GP Bahrain 2018: The tire strategy decides

The 2018 Bahrain GP is marked by the adapting tactics at the tire change. It decides in favor of Vettel and Ferrari and against Bottas and Mercedes. Exciting battles are evident in the midfield. Formula 1 is more entertaining than ever in 2018.

What happened yesterday seemed to be broadly repeated in the race today. Verstappen was once again a bit over-motivated, Ferrari dominant, Mercedes looking for the clever tire strategy and Gasly confirming his good qualifying result with a fourth place.

The start is almost unspectacular, Vettel pulls away, Räikkönen has a bit more trouble and is overtaken by Bottas, and there's a mad fight in the middle ranks. Hülkenberg and Magnussen are giving each other a hard time, Gasly, Alonso and Ocon are fighting for places and Verstappen goes too far and pushes Hamilton away, getting a flat tire in the process. He drags himself to the pits, but after a few laps it's over for him. Tragically, Dani Ricciardo's lights also go out on the second lap, with a technical defect: double retirement for Red Bull - what a disaster.

Exciting midfield battles and tire poker between Ferrari and Mercedes
The midfield battles in particular make the race entertaining. Magnussen battles with Gasly and Hülkenberg with Ocon, and Hamilton, who has been relegated, promptly overtakes three drivers in one corner: Alonso, Ocon and Hülkenberg and moves up to 6th place on lap 5. A short time later, Hamilton also overtakes Magnussen for 5th place. On lap 8, Hamilton overtakes Gasly and moves up to 4th place. The gap to Vettel is 14 seconds. Then the teams start changing tires. Gasly and Hülkenberg change to medium tires on lap 16, Vettel to medium on lap 18 and on lap 20 Räikkönen comes into the pits for a tire change. On lap 21 Bottas changes to the white tires, he is supposed to test them for Lewis, so to speak. On lap 28, the gap between Vettel and Hamilton is 25 seconds - too far to beat him with a tire change. The two leading teams in particular rack their brains over how to overtake the opposing team with the right tire tactics or keep them at a distance. On lap 30, Ericsson on Alfa Romeo Sauber overtakes Sergio Perez on Force India, so the Ferrari engine must be the full force, which is really new now. On lap 34, Hamilton still has a 21-second gap. Now it becomes clear that Vettel will lose when he changes tires. What will Ferrari do? On lap 36, Raikkonen pits for a tire change, but nothing comes of it. Räikkönen drives off even though the rear tires have not yet been changed and runs over a mechanic and is immediately whistled back. Out for Räikkönen! Accident in the Ferrari pit! This damned tire tactic is making everyone confused. On lap 43 it becomes obvious that Vettel is not coming into the pits to change tires, but that Ferrari is risking the blowout to maintain the gap and take the win. The gap on lap 48 is 5.8 seconds from Vettel to Bottas and 12 seconds from Bottas to Hamilton. The problem with the tire story is that the teams also have no experience with Pirelli's all-new tire compounds, so everything remains a gamble. Bottas is getting closer and closer, Vettel's tires are gripping worse than Bottas'. On lap 53 he still has a gap of 2.7 seconds, on lap 54 1.8 seconds and on lap 55 1.1 seconds. Can Bottas manage to overtake Vettel in a DRS zone? The trembling begins. But Bottas is a man of reason and doesn't risk everything. There are one or two attacks, but there is also a braking incident, so that Vettel, in great tire distress, still takes a well-deserved victory with courageous tire tactics and thus drives home the win of his 200th Grand Prix.

But the race produced more than one winner: there's the surprising Pierre Gasly in fourth place with his Toro Rosso, there's Kevin Magnussen in a strong 5th place - the Haas driver's first result of 2018 - and there's Fernando Alonso in a strong 7th place with his McLaren, and finally - and this is another big surprise - there's Marcus Ericsson in Alfa Romeo Sauber in 9th place. Again, when was the last time Sauber was in the top 10, how many years ago? The two big teams - Mercedes and Ferrari - are still racing away from the front for victory - but in the midfield there is an exciting field of great and strong teams on a par, who are giving each other nothing and making the Formula 1 race more exciting than it has been for years.

2018 Bahrain Grand Prix - Results
1 Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari Ferrari -
2 Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes Mercedes 0.699
3 Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes Mercedes 6,512
4 Pierre Gasly, Toro Rosso Honda 1'02.234
5 Kevin Magnussen, Haas Ferrari 1'15.046
6 Nico Hülkenberg, Renault Renault 1'39.024
7 Fernando Alonso, McLaren Renault 1 lap
8 Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren Renault 1 lap
9 Marcus Ericsson, Sauber Ferrari 1 lap
10 Esteban Ocon, Force India Mercedes 1 lap
11 Carlos Sainz Jr, Renault Renault 1 lap
12 Sergio Perez, Force India Mercedes 1 lap
13 Brendon Hartley, Toro Rosso Honda 1 lap
14 Charles Leclerc, Sauber Ferrari 1 lap
15 Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari 1 lap
16 Lance Stroll, Williams Mercedes 1 lap
17 Sergey Sirotkin, Williams Mercedes 1 lap
Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari Ferrari DNF
Max Verstappen, Red Bull TAG DNF
Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull TAG DNF