FORMULA 1 2018 JOHNNIE WALKER BELGIAN GRAND PRIX

Yes please. 

So... start of FP1. Most drivers had set a laptime except for Hamilton (had a steering wheel issue), Ricciardio (engine issue), Vandoorne (brake issue) and Sirotkin.

Hamilton eventually came out and on his first timed lap he matched Raikkonen even with being held up massively by a Haas car, Bottas then on his 3-4th lap went half a second quicker than both of them. Hamilton had a cool down lap and then went a further 3 tenths faster than Bottas.

Seems Mercedes are able to set competitive lap times instantly, which usually is a good sign for them as they've got the setup correct immediately.

Rumour Alert: Stroll to replace Ocon at Force India in Singapore & Kubica to replace Stroll at Williams! :O

Ferrari's power gains could be down to the shell fuel that is produced for them they're supposedly adding a very rare and hard to produce molecular additive to their fuel and that's why it's only being supplied to Ferrari and not the custom teams.

Oh glorious days! It's an F1 weekend again!

To Discuss:

Gasly to replace Ricciardo to replace Sainz Jr to replace Alonso.
But who else will sit at Torro Rosso and McLaren?

Great to see Sahara Racing Point Force India make the grid.
Loved the interview with Lance "So when will you move to Force India?" "Ask my Dad".
Everyone seems to think that by doing what he did to "save" the company, Perez is certain to stay... but that 2nd Haas seat has to be one of the most wanted left on the grid given the Ferrari power gains.

Can Lewis continue his run from before the summer break?
Raikkonen (4), Hamilton (3), Vettel (2), and Ricciardo (1) have all won here, with Kimi being the last back-to-back winner in 04/05/07 (no race in 06)

Milestones:
If Vettel is on the podium, he will overtake Prost and be outright 3rd on Most Podiums.
If Kimi is on the podium, it will be his 100th podium in F1
If Lewis leads every lap, he will join Vettel in 2nd place on Most Races led (every lap)
If Kimi leaps at least 1 lap, it will be his 80th grand prix with at least 1 lap led.
If Alonso is classified as a finisher, it will be his 250th classified finish.
If Grosjean is classified as a finisher, it will be his 100th classified finish.
If Lewis gets Pole, he will have the most number of poles at the Belgium Grand Prix (5)

When the rain started I felt it's like a "Ok everyone pack up and go home Lewis has it" moment....it's just too clear this year already what an insane driver Lewis is in the wet.

If we switch roles and Secrashtian Plaintell was achieving all this we'd be hearing screams of
OH MY GOD RAINMASTER!
RAINMAESTRO!
KING OF RAIN!
REGENMEISTER!

But since it's Lewis, it's basically

Man Lewis is pretty damn good in the rain, another great lap!

So tomorrow we have a Mercedes Spa-special recipe 'sandwich' on the grid.

Scary to think if Lewis took the 'safe' route all those years back and not made that call to Twitmarsh to say byebye and remained 'loyal' since loyalty always pays........, he'd still be a single time WDC qualifying 3rd last in Spa today while Rosberg would have more titles, and Vettel would be cruising to a 6x WDC this season.

Scary.

I heard Vettel in an interview afterwards talking about pole and potential pole etc. And he said something like ....mmm Lewis had the better track position. 😱
Well he didn’t. Vettel went last and the track was getting faster. Hence the Force India’s getting up. Vettel had the best track position but he can’t hack the rain.
This was on Channel4 UK tv.

So... after more analysis by lots of people we know how Hamilton got pole with a bit more certainty.

1. Hamilton was doing hot lap, recharge lap, hot lap, recharge lap where as Vettel was trying hot lap after hotlap which hurts Ferrari more than any other car. We've seen many times throughout this year that Ferrari can somehow get way more energy deployment on the first lap on the start of a race, start of a qualli run and safety car restarts.

2. Hamilton was the only driver in the dry to take Pouhon (double left hander) flat out (just like last year where he was the only driver to take it flat out) and this confidence and what appears to be more downforce on the Mercedes is what got them pole because they were able to dominate sector 2, even in the dry Hamilton was 3 tenths faster than Ferrari in sector 2.

If Hamilton has got that much more downforce we could see him struggle in the race especially on first long straight however if it turns wet then Hamilton should be easy favourite for the win. (There is only a 10% chance of rain, so looks like it'll be dry)

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Race Notes:

- Most teams seem to be nearly matching Ferrari in S1 and S3 but they are all losing 1 second to Ferrari in sector 2 and 1.5 seconds to Mercedes in sector 2. This should allow Bottas to get right onto the back of cars through this sector and use slipstream / DRS to pass them along the back straight. He should be able to easily pass everyone up until he reaches the Haas car of Magnussen in 9th.
- The Honda engine appears to be matching the Renault engine comfortably on performance which is more evidence that next year Red Bull should be even more comfortable at staying ahead of Renault and maybe even challenging at more races for wins.
- Sainz will be starting from the back of the grid after he changed PU today.