The Official 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Thread **Spoilers**

[Drive Blind]

session will restart with 3m33secs remaining.

One out lap and then one hot lap. It will be pretty hectic with everybody trying to get track position.

I predict another incident to bring out the flags and nullify everyones lap.

[Dr Z]

Ah nice tow and pole. Well done to Lewis.

[VolvoT5]

Nice work from Stroll... is he finally calming down and showing his true ability?

Hamilton just destroying Bottas with a mega lap.

[andy_s]

Impressive.

[Derek Smith]

Now that was fun.

0.434 secs. A blinder.

Vettel in an exciting place.

[johnxjsc1985]

Quality lap that under pressure

[PhillipM]

3 words in from the interviewer....god, please, turn him off.

[MitchT]

Jeez, it's Eurovision!

[London424]

Not too shabby that lap. He's not bad at this driving lark.

[sandman77]

ash73 said:

Why were they all doing long runs if they could deliver like that on a single lap?

I was wondering at. The top 4 all posted there fastest times on the 1st flying lap.

[Derek Smith]

London424 said:

Not too shabby that lap. He's not bad at this driving lark.

Indeed. Terrifying.

[Crafty_]

I honestly don't know where that time came from, especially as they were suffering with the tyres yesterday. Hugely impressive.

Don't know if Vettel was rattled by the car issues or if that old engine was just down on power, either way he can't be happy with today.

Ricciardo again struggling with tyres when at the limit. Seems his stock is dropping this year.
Max's final run disappointing, I thought he'd be closer.

Force Indias right there again, hopefully they won't waste time squabbling tomorrow.

Great weekend for Stroll - P6 Friday, P9 this morning, P8 for the race ahead of Massa. I hope those who have knocked him give him credit now. Massa did his best to stick it in the wall and didn't manage it, the old boy still has some speed.

Surprised by STR - they looked quite good yesterday.

Bad weekend reliability wise for Renault. Haas still struggling for top 10 performance.

Cautiously optimistic for a good race tomorrow.

[SmoothCriminal]

Wow great lap from Lewis did not expect that on those tyres.

Only two poles away from equalling Schumacher's record.

Amazing.

[ClockworkCupcake]

ash73 said:

Great lap by Lewis, he's making Bottas look ordinary. Give the seat to Alonso next season it's the fight everyone wants to see.

Toto has pretty much ruled Alonso out when interviewed by Sky. He was very diplomatic but kind of implied that Fernando isn't a team player and he doesn't want the friction of Hamilton and Alonso, given their past beef.

Obviously he didn't say it as bluntly as that, and was much more circumspect, but that was the jist of it.

[hairyben]

ClockworkCupcake said:

Toto has pretty much ruled Alonso out when interviewed by Sky. He was very diplomatic but kind of implied that Fernando isn't a team player and he doesn't want the friction of Hamilton and Alonso, given their past beef.

Obviously he didn't say it as bluntly as that, and was much more circumspect, but that was the jist of it.

They had enough trouble with ham/ros and alonsos a fair way up the scoville scale compared to rosberg. I think anyone who employs alonso without a clear no1 staus setup would be deeply foolish.

Great lap from hamilton there, wasnt sure he could pull that out.

[angrymoby]

angrymoby said:

hopefully Ferrari are a LOT closer than the 1.2s! gap last year

1.1s then ...hopefully we're not at that stage where the tide starts to turn & the Ferrari challenge starts to fade away

[HTP99]

hairyben said:

ClockworkCupcake said:

Toto has pretty much ruled Alonso out when interviewed by Sky. He was very diplomatic but kind of implied that Fernando isn't a team player and he doesn't want the friction of Hamilton and Alonso, given their past beef.

Obviously he didn't say it as bluntly as that, and was much more circumspect, but that was the jist of it.

They had enough trouble with ham/ros and alonsos a fair way up the scoville scale compared to rosberg. I think anyone who employs alonso without a clear no1 staus setup would be deeply foolish.

Great lap from hamilton there, wasnt sure he could pull that out.

I don't know why there are people out there who think either Mercedes or Ferrari will have Alonso when they both are likely to still have Hamilton and Vettel aswell, there is no chance it will happen, both teams don't need two number 1's potentially taking points off each other and also the inevitable hassle that will come with it.

Edited by HTP99 on Saturday 24th June 16:15

[angrymoby]

Dr Z said:

Ah nice tow and pole. Well done to Lewis.

Tow???

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/headlines/2017/...

[Derek Smith]

angrymoby said:

Dr Z said:

Ah nice tow and pole. Well done to Lewis.

Tow???

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/headlines/2017/...

That's what we were told. But obviously not true: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK1_Y9JU1Ow

It is still awe inspiring for those of us who've seen the lap previously.

If you compare it to other laps from other drivers, LH doesn't threaten any wall to the extent that others do. He has one hell of an advantage.

[Blayney]

A wonderfully controlled lap... just seemed to nail every braking point, turn-in, apex, acceleration (great traction)... Last two poles have been superb.