[forzaferrari]

Austin Martin seems to struggle as well,

Sebs car looked like a shopping trolley, woefull

[Jody Barton]

To be clear I really don't think Mercedes or RBR showed their true pace. FP1 here is just never representative. Mercedes & RBR were both messing around with set up. McLaren look genuinely quick though, which I'm happy about... fuel loads permitting of course. We'll see how it goes though I guess when we finally get into qualifying.

[Monster Hesh]

Is that qually sims over then....

[forzaferrari]

Hey guys, only tuning in now, have I missed anything worthwhile?

[Monster Hesh]

Oh Boy. I'm smiling : P

If this trend continues top15 inside 1s, we might be lucky enough for a 2012 rerun....

New format seems teams are sacrificing race sims? usually they'd have 40 mins, now going to be close to 15-20 when cars are finally prepped and sent out.

[Jody Barton]

Not really Forza, I'd say the McLaren and RBR pace looks genuine so far. Mercedes doesn't look like they're on top of their car yet, the arse end of their car looks unsettled and it doesn't look sharp on turn in. One suggests low fuel load (twitchy bum) the other suggests high fuel load (sluggish front end), so I don't know what to make of Merc right now. But we have no idea of Engine modes and fuel loads are. Top three are definitely RBR, McLaren & Mercedes... but we can't really tell exactly what the pecking order is. Sainz looks really good.

[forzaferrari]

Cheers Jody, great to see the cars back on track and the season finally started

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Will be interesting to see the pure one lap performance tomorrow afternoon when they go at it in quali.

[Jody Barton]

Yeah, race pace has Lewis out front, with Max & Perez not far behind, but Bottas miles off, with the two McLaren's right behind him. So Lewis could be trying to fight the 2 RBR's this weekend on his own unless Bottas picks up the pace.

---

Sainz is looking really good out there though. Bottas is struggling.

---

Pecking order, just eyeballing the numbers & taking a guess at how much each are sand bagging:

Hamilton
Verstappen 
Perez
Bottas
Norris
Ricciardo
Sainz
Gasly 
Tsunoda
Stroll

Would be my top 10, but Sainz all the way down to Russell looks pretty tight. Especially on race pace. Alonso might be regretting coming back, he looks terrible out there. Ocon has him in his pocket every sector.

[Monster Hesh]

It's been an enjoyable first Friday of the season. I'll savour it, as more things are pointing towards the usual Merc and RB escape.
From the day I'd say McLaren and Ferrari are the winners. Alpeeeeen, the opposite.
Again, very interesting to see how it all does play out in the business sessions.

[Jody Barton]

One Ferrari will be happy Hesh, the other one not so much. Alpine look atrocious, and Alonso was terrible out there. I think McLaren are probably third best and maybe in a bit of no man's land between the two teams out front (Merc and RBR) and the three teams that look to be vying for fourth, (Alpha Tauri, Aston Martin and Ferrari). We'll see how it shak s out in qualifying tomorrow, but I think we'll see the Mercs and RBRs scamper off into the distance again, but it might be a bit closer between them than last year, and if Bottas doesn't get his act together Lewis could be on his own up front.