[arun_josie]

Excellent Race!! A good one after a long time.
A well deserved finish for FI.

The battles between Hamilton Vs Roseberg, Perez Vs Hulk, Ric Vs Vettel were edge of the seat thrillers.

Again Bottas couldn't overtake Massa despite being in the DRS zone.

Last week Ricciardo got a 10 place grid penalty for unsafe release in the pits, not his mistake though. But for one of the dangerous move by Maldonado gets only a 5 place penalty.

[StarrySky]

At least, the Mercedes domination will be more enjoyable if they let Lewis and Nico race each other like today

The rest of the field have a lot of catching up to do. The teams that can catch up seem to be limited by their power units (Ferrari, RB) - which are homologated. The other cars on Mercedes PU, barring McLaren, probably won't match Mercedes' development rate. I will be surprised if anyone can catch them this year.

[zenren]

Was that Rosberg immediately behind Maldonado when he crashed into the Sauber? Video feed was not too clear and I couldn't identify but it certainly looks like a Mercedes. If there were blue flags for both these drivers, then even Gutierrez should have watched his mirrors more carefully.

If the race leader is about to lap you, there is simply no excuse for Gutierrez too not knowing the field behind him. He should have watched his mirror more carefully if he is about to be lapped and a lead car is closing in on him. Same holds good for Maldonado and his team too, releasing a driver a lap down from the pits into the path of the race leader should mean they warn their driver properly about rejoining the track without impeding the leaders.

[Hatari]

Great racing. Mercedes in a different league. Nico should really have done better in the last stint on the softs vs Lewis on the mediums. Dont think he will be able to match Lewis this season.

[gtonsing]

Though very far below Mercedes, nice to see for a strong supporter the Sahara Force India at the second constructor's standings. Good job, team SFI!! Keep winning!!!
What a race! what a super duper race. Didnt even have time to be bother about the lack of noise from the cars. Especially the team fights were awesome!! More of this type of racing and we might even get used to the tinny squeak these cars now emit.

[sourav9385]

Phew! Just when I thought the 1.6L V6 engines had made F1 slow, boring and unattractive!
I've lost quite a bit of my finger nails during the last 10 laps of the race, to be honest

Some excellent wheel to wheel action aided by DRS in this race.
Who knew a track like Bahrain would suddenly deliver such an exciting race!

The Ferraris are languishing at the back of the pack.
I can't even call them mid-fielders anymore.
Excellent drive from Perez & Hulkenburg.
Ricciardo clearly has boat loads of talent, and it shows.
I feel very sad for Williams though. Such a capable car.
It was quite surprising to see Vettel unable to pass Hulk.

Last but not the least, what a fantastic car built by Mercedes!
Without fuel saving, no holds barred racing, they're 2 seconds a lap faster than anyone else!
Holy moly! They are really in a different league this season.
It will be fun to watch which team can play catch up to Mercedes this season.

[MaserQ]

A thoroughly entertaining race. Usually it is the teams fighting each other. Now, we have the teammates battling one another. Great racing all the same. Hamilton was simply superb. Force India's strong showing was well deserved, hope they can keep it going.

Ferrari desperately needs to up their game to give their 2 drivers a fighting chance at victories. Being outpaced by Williams and Force India has got to hurt them bad.

[myavu]

WOW! what a fantastic race. Formula1 redefined at least after 12 years. This kind of racing was seen between Schumi and Montoya in their days.

I was so exited. I feared a collision between Nico & Lewis. But they portrayed what a real racing should be and Merc proved how to manage teammates without a blood bath.

On a side note, Bernie was mentioning about increasing the fuel flow rate or totally scrapping it. OMG! if done Merc will be even faster and last years V8 lap-times will be history in no time.

But even without it just see the following statics

Lap Record: 1:31.447 - P De la Rosa (2005)

2013 Fastest Lap : 1’36.961 Sebastian Vettel

2014 Fatest Lap : 1’37.020 Nico Rosberg

Without the interruption of the Safety Car, Mercedes were on course to win by over 80 seconds and could potentially have lapped all their rivals.

Read more here : http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/04/0...ix-lap-charts/

Totally breathtaking stuff!

Cheers!

Vinu

[polopm]

After a long time, a thoroughly satisfying race !
Niki Lauda summed it up at the end of the race, blasting the naysayers on entertainment and so did Ron before the race. If Ferrari could not do anything, let them not run politics here.
It was quite nice to see the Force Indias do so well, at once stage they blasted past Alonso and that does not happen quite often
+ves
1.Lewis & Nico
2. Perez & the other Nico
3. RBR - the performance was quite good for Dan
4. Massa over Bottas

-Ves
1. Ferrari performances
2. McLaren performances
3. Maldonado - If Massa had near skull damage due to a flying loose nut from Rubens' car, Guiteirrez had a flip due to the nut personified. What kind of blunder has Lotus done hiring this guy ???

[shashi63]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

Last week Ricciardo got a 10 place grid penalty for unsafe release in the pits, not his mistake though. But for one of the dangerous move by Maldonado gets only a 5 place penalty.

Maldonado should get a minimum of 20 place grid penalty. It is a credit to the safety systems that the FIA has in place that nothing serious happened. the way the sauber flew topsy turvy i thought the guy was gone.

Left to me i would strip Maldonado of his license. The guy is a maniac.

Originally Posted by deetjohn

.

And I am so glad for Ricciardo. First haul of points for the cheerful Aussie. And that was a great move to take the place from Vettel.

I agree that Maldonado needs a greater reprimand.

Also i did say earlier that if Red Bull does not screw up Riccardo's car then Vettel will have his hands full fending off Riccardo more than anyone else on the track.

[naveenvenkatesh]

One of the best races i have seen in recent times. Excellent action, edge of seat stuff.

I am no Vetel fan, but the maturity he showed in letting Daniel go through on fresher types earned him a few points in my book.

Edit: I think the threat to F1 is not V6 engines but retards like Maldanado!

[zenren]

Originally Posted by shashi63

Left to me i would strip Maldonado of his license. The guy is a maniac.

Originally Posted by naveenvenkatesh

I think the threat to F1 is not V6 engines but retards like Maldanado!

Fully agree, he should be stripped off his F1 super license. Reprimands and penalties are in place with a hope that the drivers would learn from their mistakes. When someone is not even willing to acknowledge that it was his fault, how can we assume he will learn from it and will not repeat it again?

Its one thing to commit a mistake but a totally different thing to blame it on others. He has said that it was Gutierrez's fault!

We will need to have a look again at what happened as Esteban seemed to be off his line coming into turn one – maybe he missed his braking point, I don’t know – and by then I was in the corner with nowhere to go. For sure it’s difficult to understand and I was coming out from the pits and with cold tyres. I think he was very unlucky and it’s good he jumped straight out of the car.

[Desmosedici]

Thoroughly enjoyed the race. With the T20 being a boring one i stuck on to the race and wow, what a race. Loved the dog fight between Lewis and Nico all through the race and especially during the finishing stage. The way Massa took off at the start was wonderful but he couldnt maintain his position.

As a Ferrari fan, i am nothing but dissappointed.

Maldonado - Seriously, just a 5 place penalty?

[zenren]

Originally Posted by Desmosedici

Maldonado - Seriously, just a 5 place penalty?

He was given 3 penalty points on his license too. What a joke!

It takes 12 penalty points for a race ban. So he can repeat these crazy antics 3 more times before he gets a race ban!

Normally, it would jump from 10 to 12 on the sixth offense and get a race ban while for MAL, he'll jump from 11 to 13 on his sixth offense and get a race ban. No difference really as he would still be under 12 after his 5th offense assuming the remaining violations are worth only 2 points!

Was Grosjean's incident in Spa really worth 4 times the penalty of this incident?

[deetjohn]

Ricciardo’s excellent drive continues. He was impressive at all the 3 races till now, but couldn't convert them to points due to issues outside his control.

But he was imperious at Bahrain. With his back to a wall due to that very harsh penalty, he delivered big in the race. And would have landed on the podium if the race was a lap longer.

It will be very interesting to see how the young Aussie fares against the might of Vettel as the season progresses. As we know from the past few years, Vettel and his team' intra season work rate and development is second to none. I am sure the German will already be on top of Ricciardo' telemetry details.

I am loving the fight between the team mates more than anything in 2014. Too bad, the F14 T is not worthy of Kimi or Alonso.