Start, Bahrain International Circuit, 2018

Rate the race: 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix

2018 Bahrain Grand Prix

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What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Bahrain Grand Prix.

RaceFans has held polls on every F1 race since 2008 to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.

Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (12%)
  • 9 (34%)
  • 8 (37%)
  • 7 (13%)
  • 6 (3%)
  • 5 (1%)
  • 4 (0%)
  • 3 (0%)
  • 2 (0%)
  • 1 (0%)

Total Voters: 482

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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152 comments on “Rate the race: 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix”

  1. Brilliant

    1. Really? I think most of us were wishing Kimi all the luck for this weekend but I’m sure we didn’t literally meant “break a leg” Kimi.
      Honestly that incident left me a bit wobbled, it’s never nice to see someone getting hurt.

      1. Yeah @peartree – huge shame at that injury, and looking forward for an update on the mechanic’s health, as well as an understanding of what went wrong (C4 commentators said the light appeared to go green, in a replay, so doesn’t seem to have been Kimi jumping the gun).

        1. @phylyp I was watching c4 too, I think Coulthard said that he could see the leg of the mechanic, honestly, not nice not easy to watch to hear and realise the pit lane is live. Honestly I think the FIA ought to have a protocol to these situations, we had the cameras trying to avoid the scene, we had the commentators trying to lighten up the mood but all the while a man is on the floor.

          1. @peartree
            Calm down a man got hurt and it happens to most people now and then. Hes taken well care of and its not the end of the world.

          2. Liberty/FOM did well by avoiding to show the injured guy.

          3. Egonovi I agree, but then they published the race highlights on youtube, and it is there for everybody to see.
            If any of you are skirmish about those sort of things, better not see it

          1. petebaldwin (@)
            8th April 2018, 20:05

            Skip to 40s

      2. The race wasn’t bad but gave the right atmosfer! Untill only the mechanic accident. (what i saw is an complicated break on two places, I hope after the operation he will be 100%)
        The lollypop men was clearly the one in the wrong by giving green light while the right rear tyre was’t removed yet.

    2. Gave it a 9.. Great performances, passes and drama. Too bad a Ferrari mechanic got injured.

  2. Josh (@canadianjosh)
    8th April 2018, 17:47

    Woulda been a 10 but the shy Finn was too shy when he had that one chance. Solid solid 9.

    1. Well he went for it

      1. Josh (@canadianjosh)
        8th April 2018, 17:54

        He did indeed

        1. He did. Maybe he shouldn’t make the move on the pit straight, seems to me outbraking Seb down turn 1 was a better strategy to make the pass work.

      2. He went for it when too far back and so compromised his run to turn 3 when he could have actually had a shot.

    2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      8th April 2018, 17:59

      Lol, Seb’s tyres showed no degradation whatsoever – he simply let Valtteri close up to toy with him. There was less than a 1% of the Mercedes passing the almighty Ferrari…

      1. he even let him within drs zone just to mock the poor guy. Vettel’s tyres were so new Hamilton only managed to reduce a gap of 17s down to 5

      2. @freelittlebirds Did you see that split second Vettel even let Bottas past but thanks to the almighty Ferrari he beemed himself back in front.

        1. he probably missed it, it was a blink of an eye

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            8th April 2018, 18:22

            no but I saw Vettel’s spin and how he was still able to hold onto the lead and Vettel’s car was literally off the track on every turn but Bottas just couldn’t pass him using the full track.

            Just kidding, of course, Vettel’s tyres were absolutely phenomenal. The car was glued in front of Bottas’ car. As you know, when the tyres are totally, you can’t defend because the car is pushing out on the corners.

          2. @freelittlebirds Yeah the tyres were totally. It’s not like Bottas was in a faster car on better tyres in that phase of the race at all. His tyres were totally not totally.

          3. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            8th April 2018, 19:32

            @flatsix I think you’re right – Vettel’s tyres were totally gone and he still managed to beat a 4 time WCC winning car with zero tread. I hope that makes you happy:-)

      3. I think he even toyed with the idea to have an extra pit stop on lap 57 :p

      4. @freelittlebirds
        What on earth is wrong with you?

    3. Shy Finn left it a lap or two too late to attack.

      1. I don’t believe he had a chance unless the German made a mistake or faced a tyre failure. It was a case of “so close, yet so far” like Hamilton’s in Australia.

        Inb4 people say overtaking is impossible in Australia: well, people will suffer from the wake here too.

        1. Others, throughout the field, were able to overtake.

          Unfortunately a shy Finn indeed.
          And given that he accepted to be the white tyre guinea pig for the team, we now have tufins being clear #2’s.

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            8th April 2018, 20:05

            Well, with Raikonnen out, Bottas could have challenged Vettel harder. I think he should have forced the issue on the pass -Vettel would have for sure.

            That was too timid from Bottas. It was ok to take both drivers as long as he tried to pass – Vettel does it all the time.

  3. A decent race overall. Not as good as in recent years, but not too bad either.

  4. 9/10. Great race, and the last 5 laps were brilliant! Let’s hope for more battles like this throughout 2018.

  5. Now that was good fun.. 8

  6. Toro-Rosso-Honda have finished higher than McLaren ever did in the past 3 years (and 2 races).

    1. Yes but McLaren did develop the Honda engine for them for exactly 3 years…..ouch!!

      1. “The power of gifts” @mashiat @jop452

      2. @jop452
        They didnt develop anything, they trashtalked it and blamed their own shortcomings on it all they could for 3 years. After that they throw them out on the street at the mercy of some poor backmarker team picking them up.

        Honda has nothing to thank McLaren for.

        1. +1 I think Honda just gave 110% and it’s going tobe an hard decision for Horner to select engines.

          McLaren is clearly an past branch very dissapointed in them.

      3. @jop452 @mashiat Toro Rosso is being the old lady that waits until you’re tired of that slot machine just to win the jackpot.

    2. But McLaren is 10 points ahead.

      McLaren 22 points
      Toro Rosso 12 points

      1. yeah yeah, and 19 races and a possible 817 points to go.

  7. That’s some tyre strategies done right

  8. Bottas has to go

    1. Josh (@canadianjosh)
      8th April 2018, 19:32

      Really? Qualified 3rd, beat Kimi to turn 1 and chased Seb down and put a hell of a show on for us.

      1. Bottas is a damn good driver, especially when not forced to use Hamilton’s setups.

        Hell, they *already* force him to drive a car built to Hamilton’s standards…

  9. That race management by Vettel at the end was brilliant. I thought he was done and dusted.

    1. That is down to Valterri not doing good enough. I cant help but think if that was Lewis, Seb would have no chance. Valterri kind of disappeared in the midway while he should have been slowly closing Seb down. Although, not removing the credt from Seb.

      1. IMO, that was the best Bottas could’ve done bar a mistake from or a failure for Vettel. The drivers have said that the issue of reduced performance from the wake of the leading car is worse this year than it was last year, and Mercedes have always said that their cars simply suck while following.

      2. @krichelle
        To be fair to Bottas, the gap to Hamilton didn’t change much as far as I could see, at least until he got into Vettel’s dirty air. Maybe he could have done more at that point, it didn’t look to me like he was pushing to the limit, but these tyres don’t like that anyway.

      3. @krichelle Mercedes had to save fuel in the race. Bottas rapidly caught Vettel when he got the call from pitlane. Outqualified Hamilton and had very equal pace compared to his teammate, so I really disagree with you about Hamilton doing a better a job in same conditions. I don’t know how critical the fuel situation was, but if it wasn’t overly critical then it was Merc’s fault for not telling Bottas to push earlier.

  10. 9, fantastic race. Shows different between good and great, stunning from Vettel.

  11. 8/10. Hats off to Pirelli for that one f9r tyre selection and stunning race by seb. Good action at the start, radical intrigue in the middle, tense finish.

    1. Tactical, not radical bloody autocorrect

  12. petebaldwin (@)
    8th April 2018, 17:50

    9/10

    Excitement throughout and lots of great moments. Hamilton’s triple overtake, the first few laps, Bottas chasing down Vettel, Toro Rosso finishing 4th… Really enjoyable race.

  13. 9/10 Vettel deserves a medal for that. Valterri, not good enough. He should have done better. Nice bounceback but Valterri should have gotten this win, when you have the chance, you should grab it especially if your contract expires this season.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      8th April 2018, 18:03

      I dunno about that – that Ferrari looked better than the Mercedes – that wasn’t a car that has no grip and they didn’t show any degradation on the actual tyres. According to Brundle the rear tyres go first here and they seemed to be doing the job phenomenally covering the exits and pivoting like a ballerina.

      I think Vettel was just messing with Valtteri, knowing he has better tyres in better shape than he did.

      1. Not necessarily, Vettel has always been good in bad grip situations. Besides, he was driving in (mostly) clean air, which is always fast than driving in someone’s wake in the twisty bits.

        And for the Bottas detractors: Bottas only caught up with Vettel while Vettel was trapped working his way thru the backmarkers, and I suspect some of the drivers Vettel passed (Perez) passive-aggressively tried to hold him up.

  14. That was boring for the most part but a tense ending brought it up a bit. It was so obvious what Mercedes were trying to do though

    1. Boring for the most part? Were you looking at a poster instead of the tv? Great race from start to finish with good racing throughout.

    2. not boring at all if you follow the fights between the remaining 7 teams as well (or maybe 6 teams because Williams and its drivers are utterly disappointing).

      1. +1 Williams were really bad when will we see Robert!

        1. @macleod, @johnmilk – and data that Williams has proved Kubica is slower than Sirotkin. Don’t forget he’s new to this game, Kubica was no better. Massa on the other hand would’ve been better but seeing where the car is now I have no doubt he’s happy not driving it.

          1. Maybe F1’s own bicycle Fernando could give it a spin and see what it is actually capable of.

      2. they could have Massa and Kubica on those cars, just let that one sink

      3. You know nascar fans: they just watch follow-the-leader hoping for a lurid crash.

  15. If the Bulls had stayed in the mix, then that could have been a 10.

  16. 9. Deserved 9.

    Awesome race. Who needs a massive number of overtakes in a race, when a race like this can be exciting.
    That said, Hamilton’s 3-in-1 was incredibly cool, he made it look so effortless (I’ve seen blue flag passes look harder).

    And Toro Rosso + Gasly, damn. Making me eat my words that they’ll be fighting for bottom.

    Bit of a shame to have lost the Red Bulls, if they were in there, they might have made it a proper 10.

  17. 9. Mostly because of the tension at the end. The middle wasn’t the best but there were spectacular drives everywhere, especially the top 5, even if the drs was a bit strong.

  18. 10/10 for final excitement, for Pierre Gasly proving me absolutely right and for the highest Honda finish since the turbo era – and ahead of any Renaults, especially the best chassis ever orange Renaults – 2 points deducted for a rather formulaic proceedings and weirdly lenient stewarding (quite a few avoidable touches which they just let go)

  19. John Toad (@)
    8th April 2018, 17:53

    Interesting tactical battle that never quite made it to exciting.

  20. Best car won from pole, 3/10

    1. It’s the journey that matters, not the destination.

      By pitting later, Mercedes were able to switch to a one-stopper, which put Vettel & Ferrari on the back foot.

      1. ferrari was good with 2 stopper… what put ferrari on the back foot was losing raikonen not because of any pressure from merc, they couldnt force bottas to pit again and bottas could easly go till the end with the medium forcing now vettel to go till the end too…

  21. After Punta del Este (the ePrix), people wanted a race like that. And a race like that they have got.

    What a race! Overtakes throughout, cars close together and super edge-of-the-seat action in the closing stages!

    I say, Vettel better not bottle his lead this time around. He really does have a chance. At the same time, sympathies for Kimi (I hope the crew member is okay).

  22. Justin (@boombazookajd)
    8th April 2018, 17:59

    Wonderful. This is what F1 wants and needs…drama, late race pushing, two different tire strategies. Sad to see an injury in the pit lane but that’s another story. Proper race and boy oh boy did we get a treat.

    Gasly did stellar, Vettel showed his magic on tires, and we avoided any major crashes. What a track!

  23. Awful strategy from Ferrari as usual, this time they didn’t fluke it but that was almost ruined by them. First car, more conservative strategy, a definite 1 stop was the race strategy not the quickest, so why didn’t they put Mediums on Vettel and Softs or ss on Raikkonen. Also if they wanted to push mercedes pit Rai first.

    1. @peartree On the radio, they said ‘Plan D’. It was quite clear they were having to make several changes to the original strategy on the fly. I think Plan A was a one-stop with the mediums, but after the supersofts dropped off after lap 15, they were forced to switch to a 2-stopper. After Kimi’s incident, they just decided to keep him out. Those 2 laps after the pitlane incident, where Vettel increased his lead by close to three seconds on Bottas were crucial.

      1. @wsrgo I heard D as well. Ben Edwards on c4 heard what he wanted, as usual. That just solidified the fact Ferrari made the wrong call.

        1. You can’t assume that, given the catastrophe that happened in the pits.

  24. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    8th April 2018, 18:01

    Fun to watch, no doubt. I wish Ericsson didn’t screw up the battle between Hulk and Magnussen.

    Amazing race by Lewis at the start of the race.

    1. @freelittlebirds His triple overtake was amazing, but please help me remember what else he had to do to get into fourth? He even almost lost out to Verstappen.

      1. Yeah, Hamilton really didn’t do much to be brutally honest. Throw out the constant fawning by the obviously-biases British commentators, and you have a mediocre drive. He couldn’t even close up on Bottas, and he’s supposed to be the best driver in the world. Even that “triple overtake” on slower backmarkers wasn’t all that.

  25. Great race, especially the opening, hideous accident in the Ferrari box. Mercedes left it too late to attack Vettel, it was fairly obvious he’d try to stay on track unless Bottas pushed him. Mercedes should have done like Ferrari do so well and split their driver tactics to squeeze their rival tactically. Instead they enter ‘plodding round the track’ mode and wake up too late. Come on! Ferrari seem street wise with their desire to win, Mercedes a bit too generic and dull-minded.

    1. @david-br The opposite, Merc’s strategy was perfect, Ferrari almost lost it on their own. Mercedes even used Hamilton to better Bottas chances.

      1. @peartree OK, I agree in terms of the race strategy as a whole. But they realized too late that Vettel wasn’t going to stop and ‘released’ Bottas to catch him without enough time. My point is that they could have forced Ferrari into more of a dilemma, pit or hold out, by pushing him much earlier. At the very least I thought they were 4 or 5 laps too late, since it was around then I started thinking Vettel was going to stay out and Bottas’s distance to him wasn’t coming down. So strategy good, tactics (in race decisions) not so good.

        1. Forget strategy: the pit accident completely screwed that up. Whatever Ferrari was try was done and gone when that happened, leaving Vettel the job to manage the tires & hang on for the best position possible. He could’ve done it, even with Bottas pushing harder; but ultimately the Mercedes ended up failing the team, being unable to run in bad air.

      2. But Valterri did not capitalize on it. He left it too late even though he was hampered by chunks of traffic. But he should not have dropped off midway through the race. I know Mercedes are tolerant with their drivers when it comes to signing contracts but this was one race where Valterri should have stepped up.

        1. @david-br

          Same here. When James Vowles message was broadcast to all of us, when was that? Lap 35-45? Valterri most likely should have gotten the message, unless they were completely prioritizing Lewis at that point because there was no way Lewis was going to close down 9-10 second gap to Valterri, so it would be a 1-3 the priority. But he started at lap 50 and once he cleared the sauber which was the last lapped car, he immediately slashed Seb’s lead in 2-3 laps and had he done this earlier he would have more laps to get Seb. Mercedes are going to be kicking themselves with that.

      3. ferrari strategy was bullet proof.. until kimi got out of the race, thats when the real risk came.. having to keep vettel with old tires until the end, if kimi had stayed there was no way that bottas would been that close to vettel

        1. Proof that Vettel is still a very effective driver.

  26. If memory serves me correctly, it’s the first time I’ve given a race an 8 in a very, very long time. Good racing, and best wishes to the injured Ferrari mechanic.

  27. Quite an exciting race…but it still was one driver who held the lead throughout…..Bottas should have tried harder at the end, it was that typical performance that will lose him the Mercedes drive…
    Congrats to Torro Rosso and Gasly (and Sauber)…and some one should be sacked at Williams…..they were embarrassing

  28. Goodness, that inury was almost Eduardo da Silva-like. Hope he gets better soon. And I hope Ferrari fires the lollipop man.

    1. I don’t think you can fire the “lollipop” lights

      maybe teams should use a human again? slower but probably safer in this type of situations

      1. I think it may be heading that way, or at least tie those lights into a human-activated mechanism. Two races in a row that the automated system has failed. I was about to write that we’re lucky it hasn’t caused any injuries, but…

  29. I call it 8. Just because too much stupid drs easy passes on the straight.

    1. agree

      it seems like it either does not work and it is too weak, or it turns out to be too powerful. We will have to wait until the new rules I’m afraid

      1. Well there have been races when they absolutely nail it on the DRS. Its a shame that those races are a very smally minority. The idea idea of DRS is not bad imo. Its just the execution that lacks. It would be cool if they could test it out somehow before the races to see how big that zone should be. Because in those rare occasions when drs works as intended its really great.

  30. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    8th April 2018, 18:11

    Pretty good race. Gasly, Vettel and Magnussen did great.

    What happened to Red Bull? Impressed by how well that Toro Rosso is doing too.

    1. I’d put that down to Gasly in particular. This track is familiar to him, and I believe that he’s had a good run here in junior formulae.

      1. Scratch that. He’s not done well in Bahrain in GP2. But still, I’d say that Hartley’s performance might’ve been more around the ballpark of TRH than Gasly, who definitely outshone the car.

  31. Neil (@neilosjames)
    8th April 2018, 18:15

    That was more like it, mostly thanks to the midfield, but the front-runners did their bit late on as well.

    A solid 8/10 – just wish the Red Bulls and Raikkonen had lasted til the end. And of course, I hope the mechanic recovers soon.

  32. Gave an 8, just let down by a little uneventful middle part of the race.

    But other than that, Vettel drove like a champ in the last few laps, how did he manage I don’t know. Gasly 4th was awesome and must be karma to McLaren a little, saying that McLaren are p4 in constructors.

    Also a well done to Ericsson for his first points in years.

  33. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
    8th April 2018, 18:16

    9/10
    Very nice race, not that much in the front but the midfield was pure madness! Who would imagine that Gasly, with an Honda powered car, would finish in P4 in the hot environment of Bahrain & Marcus Ericsson would drag his Sauber in the points!!!
    The battle for the lead was nice as well, Bottas did his best but he had only one chance & not under perfect conditions
    Kudos to him for both outqualifying & outracing Hamilton.
    The midfield battle of this season is amazing & every team(apart from Williams) can be “best of the rest” as it seems!!!

    1. The midfield battle of this season is amazing & every team(apart from Williams) can be “best of the rest” as it seems!!!

      Nicely said, @miltosgreekfan

  34. Interesting tyre strategy for once which made for a tense finish. Unfortunately the FIA made the wrong decision to extend the DRS and ruined the wheel to wheel racing. I hope they realise their mistake and leave China alone. Solid 8 from me.

  35. What a race!

  36. 7/10 Good race.

  37. It’s likely Mercedes had assumed Vettel would need a second stop and so they set their time targets accordingly. But Bottas just wasn’t going fast enough to put pressure on Vettel and he just didn’t have to push the soft tires. Had Bottas pushed 10 laps earlier Vettel would have had to push harder as well and perhaps then Vettel would have needed a stop.

    Another Strategy error by Mercedes in my view. They have higher tire degradation in high temp circuits and assumed the soft would not make it to the end on the Ferrari Either.

    I’m not a Vettel fan, but very well managed by him this time. Poor effort by Bottas (though he may have been told not to push…). Hamilton did well to recover from 9th. Some really bad luck for Red Bull with both cars out 5 laps into the race. It would have been better were they in the mix.

    I gave it a 7. The chase at the end was the only really interesting part.

    1. Gave it a 9; Max’s move, Hammy’s triple whammy, Drama at Ferrari, Gasly and Magnussen… And the Chase.
      Hamilton drive fine but was lucky with three top cars moving out of his way. Merc should’ve indeed told Valterri to push earlier; I don’t see the downside to that! And Seb was clever throughout.
      China will be Monstrous as Merc will want to bring it ON.

  38. Its a 10

    You can always wish for more, other results, better directing but if so theres no need to have the the number 10 ranking as its never gonna be 100% perfect. There was stuff happening and tension the entire down the entire field.

    I do still wonder how Gasly lost his 4th position on lap one after his brilliant overtake on Ricciardo. They never seemed to find any replay of that and my broadcasters didnt even notice it.

    1. There where stuff and tension happening over the entire field the whole time*

  39. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
    8th April 2018, 18:34

    Absolutely cracking race from start to finish. Just what the doctor ordered.

    1. imagine how good it would have been with both RBR’s in the mix.

      1. One was in the mix, he made his usual all or nothing charge.

        1. Really it looked to me of an normal accident or are you saying Lewis planned to clipped Max rear tyre?

          1. No im saying Max was in the mix today, he had no technical problems.

  40. Bring Rosberg back.

    1. For some truly lackluster driving.

  41. 9- Not the result i was expecting but lots of overtakes with only one bad feeling (the Ferarri wheelman)

  42. 8/10, Great race overall, but could have been even better if the RBR were in the mix and if that accident didn’t happen in the Ferrari box. Gasly in 4th place, what can I say ? Thanks again Dr. Helmut Marko.

  43. 3/4 through I was thinking a seven, decent race up to that point. It got my heart pounding over the last ten laps though so gains an extra point. Reason it misses out on the top two points is it didn’t really have any ding-dong battles that we’ve had here in the past, it tended to be one DRS pass and done, with drivers out of position through strategy providing most of the on-track action.

    I missed the Red Bull cars being at the front too, it looked like they could both have gotten involved.

  44. Gave it an 8. The drs ruined all the overtakes but other than that it was pretty exciting race. Nice surprise from gasly/toro rosso/honda.

  45. @A 10 for Cal Crutchlow ! :)

    1. +1……now that was a dramatic race…..Moto GP…try and catch it

  46. The last time I remember being so tense was at 2007 Belgium GP, when Kimi was chased by Hamilton and swapping positions during the rain in the final laps, then Kimi suddenly crashed. This was as intense as back then. I though Seb will not save his first place, but I was wrong. I think the win was up for grabs for Bottas, but he just didn’t take it.

  47. Duncan Snowden
    8th April 2018, 20:07

    It’s not often I’ll say this about a Ferrari win, but that was an absolute belter. That’s why we watch F1, right there. The only sour point was the pit incident. Nobody likes to see that kind of thing. But otherwise, you could hardly ask for more.

  48. When he was behind Kimi, for a while he was half a sec a lap quicker, closed to around 7 secs, then dropped off, I reckon that’s where he lost the race..What did Hanss say about the biggest *****..or lack of them ?

  49. ^Delete.. brain fade..

  50. Really enjoyable race. Lots of tension.

    I complained last race about ESPN coverage in the US. I can’t do that today. It was awesome. No commercial interruptions. Thank you ESPN. THANK YOU Mother’s for sponsoring. Two thumbs up!!

  51. @budchekov
    hh. And what about Márquez?

  52. Is his middle name Max?

  53. Great race. Another masterpice by champion Vettel and Ferrari.

  54. i give a 5 only beacuse of the last laps, the race was awful!!!

  55. 10, that is all. Anything less is petulant.

  56. 9. It was a very good race. It was a close race in the end for the first place between Vettel and Bottas. There were some good overtakes. Honda’s 4. place was absolutely brilliant, Gasly’s team worked perfect. Unfortunately there were not overtakes for the podium places it is why 10-1=9 points for this GP.

  57. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    8th April 2018, 23:51

    What’s up with the Ferrari and Haas exhausts? Is that oil coming out? Does the Sauber have the same exhaust.

    1. @freelittlebirds I noticed it from all 3 Ferrari engined teams today, inc. Sauber.

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        9th April 2018, 1:45

        @swh1386 does anyone know what it is?

        I thought it was some kind of issue with the Haas engine at first and they’d retire and race direction would have to stop the race to clean the track.

        Has anyone written an article about it? Is it even legal? I just have never seen a spray coming out of a car for the whole race:-)

        1. (@freelittlebirds) Yeah it is a little odd! Martin Brundle spoke about it in commentary, seems to think its oil that they aren’t allowed to burn through the exhaust any more. The Ferrari smokescreen in qualifying was very curious too! I am assuming its legal, it’s been discussed publicly too for it not to have been verified by the FIA. But the Haas and Sauber too definately suggests its normal operation for a 2018 Ferrari power train.
          Interestingly, if you look back at Bottas quali crash in Melbourne, there is some sort of liquid venting from a similar area too, but only after the rear of the car was broken!

          1. I laughed when Brundle was talking about it. That’s SO Italian! Can’t burn it anymore, so just dump it out the back.

  58. Drama, tension, wheel to wheel action, passes galore, underdogs performing well, controversy, this race had the lot! Gets an 8 for me, not a big fan of Kimi but heartbreaking to see that retirement, wishing the mechanic all the best! And not a big fan of Seb either… so only an 8 based on those!
    Loving F1 2018!

    1. …..missed the Red Bulls too, they would’ve been right in the thick of it!

  59. After Australia everything would be an upgrade, but this was great! Lots of action, many passes, sensational end and also some real drama. Gave it a 9, would have been a 10 when the Red Bulls would have stayed in the action.
    This is what you want to see in a F1 race. Wish all the best for the Ferrari mechanic.

  60. Gave it a 9. You want a contest and tonight we got one, with all racing laps needed to decide the winner. How Vettel nursed his tyres to the end was amazing. Gasly was easily Driver of The Day. Bahrain really has turned into a modern-day classic.

    All the panic about it being too difficult to overtake shows how important circuit design is. Bahrain has a good mix of corners, straights, elevation changes and corners that let you choose different lines to help enable side-by-side action. Besides, you don’t need overtaking to have a cracking race. Imagine if Bottas breezed by Vettel to win on the last lap thanks to DRS.

  61. 9.5 , deducted half a point as neither Red Bull lasted past the first few mins.
    Glad STR held the Red Bull flag up high!
    Last night was a genuine joy to watch!

  62. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    9th April 2018, 14:15

    9/10. What a race this has been.

  63. 2017 standings should also be under “previous seasons”.

  64. 9/10 from me. Some excitement at the start. Some good midfield battles and then the suspense with Vettel and Bottas at the end. So much better than the really dull first race.

    Good to see Gasly and Torro Rosso having a great weekend. Ericsson had a good result for Sauber and Hamilton did all he could really from a 9th place start. Very competent driving by Vettel in the last few laps.

    I must admit I did not really like Raikkonen’s attitude. Publicly at least he did not seem to give the impression that he was hugely bothered by what had happened with his seriously injured colleague. I really don’t like his cold, monosyllabic attitude sometimes. It’s just immature in a 38 year old. To be honest I will be glad to see the back of him.

  65. I enjoyed the race and gave it an 8.

    In recent years the Bahrain GP has shown it is more overtaking friendly than the Australian GP and thankfully that proved to be the case again this year after a dull season opener in Melbourne.

    Qualifying proved that despite what some were saying after the first race Mercedes are not clear of the field, and just like last year it seems the relative pace of the cars will be decided by the circuit and the conditions on any weekend, with the Mercedes car again looking like it is not as quick in hotter temperatures.

    With some drivers out of position on the grid it seemed that we would be guaranteed some overtaking and that was the case with Hamilton making his way through the field although Verstappen retired early on after an overly aggressive move on Hamilton.

    I know Hamilton had the quicker car and the advantage of DRS but I did like his move on the main straight when he overtook three cars. There were also plenty of other action throughout the field to enjoy during the race.

    After the start I thought that there wouldn’t be much happening at the front and that Vettel would take a comfortable win, but when Mercedes opted for a different tyre strategy to Ferrari at the pit stops that changed, it looked like Mercedes wouldn’t have to stop again but that Ferrari would, the question was could Vettel pull the necessary gap to stop and retain the lead or would he manage to come back and retake the lead on fresher tyres.

    However Ferrari and Vettel decided they would try to make his tyres last and not make another stop.

    Bottas was not closing on Vettel enough to challenge for the lead instead it looked like he and Mercedes were looking after their tyres as they thought Vettel couldn’t make his tyres last so would have to stop again, when they realised that wouldn’t happen and that they would have to close down and pass Vettel it was too late .

    I thought that Vettel would definitely take the victory until about seven laps from the end when Bottas really started closing the gap and some doubt crept in, but then when he did catch Vettel he didn’t manage to make a proper attempt to overtake and Bottas had to settle for second.

    After the race I thought that if that had been someone like Ricciardo in that position instead of Bottas then he would have managed to get past Vettel.

    One of the other main talking points was that the race also saw a Honda powered Toro Rosso finish ahead of both McLarens .

    Although Honda still have problems, shown by the fact that they had to change parts of the power units after only the first round, they are making progress, and with Toro Rosso they are under less public scrutiny than they were with McLaren, and when they do get engine grid change penalties it would not be as big a deal as if they still with McLaren.

    I said at the time that McLaren’s decision to dump Honda for Renault was a mistake.

    McLaren are more likely to see an immediate improvement in performance with Renault engines in 2018 than with Honda but not to the level of consistently challenging for victories.

    It is not as if they were changing to Mercedes engines which are still the class of the field, performance wise Renault are still the third best engine on the grid and last year they had their share of reliability problems also.

    In the longer term McLaren were more likely to have success with a works engine deal than with a customer engine supply, and that ignores, the fact they are now paying for their engines whereas before Honda supplied engines and finance to the team.

    If Honda do manage to produce a good engine this will turn out to be a gift to Red Bull from McLaren.

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