[Official] Bahrain Grand Prix 2018 - Grand Prix Weekend Thread - Round 2 of 21

[Born Racer]

We arrive at the Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain for the fourteenth edition of this Grand Prix, which began in 2004. The first world championship race to be held in the Middle East, it became Formula 1’s second night race ten years after its debut.

The inaugural Grand Prix was won by eventual seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher from his Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button in his BAR. In 2005, the new forthcoming champion Fernando Alonso took the spoils. Schumacher had run off the track in his chase of the Renault driver and soon retired with a hydraulic problem, bringing his run of 58 races without a mechanical retirement to an end. Race day also brought the hottest conditions yet seen at a Grand Prix, with 41.9 degree and 56 degree air and track temperatures. Alonso again had the measure of Schumacher the following year, where Bahrain held the season opener, overturning Schumacher’s lead during the pit stops.

Felipe Massa won in his Ferrari in 2007, with Lewis Hamilton 2nd in the McLaren and Kimi Räikkönen 3rd for the third successive season, this time in a Ferrari. Alonso, Räikkönen and Hamilton all left the race equal on points after three Grands Prix. Massa won again in 2008 from Räikkönen, with Robert Kubica completing the podium for BMW-Sauber. Hamilton drove into the back of Alonso and ended up a lap down.

In 2009 Jenson Button won for Brawn, while Alonso led home a Ferrari 1-2 the following year, where for one occasion only as it turned out, the Grand Prix used a longer 6.299 km layout. This was the season opener for the second time. In 2011, a month before the Grand Prix was due to be held, it was cancelled following the Bahraini protests.

The race returned the following season and saw the first of two successive Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull victories before Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes repeaed that feat in 2014 and 2015. The first of those two years saw a particularly thrilling duel between team-mates Hamilton and Rosberg, with some hard and close racing.

In 2016 Rosberg won after a first corner collision between Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo. Last year, Vettel won in the Ferrari from the Mercedes drivers Hamilton and Bottas.

This year, Ferrari enter the second round as championship leaders, but are under no illusions about the challenge from Mercedes who appear to have a quicker car in most conditions. Still, they will take heart from the fact that if they get certain things right, they do have the beating of the Brackley team. Last year, Ferrari managed the super-soft tyres better than the Mercedes, and you might think the hotter conditions will suit their car based on previous form.

Kimi Räikkönen has taken eight podiums in Bahrain but never won. He has also not won since his return to Ferrari but was quicker than Vettel in Australia, so might fancy his chances this weekend. The ever unflappable Finn will wait to see what will happen rather than predicting such an outcome, however.

Pirelli are bringing medium, soft and super-soft tyres to this race, as they did last year and Pirelli expect to have one more than one pit stop for most drivers, so hopefully the race will be strategically more interesting than Melbourne. It is also a track where overtaking is readily possible, so overall we ought to see something more engrossing on a number of levels than the Australian Grand Prix.

Circuit length: 5.412km
Number of laps: 57
Race distance: 308.238km
Dry weather tyre compounds: Medium, Soft and Supersoft
Lap Record: 1:31.447 (2005 – Pedro de la Rosa – McLaren-Mercedes)
First Grand Prix: 2004




Constructors' Championship standings: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2018/team.html

Drivers' Championship standings:
https://www.formula1.com/en/results....8/drivers.html

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http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=152532

[S griffin]

Thanks for the intro BR, here’s to a long weekend of racing, starting with practice today

[Tourer]

Nice work Born Racer.

Here in Oz it's Fox or nothing to watch any of it live but we'll get FTA highlights (or whole race - not clear) on Monday or Tuesday nights.

Oh well

[S griffin]

Ricciardo fastest, already RBR are looking good, just a shame for Max though

[E.B]

Didnt have it in P2 though..... a second shy of the two Ferraris and half a second shy of the Mercs. Close to Max though. Ferraris seem to have good race pace as well as one lap. Until Merc bring out the party modes and stop sandbagging.

I think I saw more marshalls in their posts than spectators in the stands.

[Skam85]

Kimi avoids a penalty for the mis-fitted tyre. Cue anti-Ferrari uproar. I wonder how many of the spectators will be seeking a refund at this atrocity?

Good to see common sense prevail though. Hopefully this is a consistent thing over the course of the year now, not penalising drivers for team stuff-ups.

Kimi’s looking rapid again, as are Ferrari. Lewis down the order will make it difficult, knowing how much the Merc struggles in traffic. I think we’re in for a good race Sunday!

[keithcollantine]

In the past five years no driver has got a grid penalty for an unsafe release in practice. The headlines suggesting he 'escaped' a penalty were therefore a bit over the top.

[Skam85]

Originally Posted by keithcollantine

In the past five years no driver has got a grid penalty for an unsafe release in practice. The headlines suggesting he 'escaped' a penalty were therefore a bit over the top.

I particulary liked the ‘mandatory penalty’ headline posted on a site about this non-story.

[Peter Mallett]

But Hamilton gets five places for a gearbox swap. Thus penalising the driver for an engineering issue. Surely someone sensible can see that this has no relevance to racing? #Idespair

[Greem]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

But Hamilton gets five places for a gearbox swap. Thus penalising the driver for an engineering issue. Surely someone sensible can see that this has no relevance to racing? #Idespair

#costcutting, #apparently

Except the grid drop puts Hamilton at the front of a very hungry gaggle of drivers & teams, and increases his chance of a punt and further car breakage. And increased costs.

I'm still of the opinion that the penalties should be to the WCC points for engineering/team problems, and the WDC points when the driver stuffs up. For extra "entertainment" we could have grid penalties for drivers stuffing up, but in the main it should be "go to the back".

[Skam85]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

But Hamilton gets five places for a gearbox swap. Thus penalising the driver for an engineering issue. Surely someone sensible can see that this has no relevance to racing? #Idespair

Good point. But where does the line begin and end? A much harder question to answer. Do that and teams are going to be changing gearboxes and PUs multiple times a weekend like the good old days.

[S griffin]

I'd rather they limited the number of components per weekend, than using the same ones for x number of races

[Peter Mallett]

Bingo. Make everything less complicated and they can do what they like. Proper engines and gearboxes. I like your thinking.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Great intro as ever.

I think it was the 2014 race that turned out to be a cracker, otherwise Bahrain can be a bit of dull affair.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Verstappen crashes out and qualifying is red flagged. That's it over for him.

[Akrapovic]

Max isn't making 2018 easy for himself.

[Peter Mallett]

Should be 15th. It's only two races in but are we seeing the exuberence of youth here? Could be a hard.learning year for him. I recall his dad was a bit similar.

[JHamilton]

Now it's time for McLaren to hit the panic button. W.W.R.D?

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[Articus]

BBC getting straight to the point. Asking Bouillier about being out qualified by the Hondas...I'm not sure if Nando makes it through the full season...

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

Now it's time for McLaren to hit the panic button. W.W.R.D?

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[P38 in workshop]

Outstanding job by Gasly in the Toro Rosso.Looking at the whole grid I have to conclude that the old order has changed and some of the longer established teams need a reboot.

[bjohnsonsmith]

All in all, that was quite an exciting qualifying session. Probably more exciting than the race will be.

Vettel's on pole, though I thought Kimi might get it but he's second, completing the Ferrari shut out. Good to see Bottas in third. Despite being fourth Lulu has to drop 5 places. However, that's got to be a disappointing session for both McLaren and Haas, after the season opener.

[Richard C]

Interesting qualifying. I didn't examine final times closely, but it seems there remains a decent gap between the first few rows as the rest of the grid, but it seems like the "everyone else" group is tightening up and making things more unpredictable.

Toro Rosso Honda shocked with their performance. The Eric Boullier interview right after TR outqualified McLaren was interesting. It sounded like McLaren was thinking... "What just happened?"

Its only the second race of the seasons, so who knows what this means, but it might be an interesting year!

Richard

[newlaprecord]

ferrari's genuine pace is really promosing and sure look to set the scene for an absolute EPIC battle of the 4 timers, that will go down the wire and also go down history books as some of the most intense -and as much we know hamilton- most controversial ones.

i just can hope alonso will not interfere too much, and get out the way equally fast for both 4 timers, when they come to lap him

[newlaprecord]

to be fair, i have noticed over the years that when hamilton has a penalty, he saves his superhuman laps, and does just decent ones. without the penalty, there could have very well be another 0.3-0.5 in him i would imagine. still, epic session.