The first race of the 2018 season and the first race ever with halos.
Very clean start with no debry what so ever. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen tried to challenge Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton for the lead but wasn't quick enough. It was also obvious that the Finn blocked his teammate Sebastian Vettel with everything he got and kept 2nd position.
I was very interested of seeing Raikkonen maybe win his first race since 2013. Hamilton even said that Raikkonen had been very fast the whole weekend and saw him as his biggest threat.
For some reason even though Hamilton and Raikkonen did everything they could Vettel got in front after the pitstops. Raikkonen pitted for the hardest compound of the weekend and Hamilton did the same but Vettel stayed out. It was clear that Ferrari did the strategy to help Vettel again. They used Raikkonen to fool Mercedes and Hamilton so that Vettel could continue on track and take a bigger lead.
When the pitstops were all done Hamilton couldn't believe how he was second. He even asked the team on the radio what went wrong. I mean nice to see someone win who hasn't got the fastest car but the man who really deserved the win here was Hamilton. At least that's my opinion.
If I talk about the other drivers then I was surprised that Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas couldn't do better. I really thought that he could even fight for a podium finish but I was clearly wrong.
Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo on the other hand had a much better race than his teammate Max Verstappen who spun and ruined his race. Ricciardo is world champion material. Would like to see him in a better car soon.
McLaren stepped up their game and got points for both drivers. Fernando Alonso 5th and Stoffel Vandoorne 9th. Alonso celebrated on the radio after the race and said "Now we can fight!". I hope they can in the future as well.
The main thing that I thought about after the race was the halo. I mean you get used to it until they jump to the onboard camera.... THAT LOOKS JUST AWFUL!!! OK it's a safety thing so it's good but oh my god how bad it looks onboard! Or what do you guys think? Message me or comment on Facebook.
Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
The race:
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 2nd and Sebastian Vettel won the race.
- Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 8th due to his qualifying crash.
- Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - CORRECT
Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. Daniel Ricciardo was fastest.
Surprise: Force India might do a little magic this season and it might start right away - 11th and 12th so nothing special.
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POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10
+ possible bonus points
HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get the winner and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.
A table will be posted up every race weekend. The point scoring system will change once the cars become more competitive. Everyone will say a merc 1,2 so it won't be close or fun.
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