of tyres for the Red Bull Ring, Pirelli done similar to this at last years double header at Silverstone.

    Pirelli have designated the softest compound and they are C3 (Hard), C4 ( Medium) and C5 (Soft).

    The circuit isn’t very demanding on tyre wear, which then makes it possible for the softest tyres in the range to be used. The softest compound being used this weekend could push the teams for a two-stop strategy on Sunday, unlike last week where it was just a one-stop.

    Pirelli are also testing a new rear construction of tyre in free practice, Pirelli say the decision has been taken “in addition to the recently issued Technical Directive and the latest starting parameters” they prescribed, following the tyre blowouts for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in Baku.

    It is to be believed that this latest move by Pirelli is to build an extra margin on tyres used by the whole of the F1 grid.

    Each driver will have two sets of the new tyres available for use in either of the practice sessions on Friday, if the test is successful then the new rear specification will be introduced from the next race, Silverstone onwards.