It does seem Perez has woken up again. I wonder if he'll keep it up.

Looks like my prediction is coming true: Vettel disappears off into the distance, but loads of close racing behind. There was an incredible amount of racing going on today (I'm sure Jamie and S2KNut will be along to tell us how boring it was), with everybody seemingly fighting everybody else wheel to wheel all the way through.

I caught the final BTCC race. The guy on pole streaked off into the distance and won easily, and everybody was talking about tyres with those on softs moaning that they were going off after 10 laps. So it seems Formula One is now exactly the same as British Touring Cars, except with more racing.

 

Today had it all. You had a driver, car, development, team, strategy and luck combo in Vettel that proved absolutely unbeatable. A stonking drive from Alonso against all odds.

Proper wheel to wheel racing with DRS just barely helping rather than being a push to pass button.

And pit stop strategies mixing it up like back in the refueling days.

The Mercs only seem to come alive once the fuel level is low. They're setup must be incredibly sensitive to weight and ride height.

I am fed up of hearing the tyre complaints though. They may as well complain the tracks have corners which stop them going flat out.

 

I just say it how i see it Dembo, not for the sake of it unlike Heinz57 for example.

Todays race was OK especially considering it is Bahrain. Perez was wild, and much more like his old self, more of that for me please ... though running into his team mate is not a good idea. Webber must be a shit driver ... either that or the conspiracy theories are true Shame about the Ferrari wing sticking open, I think Alonso could have .... maybe could have challenged Neweys' car but I doubt it. It was a more entertaining race than usual at Bahrain but I am still struggling to see it as 'exciting'. Once we get away from these 'fly away' races I am usually much happier. The European circuits on the whole make for better F1 races in my opinion.

 

Short of telling everyone that Vettel was a lousy driver and could only win because he was driving "Neweys car", what have you ever contributed? I admit that I took great delight in ridiculing your prejudices on occasion but assumed that you were man enough to take it.
We saw an example of his driving in the opening laps today but still you give him no credit.
As for the race not being exciting, you were obviously not watching the same race as the rest of us.
I have made no secret of my dislike of artificial aids such as KERS, DRS and the current tyres. I feel somewhat vindicated by the racing in the opening lap and Alonsos performance today.

 

Agreed, it wasn't bad for Bahrain.

I guess DRS isn't worth much when you are up at the front, but it certainly helps in getting up the front and 2 extra stops certainly doesn't help! I think he'd have been up there.

 

It was nice to see lots of overtaking which did not always rely on DRS, and generally the standard of the passes were very high. Rosberg did an excellent job to hold off Vettel and the rest of the pack at the start.

I think Perez needs to be a bit careful, as a couple of his moves weren't that brilliant on Jenson. But that said it's great to see him fired up once again

Alonso really is proving to be an excellent driver, and doesn't sit there complaining when it's not going his way, he just gets on racing. He was doing a fine job without DRS and put up a great fight in the later stages

 

I don't know what you mean there. KERS was what got Vettel back past Alonso on the first lap.

The interesting thing about the tyres is that Raikonnen and DiResta were able to do 2 stop strategies to good effect, whereas some drivers were being forced into a pretty rare 4th stop. Perez beat Button essentially because Button was too aggressive on his tyres - that's not something you hear often. They all have exactly the same tyres, so it's not so much about the tyres being the limiting factor, more that the tyres last as long as the teams want them to.

Hamilton did well in the end. He was nowhere for the first half, then suddenly came back to get 5th. Rosberg must be scratching his head how he started in pole, 8 places ahead of his teammate, yet finished 4 places behind him.

Alonso would have been second I think. Vettel looked too fast. It's pretty rare for Ferrari to have a mechanical problem.

 

But Alonso had KERS as well whereas a car being overtaken in the DRS zone is at a distinct disadvantage.The overtaker can use DRS and KERS but the one being taken can only use KERS.

And DRS spoiled Alonsos race. With KERS,DRS and the tyres we now have 3 artificial limitations to racing,would one not be enough?

Stolen from sniff petrol:" Formula 1 isn’t about two well-matched cars relentlessly overtaking each other in a tense battle of nerve and skill; Formula 1 is about carefully looking after your tyres and waiting for people with laptops to calculate a strategy for pit stops and fuel conservation."

Never a truer word.....

 

Vettel did say that he'd saved up some KERS which allowed him to pass Alonso. Admittedly, we don't know if Alonso had done likewise, but I'd guess that he didn't.

 

The two pitstops to try to fix a mechanical problem spoiled Alonso's race. Had the DRS just stopped working, he probably wouldn't have lost much.

Except it doesn't match reality. Certainly not yesterday's reality. Looked like lots of tense battles of nerve and skill to me, and pit stop and tyre strategy has been a fundamental part of the sport for at least the nearly 30 years I've been watching (and laptops hadn't been invented then).