Five themes to watch for at Spa
Sebastian Vettel is on pole again, but does that mean he is going to convert into a seventh win in 2011? Can anyone catch the German? Will it stay dry on Sunday in Spa? Edd Straw runs over the talking points after qualifying
Into the unknown
Even by Spa standards, it has rained a lot this weekend. Running in dry conditions has been at a premium, with a few laps during Friday practice and then a few more during the final segment of qualifying - and even that was only a dry line on a wet track! That means that teams will have limited setup information and inevitably be a little uncertain about how long the tyres can expect to last.
Based on what we've seen so far, it seems that degradation won't be too bad, meaning that a two-stopper is very much on the cards. Given that teams have been caught out this season by the tyres behaving differently in the race to what is anticipated, there is still potential for teams to be caught out strategically and there were signs during qualifying of blistering that could lead to more stops. This has led to Pirelli making additional front soft compound tyres available after those used in the low temperatures during qualifying suffered problems. Temperatures in the race will be warmer, so it remains to be seen exactly how this affects the race strategy. There is also the curveball of track temperature, as cool conditions could make the prime tyre difficult to get up into its working range during stints.
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