Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 200. (Read 141615 times)

Francesco Bagnaia, (as he is known as Pecco) no longer has to work super hard when participating in the Valencia race as the last race of the season. Due to the fact that with a distance of 23 points from Fabio Quartararo, Francesco Bagnaia only needs to finish in 13th position to ensure he becomes world champion this season even though Fabio Quartararo can be able to finish first, but he still will not get the world champion if Francesco Bagnaia can get three unit points in the closing race later. And I think getting those three unit points isn't such a tough job for Francesco Bagnaia because he just keeps himself from crashing in the race.

I did not stay late at night to see the US GP of F1 but I am glad I am seeing two Ferraris at the front which most probably because of penalties Leclerc won't be there but Sainz should start from Pole Position.I saw the videos now and he was extremely happy about this pole.I think Verstappen tried his best as only 0.065 of a second he was behind and since it is starting from the front row because of Leclerc penalty I doubt there will be an easy race for Sainz.

However Sainz still has a chance because the track is twisty slightly favoring Ferrari but one thing that I think will favor him more is Max not giving his 100% as there is no need to do so because he is already Champion for this year.

That's right @bestcoins1. Marco Bezzecchi was not ready in the final few laps which made him fail to stick with Fabio Quartararo who also started to find his motorbike speed a few laps to the finish.
The Ducati team clearly looks busy in building communication at this race to maintain their chances of winning the MotoGP which has been seen this year, as it has been a very long time they have not won MotoGP since they were last won in 2007.

We will wait for Valencia to decide.

This and a very strong riding from Bagnaia and also from Fabio, the championship decision is now in Valencia at the last race, Bagnaia only has to finish with points, for Fabio it will not be easy, he absolutely has to win.

The celebration of the world championship will take place in Valencia in the closing race of the season, as Quartararo was able to finish on the podium 3rd although Bagnaia managed to win after Jorge Martin fell while leading the race. Congratulations to Bagnaia because now the difference in points is 23 units and it won't be so difficult anymore when the race in Valencia on 6 November.

Unfortunately Marco Bezzecchi was not strong enough in the final laps of the race so Quartararo was able to make distance with Bezzecchi to secure third place because it was a position that prevented Bagnaia from celebrating the world champion at Sepang this time. If you watched today's race, you will know how busy Ducati was in communicating to and fro when Bastianini overtook Bagnaia and took the lead.

#MatchPointPecco
Interesting hashtags for racing at the Sepang circuit, Malaysia.
After Jorge Martín crashed, Francesco Bagnaia (Pecco) took the lead and was followed by Enea Bastianini.
It seems that Enea Bastianini did not let Pecco end the race with one podium.

Marco Bezzecchi, who is behind Fabio Quartararo, is willing to help Pecco win the world title at Sepang by overtaking Quartararo?

MotoGP class race has started, Bagnaia is in the front row and he is very comfortable because the other 2 riders Martin and Bastianini are with Bagnaia in the front row, while Quartararo is very difficult to compete with Ducati in the front row.
if this persists to the finish then it is very likely that Bagnaia will be able to become world champion this season.

I mean this is just a practice we are seeing, the pole position is not set yet, we are going to see that later night because of time difference, but at the end of the day I wouldn't be shocked if he took a break. We know they will get the constructors as well one way or another if not this race then next race, and Max already has championship as well, which means there is really nothing to race for.

At this point, they could even put experimental stuff on their car to test for next year as well, because they are that comfortable. I am not saying Max won't win, because we haven't seen anything yet, but if he ever loses, this would be a good time for him and Charles to win.

A very surprising line-up in Moto GP all three world championship favourites had mistakes, but I think tomorrow all three will go for points and not risk everything. So I don't think any of the three championship leaders will win, even though Aleix has only one chance to risk everything...

1   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m35.825s
2   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m36.145s
3   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m36.271s
4   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m36.397s
5   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m36.401s
6   Fernando Alonso   ESP   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m36.928s
7   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m37.064s
8   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m37.151s
9   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m37.215s
10   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m37.290s
11   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m37.310s
12   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m37.439s
13   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m37.468s
14   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   Haas F1 Team   1m37.519s
15   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m37.622s
16   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m37.888s
17   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m37.904s
18   Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing   1m38.028s
19   Mick Schumacher   GER   Haas F1 Team   1m38.132s
20   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m39.735s

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1015279/1/f1-2022-united-states-grand-prix-free-practice-results-3


this is the 3r session.

Remember, Leclrect will have 10 positions penalty and Perez will have 5 position penalty.

I'm thinking what if Verstappen is taking a mental break right now and he's just cruising out there.  Lol.  If there's a time when Leclerc has a huge opportunity to win a race, it's this one...  What do you guys think?

2022 F1 US GP FP2 Results

1   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m36.810s
2   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m37.525s
3   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m37.627s
4   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m38.232s
5   Mick Schumacher   GER   Haas F1 Team   1m39.507s
6   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m39.547s
7   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m39.575s
8   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m39.696s
9   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m39.840s
10   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m39.852s
11   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   Haas F1 Team   1m40.084s
12   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m40.178s
13   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m40.562s
14   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m40.664s
15   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m40.806s
16   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m41.310s
17   Fernando Alonso   ESP   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m41.334s
18   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m41.853s
19   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m41.857s
20   Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing   1m42.317s

Edit:  There's something wrong.  Did Leclerc get a grid penalty?  He's lined at 14.30 to win the race and Sainz at 12.90?

It's really very unfortunate for Francesco Bagnaia to have to start tomorrow in 9th position due to a fall in Q2, even though during the Q1 race, Bagnaia's Ducati mount had put out full power to get the best record.

However, Bagnaia's toughest rival Fabio Quartararo also did not have good luck in the Malaysian MotoGP because he had to start in 12th position. It will be interesting to see whether Bagnaia can get his title at the Malaysian MotoGP or must end it in the last series at the Valencia MotoGP.

Congratulations to Jorge Martin who got pole position for tomorrow's grid and he managed to score his best time of 1:57.790 seconds which is also an (All Time Laps Record). Completing the second and third positions are Enea Bastianini and Marc Marquez who will start the race on the front row tomorrow. It is a pity for Bagnaia and Aleix Espargaro who fell while doing a time attack to get the best time in Q2. Likewise with Fabio Quartararo who almost fell when he started to lose control while doing his best lap in the final minutes of Q2.

It is nice when we have these drivers taking part in practice and see what are their capabilities.The second practice showed Leclerc clearly ahead of others and I am happy to see Sainz topping this list now,probably Verstappen is there too and maybe in the official qualifying he will win the Pole Position.

I wonder which of us in Europe is going to see the qualifying since it is in 12 AM of the night with our time,I don't remember the qualifying of any US GP to be this late,max they were in 22 or 23 PM which is more normal for us to wait and see the qualifying but at least the race is in 21 PM so we are going to watch it.

1   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m36.857s
2   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m37.081s
3   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m37.332s
4   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m37.460s
5   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m37.515s
6   Fernando Alonso   ESP   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m37.713s
7   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m37.802s
8   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m37.810s
9   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m37.856s
10   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m38.041s
11   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m38.102s
12   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m38.276s
13   Alex Albon   ESP   Williams Racing   1m38.422s
14   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m38.898s
15   Mick Schumacher    GER   Haas F1 Team   1m38.922s
16   Robert Shwartzman   ISR   Scuderia Ferrari   1m38.951s
17   Alex Palou   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m39.911s
18   Theo Pourchaire   FRA   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m40.175s
19   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m40.325s
20   Antonio Giovinazzi   ITA   Haas F1 Team   1m43.063s


Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1015041/1/f1-2022-united-states-grand-prix-free-practice-results-1


So many 3rd drivers for the teams, the next hour will we have the official drivers.

Verstappen has already said that he is not concerned with the world championship at all and that he wants to continue what he is doing: winning races. He could still win them all. He is a favorite every reaction. He also makes almost no mistakes and he has only been driving in F1 for a few years. It reminds me of Senna how he used to drive. Too bad legends can't measure up to Max anymore. How would Max do if he could drive against Schumacher and Senna in F1? It's speculation, but I think they're about the same level in terms of talent. Verstappen started karting at a very young age and has already developed a great feeling there and learned a lot of tactics.

We see many familiar faces from F2 in FP1 session now. Stroll is one of the impressive drivers of this session but most of the drivers don't push much in practice sessions though. Even if Leclerc had a chance to win this Grand Prix he doesn't have anymore after getting this huge grid penalty. 

It seems like Ferrari don't care about Leclerc's race for the second place in the driver standings. They just want to make the car ready for next season by continuing to implement their tests on the car with new changes. If I'm not wrong the reason why the 5-grid penalty turned to starting from back of the grid is that Ferrari changed more than 3 elements in the engine. This would be another race dominated by Red Bull as usual.

Leclerc will take penalties again, and will start in the back of the grid, at least he will have a fun race.

He is also skipping practices due the rule of "teams must do practices with the 3rd driver during the season".

Yes, I also think that Ferrari should not be pushing their car for this season and should only take steps if they need that for gathering the Intel. They should now be focusing on next season and I'm really hoping that they will make enough changes to give head-to-head competition to Merc and others. On the other hand, Max has still got it and I will be really glad if he is able to bag some more titles. But I don't think that Hamilton will be able to disrupt him this season as he has aged and this is the time for the younger drivers to shine in my opinion. I'm really excited about what the future holds for Max.

Ferrari at this point are trying to improve the car for next year by gathering essential information on the track and this is good as this season is over for them , no need to push the engine further and car as well.

Now , for Max , he can still achieve the number of victories hold by Schumi and Vettel so for me , I have a reason to watch this GP and maybe Hamilton will come out of nowhere and steal the show for himself by taking the W.