Friday Practice is well and truly over and Red Bull seem to have continued to pull out a major lead over everyone except Mclaren, who are doing their very best to keep up. Mark Webber was the fastest man after the dust (and marbles) cleared for a change, although I can't imagine Vettel allowing that to continue through the rest of the weekend.
The Mclaren boys are the only ones that appear to be in with a chance of keeping anywhere near the Red Bulls. And even that looks to be a bit further back than they would like. Best of the rest is a full second back which would seem to suggest that its going to be a four horse race at best. Hopefully Ferrari are not showing their full pace but I reckon even that's a bit of a dream. Everybody must be hoping that Mark and Sebastien start one of their lovers tiffs at the front of the field to give a them bit of a chance at some points.
The massive amount of marbles do seem to be much more of an issue here than at Australia, as was widely predicted. Which may impact the overtaking opportunities provided by DRS. At least the Drag Reduction System activation point seems to be in the right place, chances are good that there will be some braking battles into turn 1. Also, due to the back to back straights we should get a good idea of how much difference it actually makes!
The last big question is the weather. The later (local time) start of the race means that the chances of rain are higher, but with the famous unpredictability of the region, nobody has an idea of whether it will pour or not. Latest info I've seen puts it at a 50% chance which is hedging your bets just about as much as you can!
Looks like we may be in for a treat (if you've got your optimistic head on). So bring on qualifying and the race! I'm going to go ahead and make a bold prediction of the final result:
Vettel to win followed by Hamilton with Alonso magically surviving the carnage (maybe!) to end up third.
Let me know your predictions if you think that's too boring! ;-)
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