Since we still have a couple of days before we can discuss Hungary, I thought it might be a good idea to take a quick look at Lando’s and Daniel’s qualifying performance and differences at Silverstone… This was the closest qualifying session between both drivers, with virtually the exact same lap time in Q3 and separated by just 0.002 seconds!
The graph below is representative of their best laps in Q3 for both drivers:
S1 is virtual tie for both drivers, Ricciardo with a 27.682 and Norris with a 27.677 only 0.005 faster… Based on the graph, I would have expected Daniel to be slightly ahead since he carries a bit more speed into T3 and T4… But the difference between is negligent.
S2 is again a sector with very similar performance, Daniel’s time was a 35.354, while Lando’s time was 35.305… In S2 Lando gains another half a tenth on Daniel, extending his lead on the lap to an impressive half a tenth of a second… It’s interesting that Lando is the slower of the 2 going in to the the Turn 9 to Turn 13 section of the track(from Copse to Beckets)… Nevertheless Lando not only covers the gap created in that section, but extends it with a great exit out of Beckets and carrying more speed through Chapel (T14)… When reviewing gear changes at that point, the biggest difference is that Daniel downshifts 8th to 7th gear, small pause and then from 7th to 6th gear, while Lando extends his run in 8th gear and downshifts without pause into 6th for the run into the Hangar Straight.. Daniel also lifts going into Beckets while Lando doesn’t.
S3 is where Daniel makes a comeback and claws back most of the time lost… Daniel’s S3 time is 23.863, while Lando’s time is 23.915 but once again separated by less than a tenth (only 0.052 between them)… Interestingly, Daniel outbrakes Lando marginally going into Turn 15 (Stowe) and carries slight more speed from T15 to T16 and carries more speed into Vale with Club been dead even for both of them.
If Lando had a good qualifying session, this would show that at least at Silverstone and during Qualifying, Daniel was up to speed with the MCL35M and almost beat Lando after several races been considerably behind… The fact that in most braking sections Daniel was matching Lando and even carrying more speed into several turns have to be a big sign of relief for Ricciardo and the team.
Let’s hope the trend continues at Hungary!
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