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

[Republikcoin.com]

That's true, but Argentina and Texas are Marc Marquez circuits, and it's difficult to beat him when he doesn't have the best bike. But that any other factory beat Ducati there, no.

In fact, that's already been seen, even though Alex Rins himself has also won at the circuit located in Texas when he was still defending Suzuki, where at that time he had a fierce competition with Valentino Rossi and also when he was still defending Honda LCR in 2023. But next weekend, all manufacturers will be at the Qatar circuit where Ducati can also return to dominating with their mainstay riders, but I want to see some other manufacturers to make a fiercer fight so that the race can be very exciting.

[Velvet78]

We have left Free Practice 1 and 2 behind already.

McLarens looked very fast as usual. Isack Hadjar surprised me a lot in the last session by finishing right behind them with a solid time.  

The same for Liam Lawson as he was the 5th in the same session. It seems like he got even more ambitious after being demoted to Racing Bulls. But the more important thing is what he will do especially in qualifying and race.

Full results: https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2025/races/1256/japan/practice/1

[retreat]

Doohan had a big crash in today's FP2 session. He destroyed his Alpine less than 10 minutes into the FP2, bringing out the red flag. Luckily he didn't suffer any serious injuries, just his car was quite damaged after the crash.
Liam demoted to VCARB seems to be a good decision after he managed to get P5 in this FP2 session, behind his teammate Isack who got P3. That's quite good, especially after he experienced stress at Red Bull.
As for Yuki he only got P18, even though in FP1 he got P6 behind Max. It seems like Red Bull did some tests on his car which made his performance drop. But I see that he is quite confident driving the RB21, hopefully there are no serious problems with him.

[coinlocket$]

2025 F1 Japanese Grand Prix - Free Practice Results (2)
Pos   Driver   Nat.   Team   Time
1   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m28.114s
2   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m28.163s
3   Isack Hadjar   FRA   Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team   1m28.518s
4   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Scuderia Ferrari HP   1m28.544s
5   Liam Lawson   NZL   Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team   1m28.559s
6   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m28.567s
7   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari HP   1m28.586s
8   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m28.670s
9   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m28.757s
10   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Atlassian Williams Racing   1m28.832s
11   Alex Albon   THA   Atlassian Williams Racing   1m29.023s
12   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber   1m29.062s
13   Gabriel Bortoleto   BRA   Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber   1m29.335s
14   Esteban Ocon   FRA   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m29.507s
15   Oliver Bearman   GBR   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m29.654s
16   Kimi Antonelli   ITA   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m29.733s
17   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m29.978s
18   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m30.625s
19   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m30.845s
20   Jack Doohan   AUS   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m31.659s

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1066787/1/2025-f1-japanese-grand-prix-friday-practice-results

Big crash fom Doohan.
I have not followed the free practice.
I only seen his crash on youtube, not sure if was his fault or a failure of the car.
However he hit the wall of tyres at 300kp/h and got no injuries, crazy.

[tokeweed]

We have left Free Practice 1 and 2 behind already.

McLarens looked very fast as usual. Isack Hadjar surprised me a lot in the last session by finishing right behind them with a solid time.  

The same for Liam Lawson as he was the 5th in the same session. It seems like he got even more ambitious after being demoted to Racing Bulls. But the more important thing is what he will do especially in qualifying and race.

Full results: https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2025/races/1256/japan/practice/1

It could also be that the Racing Bulls car is easier to drive than the Red Bull Racing one.  Dunno tho.

But this is just free practice.  We can't really compare it from a team vs team perspective but more from a team mate vs team mate one.  And looking at both results of FP1 and FP2, this Hadjar guy could be a good driver.  It's a pity he crashed his car at the Australian GP during the formation lap. 

Here are some vids to watch...

2025 Japanese Grand Prix:  FP1 Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tih4-2IpIfI

2025 Japanese Grand Prix:  FP2 Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49H4qtfUv24

[coinlocket$]

Looks like it was Doohan fault after all.
It seems that the driver has not closed the DRS at the correct timing giving him less drag force.

The Alpine manager said it was an evaluation error from the simulator to the real car.

Maybe on the simulator they were able to manage the curve with a different moment when close it.

[Distraction]

A nice sharing by Formula 1 official X account.    We have another really early race weekend for the people who live in Europe especially - including me.

It looks like McLaren is once again getting ready to dominate the whole weekend... But there is some rain possibility during race time on the other hand. Norris won the Australian GP under the same conditions. I wonder if he would do that again.

Does Tsunoda like understear on his car? If yes he will be competitive if not he will be trash near Max.

I hope Tsunoda likes it. In FP1 he was really good at keeping up with Verstappen. But things changed really negatively for him in FP2. 

[Volgastallion]

So we are again with the same problem as always in RedBull? What a surprise..... say nobody. We all know that is gonna happen, its not a driver fault, is a car problem and a Verstappen driver style problem, no one unless it share the style of driving with Max can do a good job in that RB car.

About Doohan.... no words, boy you need to show something and you are not only not showing anything for worst you are destroying the car time after time.

[el kaka22]

We knew that the problem wasn't with Lawson, but with the car. Yuki for example did terrible on second practice, which is understandable because it is his first times in that car and may not do so well. The qualifying will be even more important, to show his one lap pace. Because during race, there are many laps and you can make some mistakes during the race, and that could cause you to not finish that great.

But when it comes to qualifying, even if you make a mistake, you will have a chance to try again, plus you are not racing against anyone, it is just you trying to do your best, no overtakes or anything. On top of that, if Yuki somehow goes to Q2 or even Q3 then he will have many chances to show his very best. That should help him a lot.

[coinlocket$]

We knew that the problem wasn't with Lawson, but with the car. Yuki for example did terrible on second practice, which is understandable because it is his first times in that car and may not do so well. The qualifying will be even more important, to show his one lap pace. Because during race, there are many laps and you can make some mistakes during the race, and that could cause you to not finish that great.

But when it comes to qualifying, even if you make a mistake, you will have a chance to try again, plus you are not racing against anyone, it is just you trying to do your best, no overtakes or anything. On top of that, if Yuki somehow goes to Q2 or even Q3 then he will have many chances to show his very best. That should help him a lot.

It will not be easy for him.
Not only because it will his 1st weekend with a new team.
Not only because he will have a new race engineer, I think.
Not only because he has a lot of pressure to keep his spot.

But mostly because he is also is Home Gp, Imagine the situation, imagine the emotions. Crazy stuff, good stuff, good for him.

[takuma sato]

Like I said I wasn't expecting a top3 from Verstappen this weekend and the free practice did not deliver these prospects, but I expected better of Aston Martin. 17th and 19th doesn't look too promising unless they do some changes for tomorrow. Yuki Tsunoda finishing 18th isn't also that big of an improvement above Lawson. The biggest surprise is the Racing Bulls team performing so good. Let's see if the teams are testing things and the free practice isn't realistic. It's kinda amusing that Lawson placed 5th while Tsunoda placed 18th. Im just assuming things will change on the qualify and race.

[retreat]

Max just proved that even though the car he brought was not the fastest, he was still a monster. He managed to steal P1 from McLaren at the last second. He really pushed his car and managed to record a new record. That was just crazy. But unfortunately his teammate, Yuki, could only be in P15, it just proved that Yuki had not adapted to the car he was driving. Hopefully in tomorrow's race he can get a better position than that. After all, this is his hometown race.

[coinlocket$]

2025 F1 Japanese Grand Prix - Qualifying Results
Pos   Driver   Nat.   Team   Q1   Q2   Q3
1   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m27.943s   1m27.502s   1m26.983s
2   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m27.845s   1m27.146s   1m26.995s
3   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m27.687s   1m27.507s   1m27.052s
4   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari HP   1m27.920s   1m27.555s   1m27.299s
5   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m27.843s   1m27.400s   1m27.318s
6   Kimi Antonelli   ITA   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m27.968s   1m27.639s   1m27.555s
7   Isack Hadjar   FRA   Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team   1m28.278s   1m27.775s   1m27.569s
8   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Scuderia Ferrari HP   1m27.942s   1m27.610s   1m27.610s
9   Alex Albon   THA   Atlassian Williams Racing   1m28.218s   1m27.783s   1m27.615s
10   Oliver Bearman   GBR   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m28.228s   1m27.711s   1m27.867s

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1066894/1/2025-f1-japanese-grand-prix-qualifying-results

Crazy pole for Max, atleast we will have some fun tomorrow.
Tsunoda proved once again that Redbull is a car only for Max, nobody can drive it.

[Velvet78]

Max just proved that even though the car he brought was not the fastest, he was still a monster. He managed to steal P1 from McLaren at the last second. He really pushed his car and managed to record a new record. That was just crazy. But unfortunately his teammate, Yuki, could only be in P15, it just proved that Yuki had not adapted to the car he was driving. Hopefully in tomorrow's race he can get a better position than that. After all, this is his hometown race.

Yeah man. It was really a crazy qualifying session.    I wasn't expecting Verstappen to go for the pole even a bit. Only expected him to be in top 3 that's all.

It might not be only adaptation problem for Tsunoda though. The car might really be undriveable... He was struggling quite much with keeping the car balanced on the track.

Crazy pole for Max, atleast we will have some fun tomorrow.
Tsunoda proved once again that Redbull is a car only for Max, nobody can drive it.

I agree, there is really a car difference. Tsunoda actually showed us some decent results during Free Practices but that was all. It seems really hard to perform consistently for him.

[Koal-84]

Crazy pole for Max, atleast we will have some fun tomorrow.
Tsunoda proved once again that Redbull is a car only for Max, nobody can drive it.

Verstappen's pole position today was very surprising. If he gets off to a good start, it will certainly not be a start-stop victory for McLaren.

I really like this year because no team is completely superior and teams other than McLaren can also win.

[tokeweed]

2025 F1 Japanese Grand Prix - Qualifying Results
Pos   Driver   Nat.   Team   Q1   Q2   Q3
1   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m27.943s   1m27.502s   1m26.983s
2   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m27.845s   1m27.146s   1m26.995s
3   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m27.687s   1m27.507s   1m27.052s
4   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari HP   1m27.920s   1m27.555s   1m27.299s
5   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m27.843s   1m27.400s   1m27.318s
6   Kimi Antonelli   ITA   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m27.968s   1m27.639s   1m27.555s
7   Isack Hadjar   FRA   Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team   1m28.278s   1m27.775s   1m27.569s
8   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Scuderia Ferrari HP   1m27.942s   1m27.610s   1m27.610s
9   Alex Albon   THA   Atlassian Williams Racing   1m28.218s   1m27.783s   1m27.615s
10   Oliver Bearman   GBR   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m28.228s   1m27.711s   1m27.867s

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1066894/1/2025-f1-japanese-grand-prix-qualifying-results

Crazy pole for Max, atleast we will have some fun tomorrow.
Tsunoda proved once again that Redbull is a car only for Max, nobody can drive it.

I'm telling you guys...  The Hadjar guy might actually be really good.    He out qualified his team mate and he out qualified Tsunoda too who's in a supposedly better RBR car than the Racing Bulls' car.

So yeah, that tells us one thing...  That Red Bull car might really be very hard to drive and as I've said, it's Verstappen's elite skill as a driver that's letting him be competitive on the grid.  But dunno tho.  I mean how do we explain all the other second drivers who couldn't get the same performance from the car?

[Volgastallion]

Max just proved that even though the car he brought was not the fastest, he was still a monster. He managed to steal P1 from McLaren at the last second. He really pushed his car and managed to record a new record. That was just crazy. But unfortunately his teammate, Yuki, could only be in P15, it just proved that Yuki had not adapted to the car he was driving. Hopefully in tomorrow's race he can get a better position than that. After all, this is his hometown race.

100% agree with your statement about Max Verstappen, i really dont like him at all because of his behaviour and as a person i dont see him like a good one, but as a driver.... is one of the best of the history for sure.

About Yuki, what is next. RedBull summoning Hadjar because of his good results in Racing Bulls and when he is in RB having the exact same problems as any other driver in the past had?.

[coinlocket$]

I'm telling you guys...  The Hadjar guy might actually be really good.    He out qualified his team mate and he out qualified Tsunoda too who's in a supposedly better RBR car than the Racing Bulls' car.

yea he got some decent things and some other terrible things like in the 1st race in Australia.
About his prior career however he never won a title if I'm not mistaken.
Usually in F1 they take only world champions of previous categories, like if the others are trash drivers.

But yes I also think he has some potential.

[takuma sato]

Wow Max surprised me with that lap, he demonstrated he is probably the best pilot right now. The RedBull is clearly not a top1 car right now, but Max pushed it to the limit and somehow managed to get the extra time to get first position. However, im not sure he can maintain that rytmh tomorrow for so many laps. The superior car will have an advantage on the long run, but it also gets even out by the talent of the pilot. I think im not going to bet on anything tomorrow. It's not clear at all where McClaren and RedBull with Max stand right now. Plus there is also the potential rain tomorrow. I don't see no clear beats so I may just save the cash for the next one.

[Velvet78]

God, it was such a boring race...    Where was that rain before anything else?? I saw the weather as rainy every time I checked until race day. But we didn't have a drop of rain during the race.

McLaren just made a big strategical mistake today. Just why wouldn't you let Piastri overtake Norris? He had a better pace than Norris and Verstappen both.

A big win for Verstappen there... Honestly I didn't expect him to keep his lead just like that on a dry track.