Bahrain Grand Prix Thread

[ShiftingGears]

I think Ferrari have a good chance of a one-two finish, as I think they still have the fastest car on the grid, and Massa has a chance to redeem himself. My money is on Raikkonen to win, and another top 5 finish for Heidfeld. I believe there should be more overtaking at this circuit than at Sepang due to the stop-go nature of the circuit, so we will see how this plays into the hands of drivers.

Thoughts?

[jjanicke]

That's a tough call. I think it's apparent after Sepang that the scuderia doesn't hold the advantage anymore. I still feel Kimi and Ferrari are the package to beat, however Mclaren have made up a lot of ground since Australia. The "banning" of the flexing floor has hurt Ferrari alot.

Kimi+Ferrari and Fred+Mclaren is going to make for one hell of a season. I only wish a few more drivers could take part in the run for the championship. Perhaps Lewis can, and Massa needs to drive a mistake free year from here on out.

[Hawkmoon]

I'm not quite sure how to take the race at Sepang. The Ferraris were faster than Hamilton in the first stint, then Kimi was slower in the second stint before being much faster in the third stint. Alonso's comfortable win was largely due to Hamilton holding the Ferraris up in the first stint.

But really, the Ferraris should have had a comfortable win if Australia was any guide. They didn't, so either Australia was not a true indication or McLaren have made a great leap in performance in only 3 weeks. I don't know which. Maybe Bahrain will give us a better indication.

[F1boat]

I think that Alonso will win again, but Kimi will beat Hamilton this time, I guess. Massa and Heidfeld are gonna battle for 4th.

[janneppi]

I'm not quite sure how to take the race at Sepang. The Ferraris were faster than Hamilton in the first stint, then Kimi was slower in the second stint before being much faster in the third stint. Alonso's comfortable win was largely due to Hamilton holding the Ferraris up in the first stint.

But really, the Ferraris should have had a comfortable win if Australia was any guide. They didn't, so either Australia was not a true indication or McLaren have made a great leap in performance in only 3 weeks. I don't know which. Maybe Bahrain will give us a better indication.

I have a feeling after the second pitstop Kimi was able to use a bit higher rews. They took an easy start for the race and if the problem was heat, pitstops would have been a significant issue for the engine, after them they could see there were no problems with heat so they figured to risk it a bit and have go against Hamilton.

[ioan]

One week before the Malaysian GP Ferrari were still best in testing, than they were fastest Friday and during the qualy, but lost out in the race.
Why was that?
Because they didn't take into account that they might lose out at the start to both McLarens and that Hamilton will play a "Barrichello" .
They just made they calculations without accounting for it.
It was all downhill from there, Felipe had to go through to keep in touch with Alonso but messed up and than never had the chance to run in clean air.

Kimi had reduced revs for at least 2/3rds of the race.

What we saw in Sepang was FA winning because LH kept Felipe at bay, and Ferrari strategy man didn't do his whole homework.

Bahrain will be a good race for Ferrari.

[ShiftingGears]

For most of the race Felipe did a damn good job of keeping himself at bay. He locked up his brakes at least twice, from memory.

[jens]

As there is only one week gap between Sepang and Sakhir, so probably there won't be major changes in teams' rankings. Main question is that how well Sakhir circuit suits anyone's car compared to Sepang.