Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 339. (Read 141876 times)

I also think that this was more of a bluff. But we will know soon, the qualifying has just started.

Regarding a possible penalty for Hamilton for repeatedly obstructing a fast lap, when will there be a decision?

Practice 3 done.

Max got some problems with his back wing.

Qualify will start now.


1   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m23.274s
2   Max Verstappen   NED   Red Bull Racing   1m23.488s
3   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m24.025s
4   Sergio Perez   MEX   Red Bull Racing   1m24.047s
5   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m24.106s
6   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda   1m24.223s
7   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda   1m24.251s
8   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow   1m24.595s
9   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m24.733s
10   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow   1m24.758s
11   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team   1m24.821s
12   Esteban Ocon   FRA   Alpine F1 Team   1m24.834s
13   Kimi Raikkonen   FIN   Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen   1m25.037s
14   Antonio Giovinazzi   ITA   Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen   1m25.048s
15   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Alpine F1 Team   1m25.094s
16   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team   1m25.115s
17   George Russell   GBR   Williams Racing   1m25.220s
18   Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing   1m25.322s
19   Mick Schumacher   GER   Uralkali Haas F1 Team   1m25.340s
20   Nikita Mazepin   RUS   Uralkali Haas F1 Team   1m26.332s


Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/994522/1/f1-2021-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-free-practice-results-3

I would go with Hamilton because i think that he simply has a significantly stronger car at the moment, basically since the last 3 races or so. Verstappen always has to risk absolutetly everything in the qualifying in order to be at the same level as Hamilton and last week in Saudi Arabia he had to pay for that. So i would guess Verstappen will not go all out today because if he crashes again or is not able to produce a valid round then the championship could already be lost today if he has to start from position 5 or so. So i think he plays it rather safe to day and would also be satisfied with a 2nd place in the qualifying today.

To be honest, I have no prediction for the result of the Qualifying. Hamilton and Verstappen are so close together after the 3rd practice Session.
What are your thoughts?

I've always suspected that those Alpine boys were planning something. And Alonso wouldn't have comeback if they didn't have a few tricks up their sleeves. Also, I’m really interested to see if teams like Alpine and McLaren can be competitive with the Mercedes and Red Bull with the new regulations, or if we’re gonna see the same few teams dominate.

P2 happened later yesterday, results for the top drivers were:

1   Hamilton     1:23.691
2   Ocon           1:24.034
3   Bottas         1:24.083
4   Verstappen  1:24.332
5   Perez          1:24.400
6   Alonso        1:24.495

Always difficult to tell who is sand-bagging, who is running a high fuel load, etc... but it's noticeable that both Alpines are right up there, as Ocon was last time around.
Is there really the possibility that the Alpines could get in amongst Lewis and Max during qualifying?

That can happen for sure but can also happen without any team orders,Max Verstappen crashes Lewis Hamilton in the first corner if they start side by side which will be the most likely scenario here and wins the Championship.I know this is not sportsmanship but both Senna and Prost have done the same against each other many many years ago and they won a Championship this way respectively.I surely hope to not see such an event but here at Abu Dhabi is all to be played for so expect anything from the drivers here,it is a declared war.

Max seems fast enough here, and he won it last year if I remember correctly, that should be more than enough to give him some confidence boost. Hamilton didn't seem all that well and lost a lot of lap times, normally he is not someone who pushes the boundaries all that much, I would have expected that from Max but not Lewis.

I am 100% sure that Lewis will get used to the new lap (yas marina changed this year) and he will be doing better at FP2, lets see what happens on FP2 and we could have some discussions after that, one practice run means nothing. Plus, most teams uses this as settings adjustment and not really a race practice at all, they check the car and see how it responds and make some changes on wings and tires that they are allowed to change in order to get the best results. I am guessing both teams will try their best outside of drivers as well, engineers must be 100x more excited then we are.

Is it not very surprising to you that Verstappen shows quite comparable speed with Hamilton, which is absolutely impossible to say about Perez? Personally, this surprises me, and I am absolutely not sure that it is solely a matter of Max's piloting skills. By the way, Bottas' car looked quite good in the previous race, but due to restarts, he was cut off from the leading group and could not participate in the fight for leadership because of it. Although of course we understand perfectly well that because of team tactics Bottas would not fight for the lead with Hamilton, but he could compete with Verstappen in the fight for second place, and that was exactly what happened at the very beginning of the race, before these accidents, which were followed by restarts.

It's not difficult question at all, they show this thing every race. And this year they are going to give special award for most overtakes. But I'm a bit surprised to see Kimi 3rd there because Alfa Romeo isn't that competetive comparing with Alpine or Aston Martin.

I also don't wantto see such thing. It would be shame if champion title would be won in such dirty way. But considering things which already happned this season, such thing is fully possible. And I think it's possible that back wings of both teams, Bottas and Perez may get involved into it andasked to make banzai move.
But if something similar would happen, 2021 championship would be remembered forever as one of the most contraversial.

I don't think it's a Mercedes upgrade, I think it's more that Red Bull were forced to ditch their illegal flexing wing for the later part of the season, which has dropped their performance. Mercedes have improved a bit, but Red Bull have dropped back. There is also Hamilton's new engine for Brazil, which obviously helped in Brazil and maybe a bit in Saudi. As for Abu Dhabi, we don't know how much sand-bagging is happening. Best thing in these situations is look at bookmakers odds, they generally have a very good understanding of what is most likely to happen.

I think is a bluff.
They did the same as the last GP on the practices sessions where they were hiding their real potential.

Anyway with the new layout should be easier to overtake so the fastest car, in the end, should win.

The whole thing seems like Mercedes idk how have upgrade so much their car so much, in the last races Hamilton its literally flying i think MV dont how much chance in the proper race.

Do you realice LW make the lap record in Jeddah with the endplate damaged, and i really cant belive how all the media say no, its because he have low fuel bla bla, come on man , all know that car its flying and its really strange how in the last races he have so much power than his partner and MV.

I dont wanna to put the finger over anything but its the same sensation i have in the 2019 with the Ferrari PU.(and all we know how it ended).

After all i dont wanna nobody to win because the two seems a really bad losers and persons, they didnt respect one rule, allways pushing to the limit and saying the fault was in the otherside. I know a champions its that but the two past by far the aceptable.

Sorry for my bad english as allways.

If you interpret it that way and continue to believe the current results, RedBull is not bluffing, it currently looks very good for Hamilton to win his next world title. But maybe RedBull is just bluffing and they can go one better tomorrow in qualifying. But we'll see, tomorrow, I think RedBull and Verstappen will be able to add something in there performance.

The second hour is done, with Redbull Hiding themself.

They were very fast on race paste.

2021 F1 Russian Grand Prix - FREE PRACTICE RESULTS (2)
Pos   Driver   Nat.   Team   Time
1   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m33.593s
2   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m33.637s
3   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda   1m33.845s
4   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m34.154s
5   Esteban Ocon   FRA   Alpine F1 Team   1m34.402s
6   Max Verstappen   NED   Red Bull Racing   1m34.621s
7   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow   1m34.678s
8   Fernando Alonso   CHI   Alpine F1 Team   1m34.762s
9   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team   1m34.837s
10   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow   1m34.925s
11   Sergio Perez   MEX   Red Bull Racing   1m34.938s
12   Kimi Raikkonen   FIN   Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen   1m35.052s
13   George Russell   ISR   Williams Racing   1m35.094s
14   Antonio Giovinazzi   GBR   Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen   1m35.178s
15   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team   1m35.334s
16   Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing   1m35.411s
17   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m35.630s
18   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda   1m35.934s
19   Nikita Mazepin   RUS   Uralkali Haas F1 Team   1m36.099s
20   Mick Schumacher   GER   Uralkali Haas F1 Team   1m36.230s

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/988198/1/f1-2021-russian-grand-prix-free-practice-results-2

Interesting question. I'm not going to google it, but this has to be someone who normally starts quite far back on the grid, but has acquired quite a lot of championship points. I'm going to go with Norris or maybe even Alonso, with Perez as a long shot because he always seems to start way back considering he's in a Red Bull. Actually, Ricciardo might be a possibility, too. But now I have mentioned almost half the grid!

I'd not consider Vettel, because I don't think he can overtake, similar to Bottas.


Okay, final decision: Norris.

---

Edit... I've just googled it and found the answer

Did you see how fast Hamilton was in the Mercedes in Saudi Arabia?  It was really fast.  Lol.  And here’s the thing, yeah the betting market shows Hamilton isn’t such a huge favorite.  That’s because there’s a lot more variables to consider since there are 20 cars in the grid.  But make it a head to head race with just Hamilton and Redbull how would you line that race?  I’d say Hamilton would be at most 1.25.

Some people claim that Verstappen would try to cause Hamilton to crash also. But I'm not waiting for such thing to happen and it shouldn't happen absolutely. Then even if Verstappen wins the title, this season will be remembered as a huge disappointment for F1 fans. And Verstappen would be against really serious hate by people. So it is better for him to have a clean race as much as possible.

This could be the last order from Mercedes to Bottas: Shoot Max out in the first corner....
I hope that we didn't see something like that too but nothing is impossible.

I also think that Hamilton is the big favorite now, because the Mercedes is just a few tenth of a second faster at the moment than the Red Bull it seems. Since they have changed the engine of Hamilton's car back in Mexico Verstappen has no chance to keep up with him, especially during the race. In the qualifying it is a little bit closer but even there Verstappen has to produce absolute perfect laps to have a chance against mercedes. You just need to lock at the other drivers of Mercedes and Red Bull. Bottas has not much struggle to keep up with Hamilton, which clearly shows that Hamilton has not even to risk a lot to produce fast times, while Perez is like half a second behind Verstappen in the Qualifyings.