This comparison includes : Bottas' full pole lap , a few segments of Hamilton's P2 lap , Verstappen's and Grosjean's best full laps from Q3.
Out of curiosity, I also analysed a couple of laps from 2005 and 2006 to benchmark the characteristics of the 2017 against the cars of those regulations. Such laps are : M. Schumacher's 2006 pole lap ( with race fuel onboard ) and the fastest 2005 onboard lap that I could find which was a Fisichella's FP4 one with a lap time of around 1.30.44s which is approximatelly 0.7s slower than his fastest lap of that session and almost a second slower than Webber's P1 time , on FP4 , which was the fastest time during that weekend.
I could only measure Hamilton's P2 lap on a few places because the video keeps alternating between a full screen displaying Hamilton's and Bottas' laps , side by side , and a rather distant shot of Paul DiResta analysing both laps through the monitor in front of him.
Only Bottas ( after Turn 1 ) and Grosjean's laps have telemetry displayed.
1. First Measurement: From the start to just before the braking for Turn 1
Driver/lap Max Speed ( km/h ) Time ( s )
Bottas' pole lap 1.28.769 6.82
Verstappen's Q3 lap 1.29.687 6.87
Grosjean's Q3 lap 1.30.763 324 6.94
Fisichella's 2005 FP4 lap ~1.30.44 6.79
Schumacher's 2006 pole lap 1.31.431 7.4
Hamilton's P2 lap 6.79
Hamilton matched Fisichella's V10 Renault here and was slightly faster than Bottas , either due to setup , better speed out of the last corner , or a combination of both.
Verstappen lost almost a tenth to Hamilton but that is very good , considering his Renault PU, and a demonstration of the low drag characteristic of the car. Haas , meanwhile , has lot's of downforce but , likewise , lot's of drag on it's car ( as was already clear with the data from Melbourne ) .
Ferrari 248 F1's V8 engine , and the lack of DRS , already made Schumacher lose 0.6s to Hamilton and Fisichella even before the first braking!
2. Second Measurement: The braking for Turn 1
from here to here
Driver/lap Time ( s )
Bottas' pole lap 1.28.769 1.98
Verstappen's Q3 lap 1.29.687 2.14
Grosjean's Q3 lap 1.30.763 2.04
Fisichella's 2005 FP4 lap ~1.30.44 1.97
Schumacher's 2006 pole lap 1.31.431 1.96
Verstappen's braking here was very off pace but , as you'll find out with the remaining data, that was down to him rather than the car and very likely where Ricciardo gained a significant amount of the advantadge he had over his team mate.
Fisichella's 2005 Renault appears to have had a good performance here but that's because he braked too late ( locked his inner front tyre ) and missed the apex of the corner by a big amount. He went wide into the corner and had a very late acceleration.
3. Third Measurement: Turn 1
from here to here
Driver/lap Min Speed ( km/h ) Time ( s )
Bottas' pole lap 1.28.769 2.04
Verstappen's Q3 lap 1.29.687 2.05
Grosjean's Q3 lap 1.30.763 65 2.18
Fisichella's 2005 FP4 lap ~1.30.44 2.44
Schumacher's 2006 pole lap 1.31.431 2.09
Bottas and Grosjean went slightly over the kerb while Schumacher and Verstappen were a few centimeters away from the apex. I could not measure Hamilton's lap here but he slightly missed the apex and that explains his deficit to Bottas , on S1 , as Lewis was faster on the final part of the first sector , as you'll find out later.
Fisichella's poor time is a consequence of what was described before.
Schumacher did a slightly tighter turn to have an earlier acceleration, so he exchanged some time here to gain on the following flat-out zone.
4. Fourth Measurement: The following flat-out zone
from here to here
Driver/lap Max Speed ( km/h ) Time ( s )
Bottas' pole lap 1.28.769 303 9.76
Verstappen's Q3 lap 1.29.687 9.78
Grosjean's Q3 lap 1.30.763 294 9.9
Fisichella's 2005 FP4 lap ~1.30.44 9.9
Schumacher's 2006 pole lap 1.31.431 9.86
Despite his V10 engine , Fisichella's poor time here can easily be explained by his very late acceleration and low speed exiting T1.
Red Bull again displayed the low drag qualities of it's car.
Hass' very "draggy" car , combined with Schumacher's early acceleration out of T1 , made Grosjean be slower than even a V8 car around this part!
5. Fifth Measurement: The braking for Turn 4
from here to here
Driver/lap Time ( s )
Bottas' pole lap 1.28.769 1.68
Verstappen's Q3 lap 1.29.687 1.73
Grosjean's Q3 lap 1.30.763 1.66
Fisichella's 2005 FP4 lap ~1.30.44 1.58
Schumacher's 2006 pole lap 1.31.431 1.8
Verstappen's lacked a bit , compared to Bottas , around here but he'll perform better on other braking zones , indicating he might have been a bit too cautious in these first couple of brakings.
Fisichella's impressive time here is still likely related to his mistake on the first corner because, as he went into the straight with lower speed than normally, it might have been possible for him to brake later , instead of harder ( with more braking force ) than the others .
6. Sixth Measurement: Turn 4
from here to here
Driver/lap Min Speed ( km/h ) Time ( s )
Bottas' pole lap 1.28.769 115 2.42
Verstappen's Q3 lap 1.29.687 2.34
Grosjean's Q3 lap 1.30.763 117 2.4
Fisichella's 2005 FP4 lap ~1.30.44 2.58
Schumacher's 2006 pole lap 1.31.431 2.64
Verstappen went well over the apex kerb and that paid off for him. Grosjean and Fisichella missed the apex of this corner and that , inevitably , affects their exits too ( Fisichella additionally had an oversteer exiting the corner )
Schumacher's time is very poor here but that again, as will happen throughout the lap, is due to him running a much tighter line , this time around , to have the earliest acceleration possible , as will be clear with the next data and how well he fares amongst cars with much more power than his .
All in all, take the times on this and on the next measurement with a pinch of salt, though, as is very difficult to find a good reference mark here. The total time over both measurements is accurate, though.
7. Seventh Measurement: The following straight leading to the high speed Turn 6
from here to here
Driver/lap Max Speed ( km/h ) Time ( s )
Bottas' pole lap 1.28.769 262 3.92
Verstappen's Q3 lap 1.29.687 4.04
Grosjean's Q3 lap 1.30.763 257 4.14
Fisichella's 2005 FP4 lap ~1.30.44 3.98
Schumacher's 2006 pole lap 1.31.431 4.1
Grosjean did a very wide line on the previous corner and that affected his time here.
I could not measure Hamilton's lap on the previous corner because the camera angle , on his onboard video , makes it impossible to find the used reference marks. However, I could measure his time from the entry of T4 to the final point of this measurement and he was around 0.02s faster than Bottas on this final part of S1. Which means he definitely lost a fair bit of time on T1 ( and exiting it ) , where he slightly missed the apex of the corner , because he was 0.05s faster than Bottas on the other parts of the first sector. If I recall correctly, Lewis , on his first Q3 lap , lost around 0.08s to Bottas' pole lap , on S1 , which implies he lost over a tenth of a second with that first corner little mistake .
If Fisichella had a perfect run through T4 , I suppose he would've been faster than everybody on this short acceleration zone as his V10 still considerably made up for his mistakes .
