Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 380. (Read 144145 times)

I'm amazed by how much Verstappen has overcome after getting penalties after penalties and starting at the last grid. I am a Mercedes and Hamilton fan and I hope Hamilton can keep the pressure up and maybe Norris falls and he gets the win. But I have to admit that this has been a great show by Norris, he is doing good. But all in all, I think if Hamilton can keep the pressure on, he might take over Norris.

Norris lost by himself.

His team called 2 times if I can recall correctly to change his tires to Intermediate and he said no both times.
He gamble, he did not cover himself to Hamilton and he lost.

Norris definitely gambled big and lost, I'm sure he was hoping the rain would let up, but he didn't get his wish. Otherwise, it was once again an exciting race with the rain coming down. The driver of the day for me was definitely Verstappen, more was simply not possible with his starting position, respect for 2nd place.

Man, this Hamilton guy won't stop losing, will he? Lando Norris was driving almost flawlessly but maybe the rain stopped him from getting the dub. Congrats to Hamilton on this huge achievement. I think it will take decades for someone else to break his record. From what I can see, the closest current player to him is Sebastian Vettel with only 53 wins and he is nearing his retirement. The legendary Schumacher even had 93 wins in his bag and Hamilton doesn't look like he is stopping very soon. Hope he gets some more wins.

What a mistake from Lando Norris he threw away his first victory in formula one.

Fun race especially in the end with a deserved podium for Sainz.

Bottas is a ghost.

Lol driver of the day:  Lando Norris. 

But in the end it all worked out for Verstappen.  Tentative results in the driver’s championship before the rain, he was 5 points behind Hamilton.  After the rain he’s just behind Hamilton by a couple of points.

2021 F1 Russian FP Race Results

1   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   53 Laps
2   Max Verstappen   NED   Red Bull Racing   + 53.271s
3   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow   + 62.475s
4   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   + 65.607s
5   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   + 67.553s
6   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Alpine F1 Team   + 81.321s
7   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   + 87.224s
8   Kimi Raikkonen   FIN   Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen   + 88.955s
9   Sergio Perez   MEX   Red Bull Racing   + 90.076s
10   George Russell   GBR   Williams Racing   + 100.551s
11   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team   + 1:06.198s
12   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team   + 1 Lap
13   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda   + 1 Lap
14   Esteban Ocon   FRA   Alpine F1 Team   + 1 Lap
15   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow   + 1 Lap
16   Antonio Giovinazzi   ITA   Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen   + 1 Lap
17   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda   + 1 Lap
18   Nikita Mazepin   RUS   Uralkali Haas F1 Team   + 2 Laps
    Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing   DNF
    Mick Schumacher   GER   Uralkali Haas F1 Team   DNF

Wow, what a crazy outcome of race - rain in final lpas bring some chaos. I think that Norris can blame only himself that he haven't won race. Team told him to make pit stop and change to inter tyres, but he turned Kimi mode on, a.k.a ''leave me alone'' and stayed on track. He gambled with big stake and lost a lot.
For Hamilton, what a way to achieve his 100th win!
Verstappen from P20 to P2 - amazing achievement and his gap to Lewis remains minimal.
And Mercedes failed with Bottas engine change - he was out of points and only rain helped him to reach points.

It was Lando Norris being inexperienced in such situations that lost him the race.While everybody else pitted to fit the Intermed tires he decided to stay out and try to do that 3 laps with the normal tires.He would have won the race if the rain would have not intensified as Hamilton was 25 seconds behind,and normally the distance between a normal tire and an intermediary one is about 7 seconds so 21 seconds in total.Anyway congrats to Lewis Hamilton on his 100th victory in his F1 career so far.

So I hope Norris can drive the race home, it's going to be difficult and Hamilton is putting on the pressure. But Verstappen is doing a great race and absolutely limiting the damage to the championship standings.

But there are still 13 laps to go, Ferrari is still expecting rain even though I don't think so.

Yes they did. It's sound more than than but I don't get it how Mercedes are doing something like this ? First of all, lets say that this engine has some failures that needed extra attention so they decided to change it again but how did they test the first one if they got no errors in first place ? It looks more like a sabotage from the team which is not the case but it's so ridiculous and Bottas probably just want to leave this team as soon as possible.

Also isn't is strange that everytime Max has a problem or he's racing like a kid , either Hamilton or Bottas or Mercedes are doing something bad to keep the balance for the title ? Lets be honest, Hamilton has so much experience that hitting that wall could be 1 in 1000 cases for him. It feels like someone somewhere really wants that title for Honda as I don't think its about Max.

Mercedes changed engine for Bottas again and he will start from P17. I just remind that they did it in previous race in Monza. Doesn't it looks ridiculous? What's purpose of it? Do they expect that Bottas will be able to keep Verstappen behind him?

Very weak performance from Hamilton in qualifying. This race was a huge opportunity for him, and he's not doing himself any favours at the moment. Normally he is very strong and doesn't drop points or positions easily... but today he has put himself in a weaker position than he should have been.

It was always obvious that he would use the engine change for this race, they had a limited amount of engines without penalty and they are gone, so he needed a new one. With a brand new engine, he could race a lot faster for a while, of course that engine would get older as well but unless he has another crash with Hamilton then we are going to see him a lot faster. Sure this race will be just points for him at the very best, I do not see him at podium for this race at all, finishing 6th or 7th would be the best case for him and even that is doubtful but that could be done.

However this means for the next 2-3 races we may end up seeing Max dominating the track, like proper Austria levels of dominating. Which is why I believe that we may end up with a proper WDC race for another 4 races or so. This all depends on him not crashing again, if he happens to crash again, then it may not end up very well for him.

It’s going to be a good race even tho the track is kinda meh.  We got Norris, Sainz and Russell ahead of Hamilton and we got Ricciardo and Alonso behind him.  Both drivers behind him pretty quick at the start of the race.    

I took fastest lap for Verstappen at 3.75.  It’s a new engine and he’s motivated to get as much as he can for the race.

2021 F1 Russian GP Quali Results

1   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m47.238s   1m45.827s   1m41.993s
2   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow   1m47.924s   1m46.521s   1m42.510s
3   George Russell   GBR   Williams Racing   1m28.303s   1m46.435s   1m42.983s
4   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m45.992s   1m45.129s   1m44.050s
5   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m48.345s   1m46.361s   1m44.156s
6   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Alpine F1 Team   1m47.877s   1m45.514s   1m44.204s
7   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m46.396s   1m45.306s   1m44.710s
8   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team   1m48.322s   1m46.360s   1m44.956s
9   Sergio Perez   MEX   Red Bull Racing   1m46.455s   1m45.834s   1m45.337s
10   Esteban Ocon   FRA   Alpine F1 Team   1m48.099s   1m46.070s   1m45.865s
11   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team   1m47.205s   1m46.573s   
12   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda   1m47.828s   1m46.641s   
13   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda   1m48.854s   1m46.751s   
14   Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing   1m48.252s   No Time Set   
15   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow   1m48.470s   No Time Set   
16   Kimi Raikkonen   FIN   Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen   1m49.586s       
17   Mick Schumacher   GER   Uralkali Haas F1 Team   1m49.830s       
18   Antonio Giovinazzi   ITA   Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen   1m51.023s       
19   Nikita Mazepin   RUS   Uralkali Haas F1 Team   1m53.764s       
20   Max Verstappen   NED   Red Bull Racing   No Time Set   

I agree that Max Verstappen won't be able to win this race as he is going to start from the last place. Even if the new engine is much better, it is really hard for a driver to finish the race as the winner after starting like this. As far as I remember, Sergio Perez did this actually in the Sakhir GP in the last season. But this can't repeat itself all the time. We got really interesting results after the qualifying but I still think that Hamilton will win this race.

That's pretty sad for Max Verstappen as he is starting last, which kind of eliminates the chance of his winning. But I think that Bottas will win this race. He has nothing to lose compared to Hamilton. Although he has that rush to show Hamilton that he is capable of giving his best when given the opportunity, and also he won the past two practice sessions so combining all that, I strongly feel that Bottas will win over Hamilton.

^ Starting last is never a joy for a player like Max. But he had his penalties - the crash and the engine change penalties accumulated into him starting last. I think this engine should be better than the previous one, otherwise, they would not have changed it right? So, even after starting last, I don't think he will win, but maybe he will be at least try to get the best placement he can. And with Max starting last, this is a golden opportunity for Hamilton, he should be winning this race whatsoever.

Very surprising result in qualifying, the first pole position since Brazil 2012 for McLaren. Also Russell with the 3rd place very surprising, possibly the 3rd force in Formula 1 McLaren and not Ferrari? For Verstappen certainly no mistake that 3 drivers start before Hamilton.

Also, both Mercedes drivers had crucial mistakes in qualifying.

Quoting myself.
In the end, they changed the power unit so they are starting from the last position.

The qualify is ongoing with medium rain, Verstappen and Leclerc will start in the last row. Gasly will be penalized too for changing the gear box.

So, FP3 got cancelled and it's likely that qualification will be moved to Sunday. Actually, weather in Sochi now is much worse than it was in Spa, but this track is much safer. Weather should be better tomorrow, but I still fear that Belgium scenario can repeat.
I miss times when they were racing even under heavy rain...