We forgot FP1. Whoops.
FP1 1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:11.895 32 2. Max Verstappen Red Bull + 0.096 29 3. Nico Rosberg Mercedes + 0.230 26 4. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull + 0.476 27 5. Valtteri Bottas Williams + 1.234 36 6. Sergio Perez Force India + 1.394 31 7. Nico Hülkenberg Force India + 1.398 33 8. Felipe Massa Williams + 1.423 33 9. Sebastian Vettel Ferrari + 1.672 24 10. Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari + 1.674 26 11. Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso + 1.816 22 12. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso + 2.195 15 13. Jenson Button McLaren + 2.357 27 14. Fernando Alonso McLaren + 2.401 26 15. Romain Grosjean Haas + 2.612 25 16. Felipe Nasr Sauber + 2.736 21 17. Marcus Ericsson Sauber + 2.759 23 18. Esteban Ocon Manor + 2.932 30 19. Jolyon Palmer Renault + 3.013 32 20. Pascal Wehrlein Manor + 3.053 32 21. Charles Leclerc Haas + 3.496 27 22. Sergey Sirotkin Renault + 3.905 10
Merc faster than expected (nothing between the 2) Williams much faster than we've seen all season and right there with Ferrari and RBR. I expect Red Bull to be quick tomorrow in cooler temps.
Great words from Bob Fernly (Force India) said that Vettel/Ricciardo was just great racing and FIA shouldn't have meddled.
times FP2 1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:12.271 41 2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes + 0.030 40 3. Valtteri Bottas Williams + 0.490 47 4. Felipe Massa Williams + 0.518 43 5. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull + 0.557 43 6. Max Verstappen Red Bull + 0.657 45 7. Sebastian Vettel Ferrari + 0.731 45 8. Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari + 0.776 24 9. Nico Hülkenberg Force India + 1.028 42 10. Jenson Button McLaren + 1.169 19 11. Fernando Alonso McLaren + 1.301 18 12. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso + 1.418 46 13. Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso + 1.530 47 14. Sergio Perez Force India + 1.647 38 15. Romain Grosjean Haas + 1.803 35 16. Kevin Magnussen Renault + 1.838 47 17. Felipe Nasr Sauber + 2.038 40 18. Esteban Ocon Manor + 2.046 46 19. Jolyon Palmer Renault + 2.165 43 20. Esteban Gutierrez Haas + 2.287 42 21. Marcus Ericsson Sauber + 2.424 21 22. Pascal Wehrlein Manor + 2.687 22
This shows how small the part of the driver is...apart from Hulkenberg the drivers in the top ten differ only in about a tenth of a second in each the team... 2x Merc, 2x Williams, 2x Red Bull, 2x Ferrari and 2x McLaren....
My thought, too, when looking at the time sheet. It is a pattern we have gotten used to over the years.
Goes to show how boring F1 has become when after 24 hours, I am only the 17th replying poster in the practice thread. Big case of 'who really gives a damn, so long as Nico gets his championship' for me at least. Hope Elton presses the wrong button again, like in his first Brazil, and goes into pitlimiter mode for a while in the race - be funny as heck
+1 Was watching some bits of the revived Formula Thunder 5000 series for next year. It looks bloody awesome. The cars look great, sound great. Shame it's all down under for now. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffp0Qg-zurw[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foJEyYG2lHI[/ame] But seeing this, actually got me to think. Can you imagine a series with more or less the same idea as this, but primarily european based? I'd make a few tweaks though: BIG horsepower coming from quad rotor turbo (complete engine cost less than 50K with ancillaries) Manual 5 speed gearbox. Thick cogs so cost is kept down by not ripping them apart every session. More or less same basic aero Free coverage with youtube (they where already interested in an F1 team so could easily be open for this). Paid Youtube Red for full access, any camera(s). Couple of decent commentators (surely a few around). Races would also be watchable at whatever time you want so no real issues with time difference for the Americans or Aussies. Keep costs in check with F3 to Formula Renault 3.5 (between 600-800K per season). With more viewers from Youtube (most popular platform + free) it's save to say that Sponsors would be more interested in getting their driver in a series like this than F3 or FR3.5 surely. Avon makes tires in the width necessary. Dallara can supply chassis and bodywork in bulk is easily sorted. Gearboxes are no problem with several manufacturers making such boxes. It would be a series based on pure skill, no nonsense. Stupidly fast, no cheating or dumb sounding engines...and again, with the Youtube people watching it'll be pretty popular so when it comes to a track near them people will be keen to check it out. RE tracks, I know F1 has rules with current F1 tracks that they can't host a series F1 says no to (so any rival basically). Luckily for us there are MANY great tracks that aren't used by F1 at this moment . Mugello Zandvoort Brands Hatch Jerez Misano Nurburgring Hockenheim (either of these 2 german tracks are constantly on the verge of dropping out) Imola Magny Cours Paul Ricard Those are just from the top of my head, and only European based. Tracks such as Laguna Seca and Watkins Glen could be done for an American ''tour'', Sepang could be dropping out from F1 making that available (connect that with Dubai). Smaller series such as the 24h series (almost all privateers if not all of them) can afford travelling to such places so larger budgeted series as this should to. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
And for anyone wondering what a 1200hp turbo rotary sounds like: http://youtu.be/rVCjTNVNKbk?t=73 [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcgQ0Ymi6Q8[/ame] https://youtu.be/5NZmUkA5rGQ?t=104 Rotaries always flame like crazy (free bonus points ). They sound ridiculously awesome (even with turbo they sound incredibly close to the Mazda 787B Le Mans car). You can over-rev Rotaries without the penalties of a piston engine. So even with a limiter installed, a miss-shift will not require a new engine necessarily.