[Makin Rulesz]

All set for the first night race of the season.

Valtteri Bottas takes the first pole of his F1 career
In doing so he has broken a streak of 6 back to back poles by Hamilton and Mercedes get their first front row lockout of the year. It looks like Mercedes are bit ahead of the competition this time and Red Bull lot closer to Ferrari. Solid performance by Renault to get both the cars to Q3. So all in all I am expecting a good close race for tomorrow.


As usual race will be broadcast only on Star Select2 HD channel. Race starts at 8:30 PM

[ecenandu]

1 second covers the top seven, very hard to judge the relative pace of the mid field. Its like 2012 season for the mid field teams, will get a clear picture post summer break.

Wow, Nico Hulkenberg pulled one from the bag. Awesome job, hope he will have a trouble free race tomorrow. If Williams have opted for the best drivers, they have better chance to fight for fourth position in constructors championship.

[shibujp]

Awesome stuff by Bottas to get his first pole in the Mercedes. Though perhaps without Hamilton's mistake in the last lap he might have just squeaked through. Hamilton is feeling magnanimous now but a few more of these and it remains to be seen whether the smile still remains.

Riccardo too is holding his own with Verstappen which is a good sign. Vettel is going to have his hands full with the Mercs in front and the Red Bulls between.

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Wow, Nico Hulkenberg pulled one from the bag. Awesome job, hope he will have a trouble free race tomorrow.

An under-performer for some years, I hope he gets some points out of this. McLaren went from bad to worse nad the tension is bad. Hope Honda gets cooking soon. Apparently this time it was the MGU-H that was the failure point.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[deetjohn]

Well done Bottas!

The gap between Mercedes and Ferrari is much wider than I anticipated for Bahrain. Hope Mercedes is not winning the development race already, don't want a repeat of 2016.

Hope Ferrari can come back strong in the race, but that makes the start very crucial for Vettel. He cannot afford to fall back behind a RedBull in the initial laps. Splitting the Silver Arrows will be the icing on the cake.

Cannot wait for 8:30 PM today!

[Surprise]

Wow! Turns out interesting. Sad MAX is out of the race -:(

[deetjohn]

Woah!

What an epic race!! Just brilliant. Wow!

Finger boy and Hammer boy are completely at a different level compared to others right now. The laps Lewis were doing towards the end was totally insane.

Loved it. The season is living up to its grand billing.

The boys from Maranello made all the right calls today and Vettel delivered. Too bad Kimi couldn't split the Mercedes. He is currently the weakest link in that red chain now. And also kind of making up for all that silence during the better part of his career. Sad to see that.

The German anthem followed by the Italian brings out the old memories. But somehow i still haven't warmed up to Vettel yet. But he didn't put a wheel wrong today. Hope Ferrari can continue the development throughout the season to support their current #1 driver.

Cheers!

[ach1lles]

A fun Bahrain race after a very long time. It's not just the high spots, the overtakes or the mess-ups that make a great F1 race for me, it's the whole drama of the weekend condensed into that one hour and a bit. That tension of expectation, of what's going to happen, and how the teams handle the variables are what draws me to watch, and this race delivered.

Ferrari coming on top was good to see again, though it was clear that luck played a large part in Vettel's fortune today. Driver of the day? Hamilton for sure. Vettel didn't put a wrong foot down today, but watching Hamilton cover that gap on softs was just too compelling.

[ecenandu]

What a brilliant race, if people are still complaining about lack of wheel to wheel racing, then they are watching the wrong sport. I wish we have more races like this, and even closer one like, 2012 US Grand prix.

Hamilton don't have a poker face, he looks so dejected when he is losing. I believe we can see the mind games from now on. But I believe, Mercedes still have a slight upper hand when compared to Ferrari.

Last race in China, Ferrari let Kimi down. But in this race, scrappy first lap from him over shadowed a brilliant drive from him. He almost got Bottas towards the end of the race.

Imagine Redbull also joining the fight, wow, three teams fighting for the victory. Whoever execute the perfect job wins. Dream stuff, I hope them to join the fight after the engine upgrades from Renault. They are still running last year's MGU-K, the lastest one is supposed to be lighter and packs more punch.

As a recreational karting enthusiast, hunting down and closing the gap to the kart in front is the best feeling, ever.

[deetjohn]

Highlights for those who missed the race. Thank God for the new management of F1. We would have never seen this YouTube clip in the Bernie era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yXvIbKXehw

Originally Posted by ach1lles

Ferrari coming on top was good to see again, though it was clear that luck played a large part in Vettel's fortune today.

Why do you think luck played a large part? If its the safety car period, then it was actually beneficial for Mercedes and they blew their chance. Vettel was massively fast on his out lap - almost two seconds quicker than Bottas in the middle sector of the lap alone. Safety car removed that advantage, gave others a free pit stop and helped to bunch up all cars together. Thankfully it didn't go like China for Ferrari.

Originally Posted by ach1lles

Driver of the day? Hamilton for sure.

Again, I am not sure. Lewis was amazingly fast, but he blew it today. Don't blame him for the start as he was on the dirty side of the track. But holding up Daniel added precious time to Bottas' pit stop - the team had to wait for a safe release - which in turn delayed Lewis as well.

And without the 5 seconds penalty, Lewis would have been incredibly close to Vettel in the final laps and we could have seen a glorious wheel to wheel battle. Somehow, the both of them are avoiding each other on track. But that is not going to last long.

[MCR]

Bottas is not a good driver. We can now understand how good Nico Rosberg was and why Lewis Hamilton was not so friendly to him. Lewis is warm to Bottas since he knows clearly that Bottas cannot compete with him.

Alonso was fun to watch and hear on the team radio. Honda seems to have completely failed and there was a report from Andrew Benson that Alonso shouted on Honda F1 boss.

Link to the tweet : https://twitter.com/andrewbensonf1/s...12041498681344

Overall an excellent race to watch. Shame that Verstappen's brakes failed, else it would have been a cracker!

[sun_king]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

<snip>

Why do you think luck played a large part? If its the safety car period, then it was actually beneficial for Mercedes and they blew their chance. Vettel was massively fast on his out lap - almost two seconds quicker than Bottas in the middle sector of the lap alone. Safety car removed that advantage, gave others a free pit stop and helped to bunch up all cars together. Thankfully it didn't go like China for Ferrari.

Agree, I was screaming when I saw the SC. The undercut was executed perfectly, Merc lost the plot by staying on track, the winner was decided on Lap 11. Seb pitted from position 2 and rejoined at 11 - 20 seconds behind the leader, Hamilton went in when 2nd and came out 4th even after his antics in the pitlane about 4 seconds behind the leader.

Again, I am not sure. Lewis was amazingly fast, but he blew it today. Don't blame him for the start as he was on the dirty side of the track. But holding up Daniel added precious time to Bottas' pit stop - the team had to wait for a safe release - which in turn delayed Lewis as well.

I'd question Hamilton's strategic planning here, he has just four engines this season and trying to stress the engine on an improbable win may prove counterproductive in the long run. Even without the five seconds penalty, catching Seb would be a big challenge. The super-softs may last 10 or 12 laps at such pace and there will be five or six laps in the end when he will probably be having the same performance as Seb's softs and probably the supers degrading faster than the softs. Tactically interesting, but strategically questionable! I feel that Seb paced his car, safe on his cushion and for me the ultimate victory was 5 seconds + DRS window (6.6 seconds in fact).

And without the 5 seconds penalty, Lewis would have been incredibly close to Vettel in the final laps and we could have seen a glorious wheel to wheel battle. Somehow, the both of them are avoiding each other on track. But that is not going to last long.

With the way the 2017 cars are designed and the sheer speed of the Ferrari in clean air I'd bet for HAM not getting DRS in the closing stages of the race without his 5 seconds penalty. This Ferrari is capable of responding to Merc in terms of consistent pace. Seb vs HAM was over just after turn 1.

[asr245]

Great race! Bottas struggle early on really brought the whole bunch together. Not sure why RIC or VER felt they might be in for the win. Once past Bottas, both Vettel & Hamilton were in a different race.

Bottas clearly looked dejected after the race. He will have to go back & do another reset if he hopes to fight Lewis & stay at Merc. Though team made a mistake in 1st stint (tires over pressure), but he still wasn't at pace in 2nd or 3rd stints. Gave way to Lewis twice. He could get the no. 2 tag real soon, if he doesn't improve.

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Last race in China, Ferrari let Kimi down. But in this race, scrappy first lap from him over shadowed a brilliant drive from him. He almost got Bottas towards the end of the race.

In Kimi's case, it appears as if the driver and his garage are not working as a team. Slow getaway, delayed pitstop call and then a slow pitstop that easily cost him few seconds and that meant he had to overtake Massa again after SC. Another podium thrown away. Even if Ferrari's objective is to get Vettel WDC, it's very important for Kimi's side of garage to get their act together, because once Redbulls join the action at front it will not be easy for Vettel alone at the front.

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Imagine Redbull also joining the fight, wow, three teams fighting for the victory. Whoever execute the perfect job wins. Dream stuff, I hope them to join the fight after the engine upgrades from Renault. They are still running last year's MGU-K, the lastest one is supposed to be lighter and packs more punch.

Absolutely! We haven't had a proper three team fight for a long time now. Last i remember was in 2003 when we had Schumacher-Raikkonen-Montoya scraps at the front.

[Hatari]

Originally Posted by asr245

Great race! Bottas struggle early on really brought the whole bunch together. Not sure why RIC or VER felt they might be in for the win. Once past Bottas, both Vettel & Hamilton were in a different race.

Bottas clearly looked dejected after the race. He will have to go back & do another reset if he hopes to fight Lewis & stay at Merc. Though team made a mistake in 1st stint (tires over pressure), but he still wasn't at pace in 2nd or 3rd stints. Gave way to Lewis twice. He could get the no. 2 tag real soon, if he doesn't improve.

Originally Posted by MCR

Bottas is not a good driver. We can now understand how good Nico Rosberg was and why Lewis Hamilton was not so friendly to him. Lewis is warm to Bottas since he knows clearly that Bottas cannot compete with him.

Alonso was fun to watch and hear on the team radio. Honda seems to have completely failed and there was a report from Andrew Benson that Alonso shouted on Honda F1 boss.

Link to the tweet : https://twitter.com/andrewbensonf1/s...12041498681344

Overall an excellent race to watch. Shame that Verstappen's brakes failed, else it would have been a cracker!

There was a pre race grid generator failure which led to incorrect tire pressures for Bottas. Thats the reason he was so slow in the first stint.

I feel Lewis's slow start off the grid cost them the win. If he had gotten away better, he would have got ahead of Bottas (on team orders) as Lewis's pressures were fine, and Bottas would have slowed Vettel enough to build the gap.

Im glad Alonso is voicing his concerns on Honda. They are embarrassing themselves at the moment being 2-2.5 seconds slower in their third season. Taking far too long to get a hold on things.

[frostbite911]

Fun Race indeed! Was really hoping to see Bottas claim his first ever race win last night. Well deserved victory for Vettel and Ferrari. Ferrari's pace is no longer an uncertainty. Mercedes need to be afraid, very afraid!

IMO, Perez was the driver of the day. Great racing from the Mexican. 18th to 7th place.