One for me, one for you. Sebastian and Lewis exchange wins to start the season. It's all hugs and smiles for now, but the battle will heat up. Will it be in Bahrain? (formerly Boreain - not the case for the last few seasons though!). Max Verstappen had another fantastic grand prix in mixed conditions finishing on the podium from a lowly 16th. Kimi Raikkonen and Bottas under performing once again, maybe the ice-cool Finns need some time to warm up. Further down the grid, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso and Kevin Magnussen had a great day out. The same couldn't be said for Renault or the Sauber pair. What will we see next time out, under the Arabian stars? please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image TV TIMES (BST): FP1-12pm FP2-4pm SP3-1pm Q-4pm R-4pm TYRES ALLOCATED: SS S M 2017 Predictions Championship x2 moreinjuredthanowen x1 Smithers BrightLampShade tomcat606 DHCanary El_Bando Julius Caesar ErnieBecclestone dhel happyal fevriul McFerrari St. Slicks of Stoneham Dell Boy ched999uk
I was disappointed with Williams . Hope they have a better race . I vote Bottas to win , if he doesn't then I will stop voting for him ,just to see if I am jinxing him !
Very poor showing, don't understand how Massa was caught out so badly. Bottas has been quite poor relative to the car he is in, Raikkonen goes strong in Bahrain. But is it enough to challenge the might of Lewis and Seb? Both have transcended the field in terms of driver-car performance. Thinking about how Max might enter the scene over the season, temperatures will be higher here etc. Lets see how that influences things.
Warmer air and track temp, front limited and Kimi goes better here - I think this will be a Ferrari win. Just hope we get a straight fight upfront which we have missed so far!
Just wishing there was no safety car, would have been a solid chase at the front for the win. Maybe next Sunday will be a repeat of 2014.
Hilarious, but you didn't notice that the race starts at 4pm BST, the poll closes at 2pm on the Sunday. Jokes on you.
On paper, as things stand, it ought to be a Ferrari win, and I can't see Räikkönen beating Vettel. The Ferrari is the best car. If Mercedes have a power advantage, it is tiny and more than off-set by Ferrari's more compliant chassis (at time of writing) especially in warm/hot conditions. Most likely result: VET, HAM, RAI, VES, BOT, RIC.
I've gone for Lewis again, as I think that Mercedes will come on strong and out develop Ferrari. Hoping for a close and exciting race.
yes and no, I'd say the Merc is the fastest over a qualifying lap, and if Ferrari are within .5 of that then they have the race pace to put pressure on, and they look good in the wake, not really seen how good the merc is following, but considering what has seemed to me their philosophy since they returned, it's probably not great. I also suspect the Merc is a bit heavier on it's tyres.
I think there is nothing in it, which is good. What's interesting is there was a lot of talk of how much downforce Ferrari have and that may indicate why they struggled down the back straight.
I wonder if Williams had a very poor race as it was a damp track and they have been very bad in wet and damp conditions for the last few years. Ferrari might have the edge here as they seem to be better in warm weather than the Mercs. As BLS said this season is looking like we actually have races with, ok a small number, decent overtakes which were not just DRS creations.
Read he had micro fractures in vertebrae. Seems weird that neither team or driver mentioned that. Then again maybe trying to keep nature of injury quiet to protect future career. On another note. I thing during the commentary of China race it was said that when Max was racing karts his dad would tell him which corner he was allowed to overtake on! His dad would only pick corners that were difficult to overtake on. So he was trained from an early age to pass on corners that were not normally overtaking spots! Interesting.