F1 Quals: Azerbaijan 2017

Just for the record?  "Azerbaijan" does not in fact flow smoothly from the fingertips when typing.  But you're not here to hear me whine about typing "Azerbaijan", you're here to find out who went the fastest around the track in preparation for the 2017 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan, and by how much Lewis Hamilton is on pole by.  Here's the provisional grid:

Pos	Driver	Car	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:41.983	1:41.275	1:40.593
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:43.026	1:41.502	1:41.027
3	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:42.678	1:42.090	1:41.693
4	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:42.952	1:41.911	1:41.841
5	Embryo Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	1:42.544	1:41.961	1:41.879
6	Sergio Perez	Force India Mercedes	1:43.162	1:42.467	1:42.111
7	False Esteban	Force India Mercedes	1:43.051	1:42.751	1:42.186
8	Pleasant Stroll	Williams Mercedes	1:43.613	1:42.284	1:42.753
9	Felipe Not Retired Massa	Williams Mercedes	1:43.165	1:42.735	1:42.798
10	Smiley Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:42.857	1:42.215	1:43.414
11	Kid Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:42.927	1:43.186
12	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:43.489	1:43.347
13	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:44.029	1:43.796
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:43.930	1:44.267
15	Pascal's Wager	Sauber Ferrari	1:44.317	1:44.603
16	Indy Alonso	McLaren Honda	1:44.334
17	Lettuce Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:44.468
18	Sony Ericsson	Sauber Ferrari	1:44.795
19	Stoffelwaffle	McLaren Honda	1:45.030

It was actually a little tense in Q3, at least for a little while.  It was looking like Bottas had managed the trick against his teammate, particularly when one considered that the session had been stopped for 10 minutes or so after Smiley Ricciardo stuffed his car into the walls at Turn 6.  The session was red flagged, which meant all the tire heat went away... and it's notoriously difficult for the Mercedes chassis to get them warm in the first place.  Didn't matter.  Hamilton pulled out a lap around Baku that will probably go down as one of the most impressive pole runs ever.  He ended up with nearly a half-second advantage to his teammate in second, and over a full second to Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari in third place.  Insane.  This pole also moves Hamilton to second place all-time in career poles with 66... one ahead of Ayrton Senna, and only two behind Slappy Schumacher.

In other exciting news, the two McLaren boys have engine and gearbox change penalties totaling 70 spots between them.  No, that's not a typo: seventy.  Seven-Zero.   Too many power units used, unscheduled engine change, yadda yadda.  In effect, this means nothing but it points out the current stupidity involved in the penalty system.

Also, you may have noticed there were only 19 cars listed.  Missing was Jolyon Palmer and his Renault, which suffered an engine fire (and subsequent marshal bukkaking the entire thing with extinguisher foam... seriously, it was just silly) in P3 and could not be repaired in time for Quals.  He races at the Stewards' whim tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, we'll see you after the race tomorrow!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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