F1 Quals: Germany 2016

Probably as good weather as one could hope for, partly cloudy and just warm enough.  No rain this time!  So who took advantage of the lovely conditions?  Here's the provisional grid for the 2016 Grand Prix of Germany:

Pos	Driver	Car	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:15.485	1:14.839	1:14.363
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:15.243	1:14.748	1:14.470
3	Smiley Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer	1:15.591	1:15.545	1:14.726
4	Embryo Verstappen	Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer	1:15.875	1:15.124	1:14.834
5	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:15.752	1:15.242	1:15.142
6	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:15.927	1:15.630	1:15.315
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India Mercedes	1:16.301	1:15.623	1:15.510
8	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Mercedes	1:15.952	1:15.490	1:15.530
9	Sergio Perez	Force India Mercedes	1:16.169	1:15.500	1:15.537
10	FelipeNot Nasr Massa	Williams Mercedes	1:16.503	1:15.699	1:15.615
11	Esteban!	Haas Ferrari	1:15.987	1:15.883
12	Jenson Button	McLaren Honda	1:16.172	1:15.909
13	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso Ferrari	1:16.317	1:15.989
14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Honda	1:16.338	1:16.041
15	Lettuce Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:16.328	1:16.086
16	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:16.636	1:16.665
17	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:16.716
18	Pascal's Wehrlein	MRT Mercedes	1:16.717
19	Kid Kvyat	Toro Rosso Ferrari	1:16.876
20	Rio Olympics	MRT Mercedes	1:16.977
21	FelipeNot Massa Nasr	Sauber Ferrari	1:17.123
22	Sony Ericsson	Sauber Ferrari	1:17.238

Two by two, two by two.  If Williams and Force India had gotten into step... well.  Polesitter Nico Rosberg had an exciting Q3, suffering an electronics problem right at the start... and Merc only got him out with enough time to do two qualy laps back-to-back, which is NOT standard operating procedure in Q3.  Usually it's go out on low fuel, set a time, come back in for new tires and just enough fuel, then go out for another try.  Instead, Rosberg went out with enough gas for two hotlaps... and set the pole time on the first shot with the extra weight onboard.  Hamilton had a good shot at beating his teammate, but threw it away by locking a tire into the hairpin that is Turn 6.

I don't have high hopes for the Red Bulls mounting a challenge to the Mercedes boys on Sunday... they're too down on horsepower to keep up with the Silver Arrows through the first half of the circuit, and their advantage (if any) in the twistybits isn't big enough to make up the deficit.  And Ferrari... I dunno what to think of them anymore.  They showed signs of being serious competition earlier in the year, but now?  They're just there, y'know? 

In other, less important, news, it's quite possible this'll be the last time Rio Olympics is on the grid... the rumors are that his Indonesia sponsorship has gone dry.  To be fair, there probably are better people to have in that seat for Manor... ah well.  So it goes.

Race in the morning.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:26 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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