Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 14. (Read 144458 times)

Bye to the title from Norris after this race.
A lot of thing happened.

Colpainto overtaking Hamilton.
Both Alpine in the podium.
Stroll going out in the formation lap.
Wrong start for half of the grid when the start was aborted.
Winnint from 17 position to 1st.

A black flag.

One thing is sure, Ferrari is very weak under rain and this was the hardest track for them in the paper.
They can still win the title.

A very unexpected podium Today, after a poor qualifying, Max Verstappen still won, very unexpected, but a big step towards the world championship.

For Williams it was a very bad and above all expensive weekend, both chassis probably totally damaged.

Mclaren looking strong once again, Norris needs to really give all he has and finish the race first, the last three races still could change so much, we are talking about one crash away from a single race, I understand the look right now isn't amazing, but with sprint race and Sunday race, we could talk about amazing results for Norris this weekend. That gap could drop down to one race gap, like 47 points right now if I am not wrong, an 8 points from sprint, and 25 points in the race would mean 33 points total, if Max gets a total of 14 points or less this weekend, which looks quite likely, then we could end up with just a race difference. Max finishing not so high is quite likely but I do not know what Norris will be doing.

With today's victory, Bagnaia has postponed the World Championship fight to the last race, but the chances due to yesterday's crash, I classify only theoretically, Martin will not be able to take the World Championship title, unless something unexpected happens, because he only has to finish with points.

Never seen so many red flag in a qualify.
We got 6 red flags, 2 hours session when it was to supposed to be 1, few destroyed cars.
Some teams like Williams needs to rebuild 2 cars in 3 hours, can even they make it in time? improbable.

Max 17th
Hamilton 16th
Sains 14th

Norris 1st.

Piatrsi 10th.

Rain is expected with 80% of probability. It will be crazy.

I also want to see a satellite team from any manufacturer to be able to become world champion in the MotoGP class because so far we have only seen the main factory team that has always succeeded in becoming world champion in the MotoGP class since the last time it was done by Valentino Rossi in 2001. So for this season I also want to see a new champion with a newer team, namely a satellite team so that there is a new aura in MotoGP today. And for today it seems like Pecco will experience quite heavy pressure because he has to win the race in any condition so that the determination of the world champion this season is focused on the last MotoGP series which will be held in Barcelona (as a replacement for Valencia).

so in the end Max got a penalty again for VSF infringement, what a dumb move he did.
Good for the wolrd championship.

As expected Ferrari is weak on this track, rain may help them due the higher variance added to the race.

Qualify has been postponed to 10.30 am tomorrow local time If I read correctly, (due heavy rain and scarcity of light for today evening time)

I do not expect Perez to leave at these last races, there aren't any races left enough to make that transition worth it at all. The change should be next season probably, we are going to see Perez out of the league completely as well, and we are going to see Colapinto start at Red Bull. Perez is not just leaving red bull, he is leaving formula 1 all together, he has been so terrible for the past two seasons that no team would ever want him anymore.



Max Verstappen is literally racing all by himself at this point, maybe that is a curse, being teammates with Max, maybe the car is terrible and what Perez does with that car is what any normal driver can do and Max is just insanely good and makes the team look better than they are, Colapinto racing and being terrible and so much worse would show that. In the end it's their car and their team so if they decide to fire Perez then the yare right. The results have been terrible so far and Perez needs to go, they need a change.

From what I saw there, Max seemed impatient and wanted to take the opportunity to cut Piastri who was in front of him, but it seemed that the aggressive move would cost him a 5-second penalty and he would likely be behind Charles. That would certainly be detrimental to Max because with Norris getting maximum points and him only getting a possible 5 points, it would further close the gap between the two of them in the drivers' championship.

Norris managed to win the sprint with a gift from piastri.
Piastre ended in second position.

So Mclaren got 1-2 position in the sprint race.
This was un expected news and Ferrari needs to limit the damage tommorow since this track should be a weakness for the red car.

Max ended in third position but he is under investigation and may get a penalty.

During the Free Practice and sprint qualifying McLarens were quite fast. This is quite bad news for Ferrari's constructors title hopes. But as for the racing pace we know that Ferrari has been better than McLaren in the recent races. The sprint race which is going to take place soon would give us more ideas about the teams.

After Pecco dominated since Friday starting from free pratice to qualification and he takes the pole position, but unfortunately he crashed today on sprint race which make the gap to Martin bigger.
There are some possible scenario for Martin to lock the World title tomorrow, the key is that Martin should earn 9 points more than Pecco in the main race tomorrow.
Will we able to see new MotoGP champion tomorrow or will we need to wait until the last race? I myself want to see the champion in the last race because if Martin will be able to lock the World title tomorrow then the last race will be a bit less attractive to watch although I want to see Martin secure it as fast as possible .

DISASTER.

Martin is now very close to be 2024 wolrd Champion of MotoGP.
Infact he will need to hold at least 38 points after the race of Sunday in Malaysia
Martin now has the hands on the title after the vitory of today and the crash of Francesco Bagnaia.
The italian was is a good spot after the quailify but he has now thrown everything in the dumpster.

He now needs a miracle.

Yesterday he also said that it's good that he crashed because it showed the limit for his race[1]. I wonder if things would be different had the opposite happened. Anyway, I believe if he manages to get 9 more points than Bagnaia tomorrow he will win the championship[2]. I wonder if nerves would get to Bagnaia or will it affect Martin instead.

[1] https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/1059379/1/jorge-martin-explains-malaysia-motogp-practice-spill-its-good-i-crashed-today
[2] https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/moto-gp/reigning-champs-howler-gifts-spaniard-motogp-match-point-in-malaysia/news-story/664a98bc7bf30467c44fdf5901bae24b

It was really unexpected for many people when Bagnaia had to crash in today's Sprint race, making the points gap 29 units with Jorge Martin. This is really very painful for Bagnaia because he will have a hard time catching up with the number of points that Jorge Martin has obtained because tomorrow Martin will definitely play it safer just to smooth his path to becoming world champion with a satellite team. And if Martin is really able to become world champion with a satellite team this season, it will be extraordinary for him because after Valentino Rossi who was the last time he successfully became world champion with a satellite team, no other rider has been able to do that until now, so Martin could be an extraordinary rider who is able to win the world championship with a satellite team after Valentino Rossi.

Piastri got P1 in the sprint qualifying session earlier, ahead of his teammate Norris, he finished it well and very smoothly, and most likely the sprint later he could get P1 (if only Norris was not in a hurry to get points).

And Max looks like he's going to be pretty frustrated in this race, seeing how he's sandwiched between McLaren and Ferrari, and his useless teammate.

And this race is also quite important for Ferrari because we know that their points gap is only 29 points with McLaren in the constructor championship - with Charles and Sainz in positions P3 and P5, it could be a good opportunity for Ferrari to close their position and further widen their chances of getting the constructor championship. I really hope that they can get the title because the last time they got it was in 2008.

Marc Marquez will keep fighting to win because he doesn't care who will be the champion this season even though he is no longer a candidate for the title this season. But from the speed that I saw in the two sessions yesterday, Bagnaia took the first position with an incredible speed that has put him first in FP1 and Practice sessions as well. And soon FP2 will take place, I will see where Bagnaia will be before going to qualifying to place himself on the grid.

2024 F1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix - Free Practice Results (1)
Pos   Driver   Nat.   Team   Time
1   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m10.610s
2   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m10.791s
3   Oliver Bearman   GBR   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m10.805s
4   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m10.950s
5   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m10.955s
6   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m11.038s
7   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m11.100s
8   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m11.124s
9   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m11.215s
10   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m11.216s
11   Liam Lawson   NZL   Visa Cash App RB F1 Team   1m11.301s
12   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Visa Cash App RB F1 Team   1m11.483s
13   Franco Colapinto   ARG   Williams Racing   1m11.619s
14   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber   1m11.651s
15   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m11.712s
16   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m11.754s
17   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m11.783s
18   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m11.827s
19   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m11.845s
20   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber   1m12.883s

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1059399/1/2024-f1-sao-paulo-grand-prix-friday-practice-results

Ferrari as expected is not so strong on this track but they may be hiding.

This weekend will tell us if Ferrari can or cannot win the constructior championship.

Yes, the two dominate, and that's good for us spectators. The World Championship battle is coming to a head, even if Martin still has a big advantage over Bagnaia.

It will be the same in the next few days, maybe Marc Marquez will interfere, or he will hold back a bit in this world championship fight, but I don't think so.

Can they do that?  It was just prolly Perez just saying good bye because he won't be with the team next season...  It's prolly not really because he's gonna be out of the team after the very next race after the weekend.  Lol.

But yeah, Red Bull should've made the move a year or so ago.  Everybody was already seeing that Perez wasn't a good fit for Red Bull except Red Bull itself.  Lol.

I'm not too excited for the team next year tbh.

Btw...  Verstappen is lined at 11 for the race.    Podium finish at 2.65.