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-   -   Formula 1: The 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/intl-motorsport/197505-formula-1-2018-bahrain-grand-prix.html)

I missed the Australian GP due to scheduling issues and missed a great twist. Now, I am on business travel. Not sure if I can catch it this time. Looking forward to another race in the new season. I hope something like that with a twist is up in Bahrain. Good luck all and drive safe. All the best!

A bit surprised at the tyre choice from Bottas. Single set of mediums would hint at the fact that everyone expects this to be a soft-supersoft combination for the race. That said, the mediums not only add some flexibility, but would likely be very handy for the FP sessions to check out the setup and put in laps on rubber you'll not need again. With this combination, he is quite likely to have one fewer set of fresh rubber as compared to all the others - who will surely save one fresher set. The only possible rationale is that Merc and Bottas are super-confident that they won't need multiple runs on fresh rubber in Q2 and Q3 (Q1 is virtually a given).

It seems Softs and Super softs are the tyres to be on this weekend. Mediums will be used only if there is a early on problem / crash. Otherwise the time delta of softs and supersofts vs mediums will be much higher to try and run a single stop startegy.

Absolutely. Like I said though, the mediums offer sets of "throwaway" rubber for the FP sessions - where they can work on major setup areas without consuming the main race / qualy rubber. Instead, those with just 1 set of mediums will need to do the bulk of their work on the softs. If you consider one set of softs each for Q1 and Q2 (assuming just a single run obviously), you're then 3 sets in easily - and maybe 4 depending on the trims used in FP1 and FP2. Leaves fewer for the race.

Medium - the way the softs have performed so far, I don't think they'd be used at all unless there's an SC in the first 5-10 laps and someone (lower down) decides to stop and make a run to the flag... Don't see the top teams use it even then.

Interesting FPI. Quite a few teams crashing the regular order.

• Riccardo with the fastest time in FP1 trumping the Ferraris and Mercs.
• Gasly with the 7th fastest time for Toro Rosso/Honda
• LeClerc 12th in the Sauber.

Drive on,
Shibu.

Don't know what to make of it. But the gap is huge between Ferrari and Mercedes. Also, the Ferrari's were doing better on both softs and supersofts. The time that Vettel did was only two tenth quicker than want he did on less softer tyre.
Although two stops is predicted, this may well be one stop race depending how long supersofts can be managed.

Seems like its neck and neck between Ferrari and Mercs. But key for Ferrari is to get ahead in quali. They need to overcome the 'party mode' from Merc to get ahead. Mercs were finding it hard to follow in the dirty air, so getting ahead of Merc in quali will be key to dominating the first row.

OT: Has any been able to stream Star Sports Select HD 2 on Hotstar? Seems like it is down since yesterday. If it is still down tomorrow, i will have to resign to miss the live stream. Are the races on any other channels also like Star Sport 2 or something? I don't have a TV and/or DTH so i rely completely on hotstar!

The FP sessions were quite strange from the data. The Ferraris actually looked quicker than the Mercs in race trim - which is what I found surprising. Kimi took the headline time, but Seb was the quickest it seemed when they were doing their longer runs. Lewis - got baulked on the quick lap, so can't really say. I'd say though that it's unlikely he'd be half a second quicker than Bottas, so probably third quickest at best. Of course, we don't know what loads the Mercs were carrying and whether they fully engaged Party Mode.

The pressers were interesting too. Seb claimed the Mercs had 3-4 tenths in hand over the Ferraris, but Lewis seemed a lot more downbeat. If you look at pre-season, the Merc probably had half a second on everyone else and the Bulls looked closest to them. Since then, the story is that Ferrari found another 10 bhp in their engine. Enough for such a dramatic uptick? Not sure, but feel the Mercs will turn up the wick in qualy. My money would be on a very close fight though, given how the Prancing Horses have done on Friday!

PS: So nice to see Kimi shining again; will be an issue though if Ferrari are pushed to make a decision on backing a driver if Kimi and Seb are trading places at the front while Lewis is always headlining for Merc...

Souce

Lewis will have 5 place grid penalty for gearbox change. Advantage Ferrari.

Does anyone know on which channel the race will be broadcasted in India as both Select channels seem preoccupied with the Premier league and IPL. Quali wasn't there on any channel, was it?

Live on Star Sports 2, both SD & HD.

The prancing horse is back, and how :Shockked:! Vettel on pole, Kimi #2. Ferrari 1-2 for the race tomorrow, me thinks, unless something weird happens to Kimi.

Mercedes isn't struggling for pace, from what I saw, but they're not as fast as the Ferraris. Lewis starts P9 tomorrow, on a soft tire. Should make for an interesting race. I had a lot of faith in Bottas when he first signed with Mercedes. Now, I don't think he is anything close to a world champion material. Pierre Gasly, with a Toro Rosso-Honda car is in the top 10! While Fernando is P13 or something :uncontrol. McLaren's fortunes aren't improved much.

Nice to see a Ferrari 1-2, the gap between 1 and 4 is like 350th of a second. Lewis has more stock of the softer tyre. He has taken a 5 grid penalty for a gearbox change. Expect him to come through the field.
Game on. Nice to see F1 fought closely.
I used to love F1 when there was fuel strategy. The no refueling actually killed the sport. The fuel and tyre strategy was key to the sport.

Great, everyone will need to work hard for the championship. One thing is that Lewis is very resilient in these situations