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

[coinlocket$]

Max Verstappen spoke to the mics before leaving for the weekend in China, declaring that he has no intention of leaving Redbull.
Do you think it's true or that he only stated it to calm things down after the numerous rumors that have spread in recent weeks?

Wheater update: wet track can be a possibiity

[wiss19]

I do not think that Red Bull and Ferrari are as close as people think they are. I think the only reason why Ferrari even won any race this season was because Max got a reliability issue, and he had to retire the car, if he kept it going I am sure that he would have won that race too. That is the way Red Bull is this season, as they were last season as well.

They are so much better, and the thing is last season Perez wasn't that great, he finished many races in not second place, and whereas he is finishing most of the season this year at second place as well showing that it is not just Max being Max, it's the car this season completely because Perez is doing amazing as well and that can only happen with car being great.

[Distraction]

The sprint qualifying has ended and we got really surprising results.  



Rainy weather changed the odds all of a sudden. Norris got the pole for the sprint race tomorrow morning. First his lap time was removed due to track limits but after the end of the session it came back.  

Verstappen had some difficulties in having a smooth lap which made me happy as we saw different results.  

Max Verstappen spoke to the mics before leaving for the weekend in China, declaring that he has no intention of leaving Redbull.
Do you think it's true or that he only stated it to calm things down after the numerous rumors that have spread in recent weeks?

Wheater update: wet track can be a possibiity

It must be really relieving for Red Bull side to hear about that.    There have been many speculations regarding he would leave lately. However I wonder if he would still think the same if Red Bull turns out not to have the fastest car as of 2026 season...    Because Verstappen is a driver with winner mentality and I'm not sure if he would like to drive for a team other than the number 1.

[coinlocket$]

The sprint qualifying has ended and we got really surprising results.  

Yep rain changed everything.

Ferrari was supposed to be very competitive accoridg to the mass media here but even with the dry track they were behind.

Atleast it will be a fun race to watch with Max behind and his overtakes.

[tokeweed]

Max Verstappen spoke to the mics before leaving for the weekend in China, declaring that he has no intention of leaving Redbull.
Do you think it's true or that he only stated it to calm things down after the numerous rumors that have spread in recent weeks?

Wheater update: wet track can be a possibiity

If that's really true then that means the guy who's gonna be given the sack is Christian Horner.  And that also means the possbility of losing him too.  I say yes please.  It's been a while since we've seen some shake up happen in F1 that would change title winning implications.  Imagine Horner and Newey at Ferrari and with Hamilton winning his record breaking WDC under their management...

Making history is something everybody wants to see in sporting events even if it means the team they support loses...  Many people won't admit it tho.

[Republikcoin.com]

This weekend the only motorbike race is WSBK at the TT Assen circuit which is located in the Netherlands, but unfortunately today the circuit conditions are wet due to heavy rain, causing Free Practice2 to be temporarily stopped. And it seems that a fierce battle will also be presented again in tomorrow's race and also Sunday's race because remembering that Toprak, who is so integrated with the BMW motorbike, will continue to give resistance to other Ducati riders from tomorrow until Sunday.

[Velvet78]

Sprint qualifying results were of an unexpected kind indeed. However if there is no rain at the weekend then I don't think we will continue to see similar results anymore. Verstappen would make the other drivers accept his dominance once again as usual I assume. We might at least watch a nice competition among the remaining drivers. 

Because this track is likely to be more fun compared to the previous one in Japan. This track allows the drivers to go for overtakes more comfortably. I'm especially curious about what Mercedes will do here. Because the season is going on like a nightmare for them and they need to start getting good results immediately.

[coinlocket$]

in the dry Lecler was close to the Redbull.
Lecler was only a tenth away, the situation however was different when the track was wet.

The forecast is therefore very difficult to give, especially with cars that should perform less in dry conditions.
There will be two keys to victory: the time lost in overtaking possibly slower cars and above all tire degradation.

[swogerino]

The sprint qualifying has ended and we got really surprising results.  

Yep rain changed everything.

Ferrari was supposed to be very competitive accoridg to the mass media here but even with the dry track they were behind.

Atleast it will be a fun race to watch with Max behind and his overtakes.

I would not say that Max is far behind in this track which is long enough and wide enough to give room to great drivers like Max to overtake easily everyone in front of him and make a short work of this sprint race.I want too to watch a different race yet this track does not permit it as it favors the faster car of the circus more than any other track,even Monza which is a huge straight line does not favor the faster car like this track,seems like designed to give the edge to those who already have it and most likely that is what is going to happen in the sprint race.However I am looking more forward to the real race as that should be fun if the weather conditions change during the time of the race.I am waking up for the qualification now European time 9 AM as I am not crazy to wake up at 5 AM for just a sprint race,maybe for the real race yes not the sprint one though.

[retreat]

Sprint qualifying results were of an unexpected kind indeed. However if there is no rain at the weekend then I don't think we will continue to see similar results anymore. Verstappen would make the other drivers accept his dominance once again as usual I assume. We might at least watch a nice competition among the remaining drivers. 
-snip-

It was truly unexpected that McLaren could get P1 in this Sprint qualifying. We can see how Norris' performance is quite good and consistent - and he is able to adapt to the track quickly. And yeah, Max seems to be trolling F1 fans again, because usually Sprint and FP results don't represent their performance, so I don't really expect that we won't hear "Wilhelmus" this week again LOL. But it looks like this will be quite an interesting race, because there are many possibilities that might happen and maybe it will be a little different from our expectations.

[Distraction]

We first got the sprint results which I was only able to watch the replay because of being very early in the morning.    There was a Norris - Hamilton fight at the beginning which resulted in Norris' losing the control of his car and losing many places. Hamilton collected really important extra 7 points for his team by finishing as the 2nd.

However the qualifying was really terrible for Hamilton... He couldn't even make it to Q2.    It looks like Mercedes will rely on mostly Russell as he is starting in top 10.

It is quite possible to see a really great competition among Ferrari and McLaren drivers during the race. The sprint race was like a spoiler for that and the competition went on during the qualifying also. 

[swogerino]

Sprint qualifying results were of an unexpected kind indeed. However if there is no rain at the weekend then I don't think we will continue to see similar results anymore. Verstappen would make the other drivers accept his dominance once again as usual I assume. We might at least watch a nice competition among the remaining drivers. 
-snip-

It was truly unexpected that McLaren could get P1 in this Sprint qualifying. We can see how Norris' performance is quite good and consistent - and he is able to adapt to the track quickly. And yeah, Max seems to be trolling F1 fans again, because usually Sprint and FP results don't represent their performance, so I don't really expect that we won't hear "Wilhelmus" this week again LOL. But it looks like this will be quite an interesting race, because there are many possibilities that might happen and maybe it will be a little different from our expectations.

The second best is Perez which means that the other teams are quite far behind in qualifying.I must admit the qualifying,the third session was really entertaining as 6 consecutive drivers were each beating each other records for the second place until Perez took over.It seems like this track always favors the fastest car of the grid and with Redbull is no different,that is why I am not confident in seeing a good race until the weather mess it up for real and the Safety Car enters the track at least a couple of times.I think that under normal conditions Max and Redbull are unbeatable in such a car,we will have to wait 2026 season most likely when new regulations will come in place to hope not seeing such a boring season again and again.

[coinlocket$]

Let's say it was an interesting day.

The sprint race was won by Max Verstappen and it was highly probable and I think he also played with his rivals as he didn't know the durability of the tires and only started pushing after half the race.


Mclaren proved to be very competitive, it should be the second force for tomorrow's race.

Excellent second place for Lewis and disaster for Alonso who at this rate will lose all the points from his license before the end of the season

[Velvet78]

Verstappen's dominance level in the sprint race was just something else.    Despite starting at the fourth position he took the lead after many laps and had a huge time gap with Hamilton like thirteen seconds.

He captured pole position in qualifying session later on without surprising anyone as well. However the challenge among the other drivers in close range was worth watching. McLaren had a really great day and I can say the same thing for Alonso as well. Ferrari weren't good enough on one hand. However I think Leclerc and Sainz will be faster tomorrow. I feel like this race will be way more enjoyable compared to the Japanese GP. 

[tokeweed]

We first got the sprint results which I was only able to watch the replay because of being very early in the morning.    There was a Norris - Hamilton fight at the beginning which resulted in Norris' losing the control of his car and losing many places. Hamilton collected really important extra 7 points for his team by finishing as the 2nd.

However the qualifying was really terrible for Hamilton... He couldn't even make it to Q2.    It looks like Mercedes will rely on mostly Russell as he is starting in top 10.

It is quite possible to see a really great competition among Ferrari and McLaren drivers during the race. The sprint race was like a spoiler for that and the competition went on during the qualifying also.  

Please include all the guys on the grid, not just the top 10.  

As for the qualifying itself I think the guys who did well in terms of getting the good spots for the package they have is Alonso, Bottas and Ricciardo.  I was expecting it to be a good weekend for Ferrari but we haven't seen it thus far.  But we still have the race and sht could happen for the likely winners Red Bull.

Here's the full result...

Max Verstappen   1:34.742   1:33.794   1:33.660   
Sergio Perez   1:35.457   1:34.026   1:33.982   
Fernando Alonso  1:35.116   1:34.652   1:34.148   
Lando Norris   1:34.842   1:34.460   1:34.165   
Oscar Piastri   1:35.014   1:34.659   1:34.273   
Charles Leclerc   1:34.797   1:34.399   1:34.289   
Carlos Sainz   1:34.970   1:34.368   1:34.297   
George Russell   1:35.084   1:34.609   1:34.433   
Nico Hulkenberg    1:35.068   1:34.667   1:34.604   
Valtteri Bottas   1:35.169   1:34.769   1:34.665   
Lance Stroll       1:35.334   1:34.838      
Daniel Ricciardo    1:35.443   1:34.934      
Esteban Ocon   1:35.356   1:35.223      
Alexander Albon    1:35.384   1:35.241      
Pierre Gasly       1:35.287   1:35.463      
Zhou Guanyu   1:35.505         
Kevin Magnussen   1:35.516      
Lewis Hamilton   1:35.573         
Yuki Tsunoda   1:35.746         
Logan Sargeant  1:36.358

2024 Chinese Grand Prix Qualifying Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO0m9lnirZk

Anyay there are words swirling around that Carlos Sainz is going to Audi's new F1 team that's coming next year?

[coinlocket$]

qualifying showed us the value of these cars on this track.

finally a session where the track was dry.
The Red Bull once again becomes the best car in the circus, this time it seems that the second force is the Mclaren followed by the Ferraris.
I don't think Alonso can do much in that position, he will be overtaken soon when his tires will start to deteriorate.

Second place for Perez almost excluded in Q1 as he qualified fifteenth and therefore as the last place available

[swogerino]

qualifying showed us the value of these cars on this track.

finally a session where the track was dry.
The Red Bull once again becomes the best car in the circus, this time it seems that the second force is the Mclaren followed by the Ferraris.
I don't think Alonso can do much in that position, he will be overtaken soon when his tires will start to deteriorate.

Second place for Perez almost excluded in Q1 as he qualified fifteenth and therefore as the last place available

Perez is not a good driver in any other circumstances than normal ones.The only dry session was the third one and Perez managed to get a great lap in that last session.I think that Redbulls are of another planet and it was expected,the only thing that can make this race different is either a mechanical failure or weather changes.The safety car is always a jolly,it can either benefit you or damage you big time and this can also alter the way the race will go,luckily the race this time for us in Europe is at 9 AM a time we are usually up as that is when we start our daily job during Monday-Friday so it is great for us to be able to watch the race of tomorrow.I think it will be a good one as we have since 2019 that we are not racing in China and most likely seeing the last session of qualifying things look promising for that second place fight.

[Republikcoin.com]

After yesterday watching Race1 for WSBK TTAssen in the Netherlands which was really exciting. Today I also had the chance to watch the Superpole Race for TTAssen which had just finished with an amazing battle between Bautista and his teammate Bulega which was ultimately won by Bautista even though Bautista had slipped at the start. But he can still improve his position in each lap, where Bautista doesn't need too many laps to become the winner in the Superpole Race. Next up is Race2 today and hopefully it can be even more exciting.

[Distraction]

Please include all the guys on the grid, not just the top 10.  

I was intending to keep the image at an ideal size so I inserted a link which was taking the user to the website for full results. But I would do it like that from now on, no problem. 


We have the race results!



Truthfully it was really much more fun than the Suzuka Grand Prix. We watched many overtakes and SCs also. It wasn't a difficult race for Verstappen and he got the win easily as expected.

However the biggest surprise of the day was Norris' extra performance. After the last SC entered the pit Norris maintained a really great pace that even Perez couldn't get near him enough to go for an overtake. 

I must add how satisfied I was with Alonso and Hamilton's efforts also. Alonso followed a different strategy and it turned out not to be a good one. But despite that he made a great comeback. Hamilton also gained a lot of positions despite having struggles with the car.

[karabiber]

The Chinese GP was an exciting race. The decision to switch from the first virtual safety car to a direct safety car initially threw a wrench into the plans of Ferrari, who had already changed their tires, but it all worked to the benefit of Red Bull and Norris, who had changed their tires with the safety car decision, I think Norris was already the best this weekend.

Alonso deserves a special mention. He showed his experience throughout the race. Stroll, who is younger and has the same car, but the difference in experience is something else. Alonso is doing a great job despite the bad car underneath. I hope he will have a car to compete for the championship before he retires. And congratulations to Hamilton. Despite all the negativity, he still got his points. Zhou also put on a show in front of his home crowd with his transitions. The worst of the week was Ferrari and they didn't improve at all. But I'm no longer surprised by Ferrari's situation.