The Bahrain Grand Prix produced a thrilling qualifying session, leaving cars out of regular positions. Lando Norris was expecting to put his McLaren on the front row at a minimum, but he will start the race in P6 alongside title challenger Max Verstappen. Pierre Gasly also shocked the paddock by putting his Alpine in the top 5, but will he be able to hold off the faster cars?
The Bahrain Grand Prix will be a strategic race, with high tyre degradation predicted. There should also be many overtakes, as there are many opportunities to pass around Sakhir, but who will make it count?
The right strategy will be key during the Bahrain Grand Prix
In China, the track had been resurfaced, while in Japan, the punishing first sector had been, too. This led to low degradation on tyres, meaning drivers could push flat out and only stop once. This meant there were few offset strategies, making the races fairly predictable. This will not be the case in Bahrain.
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The Sakhir circuit causes high tyre wear due to the track never being resurfaced after it was first laid in 2004. Fun fact: That means the tarmac at Bahrain is older than Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman. There are also many heavy braking and traction zones, which also create high tyre wear.
Due to this, most of the teams will most likely fancy the two-stop strategy. However, Pirelli has brought the hardest three compounds in their range. This could mean teams towards the back of the grid might try a one-stop race to mix it up, as they have nothing to lose. Strategy offsets could make this race very interesting.
Can you overtake at the Bahrain Grand Prix?
At the Japanese Grand Prix, overtaking and following your rival was difficult. There are also very few heavy braking zones where you can get alongside your competitor to attempt a move. Coming out of the final corner into the only DRS zone didn’t give drivers a good run to challenge into the first corner, which does not require heavy braking.
However, at the Sakhir circuit, there are many overtaking zones. Long straights lead into heavy braking zones, and traction out of those corners will be key to continuing the fight. The final corner gives drivers a great slingshot onto the main straight to get the slipstream to help overtake.
There are also three DRS zones to aid overtaking. One is along the main straight into the heavy braking turn 1. The following straight allows drivers just passed to regain their position as they will have a helping of DRS into the heavy braking turn 4. If drivers can continue their fight, the back straight has another DRS zone into the wide turn 11. There are opportunities to overtake if drivers can follow each other.
What will the conditions be for the Bahrain Grand Prix?
Weather conditions for the race day are expected to be fairly similar to Saturday. The temperatures will be hot, around 27 degrees Celsius at the start of the race. This will also create more tyre wear than in the cooler temperatures in Japan and China.
There will be a northerly wind, but it should decrease from higher speeds before the start of the race. However, the wind during qualifying and FP3 did catch drivers out. Drivers struggled at turn 11 due to the wind, catching out front runners Lando Norris and Max Verstappen throughout the weekend. In the dry race, the wind could play a part.
