- Mar 20, 2007
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After a very lacklustre 1000th GP, we head to Baku for the 3rd instance of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. If its anything like the last two F1 races at Baku, there should be a bit more going on during this one. Last year we had the dual RBR collision, Grojsean throwing it into the barrier on his own, and a Bottas from P1 puncture near the end. The year before that it was Daniel with a Steven Bradbury like effort after a red flag, and a Hamilton/Vettel collision under the safety car.
Race details:
FP2: 11PM Friday, FP3: 8PM Saturday
Qualifying: 11PM EST Saturday
Race: 10PM EST Sunday
Here is your annual reminder of just how narrow parts of the Baku track can be
Amazingly Turn 8 has been fairly incident free in previous GPs.
FP1 was cancelled this morning after Russell ran into a drain cover that was not properly bolted down, and then the truck rescuing his car ran into a bridge. Daniel summed it up well on twitter a short time ago
Onto the race itself, its hard to see Mercedes not extending the advantage here. I would like to know what on earth is going on with Ferrari. In Winter testing they were the benchmark by a country mile (even if Mercedes were sandbagging), and they backed it up in Bahrain (and threw away the race win as well). Ferrari do have a straight line speed advantage over Mercedes, and the entire third sector is pretty much a straight at full throttle.
I want to see a big race from Bottas. In both China and Bahrain on race day he returned to the Bottas of old who dropped away quickly and significantly from the pace of Hamilton. For the sake of the spectacle I hope we can see Australian GP Bottas out there on both Saturday and Sunday, because I feel like he is the only real challenger to Lewis right now, and we are still at that stage in the season where the championship is open so team orders shouldn't be in play.
I'm not going to make a prediction for the race result, but I can say with confidence that strategy and safety cars will play an important factor. This is the type of race where Daniel could steal a podium by simply staying out of trouble or taking advantage of a pit stop under a safety car. Sergio Perez has been on the podium twice.
Race details:
FP2: 11PM Friday, FP3: 8PM Saturday
Qualifying: 11PM EST Saturday
Race: 10PM EST Sunday
Here is your annual reminder of just how narrow parts of the Baku track can be
Amazingly Turn 8 has been fairly incident free in previous GPs.
FP1 was cancelled this morning after Russell ran into a drain cover that was not properly bolted down, and then the truck rescuing his car ran into a bridge. Daniel summed it up well on twitter a short time ago
Onto the race itself, its hard to see Mercedes not extending the advantage here. I would like to know what on earth is going on with Ferrari. In Winter testing they were the benchmark by a country mile (even if Mercedes were sandbagging), and they backed it up in Bahrain (and threw away the race win as well). Ferrari do have a straight line speed advantage over Mercedes, and the entire third sector is pretty much a straight at full throttle.
I want to see a big race from Bottas. In both China and Bahrain on race day he returned to the Bottas of old who dropped away quickly and significantly from the pace of Hamilton. For the sake of the spectacle I hope we can see Australian GP Bottas out there on both Saturday and Sunday, because I feel like he is the only real challenger to Lewis right now, and we are still at that stage in the season where the championship is open so team orders shouldn't be in play.
I'm not going to make a prediction for the race result, but I can say with confidence that strategy and safety cars will play an important factor. This is the type of race where Daniel could steal a podium by simply staying out of trouble or taking advantage of a pit stop under a safety car. Sergio Perez has been on the podium twice.