Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix Analysed
If you managed to miss to the Bahrain Grand Prix, you missed a great opening race, and some great drives from surprising sources. The race started in very hot conditions and teams and drivers struggled to make their tyres work. New team HRT, managed a good few laps before Indian Driver Karun Chandhok crashed his HRT, unsurprising for a driver who had never even driven a Formula 1 car before the event. HRT team mate Bruno Senna retired later with suspected engine trouble.
New team Virgin Racing also struggled with the car losing both Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi to hydraulic failure. Not entirely new, but new for 2010 Sauber retired both cars with engine trouble as well. But the new Lotus F1 team finished the race, failing to score a point but getting all important running data which will be crucial if the team hope to score a point this season.
At the front things were very exciting Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel took a commanding lead after the very first lap and led for most of the race. But once again the Red Bull has shown it can be quite fragile, Vettel’s car developed a cracked exhaust, which handed the lead to Ferrari with Alonso and a little later Philipe Massa also got passed the struggling RB6, finally getting passed by British driver Lewis Hamilton who like his team mate struggled to make an impression on any of their rivals. Vettel finally finished fourth just ahead of Nico Rosberg who managed to get one over on his counterpart Michael Schumacher who could only manage sixth ahead of current F1 Champ Jenson Button.
In conclusion, it looks like it may be a great season for Ferrari and especially for Fernando Alonso, who looks very likely at this early stage to be in a great position to make it three world championships, and maybe go after Michael Schumacher's record. Red Bull look like they have the potential to do well but after Bahrain the question of reliability which some say cost them the title last year, it will be challenging for the drivers to keep their heads whilst the team work round the issues they have. Nico Rosberg dominated his team mate all week-end, but with a talent like Michael, maybe its just a matter of time before the seven time champion takes the number 1 driver role. McLaren struggled to make up time at the beginning of the race, but showed OK performance in the final part of the race.
Critics have questioned the rules, during the event, noticing that its quite simply a matter of waiting for second place to make a pit stop, then the leader can just come in and keep his lead. Also the majority of the race was drivers managing their tyres, which is disappointing for people wanting to see more overtaking.
The Best Performance of the race has to be Fernando Alonso, he was by far the quickest driver on the grid and was catching Vettel before the Germans problems.
After Bahrain its Australia in two weeks time where it will be another hot race. Not as hot as Bahrain, but enough to make tyre choice and management crucial, which might be disappointing for fans wanting to see overtaking.
Fernando Alonso is very firmly F1 driver title favourite 1/10 from Bet365. Hoping his team resolve the reliability issues Vettel is second favourite (7/2), overtaking Lewis Hamilton who moves down to third favourite (11/2). Jenson Button is now a bit of an outsider 25/1 now to retain his championship.
All odds correct at time of writing and are subject to change
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