F1 Quals: Austria 2017

Well folks, they can't all be gems... my Austria/Australia post proved that one definitively.  And so too went today's Qualifying session for the 2017 Grand Prix of Australia Austria.  Here's the provisional grid:

Pos	Driver	Car	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:05.760	1:04.316	1:04.251
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:05.585	1:04.772	1:04.293
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:05.064	1:04.800	1:04.424
4	mrmbrmrlb Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:05.148	1:05.004	1:04.779
5	Smiley Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer	1:05.854	1:05.161	1:04.896
6	Embryo Verstappen	Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer	1:05.779	1:04.948	1:04.983
7	Lettuce Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:05.902	1:05.319	1:05.480
8	Sergio Perez	Force India Mercedes	1:05.975	1:05.435	1:05.605
9	False Esteban	Force India Mercedes	1:06.033	1:05.550	1:05.674
10	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:05.675	1:05.544	1:05.726
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:06.174	1:05.597
12	Indy Alonso	McLaren Honda	1:06.158	1:05.602
13	Stoffelwaffle	McLaren Honda	1:06.316	1:05.741
14	Kid Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:05.990	1:05.884
15	K- Mag	Haas Ferrari	1:06.143	No Time
16	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:06.345
17	Felipe Not Retired Massa	Williams Mercedes	1:06.534
18	Pleasant Stroll	Williams Mercedes	1:06.608
19	Sony Ericsson	Sauber Ferrari	1:06.857
20	Thereline Wehrlein	Sauber Ferrari	1:07.011

So yeah, not much exciting today.  We didn't even get the usual shootout for pole, the drivers making one last desperate dash in an attempt to best the leader's time.  Lettuce Grosjean's Haas turned into an immobile piece of carbon fiber sculpture on the racing surface towards the end of the session.  That brought out the yellow flags, meaning that drivers couldn't improve their times (by rule).  And thus we did see Valterri Bottas take pole by a scant .042 seconds over Sebby Vettel.  Lewis Hamilton qualified third, but he's going to starting from the eighth spot after an unscheduled gearbox change.  Whoopsie!  However, he's taken advantage of that by doing his runs in Q2 on the harder "super-soft" tires while everyone else of consequence used the "ultra-softs".  In theory, this'll lead to him doing a long first stint and running the faster tires at the end... strategery!

Except all of that skullsweat might go right out the window.  There's a good chance of rain for tomorrow's race, and it's almost guaranteed to be raining before the race session.  Damp track?  Rain race?  I'm up for that!  Cross your wingtips, lads and lasses, and keep 'em crossed.

Race on Sunday morning, we'll be along with the F1U! sometime after that.  See ya then!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:51 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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