F1 Quals: Spain 2016

A beeee-yootiful day greeted the Circus in Barcalounger, perfect weather to go fast in: sunny and warm.  Throw in the anticipated upgrades to the cars, and excitement was in the air... or are those the smells coming from the Stop 'n' Chicken booth?  Either way, we need to look at the provisional grid for the 2016 Grand Prix of Spain:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:23.214	1:22.159	1:22.000
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:23.002	1:22.759	1:22.280
3	Smiley Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:23.749	1:23.585	1:22.680
4	Embryo Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	1:23.578	1:23.178	1:23.087
5	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:23.796	1:23.504	1:23.113
6	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:24.124	1:23.688	1:23.334
7	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:24.251	1:24.023	1:23.522
8	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:24.496	1:24.077	1:23.643
9	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:24.698	1:24.003	1:23.782
10	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:24.578	1:24.192	1:23.981
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:24.463	1:24.203
12	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:24.583	1:24.348
13	Kid Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:24.696	1:24.445
14	Lettuce Grosjean	Haas	1:24.716	1:24.480
15	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:24.669	1:24.625
16	Esteban!	Haas	1:24.406	1:24.778
17	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:24.903
18	Felipe Not Nasr Massa	Williams	1:24.941
19	Sony Ericsson	Sauber	1:25.202
20	Felipe Not Massa Nasr	Sauber	1:25.579
21	Pascal's Wager	Manor	1:25.745
22	Rio Rainbow Gate	Manor	1:25.939

If Lewis Hamilton is going to make a run at points leader Nico Rosberg, this is where he needs to start, and Barcalounger's propensity of giving the win to the polesitter seems to bode well for the Brit.  The surprise isn't that he's on pole, though... it's that Ferrari isn't on the second row.  Instead, it's the new Red Bull combination of Smiley Ricciardo and Embryo Verstappen that poses the nearest "threat" to the Silver Arrows.

And yes, I said Verstappen is driving for Red Bull.  Earlier this week it was announced that Kid Kvyat was being moved to Toro Rosso, with The Embryo moving to the Grownup's Team.  Allegedly this was going to happen in 2017 anyway, but it seems much more likely to be due to Kvyat's ham-fisted mauling of Seb Vettel last race. 

In any case, I have my doubts as to whether Red Bull can mount a legit challenge to the Mercs, but I guess we'll see.  I suspect a Mercedes 1-2 is in the offing... oh wait.  That's almost every race, isn't it?

Haas seems poised for points again, with Lettuce is 14th.  Maybe the biggest shocker is Fernando Alonso dragging his McLaren kicking and screaming into Q3 for the first time since the team took on Honda engines.

Race is in the morning... see ya then!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:29 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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