2019 Chinese Grand Prix Free Practice & Qualifying Thread

[Mercedes-Benz]

Top5 teams drivers are in order. Mercedes, Ferrari, RBR, Renault and Haas. It was unfortunate that RBR missed their second run and Haas drivers ran out of time to even set a lap at Q3. I feel sorry for Gasly poor guy is really really struggling with the car but should finish P6 at least as RBR seems to be back to normal pace. Though he had to use soft in Q2 so will come pit quite early than top5 cars. Compared to some midfield runner who din't make it into Q3.

[kleefton]

Interesting that Hamilton was 0.250 quicker than Bottas but not sure when he did those. May have been inQ2. Mercedes basically gained nothing between Q2 and Q3 suggesting the medium was quicker

0.250s is probably about the margin Hamilton has over Bottas anyway. I think those sector times show that Hamilton failed to put together a good lap whereas Bottas succeeded.

Well he was a fair bit closer in the end the last 2 qualifying sessons. And the last 2 of last year for that matter. Given Hamilton wasn't great here last year, I'm not sure 0.250 difference is actually what it would be. The times have come from the other sessions too which don't really represent Q3 do they? I remember several qualifying sessions last year or before that not everyone was quicker than their Q2 time in Q3. Bottas has consistently looked comfortable this weekend. Hamilton has had slightly more speed, but not always at the right times and not that often either. If you meant that as an average gap over most race weekend qualifying, then I think I agree that is about right.

Bottas left time on the table. He is easily faster than Lewis this weekend. You can tell by his post quali comments that he was not entirely happy with his lap. Lewis the last couple of years has struggled to come to grips with the car in the early stages of the season, for whatever reason. He admitted that he was experimenting out there. So imo we have yet to see the best from Lewis this year. I expect Bottas to have more pace in the race as well. We shall see...

[mpls2]

"We were just staying neatly behind each other, but at a certain point Vettel passed me and the two Renaults as well,” he said.

“So they f****d up my entire build up, while there is an unwritten rule that you just follow each other.

“But whatever. From now on in qualifying I'm going to f**k them up as well.

Classic Max.

They all left it too late. If those drivers had sat behind Max then they wouldn't have crossed the line in time to get their fast lap in. If the positions had been reversed, he'd have done the same thing.

A typically childish response from him though.

Hahahaha frickin verstappen is such a tool

A bit harsh !

[Mort Canard]

I have a certain sense of foreboding that tomorrow will result in more Mad Max mayhem!!!

[F1 Racer]

Top5 teams drivers are in order. Mercedes, Ferrari, RBR, Renault and Haas. It was unfortunate that RBR missed their second run and Haas drivers ran out of time to even set a lap at Q3. I feel sorry for Gasly poor guy is really really struggling with the car but should finish P6 at least as RBR seems to be back to normal pace. Though he had to use soft in Q2 so will come pit quite early than top5 cars. Compared to some midfield runner who din't make it into Q3.

I don't feel sorry for Gasly at all. He's 0.8 seconds down on Max and is obviously way out of his depth. For me it's a matter of when and not if Red Bull dump him at some point during the season. This has the feel of a 1994 Schumacher vs (Jos) Verstappen/Lehto situation where he killed them for pace, (for example in Monaco, Schumacher outqualified Lehto by 4.1 seconds in the same equipment which is a HUGE gap, even if we account for Michael's car possibly being a little bit illegal).