Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM.....

[swogerino]

As predicted Ferraris are very competitive in this track.
The timers are still slow.

The pole position for 2023 was from Verstappen win 1.16.7, so we are almost 0.5 sec behind now.
With the improvements of cars and no changes in the track is easy to expect a poleposition for 1.16.0 or maybe even under.

If things go like that and even in Pole Position after official qualifying we have Leclerc and Sainz third then it means that we most likely are going to watch a beautiful race much different from the first 2 we have seen so far a total domination of Redbull.The problem though is that Max is there with just less than 0.4 seconds behind and I am sure he has not pushed to the max in the FP1 or FP2 but maybe also Ferrari have not pushed although I doubt it and I think that Verstappen will still be able to get the Pole Position tomorrow simply because he still has the best car out there to drive and I am sure he wants to win this title as soon as possible as the future is not known to the drivers,to some drivers at least.

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[retreat]

As predicted Ferraris are very competitive in this track.
The timers are still slow.

Yeah, Ferrari seems pretty competitive on this track, but don't ignore the fact that RBR often trolls people by giving way to FP but winning the race. But even so, I'm quite optimistic that at least Charles can give maximum performance in this race, and it's not impossible that he can reach the podium in the next race session - he just needs the right strategy to achieve this, and hopefully Sainz can race in the next racing session to help him, because I don't really expect much from Bearman.

[Republikcoin.com]

Today I saw Toprak riding a BMW motorbike so aggressively at the Catalunya circuit and I think Toprak could win this week's race at this week's WSBK event because he has improved so much with his new motorbike in today's FP session. Apart from that, the second round of the MotoGP race will also take place this week and I saw that Marquez fell today in the practice session and it was his first fall this season on a Ducati motorbike. So there are two races I have to watch this weekend apart from F1, because MotoGP and WSBK are also back this week.

[coinlocket$]

Phenomenal practice session for Marc Marquez today with the Ducati.
Unfortunately for him it was only free practice but he finished first and it hadn't happened to him for several months.

Let's see if he can do it again tomorrow but it's certainly encouraging for his season.
I don't think he can compete in the race but in qualifying he could have his say in the possible fight for poleposition.

[LTU_btc]

Logan Sargeant will miss Australian GP. His car is given to Alex Albon. During practice Albon had big crash, car suffered serious damage and Williams didn't had 3rd chasis to replace crashed one. So, they decided to sacrifice Sargeant.
From team perspective it's understandable, Albon have more chances to fight for points. But what kind of message they"re sending to Albon, I don't know... He haven't done nothing wrong and now he is forced to miss race because of temmate mistake.

[retreat]

Logan Sargeant will miss Australian GP. His car is given to Alex Albon. During practice Albon had big crash, car suffered serious damage and Williams didn't had 3rd chasis to replace crashed one. So, they decided to sacrifice Sargeant.
From team perspective it's understandable, Albon have more chances to fight for points. But what kind of message they"re sending to Albon, I don't know... He haven't done nothing wrong and now he is forced to miss race because of temmate mistake.

Poor Sargeant, he had to give his place to his own teammate just because his performance was not as good as Albon. I understand how he feels, how he has to give his car to another driver, it must be quite disappointing - but that's the race, he has to accept the fact that his team likes Albon more than him. I hope that at least Williams isn't in the bottom 2, because if that's the case, I'm sure that Sargeant will be laughing at Albon and his own team.

[Pulsar77]

Here is the starting grid for top 10 tomorrow:



Perez was actually going to start from the 3rd place however he got a 3-place grid penalty for impeding another driver during qualifying. This is bad news for Red Bull but I still believe in Perez to climb to the 2nd place to finish right behind Verstappen. Perez has started this season really solid. He looks like he is able to concentrate on his driving now.

Sainz has come back really great as he is starting right behind Verstappen.    I wonder whether we will see a nice attack against Verstappen at the start. Maybe you will say "Where is Hamilton?". He did a bad work in Q2 and he is starting in the 11th place. I hope to see a different winner this time but there isn't much hope I guess unless Verstappen has a problem with the car.

[swogerino]

Logan Sargeant will miss Australian GP. His car is given to Alex Albon. During practice Albon had big crash, car suffered serious damage and Williams didn't had 3rd chasis to replace crashed one. So, they decided to sacrifice Sargeant.
From team perspective it's understandable, Albon have more chances to fight for points. But what kind of message they"re sending to Albon, I don't know... He haven't done nothing wrong and now he is forced to miss race because of temmate mistake.

I don't think it is understandable from a team perspective if Albon fails to get into the points zone which I have confidence 100% he will not be able to under normal conditions as the 5 big teams Redbull,Ferrari,McLaren,Aston Martin and Mercedes most probably will have those spots taken if no accidents or Safety Car jumps in to change the course of a race.If you make a mistake you simply pay for it and don't take your team mate car to go racing,a really bad,extremely bad move from Williams which turned down all the respect that I had for them as a team for their history,apparently Williams is run by low moral people with these choices,no matter if Albon is a better driver you still can't do this.

[tokeweed]

Here is the starting grid for top 10 tomorrow:



Perez was actually going to start from the 3rd place however he got a 3-place grid penalty for impeding another driver during qualifying. This is bad news for Red Bull but I still believe in Perez to climb to the 2nd place to finish right behind Verstappen. Perez has started this season really solid. He looks like he is able to concentrate on his driving now.

Sainz has come back really great as he is starting right behind Verstappen.    I wonder whether we will see a nice attack against Verstappen at the start. Maybe you will say "Where is Hamilton?". He did a bad work in Q2 and he is starting in the 11th place. I hope to see a different winner this time but there isn't much hope I guess unless Verstappen has a problem with the car.

Damn, I totally forgot about quali.  :/  And never mind Hamilton wtf happened to Leclerc?  I was expecting him at second on the grid with Sainz at third to cover his tail.  But it looks like even he cannot over Sainz's tail.    First couple of laps are gonna be crucial.  Good thing he has Norris in front of him and not like somebody like Alonso or Perez or even Hamilton.

And Stroll out qualified Alonso?    Nice! 

Here's the quali highlight vid for the guys who missed it like me.  Lol.  The grid is something somewhat unexpected, so it should be a good race.

2024 F1 Australian GP Qualifying Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3l5-co8x2A

[panjul07]

Starting grid for the upcoming Portuguese MotoGP.
Not a good start for Marquez as he did not his best during the Qualifying round because he crashed on the run 1 and unable to get his best time.
Ducati is still dominating as predicted but I did not expect Bastianini to take the pole position as I thought it will be taken by Pecco or Martin.
How about Honda? The 4 riders take the last 4 positions LOL, how long they need to improve their bike and make it competitive again?

[joniboini]

But what kind of message they"re sending to Albon, I don't know... He haven't done nothing wrong and now he is forced to miss race because of temmate mistake.

I assume something like this is mentioned in his contract, or there is a clause that the manufacturer can use whenever extraordinary incidents happen. Otherwise wouldn't it be possible for the driver to sue them if stuff like this happens? How shitty it would be if a racer who can win the championship can't race because his teammate is better and more likely to win just because the manufacturers run out of cars to use. Although if that does happen maybe they won't do it like this.

[Republikcoin.com]

Today's WSBK Catalunya race was quite intense after Nicolo Bulega led the race on a Ducati motorbike from the Arubat.it Racing team, where he left his opponents behind by more than four seconds before being overtaken by Toprak on his BMW motorbike, which was extraordinary because The BMW manufacturer has not experienced victory in the WSBK event for a long time. Apart from that, Toprak, who is new to the BMW team this season, can immediately win with a struggle like that, which really deserves praise because last season he rode a very different motorbike to this season. Now I will wait for the Sprint Race for MotoGP Portimao Portugal.

[Velvet78]

Logan Sargeant will miss Australian GP. His car is given to Alex Albon. During practice Albon had big crash, car suffered serious damage and Williams didn't had 3rd chasis to replace crashed one. So, they decided to sacrifice Sargeant.
From team perspective it's understandable, Albon have more chances to fight for points. But what kind of message they"re sending to Albon, I don't know... He haven't done nothing wrong and now he is forced to miss race because of temmate mistake.

Sargeant is a big disappointment for Williams considering how Albon has performed so far. I was even doubtful about Sargeant to have a second chance for this season honestly.

This must be why they did such thing like giving Sargeant's car to Albon after Albon's crash. They don't trust Sargeant as much as Albon. I think any other team in the same situation would do the same as well. Anyways, we have the qualifying results and Verstappen is on pole which isn't surprising.    While Sainz was doing a good work too Leclerc couldn't show a good performance. I'm curious about who will be faster during the race.

[coinlocket$]

I didn't watch the qualifying, too early in the morning.
Excellent time for Sainz after the operation although I don't think it's such an invasive operation to undergo nowadays and I don't think he has any pain in the operated area.

I read about some errors in the settings in Leclerc's car.
Finally, I understand that Ferrari seems to be lighter in the tyres than Red Bull on this track with race lap pace, we'll see.

[Koal-84]

Phenomenal practice session for Marc Marquez today with the Ducati.
Unfortunately for him it was only free practice but he finished first and it hadn't happened to him for several months.

Let's see if he can do it again tomorrow but it's certainly encouraging for his season.
I don't think he can compete in the race but in qualifying he could have his say in the possible fight for poleposition.

Bastianini confirmed for me today that he has the absolute right to be in the factory Ducati team alongside Bagnaia, Marc was and has always been an exceptional rider but he has passed his zenith and will not become world champion again (as has been mentioned several times), the young generation now clearly has the upper hand in MotoGP, which I also think is good. The generation change has clearly happened after Rossi and Marc.

This change was difficult for me and Rossi fans and is now also coming to Marc fans.

[LTU_btc]

Sargeant is a big disappointment for Williams considering how Albon has performed so far. I was even doubtful about Sargeant to have a second chance for this season honestly.

This must be why they did such thing like giving Sargeant's car to Albon after Albon's crash. They don't trust Sargeant as much as Albon. I think any other team in the same situation would do the same as well. Anyways, we have the qualifying results and Verstappen is on pole which isn't surprising.    While Sainz was doing a good work too Leclerc couldn't show a good performance. I'm curious about who will be faster during the race.

Yeah, when they extended contract with Sargeant for this season I was very surprised because his performance last year was so poor. It's understandable that Williams have more trust in Albon, but still, this situation doesn't smells good as it wasn't Sargeant fault.
Didn't watched qualifying - sacrificing sleep on both weekend days is a bit too much for me . Not sure that I missed a lot, but already set up few alarm clocks on tomorrow's race.

[FanEagle]

If Sainz had rested a bit more,  I wonder what would have happened. This dude had a surgery, came back a week later, and now he is at second place, starting at the front of the grid. Normally you would expect him to slow down at least a bit, and that would make sense considering his situation, but looking at what is going on right now, we can say that it is not the same and really looking like there is a big change to it.

I hope Sainz does well in general and do not face any of this issues with his surgery, it feels like he doesn't feel "nothing" but also he must be forgetting all the stress and anxiety with all the pain he probably has. All that G force to a newly carved up person must feel a lot of pain, so he might be focusing better.

[püsür]

I didn't watch the qualifying, too early in the morning.
Excellent time for Sainz after the operation although I don't think it's such an invasive operation to undergo nowadays and I don't think he has any pain in the operated area.

I read about some errors in the settings in Leclerc's car.
Finally, I understand that Ferrari seems to be lighter in the tyres than Red Bull on this track with race lap pace, we'll see.

Ferrari should stop this leclerc love, it's like they've been trying for how many seasons, when sainz is clearly better in many aspects, it just doesn't work. If sainz is so close to verstappen with this car, they'd go head to head if he's a redbull driver. Leclerc's regular vilification has nothing to do with jealousy. In order for an f1 driver to be praised, he must have something extra, but Leclerc does not show these. Verstappen has not done something extra for 2 seasons because the car is strong, but Leclerc cannot do it when he has the opportunity.

[swogerino]

I didn't watch the qualifying, too early in the morning.
Excellent time for Sainz after the operation although I don't think it's such an invasive operation to undergo nowadays and I don't think he has any pain in the operated area.

I read about some errors in the settings in Leclerc's car.
Finally, I understand that Ferrari seems to be lighter in the tyres than Red Bull on this track with race lap pace, we'll see.

Ferrari should stop this leclerc love, it's like they've been trying for how many seasons, when sainz is clearly better in many aspects, it just doesn't work. If sainz is so close to verstappen with this car, they'd go head to head if he's a redbull driver. Leclerc's regular vilification has nothing to do with jealousy. In order for an f1 driver to be praised, he must have something extra, but Leclerc does not show these. Verstappen has not done something extra for 2 seasons because the car is strong, but Leclerc cannot do it when he has the opportunity.

I am sure we will see Sainz at Mercedes most likely next year as he will more likely be swapping places with Hamilton.I don't know if this will be a good move for him or maybe he will wait one year without a sit in Formula 1 waiting that promise from Audi many claim to be engaging Sainz for their first season in F1 during the 2026 season,I don't know what he will do but I do hope to see him in a F1 sit next season,he is one of the best drivers out there,no doubts about it.Ferrari love for Leclerc is just there,is a Ferrari thing,if you have seen over the years they have always had 1 first driver and a 2nd one and this I am afraid is not going to change any time soon,it just happened for Sainz to have joined later the Ferrari and as such to be considered the 2nd driver for the team.

[coinlocket$]

Sergio Perez had a 3 places penalty for impeding in today's practice and will now start fifth behind the second Ferrari.

Another mistake for this driver who proved to be quite weak.

But maybe that's exactly what Redbull wants.
A second driver that is unable compete with Max's victories and that at the end of the championship still manages to finish second ahead of the others.