That Lewis Hamilton guy again.
After a weekend in Malaysia where the Mercedes was looking a shadow of its normal dominant self, it was an emphatic display during qualifying at Suzuka to restore order.
Winners at the last race in Sepang, Red Bull, couldn't touch the times set by car number 44, and though they were closer, nor could the Ferraris. They were 3 tenths behind in Q1 and 4 tenths off in Q2. Sebastian Vettel ended Q3 in P3 - again 4 tenths behind Hamilton. As another reminder - for the lingering doubters and naysayers out there - of just how much Hamilton is in a league of his own when it comes to quali, even the other Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas in P2 was 3 tenths behind his pole position time.
Bottas will be dropping 5 positions due to a gearbox change, so Vettel will start alongside Hamilton, and Ricciardo gets promoted to P3. Max Verstappen starts in P4. Kimi Raikkonen qualified in P5 but he also gets hit with a grid penalty for a gearbox change, which nudges Esteban Ocon in the Force India up to P5.
Speaking of Force India, it's been interesting the way the various "pundits" in the paddock have closed ranks and kept schtum about the team principal and co-owner of Force India, Vijay Mallya, being arrested a few days ago in London as part of money-laundering investigations. How will this affect the team? Is the team's place in Formula 1 in jeopardy? Nobody was/is talking about it. Don't want to affect relationships.
Another team who may be considering relationships and a place in Formula 1 may be Haas. Romain Grosjean ploughed into the wall during Q1 with 1:18 left on the clock and brought out the red flag. He's starting (?) to look pretty costly. Will that relationship survive for much longer? Will Grosjean survive in Formula 1 for much longer?
One man with no worries at all over his place in Formula 1 is certainly Lewis Hamilton. He blitzed the fastest qualifying lap record of 1:28.954 set by Michael Schumacher during Q2 in 2006 by 1.7 seconds. Surely Kimi Raikkonen's fastest race time record of 1:31.540 will also be eclipsed tomorrow.
With a distance of 405m from the start to turn 1, there's not much danger of Vettel streamlining and passing him into the first corner. Suzuka isn't an easy overtaking track anyway, and with the Ferrari not looking to have the goods as far as pace to challenge, Hamilton should get the job done tomorrow to make it 21 consecutive points-scoring races and extend his lead in the championship.
I love meichel schumucher