Mercedes lead the way again as wheel problem stops Vettel

44 comments on “Mercedes lead the way again as wheel problem stops Vettel”

1. 

   Illusive (@illusive)
   1st April 2016, 17:37

   Was there a gust of wind blowing behind the Mclaren cause that was a stonking lap from Button.
2. 

   Lumi
   1st April 2016, 17:38

   This is shaping up to be a sweet weekend for the mid-field.
   1. 

      rick2k9 (@rick2k9)
      1st April 2016, 17:45

      So this …. isn’t an April fools joke?
      1. 

         sm
         1st April 2016, 17:48

         no, f1 has delayed it’s april fools joke till april 2nd…
         1. 

            Andy Mail (@amail)
            1st April 2016, 18:04

            Bwahahaha!!
         2. 

            Ashwin
            1st April 2016, 20:31

            +1
   2. 

      Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
      1st April 2016, 18:38

      Yeah, expect the TV directors to concentrate on the leading duo tho…
3. 

   kpcart
   1st April 2016, 17:40

   Can Rosberg win a 5th race in a row? of the great drivers in the sport, none of them have had a teammate win so many races in a row as Hamilton has.
   1. 

      Philip (@philipgb)
      1st April 2016, 17:58

      Two ways of reading it I guess. Is Hamilton not a great because he’s not laying the hurt down on his team mate, or is he a great because he has such a stiffly competitive team mate yet still delivers.
      1. 

         PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
         1st April 2016, 18:04

         @philipgb I think many among us, including myself, should give Rosberg more credit. Over the years he has shown himself a better competitor than I had anticipated in 2013. I still don’t rank him on par with Hamilton or Vettel but surely as talented as Button or Raikkonen. @kingshark will love to see me saying this.
         1. 

            Boudi
            1st April 2016, 18:07

            +1
         2. 

            Philip (@philipgb)
            1st April 2016, 18:20

            @xtwl

            I think he has more raw pace than Button or Raikkonen but I’d rate their race craft higher, though possibly not Raikkonen on current form.
            1. 

               Tata
               1st April 2016, 18:25

               When it comes to race craft, Button is just too good. What Nico has is raw pace which is similar to Vettel and Hamilton.
         3. 

            Kingshark (@kingshark)
            1st April 2016, 18:23

            @kingshark will love to see me saying this.

            Thanks for the shoutout! :P

            He is not as good as Hamilton or Vettel, I don’t think that anyone will argue that tbh. His best season (2010) was every bit as good as Hamilton or Vettel on form, but his best tends occurs significantly less frequently.
            1. 

               Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
               1st April 2016, 21:59

               @kingshark I’d say Button’s best ever season was 2011. He rose above everyone apart from the vastly superior Vettel in the vastly superior RB7 – both drivers made everyone else look pretty average that year.
            2. 

               Kingshark (@kingshark)
               1st April 2016, 23:33

               @optimaximal

               both drivers made everyone else look pretty average that year.

               Given that Alonso finished only 13 points behind Button that year in a clearly weaker car, this is a bit of a stretch. But yes, 2011 was Button’s best season.
         4. 

            NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
            1st April 2016, 20:34

            Rosberg should fast be considered the best of non champions…
         5. 

            Sonics (@sonicslv)
            2nd April 2016, 1:27

            @xtwl I think Rosberg is like 2nd tier Vettel, a driver that can deliver constant time/result but show it weakness when must do the battle n track. Doesn’t mean he’s bad because Vettel, Hamilton and Alonso is on their own tier atm. Same tier as Button and Raikkonen (before his return to Ferrari days), but I think Rosberg is still a bit behind them both.
            1. 

               PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
               2nd April 2016, 8:29

               “a driver that can deliver constant time/result but show it weakness when must do the battle n track”

               @sonicslv Surely that last part is only about Rosberg? I mean just look at his start in Melbourne and his overtake on Hamilton in the same race, that hardly shows any lack of spatial awareness or balls to overtake…

               Saying Vettel can’t overtake like Hamilton can is just plain nonsense to me. On speed Rosberg is just a tad below Hamilton and Vettel but it is as you say his racecraft that has let him down on several occasions. Though his move on Perez was pretty impressive coming out of the pits.
            2. 

               Sonics (@sonicslv)
               2nd April 2016, 20:14

               @xtwl Vettel doesn’t really good at on track battles too. He do it better than Rosberg, but he never show the race craft that Hamilton, Alonso, or Button usually shows. His Monza pass against Alonso is great, but other than that, against a car that quite competitive he still looks bad or doing errors like in Australia.
            3. 

               PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
               2nd April 2016, 20:57

               @sonicslv I’m sorry but that is just plain nonsense. In Australia he knew he would only have one chance on the few last laps, he was pushing to get that done. It’s a whole lot easier to stay behind a Torro Rosso for 10 laps asking the team to come up with a different strategy of course… People who are ‘not that good’ as Alonso or Hamilton don’t make moves like Vettel has in the past…
            4. 

               Sonics (@sonicslv)
               3rd April 2016, 2:05

               @xtwl Well we talking about high level race craft here. Trying alone is not enough, you need to succeed at that too. Hamilton proven himself in his McLaren days, Button usually goes under people radar because his passes are so calculated that he only doing one attempt at it and succeed. Vettel in the other hand, makes his position worse. Is he pressed by the laps running out? Yes. Is it calculated gamble because he knew no one will take that 3rd position even if he botched it? Maybe. But all that doesn’t make he has good race craft. When you compare at the world champions at the grid today, Vettel is the worst of them when it comes to race craft (Raikkonen was mega before he re-joined Ferrari).
            5. 

               PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
               3rd April 2016, 9:27

               @sonicslv Now you’re just making me laugh. Just go to Youtube and look at some of his overtakes, they are twice as spectacular as any move I’ve ever seen Button do. His pass on Button in Abu Dhabi 2012 is just brilliant for example, how he positioned his car in both Hungary 2015 and Melbourne 2016 at the start shows superb spatial awareness and skill.

               Is he pressed by the laps running out? Yes. Is it calculated gamble because he knew no one will take that 3rd position even if he botched it? Maybe.

               And that is not unique to Vettel but every single driver does it. If they can risk a bit more in the last few laps because they know their current position is secure why not go for it?
   2. 

      Ilanin (@ilanin)
      1st April 2016, 17:59

      Prost did in fact have a team-mate who won four races in a row, but then it was Senna…
   3. 

      Tata
      1st April 2016, 18:15

      Rosberg has shown all through his career to be a very strong driver. He performed well while at Williams hence his migration to Merc. As someone once said here, Nico ‘drove circles around’ MS when both were paired together. I believe without Hamilton in the team, Nico would have walked the last 2 Mercedes championships.
      I think it speaks more about Hamilton’s skills to have beaten a driver as good as Nico is.
      1. 

         Selbbin (@selbbin)
         2nd April 2016, 3:54

         That’s what I’ve been seeing.
4. 

   kpcart
   1st April 2016, 17:45

   last year in q3 it was Hamilton ahead of Ferraris Vettel by .3 seconds with Rosberg behind. I hope it is that close this year in Q3 also. practice has shown 2 things, Rosberg is on form again, and that Raikonnen is too slow in the Ferrari. Ferraris challenge is all down to Vettel, Raikonnen looks unlikely to ever win again looking at his pace of the past 2 seasons plus.
   1. 

      PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
      1st April 2016, 18:02

      I also never thought he would win in the Lotus either and he did it twice with some help.
      1. 

         kpcart
         1st April 2016, 18:08

         yeh,,, it was because he is too slow, so that helped tyre preservation when driving the Lotus. if he was faster, he would not have got that good tyre degredation rate he had at lotus which helped him to 2 unlikely wins.
         1. 

            PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
            2nd April 2016, 8:30

            By that logic Manor would never have to stop…
   2. 

      Roland
      1st April 2016, 18:07

      Bit premature to suggest he’s lost his pace; he was on vettel’s tail in Australia before he retired, and is probably on a low power engine mode after the turbo failure in the previous race.
   3. 

      Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
      1st April 2016, 18:29

      Vettel was very scrappy in FP2, and Hamilton was slow. I wouldn’t bet all money on my money on either of these two winning, unless they are sandbagging.
      1. 

         Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
         1st April 2016, 18:30

         *all my money
         How the hell did I manage to type that?
5. 

   Boudi
   1st April 2016, 18:04

   So all the hype about Merc being wrong with their tyre choice should be off now as Ferrari used their extra 2 sets of Mediums allocated for each of their drivers. I can see a normal stop strategy will be SS,M,S for race leaders, SS,S,M for close followers.
6. 

   kpcart
   1st April 2016, 18:15

   Mercedes in FP2 1.5 seconds faster then their qualifying time last year, but McLaren 2.8 seconds faster then there time last year in qualigying, and also in fp2 McLaren are already .3 faster then pole last year! MASSIVE step for McLaren Honda, well done! Ferraris times today were NOT representative, only .4 seconds faster then this time last year (but more time to come obviously- maybe 1 to 1.5 seconds more). Q3 this year should be good, quite close at the front, and with McLaren making a welcome return back with Honda for the first time in q3.
7. 

   STR 11
   1st April 2016, 19:18

   It’s seems that Verstappen is also not in the mood to take any hostages, he killed today his teammate. The only right way to respons after Australië.
   1. 

      ES
      1st April 2016, 19:44

      Agreed….Max apologie to the team, but his mind is in rage mode
   2. 

      NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
      1st April 2016, 20:42

      Hehe killed is an impolite word.. But 0.6s is quite a nice gap… Maybe he can fight for podium…
8. 

   Mulsanne (@mulsanne)
   1st April 2016, 20:12

   The highlight for me in FP2 was seeing Vettel at trackside, looking at the other cars and trying to learn something. Reminded me of Horner calling him ‘sponge’ during his RBR days…
9. 

   Jimi (@hendrix666)
   1st April 2016, 20:37

   Is there anything to say about the fact that the slowest 4 drivers did not use any SS in FP2??

   If there is a 1 sec diff between compounds, would that not mean the Manors and Saubers are ahead of the FI and Renaults? Equal to Haas??

   Am I just stunned or not reading correctly? Can someone tell me if my logic is flawed, if so, what am I missing here?
   1. 

      NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
      1st April 2016, 20:44

      Inded, they are quite fast… There is no way to tell where they might qualify…
10. 

    Jerejj
    1st April 2016, 21:12

    That sky, though.
    1. 

       AntoineDeParis (@antoine-de-paris)
       1st April 2016, 21:58

       yeah, it’s all about the red this weekend ;)
11. 

    dragoll (@dragoll)
    1st April 2016, 22:23

    Did Wehrlein beat the saubers on merit? Or did he use softer tyres than them?

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