IceG wrote:So morphing into the Hungarian GP discussion thread....
That was some masterful trollling by Mercedes on the last Q3 runs. Brilliantly planned, timed and executed teamwork to secure a double front row. Now Red Bull are on the wrong race tyres and not on the front row of the grid. Verstappen may be able to get a faster start and slip-stream Hamilton but with Bottas in second playing the team game Verstappen cannot move over to get alongside and go round the outside into the first corner. And I cannot see Verstappen trying an aggressive run up the inside against Bottas as he turns in because Bottas has nothing to lose while Verstappen needs to get at least second in the race to be sure of not going behind in the championship.
I have seen this accusation being put around, but that seems to be a consequence of the way that the TV producers have cut the shots of the cars on track to cut out what was happening in front of the two Mercedes drivers. If you look at what the driver tracker was showing the other drivers ahead of those four were doing, then I am not so sure that it was so much of an intentional act, and more of a case of too many drivers tripping over themselves as they basically gambled on going out as late as possible to try and get better track conditions.
An individual over on F1Technical has been providing screenshots - this is the situation at the start of the final runs in Q3:
At this point in time, Perez is just exiting the pits at the end of a train of nine cars, wtih Gasly at the head of that pack.
At this point in time, Gasly slows his pace a little in the middle sector - this results in the pack being compressed slightly, with Norris and Ocon beginning to catch the Gasly-Leclerc-Alonso group in the middle sector. Bottas is being advised on the gap to Ocon in front, which Bottas is trying to keep at between 2 and 4 seconds, with Hamilton also being advised to keep a similar gap to those in front. Red Bull, meanwhile, were advising Verstappen that he was OK to stay behind Hamilton, but could overtake if needed.
Now the problems begin to start - Leclerc appears to have decided that he needed to build a larger gap to Gasly in front of him, so he slows down on the approach to Turn 11 to let Gasly pull further ahead.
As he does so, Alonso also slows down his pace slightly to maintain a similar gap to Leclerc. Norris and Ocon both see this, and they too check their speed. Bottas, seeing that Ocon had slowed slightly as he was going through the middle sector, also begins to slow down a bit himself to maintain a similar gap to those in front.
Again, as drivers are coming round the final few turns, you see a similar pattern emerge - drivers are progressively slowing down in Turns 12 and 13 so that they can then accelerate hard through Turn 14 and onto the main straight. At this point in time, Norris has waited for Alonso to pull out a bit of a gap down the main straight, which in turn is slowing up Ocon, Bottas, Hamilton, Verstappen and finally Perez.
Taking into account that there were five other midfield drivers in front, I would say that it looks more like a case of those in front slowing down and then causing a bit of a chain reaction further down the line. Even if Verstappen had got in front of the two Mercedes drivers, he'd have faced the problem Bottas had - he'd have run into the back of Ocon and Norris, who were themselves being backed up by Alonso and Leclerc.
To me, it looks a bit like the Monza qualifying farce - that, in trying to get the best track conditions by being last in the queue, Mercedes and Red Bull ended up having their outlaps dictated by the speed of the midfield drivers in front of them. As soon as one of them began slowing down, then they all started slowing down to maintain a similar gap - it feels more like a case of trying to be a bit too clever, only for the situation to come back and bite them.