2017 Japanese Grand Prix

Kiskaloo

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FP1 was dry, with Vettel #1 at 1:29.166, followed by Hamilton (-0.211s) and Ricciardo (-0.375s).

FP2 was rained out with only five cars bothering to do more than an Installation Lap. Hamilton was #1 at 1:48.719. Both Force India and Williams drivers also put in a timed lap and were between 0.766 and 3.624s behind.
 
At the end of Q2 it's definitely looking like the Mercedes is the stronger car at this track. Also Bottas and Raikkonen have gearbox penalties so it will more or less be a straight fight between him and Vettel on Sunday I think.
 
Oh brilliant, Vettel retires with issues. It's a shame Kimi had a gearbox penalty and went off on the first lap, he'd have had a much bigger challenge on this race I think.
 
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Considering how good the Mercedes is I figure Lewis Hamilton will need to have 2 retirements before Vettel is reasonably back in the championship.
 
A sparkplug? A sparkplug?!?!?

COME ON!

I bet it's really another turbo failure. Would not be surprised if they are pushing the components to try and stay competitive with Mercedes. Not that it matters now, with Merc guaranteed the WCC and Lewis the WDC.
 
if it was a turbo failure, he would've lost a whole lot more power...
 
A sparkplug failure is even more embarrassing than a turbo blowing up. I seem to recall the sky commentators saying something like "When was the last time we seen a retirement because of a sparkplug, 1984?"
 
do F1 teams make their own spark plugs?
or do they also just go to the NGK webshop?
 
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