Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 102. (Read 143712 times)

I'm afraid I don't think Leclerc can keep some good amount of time gap until Verstappen comes right behind him. I even doubt Leclerc about keeping his lead until then. Because Ferrari are still having problems when it comes to races. They are one of the bests when it comes to qualifying performance but they can't have a good pace in a long-running format. 

Norris was nearly hunting down Leclerc in the sprint race as you can remember. McLaren and Mercedes both seem to have better pace then Ferrari considering the sprint race performances. I just hope that Leclerc can manage to cling to podium at the end of the race.

Yes, it seems that the Ferrari strategy team this time was quite successful in getting Leclerc to P2. But this is still a sprint race, we are not in a real race yet, and the results may be different compared to this sprint race. Other teams may see some opportunities they can take advantage of to put their drivers in the best positions. Moreover, we know that the Ferrari strategy team often makes blunders which puts Leclerc and Sainz in a difficult position. If Ferrari's strategy remains the same, I think Leclerc can stay in P2 or at least in the top 5.

The only thing which would make the race beautiful tonight would be if Leclerc manages to create a gap with the others and Verstappen is a bit stuck against the other drivers in the few first laps of the race,this would give Leclerc and Ferrari enough time to think about some good strategy to maximize the race for them and of course when I say about strategy I am not talking about the big errors Ferrari garage makes but a real good one.

Verstappen said though it was a fine margin in the end of the Sprint so he knows very well he has a lot of chances to win the race and he will take it slow in the beginning,it is exactly here that the guys in front especially Leclerc should start pulling away.

Hamilton must have been excited for a short time while he was in Verstappen's DRS. But it didn't take Verstappen a long time to open the gap a lot.    It was an ordinary sprint race for Verstappen in which he was again comfortable. Hamilton at least got one more point by hunting Leclerc at the first times of the sprint race.

I still think Ferrari did good in the sprint last night. At least they both got important points for their team. You know Ferrari still have a chance to capture the second position in the constructor standings. They need to do better than Mercedes in the remaining time period of the season.

Max Verstappen was 0.5 seconds per lap faster than Lewis Hamilton and 1 second faster than Charles Leclerc in the 19-lap Sprint. In the race, i expect Ferrari to sacrifice Sainz again by starting him on the soft set and we will see a very aggressive Sainz for six or seven laps from the start. They'll pass Hamilton and Noris on their soft tires at the beginning of the race and keep them as far back as possible and try to protect Leclerc. He was able to hold Russell in the sprint and I think they will play that strategy in the race. Red Bull will also sacrifice Perez in this race. Perez can lead the race for two or three laps with a long first stint and a late pit stop, slowing down the rivals and trying to make way for Max like an icebreaker.

I expect Max to go into the first pit stops without delay, without losing pace and come back in the top 3. Max can hit 324 kms with DRS, the Mercedes can hit 316 kms, the Mercedes without DRS can hit 303 kms. Max catches and approaches all his rivals first and then passes them on the straight with DRS. Max will make five passes, and if we assume no Alpines at the start, and if we assume he drives the first three laps carefully and passes in sixth place, i expect four passes on laps 4-6-9-12. Leclerc, meanwhile, will be three or four seconds clear at the front. I think his will approach him in eight to ten laps after the first pit stops, tire him out, sniff out the right moment and i think he will pass him towards the middle of the race and take first place.

It was a quite boring sprint race. I only enjoyed the start as Hamilton had a great start which was enough to overtake Leclerc in a short time. Mercedes seemed quite fast today. I must admit that Hamilton was actually the fast one for Mercedes. Because it didn't go well for Russell and he got even a 5-second penalty.

Russell tried really hard to overtake Sainz but Ferrari have seemed very fast on straights so far. Even DRS wasn't enough for Russell to catch up with him as much as he would like. Verstappen just got a comfortable win in the sprint race by a big gap against Hamilton.

Btw Bagnaia today won and now he was the lead of 27 points.

This is huge since he went over the 25 points, in short terms he has now 1 gp of advantage over Martin.

Verstappen showed that most likely tomorrow he can win the race based on the Sprint of today and that it won't take longer than the first stint to do so.Looks like he still wants to win and the bookies have increased the odds of him winning the race not a little but not that much also from 1.23 to 1.57 so far and I doubt it can go any higher because he showed today that he is eager to win again.

I am very curious to see the behavior of the drivers in front of him as this is a very technical and difficult track and if they fight hard then he will need more than the first stint performance to win the race of tomorrow,that is the only question remaining for me.

1   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m35.997s   1m35.181s   1m34.538s
2   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m35.999s   1m35.386s   1m34.593s
3   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m36.393s   1m35.887s   1m34.607s
4   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m36.499s   1m35.594s   1m34.639s
5   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m36.703s   1m35.753s   1m34.894s
6   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m36.268s   1m35.542s   1m34.939s
7   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m36.347s   1m35.718s   1m35.041s
8   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m36.281s   1m35.847s   1m35.199s
9   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m36.230s   1m36.947s   1m35.366s
10   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m36.696s   1m35.785s   1m35.897s
11   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m36.737s   1m35.978s   
12   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m36.365s   1m36.087s   
13   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m36.372s   1m36.137s   
14   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m36.575s   1m36.181s   
15   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m36.554s   1m36.182s   
16   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m36.740s       
17   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m36.922s       
18   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m36.922s       
19   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m36.945s       
20   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m37.186s

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1038775/1/f1-united-states-grand-prix-2023-sprint-shootout-results

Results of the qualify for the srping race, they will race soon

Verstappen's last attempt in Q3 started really badly but his performance in the last sector was really extra. He was nearly capturing the pole position by only a gap of 0.005 sec to Leclerc. But his lap time was deleted due to going out of track limits at Turn 19. This helped Leclerc maintain his place and take the pole position.

But I must admit that it was definitely a deserved pole position for Leclerc. Ferrari are just really good at making good lap times in qualifying. They were well-prepared for this one and Red Bull had a little weakness.

Perez is still a disappointment as he is going to start in 9th place to the race. It is hard to believe that he can climb to podium as he hasn't been convincing for weeks. 

Today's Phillip Island Australia MotoGP race was truly amazing because Jorge Martin made a mistake by using the soft rear tire for 27 laps in fairly sunny weather conditions. So it was very visible that Jorge Martin was starting to slow down since there were five laps left in the race and in the last lap Jorge Martin was overtaken by four riders who were fighting quite fiercely. Among them are Johan Zarco, Pecco Bagnaia, Fabio Diggia and Brad Binder so Jorge Martin is very sorry and angry because he cannot maintain his first position for today's race.

Tomorrow in the Sprint Race Jorge Martin will definitely be desperate to get the win on better tires because today it was a mistake for him to use the rear tire so he wasn't able to keep it well enough until the end of the race. Previously, I also wondered why Jorge Martin, who had already made a gap of more than three seconds, started to slow down when there were a few laps left in the race. It turned out that his mistake was truly fatal because he not only lost the podium, but also lost points that he could have gotten more from in the top five positions.

Well looks like Verstappen was not able to get to the pole yesterday night with European time,Leclerc,Hamilton,Norris were both there with Leclerc finishing first in the qualifying.It looks like Verstappen appetite is going down little by little as I highly doubt he will be able to win the race tomorrow.

Anyway this starting grid promises for a good race unless Verstappen didn't care much for the qualifying as he knows in the race is a completely different thing and he is not that behind 0.37 seconds is nothing that cannot be recovered in the race.

In this qualifying session he managed to get a seat and finish in P15, well it wasn't a good performance but it was quite good because he managed to out perform Albon, Alonso and Stroll. I hope that in the next race session he can get a good position.

Small info.
F1 increased the limit of the fine that drivers can get.

It is 1 million now.

It is important to notice that some drivers can't afford to pay it with their salary.

Huh wat?


I kinda feel for the guy.  He's a poor little rich boy, prolly being pressured by his dad to excel in something.  But even with all the support and all the money being poured on him to give him some sort of advantage, he still turned out to be a mediocre driver.  Alonso out performed him this season and I think Vettel did the some in the season prior...  :/

He prolly should just quit and just be a regular guy, getting drunk and go out with girls.  It's getting pretty clear that he's not happy with F1 anymore.

Then again, I'd like him to stay for the lulz...  Esp after losing Latifi.  

A storm is ongoing in Australia.

They completely changed the schedule for the weekend.

The race will be tomorrow, and the sprint the day after.

I have also read the schedule changes on the official MotoGP website between the Main Race and the Sprint Race, where the Main Race will be held tomorrow and the Sprint Race on Sunday. And it looks like this will be a bit of a surprise for the riders at the top because Jorge Martin will definitely try to get 25 points in tomorrow's main race by trying to set the best time in FP2 and qualifying. Because today's Practice session was dominated by the KTM duo (one of whom was the host rider) followed by Vinales from the Aprilia manufacturer.

Martin, Baganai and Bezzecchi are simply the fastest at the moment and it's the little things that make the difference, but in Philip Island the weather can change quickly and as a rider you also have to deal with the wind.

Due to the presumably strong wind on Sunday, the race has now been moved to Saturday, here is the official announcement.

https://www.motogp.com/de/news/2023/10/20/zeitplananderungen-fur-den-australien-gp-angekundigt/480574

Jorge Martin again succeeded in being the fastest with a very good time in the FP1 MotoGP Phillip Island Australia session and soon the Practice session will also start again with very sunny weather conditions so that it will allow all riders to perform as well as possible in order to place themselves in Q1 and I will see if Bezzecchi and Bagnaia can perform well in this session. Apart from that, the scenery in Australia is always quite beautiful and can also spoil the eyes.

he's back.

It is official, Riccardo will be back in the car this week.

After the incident he got 1 month ago he will finally be back.