The Official 2017 Bahrain Grand Prix Thread **Spoilers**

[K50 DEL]

Thought it might be nice to give DrZ a break, apologies if anyone else had this in the pipeline.

Date(s): Friday 14 April - Sunday 16 April 2017

UK Broadcast Timings (and local time)

All sessions are live on both Sky F1 and Channel 4, times indicated below.

Session	Day	Sky F1	Channel 4	Session Start	Local Time
Practice 1	Fri	11:45	11:55	12:00	14:00
Practice 2	Fri	15:45	15:55	16:00	18:00
Practice 3	Sat	12:45	12:55	13:00	15:00
Qualifying	Sat	15:00	14:55	16:00	18:00
Race	Sun	15:30	15:35	16:00	18:00

Sakhir International Circuit; Bahrain



The tyre choices are Super Softs (must be available for Q3), Softs and Medium. All drivers get 7 sets of Super Softs, 4 of Softs and 2 of Mediums for the weekend.



2016 Grand Prix Results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Grid
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:33:34.696	2
2	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	+10.282	4
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+30.148	1
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	+1:02.494	5
5	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1	+1:18.229	9
6	Max Verstappen	Torro Rosso	+1:20.929	10
7	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	Lapped	15
8	Felipe Massa	Williams	Lapped	7
9	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Lapped	6
10	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	Lapped	12

Pole time: 1:29.493 (L. Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1)

Fastest Race Lap: 1:34.482 (N. Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1)

Live timing for all sessions available here:

http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/f1-...

Event timings, steward decisions, technical reports and laptimes for the weekend will appear here:

http://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-one-world-ch...

Weather forecast:

http://www.myweather2.com/Motor-Racing/Bahrain/Sak...

---

The next stage of what's shaping up to be a season to remember... Vettel and Hamilton enter this weekend level in Championship, who will leave on top?

Edited by K50 DEL on Tuesday 11th April 08:46

[Dr Z]

Thanks for the OP, appreciate it.

I would really like Bottas and Raikkonen to step up here. Vettel v Hamilton is nice and all but if both the Finns are pushing their teammates harder, it will add more strategy options (and headaches) for their teams, and more intrigue for the fans.

[LordGrover]

Just me or everyone?

[Crafty_]

nope, I get the missing picture too, if you right click and "open in new tab" it loads.

Its because this forum is not https and that picture isn't I think.
Either way, the geniuses at PH HQ broke it.

Anyway, back to the matter in hand. Could be an interesting one this..

Last year Vettel didn't take part as the engine died before the start, Hamilton got a crap start and driven in to by Bottas. So it was all rather fragmented.

2015 - Hamilton led pretty much start to finish. Vettel ran the undercut on Rosberg on both stops, which worked well. Rosberg still got the better of him though as Vettel made a mistake and damaged the front wing. The mercs were struggling with brakes back then too.

2014 Bahrain GP was the scene of the epic Hamilton vs Rosberg battle after the safety car.

Bigger, heavier cars with more grip from the bigger tyres, I wonder if brake issues might rear their head again ? Ferrari seems to go well here and the 2015 strategy was strong.

The midfield should be pretty close, Maybe Williams will be able to take it to red bull ?

Pole time last year was 1:29.493 (2015: 1:32.571). Low to mid 1:26 possible I guess ?

[DanielSan]

Hoping for a better race this weekend, I don't know if it was tiredness or a slight hangover but China mostly bored me, I didn't even get past lap 40 and tried to watch it twice!
Some good racing when it was happening, there just seemed to be big chunks of nothingness. Don't ask me how but I thought Aus was a more intriguing race even with less action.

[suffolk009]

The questions I need answering on Sunday:
Will Raikonnen wake up?
Will Bottas impress anybody?
Will Stroll get his moneysworth for his trackday?
Will Palmer have another excuse?

[Gary C]

Yey !

Off on the plane to Qatar early hours tomorrow then nip over to Bahrain on Saturday Sunday for the race.

Can't wait, anyone know if it's looking like rain

[K50 DEL]

Crafty_ said:

nope, I get the missing picture too, if you right click and "open in new tab" it loads.

Its because this forum is not https and that picture isn't I think.
Either way, the geniuses at PH HQ broke it.

Hopefully that should have fixed it and you should be able to see the image now

[rdjohn]

suffolk009 said:

The questions I need answering on Sunday:
Will Raikonnen wake up?
Will Bottas impress anybody?
Will Stroll get his moneysworth for his trackday?
Will Palmer have another excuse?

They did say that the new regs would sort the "men from the boys"

My wish list would be more competetive cars for Fernando, Max and Danny RIC.

[LordGrover]

K50 DEL said:

Crafty_ said:

nope, I get the missing picture too, if you right click and "open in new tab" it loads.

Its because this forum is not https and that picture isn't I think.
Either way, the geniuses at PH HQ broke it.

Hopefully that should have fixed it and you should be able to see the image now

[K50 DEL]

LordGrover said:

K50 DEL said:

Crafty_ said:

nope, I get the missing picture too, if you right click and "open in new tab" it loads.

Its because this forum is not https and that picture isn't I think.
Either way, the geniuses at PH HQ broke it.

Hopefully that should have fixed it and you should be able to see the image now

Sadly we're back to the awkward times for this race, practise sessions in the middle of the day on a Friday were great when I was living in the Middle East but now just mean that I don't get to watch them.
Much prefer sessions at 3am, but I guess I'm an oddity with that opinion lol

[BrettMRC]

My predictions are:

Bottas & Raikkonen come together on the first corner, collecting Vettel and a random RedBull.

Hamilton leads until the Mercedes engine gives up in spectacular style.

Remaining RedBull wins, Massa 2nd, Perez 3rd.

Maybe.

[HustleRussell]

ZX10R NIN in the China Thread said:

I kind of understand what you're saying in that the Ferrari looks more settled but I think the Mercedes has a bit more engine power & a more knife edge chassis which will mean it'll grab pole more often than not which means as long as they get away okay they'll control the races from the front & Ferraris more consistent pace is negated by dirty air & DRS stall.

It's difficult to analyse the finer points of the Ferrari vs Mercedes cars from a spectator's viewpoint, but what we can observe is how much better the Ferrari has been on tyre longevity in warm conditions so far this season.

I'd go as far to say that Ferrari look better on tyre management in general.

Correct me if I'm wrong but this is not a new pattern, throughout the hybrid era Ferrari have IIRC experienced fewer problems with getting their tyres 'into the window', fewer driver complaints through the graining phase and longer tyre life.

Ferrari have a few tenths to find in order to match the Mercedes on qualifying pace but as the new tyres are more understood and the strategies get more aggressive I wonder if we might see Ferrari successfully overcutting Mercedes on more occasions this season as they did in Australia (albeit with Verstappen's assistance)

[HustleRussell]

My prediction;

In the absence of rain and with Friday testing as normal after China's shambles, Red Bull will not get among the top 4. Qualifying will produce the familiar formation of Hamilton, Vettel, Bottas and Raikkonen. Vettel will overhaul Hamilton in the race and they will be joined on the podium by Raikkonen. Bottas 4th.

The Red Bulls will have a quiet race and behind them Perez, Massa and Grosjean will be among those picking up the remainder of the points.

[amgmcqueen]

suffolk009 said:

The questions I need answering on Sunday:
Will Raikonnen wake up?
Will Bottas impress anybody?
Will Stroll get his moneysworth for his trackday?
Will Palmer have another excuse?

No.
No.
No.
Yes!

[Smollet]

Looking forward to Alonso's greatest drive ever. The man is a titan.

[Tyre Smoke]

Weherlein or not?

Alonso to drop into the top 10 in qualifying against all odds and despite the best efforts of Honda and McLaren.

[Dr Z]

HustleRussell said:

ZX10R NIN in the China Thread said:

I kind of understand what you're saying in that the Ferrari looks more settled but I think the Mercedes has a bit more engine power & a more knife edge chassis which will mean it'll grab pole more often than not which means as long as they get away okay they'll control the races from the front & Ferraris more consistent pace is negated by dirty air & DRS stall.

It's difficult to analyse the finer points of the Ferrari vs Mercedes cars from a spectator's viewpoint, but what we can observe is how much better the Ferrari has been on tyre longevity in warm conditions so far this season.

I'd go as far to say that Ferrari look better on tyre management in general.

Correct me if I'm wrong but this is not a new pattern, throughout the hybrid era Ferrari have IIRC experienced fewer problems with getting their tyres 'into the window', fewer driver complaints through the graining phase and longer tyre life.

Ferrari have a few tenths to find in order to match the Mercedes on qualifying pace but as the new tyres are more understood and the strategies get more aggressive I wonder if we might see Ferrari successfully overcutting Mercedes on more occasions this season as they did in Australia (albeit with Verstappen's assistance)

FWIW, I think this year's Ferrari has a much wider operating window than its predecessors...I guess what I mean by that is, they have been able to dial the car in to be competitive in two very different/extreme conditions so far. The previous Ferraris have been quick when the conditions suit (high track temps, for example), but not as competitive in other circumstances. It was interesting to note how quickly Vettel was able to switch the (high working range) soft tyre on a very cool track in China. The Red Bulls were not sure they could do this which made them stick to the super softs (and on a definite 2-stopper). Ferrari also seems to have a consistent delta between different tyre compounds. Previous Ferraris have worked well on certain tyre compounds but not equally as well as this across the tyre range.

As for Merc vs Ferrari, again this is purely my observations (grain of salt necessary), the way the Mercedes needs to be driven is a very unspectacular style to give the lap time...I'm becoming more convinced that it's due to the long wheelbase. I noticed on one of the qualifying laps from Bottas in Aus when he really started to push the Merc chassis in a bid to recover some time to Hamilton, the car went all out of shape and he lost more time--this was also evident in the two Q3 runs by Hamilton in China. The Ferrari was such a contrast to this, Vettel seemed to be just dancing it on the limit and the car seemed more forgiving when he does the technique of early on the throttle (as with the EBD Red Bulls) and very responsive to the corrections he does to sort out any artifacts that arise of that driving style.

The best way I could put it is that the Merc's limit is more of a hard limit, the Ferrari's a soft limit.

Smollet said:

Looking forward to Alonso's greatest drive ever. The man is a titan.

Not known for blowing one's trumpet much, is he?

I cringed when he proclaimed he's one second faster than his team mate (or something to that effect) in Australia. Only with all the aero upgrades that the rookie didn't get, mister I-bring-half-a-second. Jog on!

[Otispunkmeyer]

suffolk009 said:

The questions I need answering on Sunday:
Will Raikonnen wake up?
Will Bottas impress anybody?
Will Stroll get his moneysworth for his trackday?
Will Palmer have another excuse?

I predict

Yes
No
No
Yes

Hard to tell with Kimi though. From the sounds of it his car hasn't been as right as Seb's and on top of that is Ferrari's "expert" strategy calls.

I do believe this will be his last year, but I reckon there'll be some good performances from him.

[Likes Fast Cars]

There are only two certainties:

1. Mercedes and Ferrari will be fighting for the win; and
2. The McHonda will be woeful again.