mds wrote:
KingVoid wrote:
I still don't think their race pace is as good as either Ferrari or Mercedes on most normal tracks.
Could very well be.
About the fastest laps yesterday, I'm not sure whether they are really indicative of pace. Vettel was managing at the front, I suspect he might have been able to go faster when really pressed. The fact that Bottas was closer in the first stint and Vettel was setting fastest laps when needed (even after flatspotting his front right) indicates the Ferrari was faster.
Likewise, we had Hamilton trapped behind Ricciardo, seemingly holding the potential to go quite a bit faster than Ricciardo if he wouldn't have been behind.
So hard to really say, but I don't think it's safe to say the RB14 was the fastest car in race pace yesterday.
Hamilton didn't have bags more pace than Ricciardo, but he was definitely being held up. I did think the extra DRS zone was going to be enough to keep him close enough to try a move at some point, but even that wasn't enough to overcome the dirty air.
The hotlapping is odd though. Sure they get bonuses but the pace has to be in the car somewhere too. This year's Ultra has already shown the somewhat Bridgestone like characteristic of coming back to life if you give it a breather for a lap or two - can anyone who was watching live timing confirm if there were some non traffic related slower laps from either Red Bull?