{"id":333100,"date":"2023-09-22T11:40:34","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T11:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=333100"},"modified":"2023-09-22T14:03:04","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T14:03:04","slug":"sorry-late-blunder-forces-early-end-to-f1-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=333100","title":{"rendered":"'Sorry': Late blunder forces early end to F1 session"},"content":{"rendered":"

A red flag prematurely ended free practice two when Alpine<\/a> driver Pierre Gasly<\/a> locked up and caught the wall with two minutes left on the clock.<\/p>\n

Gasly exited the car on his own accord and was uninjured after catching the barriers as he skidded on a gravel trap.<\/p>\n

"Locked up, sorry about that," he said over the team radio.<\/p>\n

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\"Pierre<\/p>\n

The front wing of Gasly's \ufeffA523 was badly damaged in the contact, but the team was confident the car would be repaired before lights out on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, off the back of one loss in a row, runaway championship leader Max Verstappen<\/a> is confident he can get back to his winning ways at Sunday\u2019s Japanese Grand Prix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Red Bull<\/a> driver saw his record streak of 10 consecutive wins ended in Singapore last weekend when he finished fifth.<\/p>\n

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz won at Marina Bay, knocking the Bulls off the podium for the first time this year.<\/p>\n

Unlike the street circuit in Singapore, Suzuka is a high-speed track far more suited to Verstappen\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

\u201cSingapore is so different to what we will experience here in terms of the way you set up the car, so I\u2019m also not worried that a weekend like that will upset our weekend here,\u201d Verstappen said.<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n

Despite recording his worst result since last November, Verstappen increased his championship lead to 151 points over teammate Sergio Perez, who finished eighth in Singapore.<\/p>\n

With seven races remaining, including three sprint races, there are 206 points on offer meaning Verstappen cannot close out the title in Japan this weekend. The earliest he can seal his third championship is in Qatar.<\/p>\n

While the Dutchman cannot wrap up the drivers\u2019 championship in Japan as he did last year, Red Bull has more than twice as many points as the second-place team in the constructors\u2019 championship and can win the title this weekend if the team outscores Mercedes by at least one point.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Verstappen became just the 13th driver in history to win the drivers\u2019 championship in consecutive years when he won the Japanese GP. He won the rain-shortened race and secured the title when Charles Leclerc was given a penalty for cutting a chicane on the final lap, dropping the Ferrari driver down to third.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, third in Singapore and the drivers\u2019 standings, has a history of success in Japan. He is a five-time winner of the Japanese GP, most recently in 2018.<\/p>\n

But Hamilton is fully aware of how tough Red Bull will be at Suzuka.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would think that if they\u2019re not 30 seconds ahead like they have done in the past then something\u2019s up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut no, I think as Checo (Perez) said, it was obviously a difficult weekend their last one, but their car should be phenomenal here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen was fastest in both practice sessions on Friday, leading Sainz by over six-tenths of a second in the first and .320 ahead of Leclerc in the second. McLaren driver Lando Norris was third in the second practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt really good today, from lap one the car was enjoyable to drive again,\u201d Verstappen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a strong day on the short and long runs. There\u2019s a lot of degradation on this track so it will be quite tough on tires during the race, but so far, we\u2019ve had a good start to the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A red flag prematurely ended free practice two when Alpine driver Pierre Gasly locked up and caught the wall with two minutes left on the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":333102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333100"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=333100"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333106,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333100\/revisions\/333106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/333102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=333100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=333100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=333100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}