After a great end to Friday, Max Verstappen and Red Bull started the Saturday of the Grand Prix weekend in Bahrain in good spirits. On the other side of the garage, the mechanics would undoubtedly have had less sleep after Alexander Albon had a hard crash Friday afternoon, resulting in a chassis change.
In the third free practice, Verstappen and colleagues were released from the testing obligations they had for Pirelli on Friday. No one really liked the 2021 tires, but the Formula 1 drivers will not have thought about that for too long.
The third free practice started while it was still light outside in Bahrain. The top riders waited a long time to do some laps, but when the qualifying simulations started, it was Verstappen who made the most impression. He was three tenths of a second faster than Hamilton and Bottas.
So it promised on paper to be a very exciting qualifying session on the circuit in Sakhir.
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Mercedes too strong on one lap
Max Verstappen knew it was going to be extremely difficult to beat Mercedes in qualifying. Except for Lance Stroll in Turkey, nobody had succeeded this year. During the training sessions, however, the Dutchman seemed to be so close that it was really considered possible left and right.
An hour later, however, Max Verstappen knew where he stood and all fans were an illusion poorer again. Mercedes had cranked up the engine a little further and showed that it was still lord and master when it came to a fast lap. The Red Bull driver was more than four tenths short on Lewis Hamilton and two tenths on Valtteri Bottas.
Looking at the sector times, it is clear that Red Bull is still just a little short on every level. In the first two sectors, Verstappen lost a tenth to Hamilton and in the third and last sector, which is mainly driven with his foot on the gas, the Briton was two tenths ahead of his great Red Bull rival.
Verstappen complained a bit about the traction and grip during qualifying, but was all in all satisfied with the course of his Saturday. Still, he wants his team to investigate why he is less close to Mercedes during qualifying than during the race.
Below you will find the sector times of the top three (compared to Hamilton) and the best possible combined lap time. Below that, the analysis continues.
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Red Bull promising on paper
Because during the race it has been getting better and better to stay close to the Mercedes duo in recent months. For example, we saw that Verstappen in Imola already managed to stay in the footsteps of the Mercedes drivers, but even in the preceding weeks, for example, at the Nurburgring, it was possible to stay on Hamilton’s tail until the last gasp.
The long runs in the free practice sessions give Verstappen hope. On the medium tire, he was the fastest on the field, while the Mercedes drivers didn’t even get a decent long run on the yellow rubber. On the soft tire he was also at least as fast as Hamilton and Bottas in the long runs, but we probably won’t see that soft red-encircled rubber again on Sunday.
Because the entire top ten starts on the medium tire, which seems the right choice in Bahrain, where there is a lot of tire wear. In addition, extensive testing with the new Pirelli tires has allowed Mercedes to spend less time on the longer runs, so they will be missing some information.
On a strategic level, Verstappen even has an extra trump card in the form of an extra set of hard tires. The competition only has a single set of the hardest rubber at their disposal, allowing Verstappen to make the perfect two-stopper on paper, while Mercedes will have to do everything it can to survive the race with a single set of the hard tires.
Hopeful data, then. As icing on the cake, it would be ideal for Verstappen if Albon could convert his fourth place on the starting grid into a strong race. In that case, the Briton must increase the (strategic) pressure on the Mercedes drivers and thus help his teammate on the way. However, it is still very doubtful whether Albon will succeed.
Finally, Verstappen starts in third place on the left side of the circuit, on the ideal racing line. There he will find more grip and traction, hoping to prevent a repeat of the crappy start in Turkey. Honda has also worked hard on this in the past week.
All in all, the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon contains a lot of ingredients that can make for an exciting race. A good start, a good race pace and some strategic master moves from Red Bull could help Verstappen on his way to his first victory of the year. Tire wear seems to be the magic word during the race on Sunday, and in that area Verstappen has the trump card firmly in his hands.
The lightning-fast Verstappen didn’t have luck on his side in Turkey, but can he beat Mercedes in Bahrain? All about the Bahrain GP in the latest edition of RacingNews365’s Formula 1 podcast, featuring Tom Coronel, Ruud Dimmers and Thomas van Groningen, which can be heard below.
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