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Everything you need to know about the Bahrain Grand Prix
There was an Italian flavour to the Bahrain Grand Prix, as Ferrari took the win and Toro Rosso proved to be the surprise package thanks to Pierre Gasly's fourth place.
Sebastian Vettel made it back-to-back victories with a win at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Having claimed pole position with a brilliant run in qualifying (see below) and then forced to change strategies after an accident in the pits (also below), the German had to nurse his tyres across the line to finish just 0.6 seconds ahead of Valtteri Bottas.
"I came on the radio with 10 laps to go saying everything was under control. That was a lie," said Vettel on the podium. "With Bottas' pace, I thought he would catch me. I tried to keep it as clean as possible. Our plan worked, but only just. Bottas had a bit of a sniff but ran out of laps."
"I was trying to catch him but it was just not enough," Bottas confirmed. "Being second is super disappointing, we will try to get them next time."
The Mercedes driver's disappointment was nothing compared to that at Red Bull Racing, who had to retire both cars soon after the start.
Here's everything you need to know about the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Toro Rosso's surprise package
The big story in Bahrain was Toro Rosso's turn of pace. The Italian team had clearly unlocked more power from their new Honda powertrain, which gave Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley some serious straight line speed that propelled them up the midfield.
Toro had been quietly confident with their new STR13, and had brought a new aero package to go with the engine upgrade, but no one in the paddock seemed to be fully prepared for it – not least Gasly, who qualified P6 and then finished fourth.
"Unbelievable!" shouted Gasly over team radio as former team boss Gerhard Berger waved the chequered flag. "Thank you guys, now we can fight."
How do they do it? Here’s how you build an F1 car:
Hard day at the office for Red Bull Racing
Blink and you'd miss Red Bull Racing's Bahrain Grand Prix. Out of position after qualifying (more of that below), Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton clashed at the start, as they tried to gain position. Verstappen came off worse when Hamilton's front wing punctured his rear tyre. He managed to get back to the pits, but the damage was too severe and he retired moments later.
As Verstappen limped around the track, there was the sight of Daniel Ricciardo's RB14 stricken beside the track. It had looked promising for the Aussie, with a P4 start and a car that looked competitive, but a total power failure saw him sidelined before he'd had a chance to test his race pace against Vettel and Hamilton.
"This sport can rip the heart out of you sometimes. It can be brutal," said a disconsolate Ricciardo afterwards.
Daniel Ricciardo was forced out early in the race
© Mark Thompson/Getty Images
If there's a silver lining, power surges and crashes aside, it's that the margins between the top three teams look to have narrowed, as Red Bull Racing close on Mercedes and Ferrari. Ricciardo said as much after qualifying. "I am happier with my car. If we weren't quickest, we can be pretty close," he confirmed.
Final race standings
Sickening accident in the Ferrari pits
A mechanic was badly injured following an unsafe pit release at Ferrari. What should have been a routine pit stop for Kimi Räikkönen went wrong as the team struggled to remove the rear right wheel. As the team worked on the car, the Finn was given the signal to go and pulled away, running over a mechanic's leg.
A visibly distressed Räikkönen, who had to retire, said "I go when the light is green. I don't see what happens behind and unfortunately he got hurt. My job is to go when the light is green, I don't know more than that and hopefully he is OK." There will be questions asked at the Scuderia, as this was the second unsafe release of the weekend for Ferrari.
Unwinding with Webber
Max Verstappen and Brendon Hartley took some time out after the Australian Grand Prix to go mountain biking with Mark Webber at the WEC world champion’s home. "Turns out these guys are pretty fast on two wheels as well," joked Verstappen, but Hartley, who was team-mates with Webber at Porsche, revealed that he'd joined the Aussie on a training camp where they'd been mountain biking, hiking, swimming and running.
Should it be easier to make a pass?
With only five – and you probably missed most of them – overtakes at the Australian Grand Prix, F1 has been talking about how to make it easier to overtake. Proposals to make the DRS flap bigger and the front wings neater were roundly rejected by the teams, and the short term measure of extending the DRS zone by 100m in Bahrain was criticised by the drivers.
A typically blunt Kevin Magnussen said, "It's the typical thing that F1 tends to do: over react. You have one bad race, make a big change and then you go too much the other way. And the race becomes boring.
"If you have too much DRS, it's just a drive-by. You don't get racing, you just get overtakes, swapping of positions, which isn't necessarily what everyone wants to see."
Senior men want the grid girls back
Forget the halo, overtaking or budget limit proposals, Formula One's most controversial move of 2018 has been to stop employing grid girls. The absence of a parade of attractive young women parading at race weekends proved too much for observers like Niki Lauda and Bernie Ecclestone, but hope springs, as this week organisers of the Monaco Grand Prix and the Russian Grand Prix announced that they planned to bring the ladies back. They received unexpected boost when Lewis Hamilton tweeted in support and, just as quickly, deleted the post.
An action-packed qualifying
Lewis Hamilton started the day with a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, and a day of damage limitation got progressively worse as the Ferraris looked seriously quick. Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen locked out the front row, with Valtteri Bottas third. Hamilton dropped to P9, pushing Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo up to a useful fourth.
In Q1, an unexpected power surge in the RB14 caused Max Verstappen to lose control on the exit from Turn 2 and crash nose first into the barrier. It meant a rebuild and a start from P15 as he joined Hamilton on the comeback trail.
Here's what the drivers had to say
Vettel: "I said I had everything under control but that was a lie. I tried to keep everything together, because both Mercedes' were very strong. I am very happy that Bottas was out of laps. It's a mix day because one of our mechanics got injured."
Bottas: "I was seeing all red. I noticed that he started to struggle and I tried to catch him, but it was not possible. Being second with such a short margin, it's a bit of a disappointment."
Hamilton: "I'm happy. I started ninth, it's damage limitation. The communication was difficult because we had some issues with the radio."
Pierre Gasly continues his charge of the weekend...
Too close for comfort
There was a close shave for Kimi Räikkönen and Max Verstappen even on Saturday at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Max Verstappen's Turn 2 crash
It wasn't the start the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Team were looking for in Q1, with Max Verstappen crashing out at turn two during his second timed lap. The Dutchman set an initial time of 1m 29.374s, which was good enough for P4, but then couldn't take any further part in qualifying.
So, Pierre, what did you think of that lap?
In qualifying, one of the stars of the session was undoubtedly Pierre Gasly. The French driver put the Honda-powered Toro Rosso into sixth position with a time of 1m 29.329s, just behind Vettel, Räikkönen, Bottas, Hamilton and Ricciardo.
View from above the Bahrain GP
A spectacular image of the racetrack in the middle of the desert.
