Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 96. (Read 145174 times)

The decision has been made Bagnaia is double world champion, unfortunately decided by a crash, but Bagnaia is now fixed world champion, no matter what happens.

Congratulations to Bagnaia and also to Martin for being vice world champion.

The decision has been made Bagnaia is double world champion, unfortunately decided by a crash, but Bagnaia is now fixed world champion, no matter what happens.

Congratulations to Bagnaia and also to Martin for being vice world champion.

I'm going to make a bold prediction!

Leclerc to win the race and gather 1st position in the first couple of laps.

Piastri to finish second and consolidate McLaren even further and also a nice way to end the year as a rookie.

Max to not finish the race....a bit of karma for him for 2021 end of the season would be nice and fair.

Bagnaia lost points today.

Everything will be decided tomorrow, he just needs to end in 5th position to be the champion regardless of what Martil will be able to do.

The competition between Ferari and Mercedes to win the second place is quite fierce, because Lecrec is in P2 and Russel in P4 in the race later. But I think that Mercedes might be able to maintain their second place, because Mercedes drivers are in a good position (P4 and P11) compared to Ferari (P2 and P16). But I don't know, maybe Ferari could get a second place in the race later if the strategy team did not do the blunder as they used to do.

-snip-

I'm quite excited about the ongoing fight between Ferrari and Mercedes for the 2nd spot. That slight gap can surely be closed here so Mercedes had better be wide awake in Abu Dhabi. 

Bagnaia played very calmly in today's sprint and managed to finish fifth and Marti managed to reduce the points gap with Bagnaia to 14 and for today no one can blame Martin because he managed to get a podium for him, for tomorrow's race it will certainly be very interesting for us to see Whether Martin can get his first podium like today or whether the incident that happened in Qatar will happen again.

In any case, Bagnaia got the better starting position in qualifying. Martin now has even more pressure and has to attack, Bagnaia will take the race safely today and wait and see what happens, the important thing for Bagnaia is not to have an accident and not drop out.

Bagnaia will just try to stay calm and not take too many risks that could harm him in tomorrow's Sprint and Race sessions, because from the qualifying session this is also the case where Bagnaia always enters the pit early and also always stops early even though he still has time for one more lap. Martin continued to blame the front tire for shaking, which made Michelin respond because all the tires were distributed the same and nothing was different in any way. And I will wait for the Sprint which will be held soon because maybe this Sprint will be really fierce.

In any case, Bagnaia got the better starting position in qualifying. Martin now has even more pressure and has to attack, Bagnaia will take the race safely today and wait and see what happens, the important thing for Bagnaia is not to have an accident and not drop out.

In any case, Bagnaia got the better starting position in qualifying. Martin now has even more pressure and has to attack, Bagnaia will take the race safely today and wait and see what happens, the important thing for Bagnaia is not to have an accident and not drop out.

1   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m26.072s
2   Felipe Drugovich   BRA   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m26.360s
3   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m26.433s
4   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m26.453s
5   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m26.631s
5   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m26.665s
7   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m26.676s
8   Robert Shwartzman   ISR   Scuderia Ferrari   1m26.703s
9   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m26.720s
10   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m26.725s
11   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m26.742s
12   Frederik Vesti   DEN   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m26.815s
13   Jack Doohan   AUS   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m26.865s
14   Theo Pourchaire   FRA   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m27.093s
15   Patricio O'Ward   MEX   McLaren F1 Team   1m27.114s
16   Jake Dennis   GBR   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m27.208s
17   Isack Hadjar   FRA   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m27.244s
18   Zak O'Sullivan   GBR   Williams Racing   1m27.460s
19   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m27.462s
20   Oliver Bearman   GBR   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m27.569s

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1041750/1/f1-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-2023-friday-practice-results

Many 3rd drivers in this 1st hour of practice.

The track will also improve a lot cause sand is on track here always every year in the 1st hour.

~

Many 3rd drivers in this 1st hour of practice.

The track will also improve a lot cause sand is on track here always every year in the 1st hour.

Martin has stated that he had a very bad rear tyre (hence his statement in an interview "They stole the title from me"), which may or may not be true, but with the one-size-fits-all tyres you have to be a bit unlucky if he really has a very bad tyre.

I would say the only way Martin has a chance of winning the championship is if Bagnaia crashes in the sprint race and Martin wins, then the pressure on Bagnaia in the Sunday race would be huge, otherwise Martin always has the pressure to win.