Bottas on top with Red Bull not too far behind
Valteri Bottas set the benchmark during the final practice session, clocking a fastest time of 1:42:742, with Kimi Raikkonen just under a tenth behind in second place. Lewis Hamilton put the slow running from Friday behind him by finishing in third place with a 1:43:158. A more encouraging run but the Brit still has a gap to close to catch up with his team-mate.
Red Bulls encouraging pace continued, with Daniel Ricciardo gaining a time of 1:43:287 and his team-mate a further 4 tenths back with a 1:43:614. Again, Verstappen’s running wasn’t the smoothest after grinding to a halt heading onto the back straight. Coming off of turn 16, Max complained of a sudden loss of power, leading to the Red Bull pulling off to the side of the track.
A spot of bother for the Championship Leader?
Sebastian Vettel didn’t get the session he wanted after suffering from overheating problems. Setting a time almost 1.8 seconds off the pace, a pre-cautionary check revealed a problem with the car’s hydraulics, cutting the 4-time world champions session short. The Ferrari driver will be hoping his garage can rectify the problem before qualifying.
Elsewhere on the track…
Even more misery for Jolyon Palmer, although this time it wasn’t entirely his fault. A cooling problem within the R.S.17 resulted in internal components of the car catching fire and grinding the car to a halt. There is a real concern that the car won’t be ready in time for qualifying at 2pm BST, adding more misery to what is already becoming a season to forget for the Brit.
Elsewhere, not a lot of action to report after what seemed to be a rather hectic Friday. Drivers seemed to have come to grips with the slippery surface and accumulation of dust on the track, whilst predominantly focussing on fine tuning the car ready for qualifying.
It is also important to point out that after Sergio Perez’s crash yesterday, as well as other problems throughout GP2, the FIA have made some alterations to the changes at turn 8. The corner has proved a real challenge to some of the greatest drivers in the world; the FIA have decided to remove the inside kerb, making it smaller and painting the tarmac instead. Many of the senior figures were worried that an incident during race day would ultimately create a bottleneck, blocking the track completely and causing major problems. It probably was the right thing to do, but as Martin Brundle put it on Sky Sports F1, the drivers could’ve ‘just took the corner slower.’
My Prediction for qualifying
This could be the most unpredictable grand prix of 2017 so far. Having said that, I still believe Mercedes will do their normal thing of turning their engine up to squeeze a little bit more lap time out of the W08. Likewise, Ferrari should have the pace to be right up there, even with the problems that Vettel had throughout P3. Red Bulls encouraging pace upto now should translate into a good grid position, so I am pipping one of the two to qualify ahead of Kimi RaikkonenForce India may well be a dark horse for the race, but the top 3 teams should have enough outright qualifying pace to keep them at bay on Saturday.
Top 10 qualifying prediction:
1. Bottas
2. Vettel
3. Hamilton
4. Ricciardo
5. Raikkonen
6. Verstappen
7. Ocon
8. Perez
9. Massa
10. Stroll
JrT
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