It feels like it’s been barely a week since the last race – and that’s because it has only been a week! The 2017 F1 season is well underway, and round three takes us to a dusty, hot venue that in recent years has literally served up sparks – and produced a cracking duel in 2014 between Mercedes rivals Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Will we get any measure of a repeat this time? Given the pace Ferrari have, and the competitive streak in both Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, anything is possible…
The heat and the nature of the braking zones in Bahrain is likely to prove tough on brakes and might even hurt the new, tougher tyres. The cars scream toward the tight turn 1 and have another sharp corner at turn 4 (on my F1 2009 game I would often loop wide here). Turn 8 is a hairpin and turn 9 is another big braking zone. Besides this, turns 1, 4, 11 (which then leads into a sweeping uphill complex) and 14 may well present overtaking opportunities, even given the increased difficulty this year (and both Vettel and Verstappen showed it can be done in China).
With so many long straights, Bahrain is likely to be dominated by Mercedes and Ferrari – the question is, who will come out on top this time?
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