Under the dark, Bahrain skies, Vettel started from the back of the grid but seemed chipper about it, I guess they're paying him the big bucks to race wherever he is doing so.
Ricciardo expects to stand on the top step of the podium this season, definitely steps two and three which seems like a bold claim. They thought they were going to be best of the rest in qualifying but didn't make it. If we know anything, it's that he will push to achieve this.
Perez had a total power failure during the formation lap , causing the start to be delayed. With a long pit straight and a strong headwind, the first corner promised to shake things up a bit but it took the Rookie's Rookie. Mazepin caused a further delay with his fatal mistake, "Sorry, Dad". After that safety car, Gasly bumped his front wing off on Ricciardo, which was a real shame but at least a mistake that punished the bumper not the bumpee. This led to a Virtual Safety Car, now we were desperate for a bit of racing.
Mick Schumacher left the track, but was able to recover it, not making it a full house retirement for Haas. Bottas and LeClerc had a ding dong. Alonso kept up with the top teams well. To add to the excitement, there was potentially a problem with Verstappen's diff. These issues do seem to get into his head.
By ten laps in, Bottas had let Verstappen and Hamilton get away, so if Red Bull can't bring it to Hamilton and Mercedes this year, it looks like we can't expect any action from Bottas against Hamilton either.
A late, slightly slower stop for Verstappen gave Hamilton the lead. There was lots of shenanigans with undercut/overcut pitstops, including an 11 second pit stop for Bottas, which led to Vettel leading after the second stops. With 16 laps to go, all the pit stops had been taken and Hamilton led Verstappen and Bottas and normal order was resumed. Vettel attempted to get a Safety Car out by crashing into Ocon but they both managed to keep going. Is Vettel the new Grosjean? Vettel got a time penalty which maybe put Latifi higher up the finishing order, giving him more no points than no points.
With five laps to go, Hamilton made the mistake and locked up, this brought Verstappen into the sub-one second zone giving him DRS. Hamilton needed Bottas chasing Verstappen and putting pressure on him. Really Verstappen is racing two against one as his team mate isn't there for him. With three laps to go, Verstappen took Hamilton but it was at the debatable Turn 4, where the track does or does not have limits. Verstappen gave the place back to Hamilton under race control orders, would the same have happened had it been the other way round? I doubt it, then he would have been given a penalty and cue all kind of whinging. Verstappen just couldn't get back into the one second window. His chances slipped away, one after the other...reminiscent of Stirling Moss, gentlemen who play fair won't win championships. He claimed he could have pulled away by 5 seconds to absorb the penalty (not exactly sporting) and Brundle suggested that he didn't need to give the place back in such a poor spot.
Bottas's lead over Norris was so vast that he could pit on the penultimate lap and go for the extra fastest lap point without losing finishing place points. A dominant race by the Mercedes and Verstappen.
Alonso managed just over half the race before retiring with brake problems, we want to see him fighting before he throws in his F1 towel. Gasly just couldn't recover his race and finished with a DNF. As did Latifi who was the only car behind him...is there an advantage to doing this???
There should also be a special mention to rookie Tsunoda who got two championship points in his first race.
Going Up
👍 Aston Martin safety car - absolutely gorgeous....if anyone needs a gift idea...
👍 Midfield battles - this might be a season where we don't watch the podium finishers much
👍 McLaren - it's not orange it's papaya.
👍 22 races to go this year - it's an epic season
Going Down
👎 Journalists all had to ask whether to call Sir Lewis Hamilton, "Sir Lewis". He didn't want to say, "No, need to call me sir, " but equally he couldn't say, "Absolutely, now bow, low, lower, lower still."
👎 Aston Martin livery looks very similar under the lights to Mercedes. Hope it's better in day light.
👎 Mr Pitstop Princess spends the first race of every season googling the sponsor's names: "Who's Cognizant? Ricciardo has Splunk on his shirt."
👎 Track limits - Hamilton believes they're not for everyone. Just because you've been gaining an advantage at Turn 4 for most of the race doesn't mean that the Regulations and Supplementary Regulations have been changed.
👎 Leading more that 5,112 race laps - a F1 record broken this race by Hamilton. Not really a triumph for Hamilton, more an indictment of the state of the sport at the moment and ammunition for those who call it the most boring non-sport. If Hamilton truly does wish to be challenged in his car, as a driver, I'm sure he has plenty of opportunities to drive other cars.
👎 Do we think Fernando dyes his hair and beard?
