Grand Prix 2019 Japanese Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion.

Onward to Suzuka and the Japanese GP. Yakult anyone? Let’s hope that it’s more entertaining than the Russian GP, which excelled at only one thing, being dull.
Suzuka is built as the central attraction of Motopia a motoring and engineering theme park. Which really sums up F1 in 2019.
Michael Schumacher had six wins at Suzuka, and Lewis Hamilton has had five so far, will he win here and match Schumacher or will Ferrari get their act together and get another one / two. After Singapore I would have put money on Ferrari taking the win, in fact I think I did, but after Sochi I think that Hamilton will draw level with Schumacher. Although we mustn’t overlook Verstappen, this is a Honda track, it was built for them as a test track, and Verstappen is in a Honda powered Red Bull. Honda and the Japanese fans would love a home win, add those two facts together and Verstappen and his car might sprout wings.
Suzuka, from the drivers viewpoint, is quite a complex track, with its figure of eight configuration and cool crossover, slow hairpin bends, the uphill Esses a series of curves which if driven badly will lose the driver a bucket load of time, and then some flat out sections like 130 R. Plenty of scope for drivers to get it wrong, and cars and their engines to take a hammering. How do you set up a car for a track like this one. Red Bull of course had new engines at Sochi, Honda giving themselves the best possible chance to do well in Suzuka. The teams at the back end of the grid can be expected to struggle and a few to fall by the wayside. Although the days of just 9 or 10 cars getting to the end of a race seem to have gone.

The weather in Japan is Autumnal and there have been a few really wet races here, well certainly wet Qualifying sessions, with the occasional Sunday Qualifying followed by the race, there was even a Typhoon on race weekend back in 2004. All of which makes a tricky track, even trickier, but it also mixes up the grid quite nicely.
Anyway hopefully this track will deliver an interesting and entertaining race or at the very least a rain storm.
Enjoy.

Interesting Facts.
Honda have only ever won twice here
Kimi Räikkönen won this race from 17th position in 2005
Typhoons are common in this location
Lewis now has 322 points
Bottas has 249
Leclerc has 215
 
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Correction to the above. I have checked my bet on “You Bet” and I didn’t put my money on Ferrari for Sochi, I bet on Verstappen. Wrong every which way.
:D
 
Suzuka is my favorite track from topology angle, and should stay IMHO on the calendar as long as possible. Climate, and travel to get there is a different story. I am also hoping that Race Stewards learned their lesson when is time to enter racing space to retrieve immobile vehicles while race is on.
 
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One of my favourite races...
05:30 wake and dress
05:50 coffee
06:10 race
07:30 confirm race is recording
07:40 bike ride
11:30 home, wash, dress
11:45 race from 2 laps before I left to chequered flag
 
im not looking forward to this race as ive got a family milestone birthday party that Saturday. so i think my schedule is

7pm / 1am - party
5:45 - up for Japanese GP
5:46 - drink gallon of coffee
6:10 - race
9:00 - breakfast
11:25 - set off for work

:coffee::yawn:
 
I think the highlights will be on in the afternoon for this one. I am hoping for a good race, then again I always do even if we don't always get them.

I hope your day goes well after the party, enjoy the gallon of coffee. ;)
 
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06C37854-1D31-4D12-A6D9-51D50B88161E.jpeg
 
Typhoon ...... they are Typhoons in Japan. Let’s hope it all happens during Qualifying, just to mix the grid up..

:snigger:
 
Bianchi drove too fast under yellow flags, the other 20 drivers kept it on track. It's also not Todt's fault that the tractor was within the bounds of the racing track although it should have been behind the barrier.
 
Bianchi drove too fast under yellow flags, the other 20 drivers kept it on track. It's also not Todt's fault that the tractor was within the bounds of the racing track although it should have been behind the barrier.

the reason the VSC was brought in was because to 1 save the drivers from themselves & the teams from themselves because you know for certain if bianchi when at VSC speeds they have now. he finished 11th but that cost the team 7th/8th. he would've got a right bollocking. & your 2nd sentence shows your taken utter crap because the other 20 drivers didn't keep it on track because sutil had aquaplaned off at the same time, but as I said at the time if the FIA President the most powerful man in all motorsport, couldn't change the start time of the grand prix to 11am on safety grounds on the Saturday like they have with qualifying at numerous times, because we all knew that it wasnt as much forecasted as weatherman this with 90% confidence will happen & it to the tee. which we knew before we had raced in the Korean gp. then F1 was in serious issues
 
the reason the VSC was brought in was because to 1 save the drivers from themselves & the teams from themselves because you know for certain if bianchi when at VSC speeds they have now. he finished 11th but that cost the team 7th/8th. he would've got a right bollocking. & your 2nd sentence shows your taken utter crap because the other 20 drivers didn't keep it on track because sutil had aquaplaned off at the same time, but as I said at the time if the FIA President the most powerful man in all motorsport, couldn't change the start time of the grand prix to 11am on safety grounds on the Saturday like they have with qualifying at numerous times, because we all knew that it wasnt as much forecasted as weatherman this with 90% confidence will happen & it to the tee. which we knew before we had raced in the Korean gp. then F1 was in serious issues
F1 had raced in similar conditions before and nothing had happened. It was a freak accident and should be accepted as such. There is no need to cancel rain affected races. Tractors do not belong on F1 tracks.
 
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