Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 104. (Read 141539 times)

Today's weather conditions in India are very sunny and hot, so there is the possibility of quite a fierce fight if there are no incidents like yesterday at several corners, including the first corner, because there is a very vulnerable situation for every rider to get hit. Soon the Indian MotoGP Race will start and in my opinion this schedule is a little early because India is a country in the Asian region, now let's get ready to watch the MotoGP Race on a new circuit this season with the second longest track after Mugello.

Singapore really is Max's weakness, although still pretty impressive nonetheless. Half a second time gap from the second best driver of the day is really something else. His teammate seem to be struggling in getting around the corners though, and even performed worse than the free practice session. Expecting to see Max conquer Japan GP with effort and stunning results (as always), while I'm hoping for Perez to grind more and come close to what his teammate is achieving in this track.

Max will win for sure unless something happens.

In the past race, it seems they only got problems with the temperature of the tyres.

We still do not know their secret.

This track is a very technical one as I said and it means that one driver no matter who he is should be completely focused 100% during the whole race as there are quite some deceiving turns in here which can put you out of the race in an instant.This danger is of course for everyone from the top guy to the 20th guy,they all risk the same and this is another factor that should make the race interesting to watch despite Redbull dominance during this race.

That is why I think to bet on a Safety Car yes during the race of tomorrow,one race incident in this track it means that directly the Safety Car will be deployed.It may as well change the race as in Singapore it was very lucky for Ferrari and very unlucky for Redbull the moment in which the Safety Car was deployed.

The time of both McLaren and Ferrari are really close. Probably 0.1 second of difference if I am not wrong. But Max Verstappen has definitely done really well. And he is actually ahead by more than half a second as you said. That was really incredible.

I think Red Bull should play this one safely. They should be able to win easily in my opinion as well. But of course, the conditions will have to be good. Under good conditions and the car is perfectly driven, I don't think they will have any problems. I am not trying to insult anyone by saying that he might not drive the car properly. There is a reason why he is the world's best. But they should not get ahead of themselves.

Actually, there are not only two races for tomorrow, but in general there are three races with different names in each name, namely the Indian MotoGP race, the Spanish Aragon WSBK race and F1 in Japan. This means that everyone can wait and see each race in one day because the race schedules are different so it is very possible to watch them all in one day.

Bagnaia is back to health now because he only suffered bruises during the accident in Barcelona and today Bagnaia also managed to finish second in the Sprint Race behind Jorge Martin. If only there had not been an incident between Luca Marini and Bezzecchi at the first corner, I think the race would have been much fiercer because after this incident, Bezzecchi dropped to 18th position, but was still able to recover and finish in the top five in today's Sprint Race.

Tomorrow I think we can watch two races in a day as one race is in Japan and the other in India which are with 4 hour difference in time so we can see nice racing action tomorrow.If I miss the early race of F1 in Japan (highly unlikely) then I am sure I will be waked in the MotoGP race.

The MotoGP has had some really bad crashes in this season with Bagnaia leading the worse of them and having some health issues because of that.Now the Championship is open again in MotoGP much different from that of F1 which is over from many years ago.

The condition of the Indian MotoGP circuit which is still quite wet will create more interesting surprises in this Sprint Race. I really hope there will be a fiercer battle because the Indian circuit has quite long straight tracks and a rather complicated corner layout so it is possible that some riders might experience unexpected things. Hopefully tomorrow the track conditions will not be like today so that there will be more different competition in the race.

Verstappen is back in business again.    It was such an amazing qualifying performance by him. He took pole position by a really significant time gap. Just as I expected he is very ambitious to make up for the result of the Singapore GP. I will be expecting the same performance from him in the race as well. I can't imagine the time gap there.

By the way Perez's performance was really poor. Maybe he got used tyres but he was still too low than he should have been. He will need to climb the positions in the race.

Max is definitely back and with a good margin of a distance set in the final qualifying lap,more than half a second faster than both Ferraris and McLarens,also than his team mate but his team mate is just a mediocre driver as Hamilton said,Max would not be entertaining himself and definitely would not be laughing that much.

It is a really technical track and in here the aerodynamics design of the car is making a huge difference,of course when driven by a very fast and aggressive driver like Verstappen is,so for tomorrow race if conditions are normal,no rain,no crashes and Safety Car it is going to be a very easy win for Redbull.

2023 F1 Japanese Grand Prix - Free Practice Results (3)
Pos    Driver    Nat.   Team    Time
1   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m30.267s
2   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m30.507s
3   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m30.555s
4   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m31.004s
5   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m31.022s
6   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m31.137s
7   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m31.159s
8   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m31.505s
9   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m31.549s
10   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m31.668s
11   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m31.699s
12   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m31.880s
13   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m31.924s
14   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m31.951s
15   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m31.979s
16   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m30.002s
17   Liam Lawson   NZL   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m32.048s
18   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m32.113s
19   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m32.154s
20   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m32.199s

FP3 results, https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1036374/1/f1-japanese-grand-prix-2023-final-practice-results

It seems Max is definitively back.

Qualify just started

The average human can take about 5G and Stroll's accident was almost 50G and he survived with only very light injuries. With that kind of force, I'm sure that an ordinary person's neck would immediately break and be critically injured. This proves how F1 drivers are on a different level compared to ordinary people - they train very hard to get used to the high G-forces.

Max as always, to be fair this was just practice so that doesn't mean anything at all and you wouldn't know if the other team is sandbagging or not, but we can definitely see Red Bull back at top right now. They just had one weak week and that is understandable, we couldn't expect them to have 100% win rate all season long, and that was the one they lost.

They could end up with something that would be a bit more interesting to see, this week Japan race will be quite entertaining because of the fast corners, you still turn but there are plenty of places where you turn with full speed, without braking, and that requires a lot of talent. Most rookies let go off the gas a bit and not go full throttle, we will see how it goes.

2023 Indian MotoGP, Buddh International Circuit - Practice (2) Results
Pos   Rider   Nat   Team   Time/Diff   Lap   Max
1   Luca Marini   ITA   Mooney VR46 Ducati (GP22)   1'44.782s   24/25   340k
2   Jorge Martin   SPA   Pramac Ducati (GP23)   +0.008s   24/27   348k
3   Aleix Espargaro   SPA   Aprilia Racing (RS-GP23)   +0.051s   22/24   341k
4   Marc Marquez   SPA   Repsol Honda (RC213V)   +0.335s   26/28   346k
5   Marco Bezzecchi   ITA   Mooney VR46 Ducati (GP22)   +0.420s   22/24   348k
6   Maverick Viñales   SPA   Aprilia Racing (RS-GP23)   +0.431s   19/21   346k
7   Francesco Bagnaia   ITA   Ducati Lenovo (GP23)   +0.498s   22/24   341k
8   Fabio Quartararo   FRA   Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1)   +0.509s   24/29   344k
9   Johann Zarco   FRA   Pramac Ducati (GP23)   +0.523s   23/24   344k
10   Joan Mir   SPA   Repsol Honda (RC213V)   +0.550s   19/21   346k

This week we also have MotoGP.

These are the results, it is the 1st time they are racing here.

source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/results/1036251/1/indian-motogp-buddh-international-circuit-friday-practice-results

Yup...  Red Bull obv not gonna just allow to be owned like that for a couple of GP's straight.  And it's somewhat a 'home race' as they're representing Honda as part of their team effort.

Anyway, it's funny how Liam Lawson is having a better performance than Ricciardo.  I think he ends Ricciardo's career with as a RBR F1 driver.  Poor guy...  I was rooting for him to do well this season.  Tough luck breaking his hand.  I mean wtf, why now at the most crucial time.

Here are the results for FP2.

2023 Japanese GP FP2 Results

Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m30.688s
2   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m31.008s
3   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m31.152s
4   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m31.237s
5   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m31.328s
6   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m31.492s
7   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m31.555s
8   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m31.662s
9   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m31.710s
10   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m31.739s
11   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m31.771s
12   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m31.794s
13   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m31.797s
14   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m31.829s
15   Liam Lawson   NZL   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m32.141s
16   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m32.165s
17   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m32.169s
18   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m32.178s
19   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m31.179s
20   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing

Ferrari drivers were doing okay in FP1 and FP2 but it wasn't a superb result. Because Verstappen was so comfortable in both sessions. The gap was really big in both of them. But I was expecting him to be ambitious throughout the weekend in Japan already. It was obvious from his statement after the Singapore GP.

If he is dominating even free practice sessions then I can't imagine the qualifying session and race.    Verstappen is a monster in Japan already. I mean the latest race on Suzuka track was under Verstappen's dominance by far. We are likely to watch a similar race to that.

Therefore it wouldn't probably be much competition for the win this time. But hopefully the podium fight can be enjoyable to follow.

Apart from that, all riders are also studying the layout of the new Indian circuit today because there are several corners that look so difficult that each rider needs to find adjustments for themselves. The weather conditions are quite good and the straight track is also very long so it will be easy food for a manufacturer like Ducati which is very famous for its power. Now I'm watching the P2 session for Moto3 while watching FP1 for WSBK because this weekend WSBK will also be held in Aragon, Spain.

On the new MotoGP track in India, many are still looking for their setup and the best tyre choice, but so far everyone  tried the soft and medium tyres, on the new track there will still be too little grip for harder tyres. So far it looks like Bezzecchi will be the best on the new track, new tracks usually make for an exciting weekend 😊.

Max looks back and with a big margin at his hands despite the Ferrari being second,it is 0.7 seconds in a lap in a technical track like this one meaning will be difficult for any team to have a go at trying to stop these guys.It was a good thing that at least Ferrari won in Singapore as at least this Championship season was not going to have finished with Redbull winning every race,that would have been really bad for fans and viewers of this sport.

The good thing though that come out from this qualifying practice is that most teams are with less than 0.5 seconds distance between all of them and this promises fierce competition in Sunday race.

2023 F1 Japanese Grand Prix - Free Practice Results (1)
Pos    Driver    Nat.   Team    Time
1   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m31.647s
2   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m32.273s
3   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m32.392s
4   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m32.574s
5   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m32.597s
6   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m32.650s
7   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m32.713s
8   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m32.991s
9   Liam Lawson   NZL   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m33.005s
10   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m33.040s
11   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m33.043s
12   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m33.129s
13   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m33.310s
14   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m33.448s
15   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m33.516s
16   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m33.699s
17   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m33.860s
18   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m33.975s
19   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m34.212s
20   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m34.831s

Free practice 1 done in Japan.

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1036174/1/f1-japanese-grand-prix-2023-friday-practice-results


Max is back, Ferraris confirm their strength.