Bahrain GP Race Report

Other than both Mercedes being handed a one place grid penalty, there was nothing to report before the race started other than that Norris had cheered up.

On the softest tyres, Norris made it up to 3rd from 6th off the start, a little cheeriness goes a long way.  Russell got ahead of LeClerc for 2nd.  Gasly and Sainz were 5th and 6th.  LeClerc was playing the long game in medium tyres.  Bearman made up 5 places.  Verstappen,  Hamilton and Tsunoda remained in the doldrums at the bottom of the points.   

Then the stewards announced that Norris might have been out of position on the grid.  LeClerc had told his BFF Gasly that the Ferrari might be doing a one stop strategy.  It feels like when the competitor is your friend you should still keep schtum as he told the world over the radio.

We then saw a shot of Norris at the start and he was ahead of his slot, which would ruin his race potential.  He was given 5 seconds and told to get passed Russell.

There was plenty of overtaking.  Sainz battled to hold Hamilton behind him and needed DRS to get it done.

When the pit stops came up, it was tricky to find a clear window to bring cars out into, the field was very close together.  Red Bull had a problem with their traffic light hold and release system in the pits and lost out with both drivers.  LeClerc wanted to stay out longer but was overuled by Ferrari.   

By the time the second round of stops came, Ferrari were making up places.  Verstappen had an awful stop and came out in last place.  I'm sure Mrs Stroll will have taken a picture of the screen for the one and only time her son is ahead of the World Champion.

Verstappen and Sainz had a minor coming together and there was a little bit of carbon fibre debris left behind.  Stunningly, this triggered a full Safety Car.  This was just in time for most drivers to take a cheap pit stop.  A cynic would say it was done to affect the outcome of the race.  

This all meant there would be a restart.  Piastri managed to stay ahead but everyone behind him was fighting.  Russell held 2nd and the Ferraris got 3rd and 4th.  Lawson got a 5 second penalty for causing a collision but it really can't have been serious enough for that as it didn’t bring out a Safety Car. Sainz was retired after getting and serving a penalty because his car was too damaged. 

Russell had to reset his DRS settings, which sounded like an engineering ballache and technically challenging and then he was told he might lose his dash.  Lots of the cars seemed to be developing gremlins in Bahrain.  Then the Mercedes lost its gears.

Norris was pushing his way forward in the last laps; overtaking Hamilton by force, then LeClerc.  Because Russell was no longer being correctly and accurately timed, it wasn’t clear when he could use DRS or those (Norris) chasing him.  I would like to have seen Ron Dennis stood out with a stopwatch.  They fought until the bitter end.  Verstappen kept being shown the black and white flag for exceeding lap limits but went on to take Gasly for 6th place on the final lap.

Piastri said he would party to celebrate his victory that night; we can only imagine he had a late cola and risked the caffeine keeping him awake.  In fact, he said he wouldn’t go to the party. Russell's race was "tricky" and Norris found his "messy".  The cool down room was noisy with three geeks discussing the highlights they were shown and calling one driver a "muppet".

Norris left Bahrain, to prepare for the third race in three weeks, still as championship leader but if Piastri continues like this, he won't hold it for long.  It felt like Ferrari did well until you saw that they were behind at the end and they expressed their disappointment.

I watched this event on Channel 4 rather than Sky and whilst the presentation before and after the race is slick, the actual order of the race and timely provision of information was shockingly bad.  There was no word about why Russell suddenly went to last place for a couple of laps.  I didn't understand why Sainz had a penalty, I don’t know if they actually told us.  As it is highlights, surely there is ample opportunity to present the race in a logical manner?  They've really committed to supporting Bearman too.

These triple headers feel relentless and I think by the end of the year we will see some tired drivers and I wonder if it will effect championship ambitions.

Bahrain GP Qualifying Report

With turmoil in the FIA, Sainz bewildered by a hefty fine for a visit to the loo at the wrong time, Alonso's steering wheel fell off when he was out on the track during Practice. 

In the first Qualifying session, Verstappen was complaining about his car; it wasn't right.  The Red Bulls were not through as the final push started.  Albon was knocked out in the final seconds by Ocon and Hulkenberg, he was too cold.  Behind him was Lawson, Bortoleto, Stroll and Bearman.  At the front was Norris and Hamilton.

The second session saw Ocon's push to get through being absolutely wasted as he went  immediately in the wall and the session was stopped with a Red Flag.  There were no surprises in the five that went out apart from Sainz, who was comfortably through in 7th.  It was Doohan, Hadjar, Hulkenberg, Alonso and Ocon.

It was harder for all in the final session, with the most pressure on Antontelli and Hamilton who had their first lap times deleted.  Whereas McLaren had been dominant in the first two sessions, Russell was a real contender now.  It was looking strong for him until Piastri did pull something out of the bag to take pole position and he could not be touched.  LeClerc wass third, Antonelli 4th, Gasly 5th.  If you're reading this and wondering where the championship contenders are: Norris 6th and Verstappen 7th.  Behind them were Sainz (finally outqualifying his team mate), Hamilton and Tsunoda.  LeClerc did not expect his place and was glad of the new tyres.  Russell thought it was the cooling track temperatures that helped.  Or were people just not as good?  Norris and Hamilton were both quick to blame themselves but Verstappen explained it away as something with the brakes.

Gasly was hoping that BFFs Lando and Max were going to fight with each other off the line but leave him out of it.  Mercedes were penalised for something administrative on Q2, where I think they released the drivers into the pit lane too early after the Red Flag.  They were each given a one place grid penalty.

If it doesn't turn out to be another dreary procession then it could be a spicy race.

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...

Bahrain GP Qualifying Report

We've watched Drive to Survive (nearly), judged the car launches and seen the outcome of testing, now it was time for the 2024 season to get started.  The weather conditions had changed from testing and were cold and windy for the first Qualifying session of 2024.  This should show which teams are nimbler with their set up.

Sky F1 were keen to grill the Ferrari drivers and team principal on the hiring of Hamilton.  Hopefully they've got it out of their system until the end of the season.  Vasseur was sporting some horrible red and gold trainers, which surely, as the boss, he could have refused to wear. 

Q1 was a jumble of teams at the top, with Ferrari reject Sainz in first and both Alpine out at the back, Sargeant next, and both Saubers out in 16th and 17th.  You have to wonder why Williams couldn't find any other driver in the world faster than the American, with Albon through in 8th.

Again, it was a jumble at the top in Q2, with even Haas in the mix. Out went Tsunoda, Stroll, Albon, Ricciardo (who really needs to beat his team mate early this year or he'll be out on his ear), with Magnussen in 15th.

Q1 went down to the wire, predictably Verstappen took pole, followed by LeClerc.  On the next row were Russell and Sainz.  The second Red Bull was down in 5th, next to Alonso.  The McLarens were on the 4th row and double HH, Hamilton and Hulkenberg at the back of the top ten.

The race and the season ahead look promising, with all teams showing interesting pace.

Bahrain GP Race Report

I thought the most exciting thing about going into this race is how close Qualifying was but the race showed that (apart from McLaren), it's close all round.  However, Wolff has written off the Mercedes as a championship winning car.

Albon messed his tyres up going to the grid but that didn't stop him winning a point in the race.  LeClerc chose tyes over grid position and the race was to prove whether that was a good shout or not.

The start was fairly textbook with LeClerc taking Perez and Sainz staying in 4th. Hamilton overtook a few cars including his team mate.  Then Stroll nudged Alonso; he didn't do any damage so his pocket money won't be docked.  Williams also made up a few places and would barely be commented upon.

The Mercedes and Aston Martins battled hard, although it is hard to tell the cars apart from their livery.

McLaren had a dire race with a problem resolved at the pit stop for Norris's engine and a problem with Piastri's gear box resulting in the same, then retirel.

After the first round of pit stops, which came fast and frenetically, the order at the front remained the same.  The top 10 had the two Red Bulls and 2 Ferraris at the front, then, in a random order, the Mercedes and Aston Martins with Bottas and Albon in the mix too.

Halfway through, DRS gave Perez the chance to overtake LeClerc for a Red Bull 1 2.

Norris and Ocon battled it out to see who could spend the most time in the pits.  Norris had to visit regularly to top up the air in his hydraulics.  Ocon got a 5 second penalty for being out of place on the starting grid plus some more time to change his front wing, then a 10 second penalty for not taking the first penalty correctly, then 5 seconds for speeding in the pit lane to take a penalty.

The best battle of the race was between old foes Alonso and Hamilton.

Just when he was comfortably in third, LeClerc's engine failed.  This brought out the Virtual Safety Car, which would allow Alonso to cool his tyres to better hold off Hamilton.  At least an engine failure cannot be blamed on recently arrived team principal Vasseur.

With 12 laps to go, Alonso overtook Sainz for the podium place I had predicted.  With 4 laps to go Alonso radioed back to the team that this is a "lovely car", a dangerous move which could have seen him jinx his podium place.  As everyone crossed the finish line, there was no attention on the winner Verstappen but all eyes and coverage on Fernando.

Looking elsewhere on the grid, ff Hulkenberg is this much better than Magnussen, how bad must Mick Schumacher have been...and Mazepin!  (Although Hulk did sustain some damage to his front wing).  Zhou scored the fastest lap although I still say the rules are unfair as he won't be awarded the extra point because he did not finish in the top 10.

Bahrain GP Qualifying Report

It was straight into drama at Bahrain, LeClerc lost a piece of his wheel arch or "wheel brow", which brought out the Red Flag. I had assumed that the Red Flag was an unseen smash but no, just to collect a piece of carbon fibre.  Note to self - add extra hour to all Qualifying session recordings.

Alonso is definitely playing in the top tier with his Brawn...sorry Aston Martin.  Russell found some time and the Ferraris were flying too.  Stroll had his time deleted, which put the sore-handed Canadian under pressure (the cameras did find a disappointed-looking Felipe Drugovich, the reserve driver for the race).  Everyone went out for a final flying lap at the end of Q1 except for Sainz who was sitting in first.  The track was getting quicker and quicker, even though the night was drawing in.  Kinda rookie De Vries was out first, followed by Sargeant, Gasly Magnussen and Piastri ahead of him in the grid.  Norris was lucky to keep his position as it was identical to the Williams but he set his time first.  All three rookies were out.  More notably the returning Hulkenberg was 6th ahead of his team mate out in 18th.  Albon finished 9th, a strong showing from him.  Stroll was behind Alonso in 6th, showing the Aston Martin might be a strong contender this year.

In Q2, the Red Bulls came back strong and Albon suffered a broken front wing on his Williams and didn't set a time.  It was all shaken up in the final seconds, Ocon and Hulkenberg made it through with Norris, Bottas, Zhou, Tsunoda and Albon out.

In the final session, it was all plain sailing until LeClerc jumped out of his car after his first lap to save a pair of soft tyres for race day.  Hulkenberg didn't even attempt a lap so qualified 10th.  Ocon trounced his new team mate, Gasly to qualify 9th.  In the end the Red Bulls made it look easy, taking the front row followed by both Ferraris, knocking Alonso back to 5th next to Russell.  He was ahead of his team mate, Hamilton in 7th, then Stroll.

There were lots of shots of Mick Schumacher sat next to Toto Wolff watching in the pit lane.  When Williams say they are racing Alpha Tauri and Haas, does that mean they've discounted McLaren as lesser competitors?  McLaren certainly look to be struggling, in the same boat as the ailing Mercedes.

My podium prediction for the race is LeClerc, Verstappen and Alonso....let's see.  It feels both wide open and a foregone conclusion all at once.

Bahrain GP Race Report

LeClerc seemed genuinely puzzled by his pole position but I think fans were quietly confident that he would be able to convert it to a win.

A new season means new changes to adapt to.  Can you remember that the pink-liveried Alpine is not a Force India car?  Can you remember that Bottas has left Mercedes despite qualifying his Alfa Romeo in much the same position he would have been?  Can you believe a Haas started 7th?  Can you adapt to watching live TV were people are packed in together and not wearing masks?

Amazingly, they were all clean off the grid.  Bottas went from 6th to 14th, Perez from 4th to 6th.  Ricciardo had an awful start with sparks flying from the base of his car as he porpoised down the straight.  Magnussen climbed to 5th from 7th and stayed with Hamilton.

The first round of pit stops came early.  LeClerc came out right in front of Verstappen, from the lead.  Despite the colder tyres, he was able to keep the lead too, for a lap anyway and then he took him, then the positions reversed again.  And again and again.  You can definitely race closely under these new design regulations.  Bravo.  

This was repeated after the second round of stops.  Verstappen lost out again and came on the radio: "I took it slowly on the out lap and I will never ever do it again."  This was just the start of the day's Dutch Rage.

Verstappen and Perez came in for a late third pit stop to put themselves firmly behind the two Ferraris, which was the strategy Sainz called for near the start of the race.  Next thing we know, Verstappen is frantically radioing in about his tyre being heavy.  As LeClerc looked safe again, 25 seconds ahead and 12 laps to go, Gasly's Alpha Tauri is spotted on fire at the side of the track. A Virtual Safety Car is announced, which would hopefully have kept Verstappen away from LeClerc but the the real version is called.  LeClerc boxes.

LeClerc managed the restart much better than Verstappen, who did at least keep Sainz at bay, until there were three laps to go.  Verstappen just couldn't keep his cool under mechanical pressure.  Once Perez and several others passed him, he pitted to retire the car.  Further bad luck for Perez as he seemed to be developing the same problem and battled to keep the beleaguered Hamilton behind him.  The final lap arrived and the porpoising of Hamilton's car seemed to be saving Perez but his engine failed in the middle of the second corner.  He spun and had to sit in the middle of the track, hoping nobody would hit him face on.

With catastrophic failure from Red Bull, Magnussen did finish 5th, Bottas 6th and Zhou scored points on his debut.  In many ways, Mercedes got a "Get Out of Jail Free" card.

In other good news, Ricciardo finished ahead of Norris, which should provide a small confidence boost, despite those positions being 14th and 15th.  The Ferrari one-two was celebrated which some communication in Italian over the radio, which is fitting.  

Will Red Bull (and Alpha Tauri) solve these engine and electrical issues soon or are they handing Ferrari an easy lead into the championship?  Horner felt positive that he has a competitive car as they were running at the front, I would suggest a car that cannot finish a race is not a competitive car.

Bahrain GP Qualifying Report

Qualifying kicked off with a written test, as the FIA report on the last race of last season was published just in time.  Ultimately it was down to "human error" so onwards and upwards this season.  They did decide that team principals, shouting at the race director, live to the watching world, may have put undue pressure on him.

Pre-season testing, with the new high levels of downforce brought on by ground-effect, made porpoising the word of the week.  It looked hideous on the Mercedes, painful and impossible to drive.  At least it's only on straights as I can't imagine you could go through a corner accurately with this, it makes me wince just to look at it.  Everyone agreed that for once, Mercedes saying they aren't as quick as others, wasn't sandbagging.  This was proven to be the case and Verstappen commenting how pleased he was with it.

What were the surprises of qualifying?  Despite amazing testing in Barcelona, McLaren just didn't deliver pace.  Covid did not serve Ricciardo well, as he qualified 18th.  Zhou on his debut gets through to Q2 in his Alfa Romeo.  Showing that money can't buy you success, Latifi was plumb last (with Albon scraping though) and both Aston Martins, with Hulkenberg out-qualifying Stroll.  Magnussen went through in 5th in his new Haas seat.

There were no huge surprises for who was knocked out in Q2: Ocon, Schumacher, Norris, Albon and Zhou.  But Magnussen through to Q1 in his heroic Haas.  Bottas also through in his Alfa. All the hope was that LeClerc could find something in his Ferrari to take the pole from Verstappen in his Red Bull.

Through to Q3 went three pairs, both Mercedes, both Ferraris and both Red Bulls, then a mixed bag of Alpha Tauri, Alfa Romeo, Haas and Alpine.  The older. more experienced drivers of Alonso, Bottas and Magnussen showing how it's done.  LeClerc took the pole, which promises a fantastic season if Ferrari can continue to bring this kind of pace and he's highly skilled at qualifying.  Sainz split the two Red Bulls behind his team mate.  Hamilton was 5th but did out-qualify his young pretender team mate, Russell, who was also out-qualified by the man he replaced at Mercedes, Bottas.  Magnussen feels "unbelievably lucky to be in a good car", which he doesn't need to say, so the car must be performing quite well.

The star of the show was obviously baby L-Mag.

Bahrain Race Report

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?

Bahrain Qualifying Report

 I was definitely surprised by how close the field is during qualifying, which does make me wonder why the backmarkers aren't closer to the mid-field if such leaps are possible.

LeClerc's 4th place shows that he is determined not to be shown up by his new team mate, Sainz and that Ferrari have spent their development tokens judiciously and can hopefully bring the race to Red Bull if not Mercedes.

Back a place, in 5th, it was a great showing from Gasly, who continues to drive his Alpha Tauri into contention and put the car in better places than it deserves.

We have high expectations from the McLarens this year.  They are covered in sponsors, so there should be some decent money being spent by the team on improvements and their trajectory last season was up, up, up.  This year we will be watching the battle between determined youthfulness and experienced senior (much like Alonso and Stoffel or Button and Magnussen/Perez/Hamilton, so McLaren's signature driver line up).  Ricciardo secured 6th ahead of his team mate Norris, which is a little victory straight off the blocks.

Also outdriving the car was Alonso in 9th place.  It's not surprising he is in front of over-hyped Wolff-backed Ocon.  Even though the prodigal son returns to Renault, I'm sure the personnel comings and goings and technical changes alone mean it is not the same team and he is not jumping back in his championship-winning car to regain former glories.  I'm not going to hold his age against him (much), historians will wave the 1950s drivers Farina, Fangio, Chiron and Fagioli at you, who were taking home the silverware into their 50s.  Brabham, Hill (Graham) and Mansell were winning in their 40s but with the whippet-thin, muscle and sinew F1 physique required in this millennium, is 40 too old now?  There is also his long sabbatical to consider, whilst the list of driving competitions entered is impressive there are not many trophies to show for it and it was dogged with technical difficulties.  So well done on 9th.

Going Up

👍 Murray Walker quote on the Williams' halo.  With F1 becoming increasing multi-national, could a plucky British attitude garner Williams more support?

👍 Mazepin's spin.  Ensuring Russell a place in Q2 through a yellow flag.

👍 Minardi - really doing very well.

👍 Verstappen - seems to be growing into his face at last

Going Down

👎 Mazepin - just looks like a wrong 'un

👎 Perez - finishes 11th and beaten by the Red Bull Second Seat Underdog Gasly.  They chose the wrong tires.

👎 F1 Crackerjack mash-up - the high jinx of pushing David Coulthard's face into his 50th birthday cake by Max Verstappen leaves all of pining for the glamour of racing back in the day.

Bahrain GP - "That was a hell of a race"

A great start to the weekend with Leclerc on pole; potential for an exciting race.  And boy did it deliver, one of the best races for a long, long time.  I was worried that Ferrari would put team orders in place (and I suspect there were behind the scenes, that never got played out with Vettel's spin).  Even at the end of Lap 1 when Leclerc lost his lead, it still seemed possible for a competitive race and Williams weren't running at the back!  Lap 6 confirmed a lack of team orders with Vettel and Leclerc going head to head and it seems that we do have a genuine fourth contender for the championship.

The old Raikkonen returned with a pithy radio reply to a question about his front wing: "I don't know, you tell me".  Compared to his team mate and looking at his determined overtaking, it seems he isn't just cashing the cheques at Sauber.

The race was full of action and whilst it would be easy to complain that DRS is enabling it all, it does make the event much more interesting.  It also helps when a front runner spins, that mistake on Lap 38 probably cost Vettel the win ultimately.  Can he pick himself up again?  Or are we going to see another season of frustrating errors?

Later in the race came the disappointments.  Russell clipped his wing off on Lap 39.  Then Lap 46: "There is something strange about the engine."  I asked him to take Hamilton out but he couldn't hear me and we were watching the race recorded.  Both Renaults suffered from the same electrics fault about the same time.  I don't think there is anyone who knows anything about F1 who thought that was a good move for Ricciardo.  Finally only 50% of the voters for Driver of the Day voted for Leclerc!  Really!?  Even if you have a strong loyalty to another driver or team, he clearly drove the best weekend.  Looking forward to his maiden victory.

Bahrain GP - Results

1. Evel Marque - 132*
2. BottHaas - 120
3. The Hope Fulls - 97
4. PickedInAHurry - 89
5. Je suis Charlie - 88
6. Hippy F1 - 67
7= Ferrari Rocher - 61
7= The Pitstop Princess - 61
9. Jack the Lad - 59
10. Francesco Bernoulli - 35

*Home track played

Bahrain GP - guest blog!

Editor: please welcome Wheels on Fire for this race's commentary.  I'm assuming that it is for Bahrain and not very very late.

It was at Abu Dhabi: Oh, yes, it was!


Once again the circus rolled into town with its baggage train, its barkers and grinders proffering for our entertainment a spectacle which not even No Vices Now­* could sleep through. The first Act consisted of Verstappen (stupid boy!) giving us his polished performance of trying to bully the other contestants into giving way to him, with the usual consequences of damaging his car and whingeing about it afterwards to anyone who would listen. Shame Hamilton has learned how to parry his thrusts.

Several novelty acts entertained us as the show rolled along, but surely the most thrilling was the high wire act starring Pierre Gasley who not only started from a good grid position but managed to hang on as others tried to put him off and finished his turn with a startling 4th place. We would in future prefer not to see any more mechanics damaged in the course of their duties and we hope that Ferrari give their employees private healthcare to make being off sick bearable.

The tightrope walk at the end of the performance kept us all awake to the end, the Ringmaster shouting to Vettel: he’s behind you! (Oh no, wrong type of show, sorry.) But he was and lucky, lucky Vettel managed to bluff his way through to the end and hang on to his prime billing, the highest step on the podium and a nice big trophy to show for his trouble.

*A new comparison has been born to add to the area of Wales, the length of London buses and size of the blue whale: how long it takes No Vices Now to drop off to sleep during a Grand Prix.

Bahrain GP - Results

1. Halo, baby! - 147*
2. The Pitstop Princess - 103
3= Give it some Gasly - 97
3= Two World Champions, Two Future World Champions, and um, Two Other Guys - 97
5. Beauty & the F1 Geek - 81
6. No Vices Now - 78
7. The Hopefulls - 73
8= Evel Marque - 65
8= Maximum Attack! - 65
10. Spa Day with a Shooey - 64
11. HassTag#FaceBull - 57
12. Jack Johnson - 54
13. Hippy F1 - 47
14. Wheels on Fire - 20

* Home track played

Bahrain GP - "What a race...you were the quickest"

It was an interesting build up to the race.  Predictably there was a lot of discussion about Alonso's decision to race the Indy 500.  Less predictable was Webber's constant analysis of who has "big minerals".

Looking back, only 13 cars finished the race.  This seems very retro, when did reliability fail?  It all started on Lap 9, when K Mag went off.  Although this was just after Massa showed us that really he came out of retirement to drive for Ferrari as he let Raikkonen straight through.  Verstappen's brakes failed and no one batted an eye lid.  Stroll and Sainz crashed.  Mercedes took 6 second pit stops (another retro step).  There were high fives when Hamilton was given a 5 second penalty for his "pit lane incident".

Fortunately, the Safety Car restart provided lots of action.

Alonso gave us an insight into the Fernando-McLaren-Honda relationship when he told them "Do whatever you want mate".

Surprisingly, everyone was still on the same lap until Lap 50 of 57.

Best retirement of the day, goes to Ericsson and Sauber.  After expressing distress, Sauber asked "Oh, what's up?".  Ericsson's reply was: "Gearbox broken".

Then McLaren had another double retirement.

Final thought on the race, why is the race in Bahrain held at night?  How does it improve the spectacle?

Bahrain GP - Results

1. Evel Marque - 205*
2. Two World Champions, two future World Champions and, um, two other guys - 178
3. Bernie is a Hobbit - 162
4. The Pitstop Princess - 156
5. No Vices Now - 155
6= Hoping for an Indian Summer - 147
6= Torque of the Devil - 147
8. Moneyball - 146
9. BOT-RAI-PER - 122
10. Beauty & the F1 Geek - 119
11. Slightly Slower Racing - 118
12= Jenson's Whinging Legacy - 117
12= Even more hopeful - 117
14. Hippy F1 - 110
15. Burn After Racing - 88

*Home track played

Just putting my CV out there...

I am available for the position of Chief Strategist to any team that wants me.  I have been studying Formula 1 for quite some time.  After this intensive research my secret strategy is going to be: "do the opposite of whatever Williams do".

Bahrain GP - "Yeah, awesome guys"

Speeding forwards

"Arlee" - the new name for Lee Mackenzie.  How are we feeling about Steve Jones?
Qualifying mistakes - very excited after Hamilton's.  Led us to hope that this new format would lead to good races.
Shouting "It's Hamilton!"- as you realise that's who Bottas touched in the first corner
Dummy practice starts - Rosberg's warm up lap start fooled Hamilton into starting much too slow!
Sparks
Pit lane cameras - great views
Close racing - a great race for overtakes (DRS or otherwise)
Haas - not a fluke then...

Colliding in the first corner

C4 diversity policy - no English presenters on their coverage
#sexylap - really Lewis?
Hamilton's tweets - "nothing but love and respect for this culture [and the human rights issues surrounding them]
Warm up lap engine failure- Vettel's smoky engine gave another sign that this race might fall flat
Confusion - why did both Renault's start in the pits?
It's raining car parts - there weren't that many collisions

Bahrain Results

1. Three dreams, one team - 160
2. BogOffBernie - 118
3. The Pitstop Princess - 117
4. Merc-redible Hulk - 114
5. Weak end of Bernie - 109
6. Claire has to type this sentence out each time as my team name - 105
7. Halo, it's me - 100
8. No Vices Now - 85
9. The Hopefuls - 84
10. Hippy F1 - 83
11. Beauty & the F1 Geek - 82
12. Marian's Marvels - 65
13. British Racing Green - 60
14. The Maranello Marvels - 51
15. Put out to Pastor - 39
16. Indianan Walker and the Tyres of Doom - 32

Bahrain GP - "Get in there mate"

Smelling of rosewater

Button is running the London Marathon next weekend - I might eat a marathon in support
Sparks - looking good under the floodlights
Maldonado out of position - promised shennanigans
Radio - lots of it this race, Bernie must have had a word
Passing - lots from Rosberg and Nasr.  Hooray.
BBW - nearly giving Hamilton some grief

Covered in dust

Suzy: Jenson Button not running must: "be frustrating for Jenson Button and indeed for Jenson Button fans" - literally tens of Brits vent their frustration
Failing to get off the grid - I'm looking at you Massa
Identical twins - I can't tell the difference between the McLarens and Force India
Sauber overtaking Williams - boo
Wheels not on the wagon - Ericsson
"I don't know why we have a problem" - because you took a big detour off the track, Vettel