2021 Bahrain Grand Prix Race Thread

Alex Barnes93 said:Sainz is absolutely wild. I fully expected LEC to just walk all over him without breaking a sweat, but this has been such an unexpected shocker.

Please.

LEC is hands down the biggest fraud in the history of motorsport.

Richard Walker38 said:Look man, you’re gonna end up on my ignore list if you keep this up, so I highly suggest you do the same and just skip over my posts.

There’s no skipping, we’re here to actually have a discussion, and honestly, you're clearly just worked up because of Alonso, so I really can't even hold it against you.

It’s such a shame Mazepin messed up Vettel’s race. We missed out on seeing how he was actually holding up. His teammate really did him dirty.

darkmarlin16 said:I honestly saw this coming from a mile away. They're going to throw Charles Leclerc under the bus.

I can already see Charles Leclerc sobbing over the team radio after four or five more races like this.
Ferrari thought they were bringing in a second driver to stabilize things, but instead, we’re looking at more internal warfare.

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Even if we’re just looking at the opening qualifying sessions of the season, you can't deny it: Fernando Alonso is in a completely different league compared to Sebastian Vettel.

Sebastian Vettel absolutely wrecked Nikita Mazepin, so let's all just chill on the armchair driving today.

When someone like me, who can't stand the guy, actually has to say it, you know things are getting serious.🤣

Richard Walker38 said:Mazepin basically wrecked Vettel, so let’s hold off on all the armchair expert analysis today.

When I—someone who can't stand the guy—have to say something like that, you know things have officially gone south.🤣

I missed that part, honestly...

Raymond Anderson4 said:I guess I missed that part, fair enough...

He spun out and ended up throwing a yellow flag, which totally screwed over Sebastian Vettel and Esteban Ocon if you ask me.

It seems to me that Mercedes-AMG remains the superior machine on the grid, does it not? And as for the driver, I find myself believing that Max Verstappen continues to be the absolute best in the business.

Max 👋. He was 0.4 seconds faster 🙏

I honestly expected a bit more from McLaren, but hey, having one car in third place isn't the worst thing in the world.

Then again, it’s just Max out there fighting against two Mercedes-AMG cars. Man, he didn't even get any help from his teammate today.

Max 😍

Charles Leclerc was less than a tenth behind Valtteri Bottas and about three tenths back from Lewis Hamilton, even though he only managed one run in the Third Qualifying Session. I guess Max also absolutely crushed his final lap 🙏

Carlos Sainz is going to absolutely dominate Charles Leclerc. You won't believe the takes people are going to post here 🤣

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Richard Walker38 said:But man, Max is just out there flying solo against two Mercedes-Benz cars, damn. Even today, he didn't get any real help from his teammate.

If you take Max and Lewis out of the equation, Sergio Pérez is literally the only guy on this entire grid I don't have a single doubt about. Like, zero doubt. He’s gonna drive a killer race regardless of how qualifying goes. Especially since he’s finally got a car that isn't a total lemon compared to what he's had in the past. If Albon were running, he might scrape together maybe three spots from where he starts, but Sergio Pérez? He’s almost a lock for the top 5. Plus, he gets to pick his own tires, and we all know that guy is an absolute wizard at tire management.

Bravo Max...
By the way, don't you have to wear a mask if you take the pole position?

graniteharbor502 said:Mercedes-Benz is still the best car on the grid—and Max Verstappen is still the king.

Give me a break...
So you're saying Honda has the fastest engine? If that were actually true, they’d be snatching wins for Mercedes in a slower chassis while those two battle it out... I mean, Lewis Hamilton basically had to carry the weight of the team just to deal with Bottas all season.

It really shows how much of a mess Red Bull is right now—they can't even make things work for both drivers; it feels like one of them is just there as a test driver...

Alex Barnes93 said:If you set aside Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Pérez is literally the only driver on this grid I have zero doubts about. He’s going to drive a hell of a race regardless of how qualifying turns out. Especially since he’s finally got a car that's a massive step up from anything he's handled before. Albon might manage to jump three spots from where he starts, but Sergio is almost a guaranteed lock for the top 5. He's got total freedom with his tire strategy, and we all know he’s a master at making rubber last.

And what does that even matter for Max? Mercedes can totally wreck his day with their strategy setups, especially if Max has one of those shaky starts he's known for.

Bravo Max, and an excellent drive by Charles Leclerc as well; being only three-tenths behind is significant progress.

What happened with Carlos Sainz? Was it a driver error?

Joseph Flores15 said:Way to go Max! And Charles was solid too, finishing just three-tenths behind Lewis. That’s real progress right there.

What happened with Carlos Sainz? Was it just a mistake?

He was complaining about vibrations. It looks like his engine cut out at some point during qualifying.

Either way, the Ferrari looks fast, which is good news. Things are about to get interesting.

Richard Walker38 said:What does it even mean for Max when Mercedes can try to mess things up with their setups, especially if Max ruins his start, which happens all the time.

Look, over the last three seasons, Max has only really botched a start once (back at the 2019 United States Grand Prix). Every other time—even then in the US—it was actually the four Honda engines launching slower, usually out of second gear. There were these engine issues that would trigger the anti-stall, and for some reason, they couldn't get that sorted in the Honda power units until midway through last season, so they just had to limit them with lower RPMs in first and second gear, which made the starts sluggish.

And let's be real, Sergio Pérez isn't going to have a terrible qualifying every single race, even if qualifying has never exactly been his bread and butter. The season just kicked off, man, let's take it easy 🙂