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Despite the premises, qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix turned out to be much more problematic For him Mercedes than expected. A Error Hamilton in Q2 put him in big trouble to qualify, while in Q3, Verstappen managed to grab a front row seat. Lewis hamilton however, he was unaffected by the difficulties and took home another pole position, cutting almost 7 tenths to teammate Bottas. The Finn couldn’t deliver a performance even remotely comparable to that of his teammate, but expressed less speed. curves but also less speed in the extension, situation a lot curious, that not it occurred in the first and second trimesters.
The impression is that, alternatively, Hamilton’s car had a small step motor more than his partner, or actually Bottas I do not push at its best. If the second in the world ranking were a strategy don’t start from pole (given that in Sochi it is very difficult for those who start from pole to stay in the lead) it is not known. If this were the case, the Finn did not do the math correctly, as he will also be behind Verstappen at the beginning. If, on the other hand, Bottas had given his best, the Driving class received by Hamilton, on a generally favorable track for number 77, would be Remarkable.
Verstappen smart: take advantage of the wake on your last lap
And only the Dutch from the Red Bullonce again finds a good leg on the last lap, hooking directly to the wake by Valtteri Bottas along the main straight and thus raising both his acceleration curve that his at full speed. Until that point, the 33rd Red Bull had stopped at 323 km / h at the end of the long straight in Sochi, but thanks to Mercedes’ wake effect, Verstappen reaches 327 km / h and limits the Hamilton gap in the first sector to only 152 thousandths.
From then on throughout the lap the two riders have some curves in favor of one or the other, but the speed in the draw is in favor of Hamilton, which comes to 327 kilometers per hour Also in straight butt and it doesn’t have a single lap length point where high speeds are lower than the rival’s. We had already noticed yesterday unpublished Mercedes feature, and this condition does not only exist repeated today in qualifying, but it had even more marked effects.
F1 | Mercedes: surprise set-up
In fact, comparing the drawing speeds of the first two sectors of Hamilton with Renault, RedBull, McLaren, Racing Point and Ferrari, we see that the W11 is by far the best. faster on every section of the track, without being able to be worried about anyone. Only Ricciardo’s Renault comes close sometimes, but with a car that we know has a preference for extremely light setups aimed at maximizing maximum speed.
Speeds in curve of Mercedes drivers, generally much taller than the competition, are this time at the level of equivalence with rivals, indicating a more aerodynamic fit download of the two cars than usual. We also checked with all the drivers who participated in Q3 and it is quite evident that the W11 has a similar level of downforce as the other teams. This situation shows, for the first time in such a way obvious, the technical advantage that Toto Wolff’s team has in terms of aerodynamic efficiency and engine power.
For more confirmation we have also developed the longitudinal accelerations on the drivers’ best lap, the four engineers compared. The best point to measure the acceleration peak in traction is the exit of turn 2 and, by means of a filter procedure and subsequent processing, it was possible to measure this value with an acceptable level of precision.
The result leaves no doubt: Mercedes arrives at 1,216 G longitudinal acceleration, compared to 1,133 G for Renault, 1,126 G for RedBull – Honda and only 1,103 G for Ferrari. Traction acceleration is clearly the result of a suspension package capable of adequately offloading all power to the ground, but most of all a power unit capable of delivering extremely high levels of torque when it matters most.
Overall, this is the first time in the last two seasons that we have seen Mercedes opt for a set-up with downforce comparable to the competition. The result of this is a car that fully expresses its own motor advantage and efficiency, with numerical results unreachable for all other teams.
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