Marko Hanželic
After again dual leadership on the qualifiers we really need to browse a bit to find where Mercedes could be at least a little bit vulnerable. It’s a little ironic that vulnerability is despite its glorious power Mercedes powertrains, closely related to it.
Da pole position in Spa is not necessarily an advantage, it is Hamilton experienced in 2018, when he was here for the last time at the head of the starting lineup. It was then that he drove through as a comfortable leader eau rouge, but later had no chance against Sebastian Vettl, which he easily overtook with the then still extremely strong Ferrari before To Les Combes.
Hamilton he almost fell for both at the time Racing Point. Scenario to be prevented two years later: “Approaching Turn 5 could be one of the most troubling moments of our race,” is afraid of the chief racing engineer Andrew Shovlin. “Because we are the slowest car among the top four. All in all, it will be quite a challenge. ”
“Verstappen, who is faster than us, is behind us. He has a few tenths on his side brought by the breeze. It takes quite a distance to turn 5. And in the back is Ricciardo, who is also faster than us and steals 8 km / h. This will be a very exciting part of the race. But if we survive it, the continuation of the race with two cars in the lead will be much less dramatic for us, ” he adds Shovlin.
Hamilton he won his pole position in a more twisted medium sector. There he was 0,576 seconds faster than Max Verstappen and 1,128 seconds faster than Daniel Ricciard, in addition to a teammate Valtteria Bottas, probably the main candidate to complicate Mercedes ’life to the brim Les Combes in the first round GP of Belgium.
On flatter sections of track, the picture looks different: v first sector (La Source, Eau Rouge) is Hamilton 0,082 seconds faster than Verstappen, but 0,085 seconds slower than Ricciardo. In the third sector (Blanchimont, bus station) he even loses a bit: 0,079 seconds against Verstappen and 0,207 seconds against Ricciard.
Careful first round? "Of course, a pole racer is a bit unprotected," the team leader is aware Toto wolff. “This plays an important role in our preparation for the race. The qualifying result shows that we had the fastest car, seen in the whole lap. Let's hope we can keep that in the race as well. ”
"Max," the real boss of the Mercedes team, “Has a setting with a relatively large thrust force. Maybe a little less than us. But really interesting is Ricciardo, who drives with a low thrust setting and has by far the fastest car on the plane. ” Wolff's statement not quite right - Esteban Ocon reached top speed in Q3 at 313,4 km / h. Ricciardo reached 312,6 km / h, Hamilton 307,7 km / h.
Ricciardo sees his opportunity, but is realistic: “Max and both Mercedes drive mostly in their league. But we have a strong first and third sectors. If I can overtake them, I may be able to defend myself. They’re much better in the second sector, but you can’t easily overtake there. I will definitely try to make their lives harder. ”
It definitely promises us a very interesting start to the Belgian GP. The start of the race is at 15.10.
