Hey, Wake Up! It's Time for the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix 🏎 🏆 🇯🇵
Me, an American who hates the Americanization of F1, while also hating the time differences due to basic physics and geography.
Liberty Media spends $4.6B to corrupt MotoGP
The company that purchased Formula One in 2017 will now set its sights on the world of two wheels. Liberty Media's CEO says that it wants to expand the sport's viewership to the world --- world meaning the U.S. MotoGP does race at COTA, however that's been a reduction from previous rounds which included a race in Laguna Seca. Hopefully, there would be an elimination of 'grid girls' -- yes, they still do this.
LM purchased an 86% stake in Dorna Sports (the current owners of MotoGP) while claiming there will be no changes to affect the integrity of the sport or alienate fans. I'll let you be the judge of that. MotoGP's U.S. broadcaster has changed this year from NBC and its affiliates to MSNBC to TNT Sports (Warner Bros. Discovery), while F1's is Disney/ABC (ESPN).
You can read a little more about here and of course an CNBC clip with LM's CEO Greg Maffei here.
In actual MotoGP news, 2021 champion Fabio Quartararo renewed his contract with Yamaha through 2026, despite the team's dip in form.
What happened in Qualifying?
- it’s been the tenth Japanese GP since Jules Bianchi’s fatal crash in 2014
- McLaren personnel changes this time: After joining in January, David Sanchez, will leave as part of a 'technical restructuring'. Sanchez said "the role we envisioned and had agreed to was not aligned with the reality of the position I found" --- I felt that
- Hardest compounds used C1 - C3
- The Japanese GP has the most creative fans
- Starting Q1 - First out lap with Big Kev
- Pretty large disparity between Sainz and Leclerc with the former taking P5 and P10, respectively
- Alonso briefly tops the session
- Unobstructed, Albon hits 11 while Sargeant gets a slight improvement to 15 but both ended their laps with weaker final sector
- Pierre Gasly just pushes out Sargeant and Bottas clinches the eighth spot
- Eliminated Q1: STR, GAS, MAG, SAR, ZHO
- Norris on an outlap pulls a purple sector hitting third position behind both Red Bulls
- Hulkenberg gets track time deleted
- Hamilton pulls a third position outlap
- Tsunoda just knocks out Ricciardo
- Eliminated Q2: RIC, HUL, BOT, ALB, OCO
- Starting Q3 Hamilton pulls a fabulous first sector and gets the second position and that gets taken by Lando Norris splitting the Red Bulls. “Remember. Such a great driver Lando” - Lewis Hamilton
- Leclerc has a weaker first sector shows some improvement but only boosts to seventh position
Here's the grid for today
Your 2024 Japanese Grand Prix starting grid 🏁 #F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/lelAWrb87Z
- Formula 1 (@F1) April 6, 2024
Sources Motorsport.com | CNBC | F1 Twitter