F1 Roundup: Bahrain GP in Malaysia
Gabrielle Hammond
What an eventful race we had last weekend. The practices and qualy's felt as if the main race would be uneventful but how we were wrong...
Up at 8am. Ready for race. Locked in. It's the Bahrain GP in Malaysia.
Race is delayed. And it’s not looking like anytime soon we will have a race. The rain is too much and it is too dangerous. BORING! Only joking of course...
With Max Verstappen on pole for the first time this year, can he secure his first win of the season? Especially when he is experienced in this racetrack and wet weather. Its looking likely.
After some time, it is confirmed the race will commence at 9.40 UK time, with the formation lap behind a safety car. And then hopefully a standing start after that.
As they start their formation lap, the spray coming behind the car is so very clear. This track is going to be slippy... everyone is on the intermediate tyre (which is obviously the best choice in these conditions).
The formation lap is chaos. There are a lot of cars pulling over with a complete car stop. Problems from Verstappen & Lawson in the Red Bull and Racing Bull, LeClerc & Hamilton in the Ferrari along with some Haas and Cadillac cars too. This is not ready to race at all. They have suspended the race with a red flag as well. Restart.
After a long time of unanswered questions and uncertainties of what the next procedure is, they finally decide to restart with the original grid set up.
The rain has stopped now but is the track still slippy and wet? Probably. What tyres will each team pick? Surely intermediate. Oh but no... McLaren, Ferrari, Audi, Alpine, Cadillac decide to start on the softs or mediums... interesting and a very risky choice.
Race is away... no formation lap... and straight away Gasly in the Alpine is off the track but manages to recover it... a few radio messages as well cause for another stop and a new standing start with the grid positions intact.
While this is happening, some teams decide to change their tyre to the intermediate. Including Piastri in the McLaren but not Norris at this moment. A few others decide to do this too but like I’ve said before, this blog will be an age long if I talk about every single little detail lol...
Finally, we get a proper standing start in the qualifying grid positions. Lights out and away we go...
And oh my Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes is through with a great start followed by teammate George Russell. What a brilliant start for the Mercedes duo.
Verstappen and Hamilton with a difficult start and Lawson in the Racing Bull is beside Verstappen in the Red Bull for 3rd.
Everyone that is on the intermediates seem to be doing very well compared to others on the mediums and softs are doing the opposite...very poorly.
Hamilton is down to 12th on his badly chosen tyres (he started 2nd). LeClerc, his teammate, is told to pit and change tyres and he is down to the bottom of the standings... is this able to be recovered?
Williams seem to be doing very well with their choice... 6th and 8th must have brought delight to the Williams fans.
We are on lap 6 and Verstappen is now chasing Russell for 2nd place. Which he manages to do and is now 2nd! Can he catch up the driver championship leader Antonelli for 1st?
Lap 9 now... and a yellow flag as Bottas in the Cadillac has crashed in the gravel. A safety car is called, and many decide to pit... correct decision under a safety car.
Most change their tyres either to the soft or medium now the track is dryer and safer.
Safety car is about to end on lap 12 and when will Antonelli decide to go? He does, and Verstappen goes round the outside of Antonelli and goes ahead to 1st! It’s a cluster of Verstappen, Antonelli and Russell. And Russell goes 2nd. Antonelli is now 3rd.
From here until lap 21 nothing really changes in the upper side of the standings. Until Antonelli has a faster pace than Russell and overtakes him into 2nd. Can he catch up Verstappen who is now 4.4 seconds ahead.
During this time, Hamilton has made his way up to 5th.... can he be in contention for a podium?
In lap 32 now of 55. And Hadjar in the Red Bull in 4th and Hamilton in 5th pit to change their tyres. During this both McLaren's move up to 4th and 5th. But not for long until Piastri pits and Hamilton, and now LeClerc overtake Norris for 5th and 6th. This pretty much stays like this until lap 43.
And oh no! Alex Albon in the Williams has crashed and a yellow flag is issued and then a Virtual Safety Car... everyone is neutralised and all drivers have to drive to 40% of their speed. Verstappen's team decide to take advantage of this and pit which they can justify with a lead like he has. Which subsequently means Antonelli gets ahead during this. Hamilton and LeClerc pit too. Aswell as Antonelli & Russell.
Which causes it now to be 1st Verstappen, 2nd Antonelli, 3rd Russell. They still haven't recovered the Williams car of Alex Albon, so a proper Safety Car is called.
Positions stay the same behind the safety car of course and we are now on lap 49 of 55.... Will it end with a safety car, or will we have an exciting finish?
Lap 50 now and it looks like it is about to end. Until.... oh god no! Poor Russell has pulled up with a car stop (power unit issue) And is out of the race. Pure heartbreak and his chance of driver champion has probably all ended now. And at the same time Norris is out onto gravel.... manages to recover but has lost his position. What a crazy 10 seconds for Russell and Norris fans (aka Caitlyn and I).
Safety car ends so now it is Verstappen 1st, Antonelli 2nd and Hadjar 3rd. But Hamilton is putting pressure on Hadjar and manages to overtake him!!!! LeClerc also overtakes Hadjar into 4th. And this is where it will end.
A win for Verstappen. His first win of the season! Very happy for him. And also, Fernando Alonso is in the top 10 again- wow!
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