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

[boltz]

I hope Verstappen has a good start today and can challenge Hamilton throughout the race. Will be difficult to beat for Verstappen, Hamilton and Mercedes. But it could. be possible today.

Spanish GP is really one of the hardest races on the calendar for sure. Because it's really hard to get past your opponents here. So one of the most important parts of the race is the start of course. If Hamilton manages to keep his place and Mercedes has a better pit strategy, I'm afraid Verstappen won't be able to pass him most probably.

Well , Barcelona is well known for drivers when it comes to defending positions as like you said , it's really hard to overtake here and personally I never liked this circuit but I will watch the race with the same enthusiasm.

Regarding the start, I saw the start yesterday from F3 and there is a slight chance that Max will overtake Hamilton until the 1st corner but if Lewis gets a MEDIUM start ( not even a great one ) it will be impossible for Max to overtake him and we will have another boring race like in Portimao....great for drivers , ugly for the fans.

[jakdanyel]

I hope Verstappen has a good start today and can challenge Hamilton throughout the race. Will be difficult to beat for Verstappen, Hamilton and Mercedes. But it could. be possible today.

Spanish GP is really one of the hardest races on the calendar for sure. Because it's really hard to get past your opponents here. So one of the most important parts of the race is the start of course. If Hamilton manages to keep his place and Mercedes has a better pit strategy, I'm afraid Verstappen won't be able to pass him most probably.

Well , Barcelona is well known for drivers when it comes to defending positions as like you said , it's really hard to overtake here and personally I never liked this circuit but I will watch the race with the same enthusiasm.

Regarding the start, I saw the start yesterday from F3 and there is a slight chance that Max will overtake Hamilton until the 1st corner but if Lewis gets a MEDIUM start ( not even a great one ) it will be impossible for Max to overtake him and we will have another boring race like in Portimao....great for drivers , ugly for the fans.

Yeah, I also feel like we could watch a boring race here. That's why people don't like this GP too much. The more overtaking opportunities the better the race. I hope that Verstappen has a good start and help us watch a really enjoyable race.

[tokeweed]

^  Verstappen did get pole from Hamilton at the start.  But Hamilton just has more grip right now with him making a two stop strategy with medium tires.  Verstappen couldn’t push the car anymore with those medium tires.  He did a second pit stop to get the softs and get the extra point for the fastest lap.  Better race overall than Portugal imho.

[boltz]

What a recovery race from Lewis and not only once but twice which makes this even more impressive and it seems that slowly everyone is starting to acknowledge as the greatest of all time because this year he is present in the Driver of the day polls and even on socials medias he gets the well deserved cheers and prays. Overall , Max did everything what he could but he needs someone who can act quick on key timing times and under pressure. Ferrari with Leclrerc and Sainz did a great job to keep them both in points and even more to take that 4th position who was destined for Perez.

Hope to see more races like this but the fight should be tighter and closer until the last 4 laps but after this race I see Lewis with his 8th title already in his pockets....

[Cnut237]

What a recovery race from Lewis and not only once but twice which makes this even more impressive and it seems that slowly everyone is starting to acknowledge as the greatest of all time

I do think he's the greatest ever, and he did drive very well today after that poor start from pole... but a huge amount of credit has to go to the Mercedes tacticians today, who really caught Red Bull cold with that surprise second stop. Poor attitude from Bottas though, when he didn't allow Hamilton to pass despite team orders... Bottas really unleashed his inner Rosberg at that moment, but in the end it didn't matter.

[LTU_btc]

I don't think that Lewis did something extraordinary today. Yes, his recovery was great, but it's more because of Mercedes tactics. Or I should say because Red Bull failed with their strategy today. Offcourse, it's easy to talk after race, but 1 pit stop strategy wasn't good decision.
P4 for Leclerc is best thing what Ferari were able to achieve today. Another poor race for Vettel and he is still without points. I didn't expected something amazing from him, but so far he looks very disappointing.
Fun fact - Mazespin got 4th place in Driver of the Day voting .

Poor attitude from Bottas though, when he didn't allow Hamilton to pass despite team orders... Bottas really unleashed his inner Rosberg at that moment, but in the end it didn't matter.

Well, I can understand his behaviour - he is pissed off with all these team orders. But after this moment, Toto Wolf face didn't looked happy .

[boltz]

I feel bad for Bottas because without him as a wingman I'm sure Lewis would have slept at least a tittle in the favor of Vettel at ferrari (2017 or 2018 ) but Bottas really did his job better than any wingman so far. It might be true that his time has come because he no longer seems to focus on the race and he if Perez gets that RedBull to his style , I'm afraid that Bottas no longer can catch that 3rd spot on the grid.

[Luzin]

The next MotoGP or the 5th session will be placed in France, Le Mans Circuit, Quartararo home. he finishes 13th in Spain. so, Bagnaia was taken over in his 1st position, with 2 points left. will Quartararo take his 1st position again? we will see in the next 16 May. I hope his Arm pump has recover well. we know because that injured he appearance decreased from 1st to 13th.

I'm curious about Marquez if he can still look the way he was before his injury. His performance in Spain yesterday was quite good after a long injury time. In fact, he is quite good among other Honda racers. Regarding Quartararo, yes he is the favorite racer to win this season. He was able to take advantage of Yamaha's strengths in the environment very well.

[swogerino]

This was a better race I think with Verstappen and Honda showing improvements race after race.The race was won from the engineers at Mercedes and Red Bull team needs to take some notes for today race as they lost it in the final stages of the race because of their bad strategy.It looks like this will be a better F1 Championship compared to the one of last year.

[coinlocket$]

Another win from Hamilton.
This battle between and Verstappen is very entertaining and it was the only enjoyable thing of this boring GP.

It's a hard fight between Barcellona and Hungary for the most boring GP in the calendar.

The win came for the box this time, it was a strategy win.

GG to Mercedes.

[sana54210]

I do believe that if Verstappen went for a pit on right after Hamilton, he would have a chance to win. I am not saying that he would win very easily, all I am saying is that he would probably have enough time to either go out at first once again, which could be a problem and Hamilton could have been first and after that it is a difficult task to catch up to him but at least you have a chance with a DRS window maybe (albeit spain is a difficult track to pass anyone, let alone Hamilton) but at least you had a chance.

This way it was always obvious that he would have slowed down, Hamilton had a great run and kept increasing his speed time and time after again and again which is a great thing but the main problem was Max couldn't go, his tireware was just way too much, if he pitted even a few laps after Hamilton he would have at least be second again but have a chance.

[AndySt]

I feel bad for Bottas because without him as a wingman I'm sure Lewis would have slept at least a tittle in the favor of Vettel at ferrari (2017 or 2018 ) but Bottas really did his job better than any wingman so far. It might be true that his time has come because he no longer seems to focus on the race and he if Perez gets that RedBull to his style , I'm afraid that Bottas no longer can catch that 3rd spot on the grid.

I would not write off Bottas so early, although of course he is not getting as strong a start to the championship as Hamilton and Verstappen. I think that much will still depend on the improvement of racing cars during the championship, because it seems that in the beginning there was a clear advantage for Red Bull, but the Mercedes engineers have already removed this advantage, so if this trend continues, Bottas will be able to compete not only with Perez, but also with Verstappen. But if Bottas fails to add to the results, it could be worth extending his contract for next season, despite Hamilton's wishes for teammates.

[dre1982]

I do believe that if Verstappen went for a pit on right after Hamilton, he would have a chance to win. I am not saying that he would win very easily, all I am saying is that he would probably have enough time to either go out at first once again, which could be a problem and Hamilton could have been first and after that it is a difficult task to catch up to him but at least you have a chance with a DRS window maybe (albeit spain is a difficult track to pass anyone, let alone Hamilton) but at least you had a chance.

This way it was always obvious that he would have slowed down, Hamilton had a great run and kept increasing his speed time and time after again and again which is a great thing but the main problem was Max couldn't go, his tireware was just way too much, if he pitted even a few laps after Hamilton he would have at least be second again but have a chance.

If Verstappen also stopped Bottas wouldn't stop and did a one-stopper. Verstappen is just racing alone against two drivers of Mercedes. He told that on Dutch television. If Perez was much closer to the top 3 they would have more options.

[Cnut237]

I do believe that if Verstappen went for a pit on right after Hamilton, he would have a chance to win.

No, I don't think so. Mercedes planned this strategy well in advance of the race... they ensured they went into race day with two sets of mediums for Hamilton. Verstappen only had one set. If Verstappen had gone for the second stop at the same time as Hamilton, he'd have had to put softs on, which would have degraded severely by the end of the race, and Hamilton would have overtaken with ease.

It was a very good recovery drive by Hamilton, but superb race planning by Mercedes.

[bounceback]

The next MotoGP or the 5th session will be placed in France, Le Mans Circuit, Quartararo home. he finishes 13th in Spain. so, Bagnaia was taken over in his 1st position, with 2 points left. will Quartararo take his 1st position again? we will see in the next 16 May. I hope his Arm pump has recover well. we know because that injured he appearance decreased from 1st to 13th.

I'm curious about Marquez if he can still look the way he was before his injury. His performance in Spain yesterday was quite good after a long injury time. In fact, he is quite good among other Honda racers. Regarding Quartararo, yes he is the favorite racer to win this season. He was able to take advantage of Yamaha's strengths in the environment very well.

Marques is a great rider even though his injury has not fully recovered but yesterday he was able to do very well, so in my opinion it is very possible if Marquez will finish pole at the French Le Mans circuit and Quartararo will finish second. of course this will be a very exciting race.

[tokeweed]

I do believe that if Verstappen went for a pit on right after Hamilton, he would have a chance to win. I am not saying that he would win very easily, all I am saying is that he would probably have enough time to either go out at first once again, which could be a problem and Hamilton could have been first and after that it is a difficult task to catch up to him but at least you have a chance with a DRS window maybe (albeit spain is a difficult track to pass anyone, let alone Hamilton) but at least you had a chance.

This way it was always obvious that he would have slowed down, Hamilton had a great run and kept increasing his speed time and time after again and again which is a great thing but the main problem was Max couldn't go, his tireware was just way too much, if he pitted even a few laps after Hamilton he would have at least be second again but have a chance.

Nope, Verstappen would then be blocked by Bottas and either risk losing second place or have a big enough gap vs the leader and have zero chance to win first place.  RBR had to just take whatever they had and make the best of it.

And Perez should improve out there and get the constructors points as close as possible vs Merc.  He has become somewhat of a liability.

[Cnut237]

And Perez should improve out there and get the constructors points as close as possible vs Merc.  He has become somewhat of a liability.

He needs to improve, definitely. All the talk is of Bottas not being good enough... but he does consistently finish in the top three. Red Bull and Mercedes both need their second drivers to perform well, because it gives them a tactical edge in the Hamilton/Verstappen battle.
If you have two cars at the front, and the other team only has one, then you have a huge tactical advantage going into the pit stops. If Perez were up near the front, it would help both Verstappen and Red Bull. Admittedly Bottas does need to improve a bit... but Perez needs to improve more.

Perhaps for this last race he can be excused as he was ill during qualifying... but in future races he needs to be up near the front.

[ILuckyGuyI]

I do believe that if Verstappen went for a pit on right after Hamilton, he would have a chance to win. I am not saying that he would win very easily, all I am saying is that he would probably have enough time to either go out at first once again, which could be a problem and Hamilton could have been first and after that it is a difficult task to catch up to him but at least you have a chance with a DRS window maybe (albeit spain is a difficult track to pass anyone, let alone Hamilton) but at least you had a chance.

This way it was always obvious that he would have slowed down, Hamilton had a great run and kept increasing his speed time and time after again and again which is a great thing but the main problem was Max couldn't go, his tireware was just way too much, if he pitted even a few laps after Hamilton he would have at least be second again but have a chance.

Yeah, Redbull's pit strategy was so wrong. They could have done that. Or when there were 15-16 laps to go, Verstappen could go for a pit and the team could mount fresh softs. I believe that he could catch up with Hamilton like that. But there was no guarantee for Verstappen to overtake him in both cases of course. But it would be worth trying.

[Koal-84]

This was a better race I think with Verstappen and Honda showing improvements race after race.The race was won from the engineers at Mercedes and Red Bull team needs to take some notes for today race as they lost it in the final stages of the race because of their bad strategy.It looks like this will be a better F1 Championship compared to the one of last year.

In my opinion, engineers did not win the race but the strategists, if I'm not a mistaken, Verstappen only had one set of medium tires available and Hamilton 2 sets of medium tires and so the race was won by Mercedes. So, in my opinion, the race was won by the tire and the tire strategy.

[dre1982]

I do believe that if Verstappen went for a pit on right after Hamilton, he would have a chance to win. I am not saying that he would win very easily, all I am saying is that he would probably have enough time to either go out at first once again, which could be a problem and Hamilton could have been first and after that it is a difficult task to catch up to him but at least you have a chance with a DRS window maybe (albeit spain is a difficult track to pass anyone, let alone Hamilton) but at least you had a chance.

This way it was always obvious that he would have slowed down, Hamilton had a great run and kept increasing his speed time and time after again and again which is a great thing but the main problem was Max couldn't go, his tireware was just way too much, if he pitted even a few laps after Hamilton he would have at least be second again but have a chance.

Yeah, Redbull's pit strategy was so wrong. They could have done that. Or when there were 15-16 laps to go, Verstappen could go for a pit and the team could mount fresh softs. I believe that he could catch up with Hamilton like that. But there was no guarantee for Verstappen to overtake him in both cases of course. But it would be worth trying.

It was worth the try, better then just losing time every round and pit for softs at the end of the race. Verstappen's pace at the end was very well so if he could do that for many more laps he maybe could had come closer. A win was too much then but now he was just driving around and losing time every round.