Saturday 7 July 2012

United Kingdom: pre-qualifying


Well, the event takes place during the British monsoon season, with yet more torrential rain. The first two practice sessions were very wet indeed and of seriously limited value for determining pace. Sauber look decent in the wet, but that's about all we learnt.

That would always be annoying, but is especially so when Red Bull brought yet more updates, McLaren brought some and Caterham brought a ton. It's hard to assess if they're working or not when the track is underwater.

For the sake of completeness, P1 had a top 10 consisting of: Grosjean, Ricciardo, Hamilton, Perez, Massa, Webber, Kobayashi, Schumacher, Rosberg and Vergne.

P2's top 10 were: Hamilton, Kobayashi, Schumacher, Rosberg, Perez, Button, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg and Alonso.

Unfortunately, for reasons that are annoying, I missed most of P3. I think that Alonso, who set his time quite early, Button, who came close on used hard tyres, and Kobayashi, who would've been faster but screwed up the last corner, could be interesting in qualifying.

Anyway, P3 (which was dry) saw Alonso fastest followed by Button, Grosjean, Vettel and Raikkonen. Hamilton was sixth and followed by Maldonado, Perez, Kobayashi and Hulkenberg.

I also think that I may well have been wrong, on the main site, to disagree with Mr. Putney, who advocated backing Button for a podium (I think). My disagreement was based upon a poor past performance both this season and at Silverstone over the years. However, Button looks to have decent pace and, perhaps more importantly, is really looking after his tyres.

Weather forecast for qualifying is that a smallish shower is possible. Shouldn't affect things too much, if accurate.

The lack of dry running, Red Bull only doing one quick run near the end and Mercedes suffering some sort of issue which kept their cars in the garage for a prolonged period make this difficult to call. [I do seem to write that every week, but it's true].

A few potential bets caught my eye but in the end I either decided against them or there just wasn't enough money there to tip/bet. I've decided to sit out betting this session, based on the serious lack of dry running.

Morris Dancer

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sitting this one out, too
Weather for tomorrow looks unpredictable - might have a punt on someone after qualifying
Nigel

Anonymous said...

Morris - my backing of Button for a podium finish in the "United Kingdom" (aka British) GP is based wholly on the perceived value on offer at 9/2.
This equates to him having at least 18 chances out of 100 of a first three finish, which I believe he has. Does he have say 30 chances out of 100? Probably not. Everything in betting should be about value in my book.

Peter from Putney

Nigel said...

Love the traffic jam in the pitlane.

Nigel said...

Leaders could get caught out by quali weather.
I'm not betting on anyone at this stage - lottery.

Anonymous said...

Following up on my previous comment I see Jenson's best odds this morning for a podium are 3/1 which equates to him having a 25% chance ..... value ....I think not. I'd rather take Kobayashi to finish in the points (i.e. top 10) at even money with Bet365.

Peter from Putney

Nigel said...

McLarens might be in trouble.

Nigel said...

Bet Button is not happy with Glock.
Just cost him Q2.

Nigel said...

If these conditions prevail tomorrow, it will be a very messy race. The intermediates seem to go off pretty quickly.

Nigel said...

Ferrari get a second life from the red flag.

Restart might be on a faster track, so a punt on Alonso to Q3 ?

Anonymous said...

More money thrown away on Button it would seem - actually he seemed remarkably cheerful about his fate afterwards, but his confidence must now be at rock bottom.
Good to see "Unless I'm very much mistaken" putting in a guest appearance.

Peter from Putney

Nigel said...

If it's wet again tomorrow, Button could be well worth a punt for a podium (albeit at higher odds), so I wouldn't completely write off your stake just yet.

btw, I agree with Eddie Jordan & Gary Anderson that giving a second chance at Q2 for the drivers who missed out is less than fair - particularly as they are unlikely to restart until conditions are significantly better than prevailed in the red-flagged session.

Morris Dancer said...

Good to read both of your comments on a rather odd qualifying session. Feel sorry for Perez. His departure in Q2 seems to be due to the team screwing up strategy and putting him out on intermediates.

Pretty impressed with Schumacher to get third when his team mate couldn't even make Q3.

Whilst I did say Alonso, Perez and Button would be interesting to watch (and they were) I never even looked at the odds for Alonso to get pole. I'm surprised Vettel wasn't faster.

Given the grid, I'm slightly relieved I put a tiny sum on Webber at long odds as a covering bet for the title.

Anyway, I'd better get to work writing the pre-race piece and trying to work out what I should bet on [I suspect the Safety Car odds might be quite short].

Morris Dancer said...

Markets haven't quite got going yet, so it'll probably be a little while before the pre-race article's up.

Interestingly, Yes to a Safety Car is 1.79. 3/10 of the last Grands Prix, I think, have had them, hence the odds being far longer than might be expected.