Bahrain Grand Prix Overview
They’re baaaack! Round 1 of the Bahrain Grand Prix just happened and the phrase I use to describe this race is…Karma is a bitch, or Karma Bahrained down on Red Bull. This race did not disappoint. Three cars with Red Bull engines failed with epic proportions. Gasly’s car exploded into flames out of the blue, a new race rivalry emerged and one unlikely team failed to finish the race due to mechanical issues. I was so excited I was clapping so hard a fingernail fell off of my left hand pinky. Whoa! As always if you want the full content listen to the podcast for FREE!
Sakhir Circuit Details and Tire Compounds
Circuit Details
Circuit is 3.363 mi, 15 turns, 3 DRS detection zones, and 57 laps.
4th time a season opener has been held here.
Lewis Hamilton won last three times; Vettel won the previous two times, but he was out this weekend with Covid, so Nico Hulkenburg took the wheel that dude has a bad ass name…Hulkenburg. His walk up music should be the sound of the Hulk smashing an iceberg…boom! but his performance more like the sound of a mouse farting on a block of cheese and eating it because he hasn’t raced in over 18 months.
Tire Compounds for the Race
Pirelli chose the C3-C1 tire compounds, but the C1 Hard tires proved to be shitty on this track. Only 6 teams tried them and they all failed epically while driving on them
This was predicted to be a 2-stop strategy race, but everyone had to pit three times
Starting & Finishing Grid
Starting Grid
| P1 | Charles Leclerc |
| P2 | Max Verstappen |
| P3 | Carols Sainz |
| P4 | Sergio Perez |
| P5 | Lewis Hamilton |
| P6 | Valtteri Bottas |
| P7 | Kevin Magnussen |
| P8 | Fernando Alonso |
| P9 | George Russell |
| P10 | Pierre Gasly |
| P11 | Esteban Ocon |
| P12 | Mick Schumacher |
| P13 | Lando Norris |
| P14 | Alexander Albon |
| P15 | Zhou Guanyu |
| P16 | Yuki Tsunoda |
| P17 | Nico Hulkenberg |
| P18 | Daniel Ricciardo |
| P19 | Lance Stroll |
| P20 | Nicholas Latifi |
Race Result
| P1 | Charles Leclerc |
| P2 | Carlos Sainz |
| P3 | Lewis Hamilton |
| P4 | George Russell |
| P5 | Kevin Magnussen |
| P6 | Valtteri Bottas |
| P7 | Esteban Ocon |
| P8 | Yuki Tsunoda |
| P9 | Fernando Alonso |
| P10 | Zhou Guanyu |
| P11 | Mick Schumacher |
| P12 | Lance Stroll |
| P13 | Alexander Albon |
| P14 | Daniel Ricciardo |
| P15 | Lando Norris |
| P16 | Nicholas Latifi |
| P17 | Nico Hulkenberg |
| P18 | Sergio Perez |
| P19 | Max Verstappen |
| P20 | Pierre Gasly |
Conclusion
There you have it folks the 2022 Round 1 Bahrain Grand Prix is in the books and I think I shit myself because it was so exciting. There were great balls of fire, multiple lead changes in the turn of 3 laps, Perez got the fastest lap and held it for 33 laps on Medium tires when the majority of the rest of the field was on Softs, karma Bahrained down on Max Verstappen since he stole the championship last year, and Ferrari is back. Next week, we’ll take a deep dive into the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and I can’t wait!