Monday, April 7, 2014

2014 Bahrain Grand Prix review



This was one of the best races in a looooong time! Proper racing just like I like it. It was also nice that they had changed it to a night race. It worked better that way in my opinion.

First of all nice to see that Kimi Räikkönen finally got the car to work in qualifying. He was 6th and got to start 5th when his teammate Fernando Alonso was only 10th. Unfortunately he got stuck behind Valtteri Bottas in the start when his car didn't move an inch at first.

Felipe Massa's start was probably the best of his career. He just launched away but couldn't pass the Mercs of course.

Kevin Magnussen hit Kimi in the back again! Second time in a row that he does this and Kimi's third race out of three where somebody hits him from behind. Very unlucky season so far for him.

Alonso passed Kimi easily because of his problems and stayed in front of him most of the race. Alonso fought again with Nico Hülkenberg like he has done in every race so far this season.

Did you guys see Luca Di Montezemolo's face when the HULK overtook Alonso? He looked really pissed off! I bet he blamed the drivers again as he usually does. He should wake up and see that the car is terrible.

The F14-T is the worst since 2009 but at least Kimi got podiums and a win that year. Another very interesting point is this: How far back would Ferrari be without drivers like Alonso and Räikkönen?! They are probably the best drivers working together in my opinion. I mean who wouldn't want Räikkönen and Alonso driving for them? Without them Ferrari would be fighting against Marussia in the back! Believe me or not but to me it's pretty obvious that the drivers are not to blame here.

Enough about Ferrari. So what about Lotus? They finished the race with both cars this time but what was going on in Pastor Maldonado's mind?! In the beginning he crashed with Jean-Eric Vergne and later he smashed straight into Esteban Gutierrez like a snow plow! Take a look:



Maldonado got a 5-grid penalty for China. That's it?! Daniel Ricciardo got a 10-grid penalty because his wheel was loose. Which was more dangerous? Ricciardo didn't even do anything wrong and it was worse. So so stupid!

More about Ricciardo! I loved it when they told Sebastian Vettel on the radio "Daniel is faster than you". I guess this was a slightly better day for the Aussie fans.

If we talk more about the radio conversations then we should bring up Massa. In the previous race he didn't wanna move to the side when Bottas was faster than him and had newer tyres. Now he asked Williams if Bottas could let him pass. WHAT?! well actually he didn't say it straight out but everybody knew what he meant when he said that Bottas' tyres look bad from behind, it's slippery etc. They didn't respond and Bottas got to decide on his own when to come in to the pits.

Bottas came to the pits at the best possible moment and it looked like he could have taken third place in the end. Unfortunately for his sake the safety car kind of ruined it for both him and Massa. I was waiting to see them fight for the third spot at the end part of the race but it was Force India instead who benefitted from this.

Sergio Perez was better than his teammate in the end. He drove a phenomenal race and was one of the stars of the day. Why couldn't he perform with McLaren like that? One reason was probably that McLaren was terrible last year.

What else? Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton were fighting like Senna and Prost at the top! If they continue with that then this season will be very interesting even though they would dominate the whole season. I don't even care! More fighting like that and I am happy.

Then some bad news. Jean-Eric Vergne was hospitalized after the race. He didn't eat and drink enough because he wanted to stay fit and light weighted. Bad idea.

Adrian Sutil raced without water in the car so that his car would be slightly faster. He retired the race so it did him no good.




Then it's time for my guesses and the actual results as usual:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

The race:

  1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
  2. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari - WRONG! FERRARI HAS NOTHING ON THE MERCEDES POWERED ENGINES RIGHT NOW. Nico Rosberg was 2nd.
  3. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG! Sergio Perez was 3rd.
Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - CORRECT

Surprise: Romain Grosjean, Lotus - The only surprise with Grosjean was that both of the Lotuses finished the race. The biggest surprise was Sergio Perez if you ask me.

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