multi21

Qualifying: Looks like the Mercs have found an edge again... Very close in Q1 and Q3 to the Ferrari's and Red Bulls, but the Mercs turned up the engine in Q3 to clear Vettel by nearly 1/2 second. RBR and Kimi are further adrift...

The Renaults are surprisingly quick this weekend both making Q3.

Perhaps it's the track, but the times are not too much quicker than last year as compared to Australia and China. The squirt and go style of this track doesn't provide for the high speed sweepers to give a bigger advantage with the aero and wider tires.

Congrats to Bottas on his first pole position of his 5 year F1 career. Should be interesting race, at least between the two MB drivers.

gbuff

You need to put a SPOILER on this.

ProCoach

BOT, baby!

DTMiller

Program note - US broadcast is on CNBC tomorrow, not NBCSN.

I watched the F2 race via the NBC app this morning. Man, what a fun series. Strategy + on track overtaking. Of course the lowlight was probably the guy who got a drive through penalty for speeding on pit road and then promptly sped through the pits during his drive through penalty.

PiB993

Too many commercials on CNBC then plugs for their app. Pretty good race too.

DTMiller

Very interesting race.

Imola74

Great race, very happy for the Scuderia. This season is turning about to be quite something. Hope Ferrari can hold onto their progress.

Unfortunate ending for Verstappen..kid is such a star.

Typical results from Honda/McLaren..really feel for Alonso. Maybe he heads back to Renault..?


I switch to Univision when NBC goes to commercials. I cant understand much of anything except the radio messages, but they don't show commercials.

consolidated

Now that was a great race up and down the order. Hamilton slow pit roll reminded me of what Alonso did to him in Hungary 2007, which of course was MUCH worse.

paradisenb

Finally getting some F1 races worth watching. Quali was disappointing. I expected Ferrari to be 1st or 2nd, not .5 sec off the pace. I knew they would have something for Merc in the race, but I expected 2nd or 3rd.
Congrats to Vettel and Ferrari who are both leading their championships. How long has it been since those words passed anyone's lips?

Kimi is a disappointment. He just can't seem to get a handle right away on new cars. Mid-season he will come into form, but it will be too little, too late.

gbuff

As much as I hate to say it as he's always been one of my favorites, he's old and in my uninformed opinion he should be getting much more out of that car. His radio histrionics sound just like those of SV last year--notice how quiet and not miserable Seb is now that the car is good?

And, again, as I'm really pulling for him, Stroll is 0 for 3 and is living up to his rep for finding trouble, be it his fault or not.....

Gary

ProCoach

+1

StoogeMoe

He seems to have a vision awareness problem. This is the second race in a row where he has charged to the apex when another car has been alongside him. Then his excuses afterwards are even more bewildering. "But he was 16m back. Then he just hit me"

9114609048

I found the Bahrain F1 quali and race broadcast on DIRECTV, commercial free on UNIDHD channel 464. The commentary is in Spanish, but figuring out what's being said is a small price to pay for seeing the entire event uninterrupted.

G

enduro911

- In addition to the added speed which by itself makes F1 more palatable, having more than a single team competing, and closely, is making this a very good season so far.

- Ferrari, per Arrivabene, went with more understeer during quali to protect the tires during the race. Hence, the gap looked bigger than in the previous two races. Worked well during the race though.

- Safety car timing helped Ferrari just like it hurt them in China.

- Hamilton deserves the penalty he admitted it. He was also beaten through the first corner by Sebastian so IMO the race was won by Vettel as much if not more than it was ever given away by Mercedes.

- The winner of this season is going to be 1) the team that is able to develop the car the best and/or 2) the driver that makes the fewest mistakes. I think Nico really helped develop the Mercedes and, with as little bias as I can possibly muster, I can say that I don't trust Lewis as a development driver in the same way I would trust Alonso, Vettel, or some others on the pit wall.

- Waiting for RB to show up with some HP and throw a wrench into everything.

OFF TOPIC:

- This is actually an upgrade. Leigh Diffey is more responsible for more unappealing noises than the F1 engine soundtrack. I think I can STILL hear him talking...

- Nice of Lewis to bring his friend, DJ Steve Aoki, to a race to cheer him on. With that in mind, I think every time they panned to the guy he was looking at his phone. If you know nothing about horses but are invited to the Kentucky Derby, I'm guessing you'd still find a way to jump to off Instagram long enough to watch some of the action.

JTT

Really? I'm not yet a Stroll fan but seemed pretty clear cut to me that Carlos drove straight into the side of him, torpedo style. Stewarts saw it the same way and have penalized Carlos.