Turkey predictions

Whilst I haven't published any predictions so far, I have made a note of my views as they shifted across the weekend.

Thursday:
Button, Barrichello, Massa, Vettel, Webber, Alonso, Rosberg, Glock

Friday (after practice):
Massa, Button, Barrichello, Raikkonen, Webber, Alonso, Hamilton, Rosberg

Saturday (after qualifying):
Vettel, Button, Barrichello, Webber, Massa, Trulli, Raikkonen, Rosberg

Put simply, Brawn's slow practice pace didn't fool me, whereas Red Bulls did. McLaren and BMW flattered to deceive yesterday as well, although Kubica did make it into Q3 for only the 2nd time since Malaysia.

I don't forsee much carnage tomorrow, but we'll only find out once the race is underway. Note: Fisichella has struggled to survive the first corner here (there was a piece in the preview show for ualifying, showing him spinning or crashing every time he's been here, on lap one at turn one).

Turkey preview - Qualifying update

Red Bull and Brawn share the top two rows on the grid. I'm attempting a different format for displaying the grid, and please forgive it. The gap listed is that between the driver and the man who finished directly in front of them, gaps in bold are beneath 0.1s, showing where things were close.

It is a 58 lap race (as are quite a few, these days) and so 1/4 distance is 14.5 laps (3 stops, equally spaced), 1/3 distance is 19.3 laps (2 stops equally spaced). However, the lack of faith in the soft tyre this weekend is such that Alonso and Vettel are probably taking a short first stint on softs, before 2 stints on hards. The one-stoppers might in fact 2-stop, if any repeat of Melbourne/Monaco happened, to avoid over-using the softs.

Predictions to follow in next post

Turkey preview - fancying their chances

Talking up their chances in the media (well, ITV-F1): BMW, Red Bull (car should suit track), Renault, Williams, Toro Rosso (figured out the car, apparently. Clue: tall thin wing is the back, wide tea tray thing the front), Brawn (but see next section), Toyota, Force India (but, only in the keep up the form sense), Massa (looking for 4th win at 4 year old track - didn't win in his Sauber in 2005), Kimi Raikkonen (although a week ago, shortly after the Monaco GP)

Talking down their chances: Brawn (well, expecting more challengers), Kimi Raikkonen.

From which you should deduce: Massa to beat Raikkonen and McLaren to go backwards. Or, you should ignore all this "cheap talk"