Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 80. (Read 137555 times)

He just needs to be conservative enough in the races remaining and I am pretty sure when you have over a race advantage over you direct opponent you can manage it quite well.I think Bagnaia has more experience as he won the title last year if I am not mistaken and this greatly improves your psychological feeling against all other opponents,you have some sort of great and better self esteem than anyone else in this season as you are the reigning Champion and the one who has to risk it all if he wants to get something out of this season is definitely Martin,in this context he has nothing to lose so he will most probably try everything out in the remaining races.

Exactly, Bagnai has the advantage again, but I think he won't risk too much now, especially if Martin is behind him, better a safe second place than too much risk and a crash, a crash of Martin or Bagnaia is currently decisive for the world championship, I think the pressure is now more on Martin than on Bagnaia, Bagnaia will be world champion with a lead of between 10 and 15 points, I think.

What?What does that mean as it is not drivers fault that they consumed the bottom of their cars,it was a difficult track and they pushed hard,at least Hamilton did as he ended second so now the change of places will be really interesting as everything changed.

I had never seen this from 1996 the year in which I started watching F1 races and saw those great battles between Schumacher and Villeneuve at that time then him against Hakkinen and I believe the rest we all know about it.

It was a personal pleasure for Tsunoda to hit the fastest lap in the last lap after putting the soft tires and to add another point to the one that he got from the 10th place.

So Leclerc and Hamilton got disqualified for consuming the bottom of their cars.

Was I long time I haven't seen this thing happening.

Well, my prediction was correct, Ferrari couldn't maintain their position and ended up finishing in P4 and P6. Yeah, this is nothing new for us, it's common for Ferrari to make blunders in their strategy, in fact I think it's even very natural for Ferrari to do that.

And what was interesting for me was that Yuki managed to achieve the fastest lap on the last lap. This was quite an achievement considering that the car he was using was quite slow compared to the others but he managed to achieve the fastest.

Hamilton really had a chance to win there. Verstappen's braking issues could have cost him really much. He must be thankful that there weren't more laps left. Even 1-2 laps would have been enough for Hamilton to overtake him. Hamilton really pushed hard and used up most of his tyres. But it was definitely worth it.

I really liked Mercedes' strategy for Hamilton. I expected a similar move from Ferrari for Leclerc but they didn't call him to pit once again. He just tried to finish the race with those used up tyres which wasn't a great idea. If he pitted in lap 40 at worst then he could have also pushed with mediums or maybe even softs.

Well from potentially winning to the actual win there is a lot of space in between.

For sure he could have a big opportunity but never underestimate Max and RBR.

To be fair Hamilton could have won the race if the moves were switched, Mercedes didn't had a great plan for him, the one stop didn't work and if you go with two stops in mind and do that then you are going to be fine, but if you go with one stop in mind but then turn into two stop that always makes you lose points, you do not end up getting the maximum you could. This is why they lost, if they did good timing on both and did it at the right time, they could have definitely considered a situation that would be more efficient for him to race. This isn't really a trouble, but it is definitely not a bad thing neither. I personally believe it could be a good result without a doubt.

I really had hopes for Norris to take his first F1 victory today but once again RedBull and Max are really unstoppable as long as they have a correct race strategy.

Is Ferrari hating Leclerc or something ? because they love to compromise his races lately in order to give Sainz and advantage during the race but Leclerc is doing great in his car and deserves more from his team.

Aston Martin almost made a double top 10 from after starting from pits but Alonso had some bad luck after he drove superbly and had to retire his car but with Piastri on McLaren going out as well , the race for 3rd spot in Contructors championship is still wide open. 

Not only them but also the Ferraris lost the most out of this race as they started with Leclerc in pole position and as funny as it is it looks like he switched place with Verstappen as Verstappen got 1st from starting 6th making another rule get off the board in this track as before only guys starting from the front row have won before while Leclerc ended in 6th position after a bad decision to go with a single stop meanwhile they at Ferrari saw what happened to Hamilton and Norris who were posed to have the same strategy  and then changed because it was not sustainable.

In the first sequence, with everyone on the middle tyre, verstappen couldn't overtake his main rivals, he couldn't make up the difference, and despite this, mercedes and mclaren made the ridiculous decision to go for the hard one and finish with a single pit. Hamilton was 5 seconds off the pace when he extended the first sequence, similarly norris was unnecessarily behind when he extended the second sequence. Verstappen and redbull got a free win in a week when they would have struggled.

I don't think at this point Verstappen stand a chance to win the race,in the first stint he showed basically nothing except passing the two slow Ferraris but when it came to Mercedes or McLaren we saw that Redbull did not have anything more than them,like a gear more we are used to see.

I was about to bet on Verstappen before the race but the odds before the race got from 1.23 to 1.57 and just one hour before the race 1.31 so I thought not worthy to bet on him,most likely the bookies as always tried to play their games on us,yet this time I was careful and did not fell for it.

I'm afraid I don't think Leclerc can keep some good amount of time gap until Verstappen comes right behind him. I even doubt Leclerc about keeping his lead until then. Because Ferrari are still having problems when it comes to races. They are one of the bests when it comes to qualifying performance but they can't have a good pace in a long-running format. 

Norris was nearly hunting down Leclerc in the sprint race as you can remember. McLaren and Mercedes both seem to have better pace then Ferrari considering the sprint race performances. I just hope that Leclerc can manage to cling to podium at the end of the race.

Yes, it seems that the Ferrari strategy team this time was quite successful in getting Leclerc to P2. But this is still a sprint race, we are not in a real race yet, and the results may be different compared to this sprint race. Other teams may see some opportunities they can take advantage of to put their drivers in the best positions. Moreover, we know that the Ferrari strategy team often makes blunders which puts Leclerc and Sainz in a difficult position. If Ferrari's strategy remains the same, I think Leclerc can stay in P2 or at least in the top 5.

The only thing which would make the race beautiful tonight would be if Leclerc manages to create a gap with the others and Verstappen is a bit stuck against the other drivers in the few first laps of the race,this would give Leclerc and Ferrari enough time to think about some good strategy to maximize the race for them and of course when I say about strategy I am not talking about the big errors Ferrari garage makes but a real good one.

Verstappen said though it was a fine margin in the end of the Sprint so he knows very well he has a lot of chances to win the race and he will take it slow in the beginning,it is exactly here that the guys in front especially Leclerc should start pulling away.

Hamilton must have been excited for a short time while he was in Verstappen's DRS. But it didn't take Verstappen a long time to open the gap a lot.    It was an ordinary sprint race for Verstappen in which he was again comfortable. Hamilton at least got one more point by hunting Leclerc at the first times of the sprint race.

I still think Ferrari did good in the sprint last night. At least they both got important points for their team. You know Ferrari still have a chance to capture the second position in the constructor standings. They need to do better than Mercedes in the remaining time period of the season.

Max Verstappen was 0.5 seconds per lap faster than Lewis Hamilton and 1 second faster than Charles Leclerc in the 19-lap Sprint. In the race, i expect Ferrari to sacrifice Sainz again by starting him on the soft set and we will see a very aggressive Sainz for six or seven laps from the start. They'll pass Hamilton and Noris on their soft tires at the beginning of the race and keep them as far back as possible and try to protect Leclerc. He was able to hold Russell in the sprint and I think they will play that strategy in the race. Red Bull will also sacrifice Perez in this race. Perez can lead the race for two or three laps with a long first stint and a late pit stop, slowing down the rivals and trying to make way for Max like an icebreaker.

I expect Max to go into the first pit stops without delay, without losing pace and come back in the top 3. Max can hit 324 kms with DRS, the Mercedes can hit 316 kms, the Mercedes without DRS can hit 303 kms. Max catches and approaches all his rivals first and then passes them on the straight with DRS. Max will make five passes, and if we assume no Alpines at the start, and if we assume he drives the first three laps carefully and passes in sixth place, i expect four passes on laps 4-6-9-12. Leclerc, meanwhile, will be three or four seconds clear at the front. I think his will approach him in eight to ten laps after the first pit stops, tire him out, sniff out the right moment and i think he will pass him towards the middle of the race and take first place.

It was a quite boring sprint race. I only enjoyed the start as Hamilton had a great start which was enough to overtake Leclerc in a short time. Mercedes seemed quite fast today. I must admit that Hamilton was actually the fast one for Mercedes. Because it didn't go well for Russell and he got even a 5-second penalty.

Russell tried really hard to overtake Sainz but Ferrari have seemed very fast on straights so far. Even DRS wasn't enough for Russell to catch up with him as much as he would like. Verstappen just got a comfortable win in the sprint race by a big gap against Hamilton.

Btw Bagnaia today won and now he was the lead of 27 points.

This is huge since he went over the 25 points, in short terms he has now 1 gp of advantage over Martin.

Verstappen showed that most likely tomorrow he can win the race based on the Sprint of today and that it won't take longer than the first stint to do so.Looks like he still wants to win and the bookies have increased the odds of him winning the race not a little but not that much also from 1.23 to 1.57 so far and I doubt it can go any higher because he showed today that he is eager to win again.

I am very curious to see the behavior of the drivers in front of him as this is a very technical and difficult track and if they fight hard then he will need more than the first stint performance to win the race of tomorrow,that is the only question remaining for me.