What to expect from the 2018 Bahrain GP?
This week the Formula 1 paddock has been built up in Bahrain. Sparks will fly around during the evening race of the Grand Prix of Bahrain this Sunday.
Bahrain is an island in the Persian Gulf and not far from Abu Dhabi, where the last race of the season is held.
Bahrain Facts & Figures
The first Bahrain Formula 1 race was driven in 2004 and won by Michael Schumacher in the ultra successful F2004. This driver and car combination still holds several lap records. This years addition will be the 15th Bahrain GP.
Current drivers F1 world champ Lewis Hamilton won the race 2 times and both for Mercedes. Winner of this season first race in Australia, Sebastian Vettel won the Bahrain GP 3 times. 2 times for Red Bull Racing and last year for Ferrari.
Did you know Fernando Alonso also has won this race 3 times? He won it 2 times for Renault and his last victory was for Ferrari back in 2010.
Scuderia Ferrari won the most races of all team in Bahrain. The famous Italian team won it 5 times, Mercedes won 3 times and Red Bull 2 times. So looking at these figures you could say that Ferrari has the most change to win the race on Sunday.
Last year Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas won his first pole position of his F1 career on this circuit, but finished the race as 3rd.
Ferrari driver Vettel had a very good start, passed Hamilton in the 1st corner and did an undercut (pit stop by pitting early) to pass the leading Finnish driver Bottas and won the race.
Who will be on the 2018 Bahrain podium?
The track looks not to be one of Hamilton's favourites. Out of all his 73 pole positions he scored until now in his F1 career, he only scored 2 on this circuit. That's why Bottas was able to score his first pole last season and might do this again this season. The track in the desert seems to suit Bottas very well. He also out-qualified his former Williams team mate Felipe Massa on this track 3 out of 4 times.
Mercedes qualifying pace in Melbourne was very disturbing for the other teams. Lewis Hamilton's qualifying lap in Q3 was 0,664 seconds faster than Kimi Raikkonen's P2. Max Verstappen who qualified 4th did make some mistakes in his last Q3 lap and Red Bull principal Christian Horner said he could have been 0,5 sec faster with a perfect lap.
Qualifying isn't that important in Bahrain, because passing isn't that hard and history tells us that only 1 time in the last 5 races the pole sitter won the race. Nevertheless the winner did start from the first 2 rows.
The Bahrain circuit isn't a high downforce track but a real powerhouse track because of the stop and go layout. Cars with a lot of mechanical grip and powerful engines will have a huge benefit. Therefor the Honda and Renault powered cars will have a hard time, while the Mercedes powered cars of Force India, Williams and Mercedes will have an advantage.
Our Coral betting review prediction is: 1. Bottas, 2. Vettel and 3. Hamilton
Bahrain Weather Forecast
The weather in Bahrain is always stable and around 30ºC and it has never rained during the race. We can be pretty sure that conditions for this weekends race will be the same.
Here you can see more info about the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix.
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