2017 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, April 14-16

[f1316]

The excuse from Mercedes of high pressures for Bottas at the beginning is a red herring - Vettel was significantly faster than Bottas throughout all the other stints of the race, with different tyres/pressures, so no reason to believe he wouldn't have stayed just as close.

The Hamilton package was, I believe, still the fastest one - imo about the same as it was in the race in China - but given Vettel already got ahead at the start, it would have been close regardless, I think.

[Sevach]

What assumptions? You are new to this aren't you?

They probably wanted to make sure he would be infront of Vettel on the grid, bit them in the ass

[Just_a_fan]

The excuse from Mercedes of high pressures for Bottas at the beginning is a red herring - Vettel was significantly faster than Bottas throughout all the other stints of the race, with different tyres/pressures, so no reason to believe he wouldn't have stayed just as close.

Indeed. Bottas's pace was never great compared to either Vettel (in a marginally slower car) or Hamilton (in the same car).

The Hamilton package was, I believe, still the fastest one - imo about the same as it was in the race in China - but given Vettel already got ahead at the start, it would have been close regardless, I think.

Agreed again. The clean line side of the grid just gave Vettel enough confidence on the brakes in to T1, having had slightly better drive after the initial get away (where Hamilton was faster, strangely, presumably because the area immediately around the grid box was relatively clean after having been walked on by the team).

Either way, it was great to have a race of "will he, won't he" between a number of drivers.

[Bill_Kar]

Losing pole, bad getaway because of losing pole and the clean side, losing track position to vettel, getting a time penalty, losing time behind Bottas and eventually a heart breaking second.
A weekend to forget.

[Chene_Mostert]

The excuse from Mercedes of high pressures for Bottas at the beginning is a red herring - Vettel was significantly faster than Bottas throughout all the other stints of the race, with different tyres/pressures, so no reason to believe he wouldn't have stayed just as close.

Indeed. Bottas's pace was never great compared to either Vettel (in a marginally slower car) or Hamilton (in the same car).

The Hamilton package was, I believe, still the fastest one - imo about the same as it was in the race in China - but given Vettel already got ahead at the start, it would have been close regardless, I think.

Agreed again. The clean line side of the grid just gave Vettel enough confidence on the brakes in to T1, having had slightly better drive after the initial get away (where Hamilton was faster, strangely, presumably because the area immediately around the grid box was relatively clean after having been walked on by the team).

Either way, it was great to have a race of "will he, won't he" between a number of drivers.

It was actually clear from lap 25 that he won't.

[Mandrake]

Nice race overall, exciting till the end. What strikes me most this year is the difference between the team mates...Bottas looks lost in race pace against Hamilton and Raikkonen even more so. Hamilton and Vettel are absolutely making the difference.

Today I thoroughly believe the Merc was the faster car. Especially in the hands of Hamilton. Vettel did a mighty job using the strategy given to bring himself into the position to win.

I wonder how long this pace difference will swap around, Australia was Ferrariland, China rather same and Bahrain slightly Mercedes. I hope that is not a trend but a conincidence.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

As heard on Sky, it appears that Bottas went for far sharper rear than Lewis. It helped him in Qualifying, but hurt him badly in race with the tire wear. Though they still had problem with the tire pressure (some issue with compressor at the start on the grid), but the fundamental problem for his lack of pace seems to be the aggressive setup.

Because he couldn't pull away, it allowed Ferrari to go for the undercut option. But Bottas being slower even after Vettel pitted, allowed Vettel to get ahead at the Safety Car. Because Bottas was slow in front of him, Lewis tried to unfairly create a gap between them to pit and got that one wrong by blocking Ric.

Mercedes should take heart from the fact that, they still had lightening pace with Lewis. A bit of head scratching for Ferrari if a similar gaffe doesn't happen at next race at Mercedes, what would they do IF the gap of half a second still exists in qualifying. Once again, the usual composed Vettel at the front. He doesn't throw it until someone breathes down his neck.

In many ways, this race was similar to Monaco 2016, except this time the Pit stop horror was at Mercedes.

[SR71]

Hamilton was faster than Vettel today, but he has to suffer Bottas. While Vettel has a slow and deferential team mate that doesn't obstruct him. That made all the difference today.

(Or you could argue Hamilton lost the race with 0.023 seconds)

He was? Started in front and finished 7sec behind? Inline your optimism.

Can you stop being a creep and understand the realities? You are a Ferrari fan and people get it. Doesn't mean you keep jumping on every member's post to trump it down. Chill down and understand that, it was far from being a straight forward pace race.

Yes it was quite clear that sebs last stint he had backed off and was conserving. He was nowhere near race pace as you stated. Glad you have highlighted this.

Thanks GPR-A!

[f1316]

If we take into account that Massa isn't really a top top guy any more - Bottas was a reasonable amount better more often than not, and let's not even talk about Alonso - how much does it really stack up having Stroll in the car, regardless of what money he's bringing?

I'm not talking about the shunts - they're often not, or not wholly, his fault - but his pace over one lap is never even in the same ballpark; if you had a Hulk or a Perez in that car (and actually Perez probably bringing a few pennies) I firmly believe they'd be AHEAD of Massa, and that's a lot more points in the bank (not to mention pushing the 2nd Force India out).

[Chene_Mostert]

Sky just asked Botas how he felt about the team sacrificing him for Lewis. He said as a racing driver you don't want to hear it. He also said they need to investigate why the team did not have the pace today. These Fin's are brutality honest and realistic.

[matt_b]

With Bottas' tyre pressure problems you would have expected them to have boxed Bottas at the first given chance like Ferrari did with Seb. Mercedes strategy team were beaten today and that was the difference. They will take plenty of encouragement from the pace in qualifying and the race pace in Lewis' car they just need to sharpen up on the strategy side.

[godlameroso]

Nice race overall, exciting till the end. What strikes me most this year is the difference between the team mates...Bottas looks lost in race pace against Hamilton and Raikkonen even more so. Hamilton and Vettel are absolutely making the difference.

Today I thoroughly believe the Merc was the faster car. Especially in the hands of Hamilton. Vettel did a mighty job using the strategy given to bring himself into the position to win.

I wonder how long this pace difference will swap around, Australia was Ferrariland, China rather same and Bahrain slightly Mercedes. I hope that is not a trend but a conincidence.

It's so close race pace wise between the two cars that the person that makes the least mistakes wins, not necessarily the faster car, or driver. Hamilton won China because he made less mistakes than Vettel, Vettel won here because the strategy went in his favor, and made less mistakes. Had Hamilton not gotten hit with a 5 second penalty may have won, it's that close.

[AMG.Tzan]

What an utter nonsense penalty to Hamilton! Not only did it destroy the Hamilton vs Vettel battle we've been waiting for, but also we've seen many times drivers slowing down the others behind when they stuck up behind their teammate in the pitlane...I remember Raikkonen at Spa in 2005 slowing down the whole field just to let Montoya do his pit stop and not stuck up behind him! Other than that the race was spectacular with great overtaking moves...specially at the end of the pit straight we saw who's got the balls to brake late!! I really think the new Tilke-droms will suit these new cars so much better...so nicely done there Formula 1...faster cars, beautiful cars, much better and braver overtaking moves!! =D>

[Vanja #66]

What's the general opinion on that 0.5s deficit from yesterday between Ferrari and Merc? Today they were again very close on pace as in previous races...

[Manjhi]

Amazing race !!! Vettel deserved that win for taking that undercutting risk->Hamilton proves why he is a 3 time champion->Bottas did amazing job with P3,need to take some lesson from Perez.

Kimmi looks very disappointing with that Ferrari -> Ricciardo couldn't do anything today -> Massa did good job for Williams and helped them in keeping the P5 with them.

sergio Perez was AMAZING!!! P18 to P7, thats for me was performance of the day -> Grosean deserved that P8 with the undercut.

Hulk didn't had much pace in the Renault, P9 was all he can do --->>

Ocon has started proving his talent and Force India is very much happy with hat-trick of points, this guy looks like having some great skills.