Hi folks...
We don’t have long to catch our breath as, no sooner have we had the Malaysian Grand Prix, than we are off to Bahrain for the third round in the championship.
Back-to-backs events are always difficult for the teams but, at least, once this one is out of the way, things will get a tad easier, as we are back to Europe, where the season will begin ‘proper’ next month, with the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona.
Before that, though, we have the final fly-away - at least until June - and the Bahrain International Circuit itself is a great facility. It is, of course, another one of these new venues, but with the first grand prix having taken place there back in 2004, this will be the fourth time the circus has made the stop and, as such, it is becoming more and more of a known quantity.
At first, there was some concern that the sand would be a problem, but now that is less of a worry and, while it does affect tyre wear and so on, most of the teams will have a head-start prior to practice on Friday, as they did some testing here back in February.
Then, it was
Ferrari that led the way and, while that was the case in Australia too, it wasn’t the way things turned out last weekend at Sepang. Indeed, there was a bit of a shift there and that can only be good as we don’t want one team running away with it. Not that it looked likely, contrary to some reports.
So far, it appears as if the battle between Ferrari and
McLaren will be very close all year long and, the way things are shaping up, the fight between their lead drivers,
Kimi Raikkonen and
Fernando Alonso, should also be just as close.
How it will go this weekend is anyone’s guess, but I think, on balance, it is safe to say that McLaren probably won’t have it so easy. Indeed, it may all come down to who starts at the front
and who gets away in the lead at the start. That was certainly the key moment in Malaysia and Fernando and
Lewis Hamilton both made the best of it.
