It's usually not the best race of the year but we just don't know what to expect in F1. And remember, the 3 years that F1 have been here for it's been dominated by those silver cars who've been very dominant. (and totally not made F1 boring at all that we all want to cry or have a moan and hate the sport) 
Anyway....we had a very exciting qualy today with the 2 red cars locking out the front row and the 2 silver cars struggling for pace.
Crazy innit. That's Ferrari's first front row lock out since France 2008. Think about everything that's happened since then.
- Massa cried
- Button and Brawn cam back from the dead
- South Korea and India have had Grand Prix
- Bernie had been involved with more controversial stuff than this forum
- We had a 4 hour race
- 7 winners from 7
- Hamilton has been through his menstrual cycle and out of the other end of it
- Schumacher made a return and sadly suffered a skiing accident (KEEP FIGHTING MICHAEL)
- Team order stuff (Fernando is faster than you, Multi 21 etc)
- Contact between teammates
- The unfortunate crash for Bianchi (Still in our hearts and always will be) R.I.P forever
- An Ozzie had drank out of a shoe
- Mercedes won a race
- Mercedes won a race
- Mercedes won a race
- Mercedes won a race
- Mercedes won a race
- Mercedes won a race
- Mercedes won a race
- Mercedes won a race
- Mercedes won a race
- Mercedes won a race
- Mercedes won a race
- Mercedes won a race
- Mercedes won a race
- Mercedes won a race
- Mercedes won a race
- Mercedes won a race
- And a load of other stuff
Away from F1 in the last 10 years and onto the present. It's a real turning point for the season and Ferrari have shown that they can beat Mercedes in qualy as well as the race. (I'll leave that for you guys to talk about in more depth)
Qualy result
1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:33.194
2. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, +0.059
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes. +0.095
4. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, +0.573
5. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, +1.711
6. Felipe Massa, Williams, +1.916
7. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, +1.967
8. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault,+2.091
9. Sergio Perez, Force India, +2.143
10. Esteban Ocon, Force India, +2.236
Qualifying Two
11.Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:35.948
12. Lance Stroll, Williams, 1:35.964
13. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1:35.968
14. Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 1:36.017
15. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:36.660
Qualifying Three
16. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1:36.462
17. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, 1:37.070
18. Pascal Wehrlein, Sauber, 1:37.332
19. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:37.507
20. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 1:37.620
Note - Sainz penalised three grid places for causing a collision at the previous round. Vandoorne penalised 15 places for use of additional power unit elements
Strategy?
Should be a 1 stop but an early SC or VSC could prompt a 2 stopper.
US-SS
US-US-SS
US-SS-US
I don't think the soft will be used but I'm no tyre guy.
El circuito (Oh no wait that's for 2 weeks time)
There will be no rain at all in the race and if it does rain then I won't come on this forum ever again (some of you will be desperately hoping that it rains now) 
The temps will be similar to qualy (mid 20s) so it's gonna be a lovely day for everyone at the circuit.
The big question has to be...will we see Putin?
Onto some serious stuff. Mercedes will have to do something very impressive to win tomorrow and if they do, then it will have to be at the start or through strategy. It's a long run to T2 and the first lap should get pretty crazy. Ferrari have the upper hand but we'll see what happens because it can all go wrong in a flash. At least for Vettel, Kvyat shouldn't be anywhere near him. Hopefully, it will be a good race like all of the races so far have been so far IMO and the battle will continue to rage on!
Lights out are at just past 3pm local time. That's some time in the morning, evening, night, afternoon for you guys in the world. 
Edited by f1paul, 29 April 2017 - 19:05.
