[fiat_tarun]

Great race to keep the excitement alive this season. I so want Kimi to do well, but it looks like he has surrendered to the fact that he is driver no. 2. He looks quite bored honestly !

The safety car played into Redbull's hands and hats off to the pit crew to get both Max & Ricciardo out without any delay. Ricciardo is becoming my favourite driver on the grid and I really hope to see him in red soon

[Fullrevs]

Another action packed race. Great drive by Ricciardo. He really is amazing with those brakes. How he pulled that move on Bottas only he can tell. It looked impossible to make it through clean.

I think its time Red Bull told Max to 'Chill' a bit. It looks a bit reckless now. I was a bit surprised to see that there were no accusations or finger pointing in the press today. The kids seem to have come of age. The headlines read:

Max apologised for clash
Vettel accepts Max apology
Hamilton feared for Verstappen/Vettel crash

I was expecting a barrage of abuses this morning.

I feel bad for Bottas who drove an exceptional race to keep Ferrari behind but was unable to do anything about the Red Bulls.

This is shaping up to be a great season. Azerbaijan next up! Its going to get even crazier in a street circuit.

[ferrarirules]

Wow!!!! What a race!!!! Had me on the edge till the end. This season is proving to be a roller coaster, race after race.

Coming to individual performances

Ricarrdo - Beautiful drive... as always seized the opportunity. Didn't become cocky like his hothead teammate. Amazing overtake on Bottas.

Bottas - Cool and calm and composed like every other finn. Would have easily won the race hadn't it been for the safety car.

Kimi - Wasn't aggressive off the line. After Vettel blocked him and he lost a position to Bottas. There was no way he should have lost a position to Verstappen. All his mistake by spinning the wheel on turn 2. After that he couldn't put pressure on Verstappen with a faster car. In the end, he was lucky to finish third due to Verstappen's mistake.

Hamilton - He was nowhere up to the competitive levels in this race. He was struggling way more than Bottas. Couldn't close up and pass Kimi in the initial part of the race and towards the end. He ran out of tyres. Merc should have brought him in during safety car period like Red bull.

Verstappen - Less said about him is better. He screwed up his race and Vettel's as well. Lame try of a pass with Hamilton on long sweeping turn. Then banging into Vettel when he knew he was faster and who eventually passed on the next straight. This is his 4th season in formula 1. It is about time he calms down. He definitely threw away a Red bull 1-2

Vettel - Ferrari strategy was not good with him pitting at a different time than Bottas which led to an undercut. Then he would have finished 4th but incident with Verstappen made him lose crucial championship points.

Hulkenberg and Alonso - Another strong race by both of them. Capitalizing on all the opportunities and finishing in points.

Coming to top three teams

Red Bull - They aced the strategy. They would have finished 3-4 when the stop during safety car. Turned the race on its head. Perfect double stopping twice in the race was fantastic.

Ferrari - They had a strong race with Vettel till the time of safety car and verstappen incident. Just got the pitstop strategy wrong when fighting Bottas. The late pitstop strategy for Kimi and some luck worked on getting him to the podium.

Mercedes - A very strong race by Bottas. He was much quicker than Lewis whole weekend. First three races and non Mercedes winners. Alarm bell will be ringing in Merc factories

Eagerly waiting for Baku. This season is going to be rocking. F1 is thrilling after a very long time.

[vb-saan]

Daniel got to do his first shoey this season and he earned that in a brilliant fashion. And more than anyone he would have thanked Max for the way he managed to bump around.

The Fox Sports telecast in Singapore was just brilliant… Just at the point Daniel was to pass Bottas the commercial break rolled in!

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by tharian

I only wished RAI can be more aggressive. Guess he's bored.

Originally Posted by sgiitk

Also, Raikonnen has to become more aggressive at the start. His place is No.2 and not no.3 or 4.

Originally Posted by rst89

Next, Kimi is a world champion from 2007. He should fight for his place and not give a race position to Vettel easily.

This seems to be a recurring theme here! I guess people have short memories
Does anyone remember how many times Vettel/Kimi have touched each other or involved in turn 1 incidents since being teammates, and what was the result?

Being teammates, first rule is to not hit each other especially in Lap 1. Vettel is taking undue advantage of this because he knows Kimi is a very 'fair' driver. In this race, Kimi made a better start than Vettel as can be seen from overhead video, but Kimi was forced to lift because of Vettel's swipe across the track. Any further aggression from Kimi would be good for us fans, but would be detrimental to team's interests and Kimi's own position in the team because he already is fighting a lone battle without much support from the team.

[DigitalNomad]

Another exciting race thanks to the Safety Car. One wonders what the result would have been had it not appeared... Vettel, perhaps, celebrating a hat-trick - he was 1.4 seconds behind Bottas and catching him by a tenth a lap. Who knows? Bottas' undercut on Vettel was the most decisive event up until the Mercedes road-car showed up.

One might say that the Safety car deployment affords an unfair advantage to some right-place-at-the-right-time cars but, it also prevents a race from being a snooze-fest. Granted the team has to have its wits about and make the right call - which RedBull did.

All in all a good day for RedBull barring the brain-fade from Max - it could so easily have been a one-two finish. Average day for McLaren and a not too disastrous day for Ferrari - the one silver lining out of the Vettel-Max tango was that Kimi could get past Hamilton and finish on the podium. But, that late overtake from the McLaren would have stung Vettel hard and given Alonso something to cheer about.

[jpcoolguy]

Seems Toro Rosso has taken several steps backward after an excellent race in Bahrain. Gasly, after coming in 4th position in Bahrain, was already struggling and behind his team-mate and his incident with Hartley has helped bring in some entertainment to the race.

So, RBR A team won with the help of RBR B team like how Ferrari B team helped them A team in Australia.

[Gordon]

I find it sinister. Two red bulls crash into each other and two red bulls performed exceptionally well almost immediately by taking advantage of the safety car. Quite a strategy.

[Johnnny]

Rocking victory for Ric! Well deserved one!

Shame on Vettel and Ferrari for treating the champ "Kimi" as some test driver. I also feel that kimi is not aggressive in and off the track(May be fed up with internal politics). Not sure how is he still surviving in the Ferrari Garage inspite of all the insults and shoddy treatment from his own team and his mates.

[Vyadh]

That was on nice race! Got to watch one after a long time. The last few laps were wonderful, full marks to the RedBull team. I would love to see more or Kimi finishing on the podium than Vettel. Ferrari are not using Kimi's potential to the fullest.

[gopi_rm]

Wow! What a race and clean overtakes by Ric. He seized the opportunities and every time converts them into victory. Could not believe the simultaneous pit stops by Red Bull that too twice in a race.
F1 is becoming alive now after a long time. I remember watching boring races for the past few years knowing the winner before even half of the race is over.

[amitoj]

I read somewhere that ESPN is airing the races without any commercial breaks in the US. I have not been able to watch any race so far this season though, to validate that. But it seems to be true
ESPN Will Air Formula One With No Commercials For All Of 2018

And since Mothers' is sponsoring each of the broadcast, all my car detailing purchases will be from Mothers'

[fusionbang]

Originally Posted by amitoj

I read somewhere that ESPN is airing the races without any commercial breaks in the US. I have not been able to watch any race so far this season though, to validate that. But it seems to be true
ESPN Will Air Formula One With No Commercials For All Of 2018

And since Mothers' is sponsoring each of the broadcast, all my car detailing purchases will be from Mothers'

I am using Xfinity TV which has ESPN as one of the channel. Also I use a Roku device, which has WatchESPN app where all the sports channels are available in HD quality.

[shibujp]

What an entertaining race!! Third one in a row. Though this time Ferrari was at the receiving end of the SC.

Ferrari got the strategy wrong even before the safety car came out. By delivering an super quick pit stop and a delay on Vettel's pit stop, Mercedes ensured that Bottas was able to deliver the undercut to Vettel and gain the lead. Exactly opposite to Bahrain.

Red Bull looked set to flounder as they were committed to a two stop strategy compared to the front runners. But out came the SC and they were blindingly quick on the strategy front. That was inspired to me!! If it were not for a trigger happy Verstappen, it would have been a Reb Bull 1 - 2. I just love the Red Bull chassis. Taking nothing away from the talents of Riccardo and Verstappen, the chassis is just sweet on late braking and on the turns. The balance seems to be spot on. A more powerful engine that can match that of Ferrari and Mercedes, and I think they would be unstoppable. As is, given half a chance, both their drivers seems to overtake others much more easily.

And is also clear from Toto Wolff statement that they did not have Red Bull's strategy covered which gives even more credibility to Red Bull's win.

Toro Rosso's slide backwards was disappointing though Alonso much have noted that gleefully.

Drive on,
Shibu

[CaptainPrice]

My emotions during this race weekend.


QUALIFYING -
1. Kimi sets mutiple lap records - OMG!
2. Vettel is slower than Kimi in the first 2 sectors of qualifying - Finally Kimi on P1 finally!
3. Vettel catches up all his losses in the final sector and beats Kimi by almost 0.1s - What on earth just happened? Does Vettel have an extra party mode?
4. Ricciardo manages to qualify for Q1 with just enough time - That's a miracle. Wow! Kudos to the engineers. He better credit them. Later, when everyone heaps praise on them, I smile widely.

RACE DAY -
5. Vettel cuts off Kimi, sending him to 4th place - What did Vettel just do? Not only was it cheap, but it left the window open for others to overtake Kimi. They lost a Ferrari 1-2. Shame!
6. When Vettel's pitstop is delayed - Maybe Ferrari is looking to make the tires last. Maybe tyres don't have that much of an advantage.
7. When returns from the pits and is overtaken by Bottas – So tyres do have an advantage. Wow.
8. When Kimi's been made to hold out, in spite of commentators saying he's losing over 2 seconds a lap and both Mercs were catching up – Ferrari is playing a dirty game. Kimi is being ill-treated.
9. When the Safety Car is deployed – Oh. It seems like Mercedes will definitely win because they're about to unlock hidden pace.
10. When the commentators go on about the new tyres that Red Bull got – Uh oh. Can the Silver Arrows and Team Red defend against the Dive Bomb and the Young Prodigy?
11. The Dive Bombs begin – grabs popcorn
12. Verstappen chases Vettel – Come on now Max. You have the tyre advantage and you have DRS . Don't get hasty.
13. Verstappen crashes into Vettel – Yes! And No! You blew it Max! But at least you pulled Vettel down and even better, you let Kimi through into third. Good job!
14. Verstappen overtakes Hamilton – Yes! You're awesome!
15. Verstappen receives 10 second penalty. Vettel says it was worth it, as if that's what he wanted in the first place – It's okay Max. At least you'll make up those 10 seconds and still be ahead of Vettel.
16. The Dive Bombs continue and Bottas is overtaken – Class Act, mate!
17. Kimi tries repeatedly to attach Bottas, but fails – Come on. You can do it.
18. Meanwhile, Vettel gets overtaken by Hulkenberg and then even Alonso – Haha! Cheers to former champ, Alonso.
19. Ricciardo wins. Bottas second. Kimi third. Seb in 8th - Vettel seems to have lost all hope and gotten defeated. It's gonna be a whiny day for interviewers. There's no “Grazie, ragazzi!” today.


POST RACE -
20. Ricciardo gives major credit to the mechanics who readied his car and made the win a miracle. Team Principal Christian Horner says that the mechanics are the ones who won the race. - I am satisfied and am grinning wide.