That was racing as I remember it, hope that it lasts for a long time.

 

that was a great race, we haven't had one like that in a long time

 

That's the thing though, as I remember F1 over the years (30-odd of them), I can put my finger on dull seasons, exciting races and great season-long driver rivalries. I can't for the life of me recall a season when the races were consistently excellent. My feeling is F1 a vintage F1 season will have a liberal sprinkling of all the good elements, but there will always be some duff races.

The concern for me for the rest of the season is the pace of the Mercs. For those final 10 laps when Rosberg and Hamilton were going at it hammer and tongs is the firs time I believe we have seen the raw pace of these cars over an extended period, and it looks like ~2 seconds a lap over the best of the rest!

 

That was a cracking race. Well done Lewis, I thought he was going to finish second to Nico once that safety car came out. Nice to see team mates racing each other until the chequered flag instead of there being team orders. I just hope that can last through the season. Take note Red Bull. Shame to see JB retire at the end, hope that's not a sign of things to come for McLaren.

What the hell was Pastor Maldonado doing? I think his time has been and gone in F1, and Williams must be pleased as punch to have ditched him. He nearly killed Gutierrez and nearly cost Lewis a race win, and all they gave him was a stop go penalty. What do you need to do to get black flagged these days?

EDIT - Glad to hear he got points on his license and a grid place drop in China.

 

He also got 3 points on his super license & a 5 place grid drop in China

What concerned me was the lack of any help from the Bahrain marshalls for Gutierrez, as he was clearly stunned for a minute or so.
Poor show that

Top quality racing though, thoroughly enjoyed

 

I stayed up to watch the highlights last night and was glad I did.
What an utterly brilliant race.

Hamilton was pure class in the last 10 laps or so in the way he held off Rosberg. It seems like it's going to take a lot of R&D from the other teams to even come close to Mercedes' performance this year. I suspect it may be a 2-horse race, but an interesting one at that.

It's also nice to see Vettel having to fight for his place in the mid-field too!

 

It's hard to see anyone else being in it, and I fear we won't see that many close Hamilton vs Rosberg battles either; it only really came about because of the safety car. But it was very enjoyable to watch: that was the good old Lewis doing the kind of racing we liked so much in 2007/2008 before the sulking years started.

I found myself cheering on Massa. Williams must be really disappointed to have ended up 7th and 8th after running 3rd and 4th so much, but it was all down to them doing an extra pit stop. Full marks to Force India, but Ricciardo really surprised me; partly because he didn't seem to catch up much before the safety car despite having the pace to qualify third (I think he was 9th), and then because he was suddenly so fast post-safety car. He'd have been third after another lap for sure.

What a disaster for Ferrari. Was it me, or was somebody overtaking Raikonnen on every single lap?

 

Yeah, very enjoyable - good to see Lewis with his head in the right place and just being there to race !

 

No, one of my recollections of the race was every-time we saw a red car, it was being overtaken. I'm not quite sure how they managed to get both cars home in the points.

My problem with Hamilton is that his performances are so much dictated by his state of mind.

There is an article on the BBC at the moment claiming that he is the complete F1 driver. I just don't agree with this. Certainly when his mind is in the right place - as it was yesterday - he is an incredibly quick and aggressive driver. But for me, he all too easily lets external factors impact his driving, and therefore he lacks the single-mindedness of someone like Senna, for example.

 

To be honest I think that's a bit of a legacy from 2011.

2007 & 2008 he was on it. 2009 they started him with a duff car and once they fixed that he scored the most points in the last half of the year. 2010 he was in contention until the end but the car didn't really have the pace.

Then admittedly 2011 he was either shocking or brilliant.

2012 reliability, none fault accidents and team errors killed his chances. But even with that in mind he was on form the entire season as problem after problem took away almost certain wins.

To me that's only 1 year he didn't perform to his maximum