Bahrain GP Race Report

Everyone was eagerly anticipating the first race of the season.  There were some lock ups on the way to the grid, most notably from Ricciardo.  To spice things up, Bahrain had gone for a sandpaper track to wear through tyres quicker.

With lights out, the cars were away pretty much in grid order.  Stroll came together with Hulkenberg and they fell to the back.  Sargeant jumped up a few places.  Once DRS was permitted, Norris was past Alonso and Russell was past LeClerc.

By Lap 6, our old friend, Track Limits, had come to visit and drivers were starting to notch up notes of deviation.  Sainz let his team know that he was faster than the cars ahead, however they weren't going to tell Perez to move over.  He must have seen the way things were going for the troubled LeClerc as Perez was past him in the next couple of corners.

The first retirement of the year was nearly Sargeant, who had a long pause at the side of the track but got going again after Vowles looked bewildered at his monitors.

Sainz made the pass on his team mate, so the gloves are off at Ferrari this year.  It was all in vain, as LeClerc got the place back through the undercut at pit stops.  New for this year, we are not being shown the pit stop times.  And no mention of it.

There was another clean pass by Sainz a few laps later.

Bottas claimed the longest pit stop of the race when a wheel nut got caught in the gun.  Alonso went for a late pit stop, which might have stopped him losing a points position but didn't bring him home in a blaze of glory.  The Racing Bulls reversed their drivers with a few laps to go, when both drivers were out of the points and for no real reason.

Verstappen brought it home 20 seconds ahead of his team mate, as he said, he stayed out of trouble.  Perez needed a strong drive and Horner seemed pleased with it.  Sainz got driver of the day for his third position, I suppose there wasn't much in it between most of them.

It was a poor showing from Williams, who went backwards.  They weren't the only unhappy faces in the pit lane.  Hopefully there will be many developments over the season and the races will get more and more interesting.  This season opener was a snooze-fest after the first corner...