BAHRAIN REVIEW BY BEN STEVENS
As such FP1 is quite a tentative
affair, although it was notable for 1. Daniel
Ricciardo’s Borat impression (“attack-a the
box-a”) and two engine failures, the first
being the usual McLaren blow-up (you think
Alonso made the right choice?), the second,
more alarmingly, being to Kimi Raikkonen’s
Ferrari. It took the Ferrari Mechanics a full
three hours to resolve the issue, which is
certainly something to keep in mind as
Sunday approaches.
Raikkonen’s engine aside, Ferrari were
able to top the timesheets with Sebastian Vettel
finishing 0.041s ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri
Bottas – albeit with Lewis Hamilton’s hotlap
ruined by Nico Hulkenberg taking a nap on
the racing line. Whether the Scuderia’s well-
publicised aero upgrade has made a difference
is another question entirely, and one that
remains unanswered.
For the third-straight race weekend,
we saw another T-wing fall off, this one
belonging to Bottas’ Mercedes. While their
ugliness is undisputed, calls to ban them on
safety grounds have had mixed reactions, but
after Bottas’ managed to shred the floor of
Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, hopefully some
progress can be made.
With less than a second separating the top
8 in FP2, there’s every hope for a fascinating
Saturday. Will Ferrari keep their advantage?
Have Red Bull narrowed the gap? Can Lance
Stroll drive with a burned backside? We’ll
find out in the race.