Categories: FeatureFeatures

Chris Medland’s Bahrain Grand Prix preview

Well isn’t this bubbling up rather nicely? Ferrari is keeping Mercedes honest even when the weather isn’t hot, and while the reigning champions took an ultimately comfortable win in China, cracks started to appear between team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. It was never going to take much to open up the wounds from 2014, but Rosberg’s outburst at the end of the race in Shanghai was still a surprising one. With so little time for everything to calm down, we could be set for an exciting weekend at the scene of one of Hamilton and Rosberg’s best battles last year.

FORM GUIDE

Mercedes quickly moved to quash Ferrari’s resurgence with a strong performance in China, with Hamilton dominating the weekend as he topped every session and won the race from pole position, setting the fastest lap along the way. It was a performance which seemed to rile Rosberg, who was feeling the heat from Sebastian Vettel during the middle stint as Ferrari underlined the steps forward it has made this year. With higher temperatures expected in Bahrain and a number of long straights, Ferrari could be even stronger this weekend, while Red Bull will look to bounce back from a nightmare weekend in China as its poor start to the season continues. McLaren could also become a contender for points if it continues its rate of improvement, with Eric Boullier saying Honda will “power up” the engine at Sakhir.

2014 RESULT

Pole position: Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), 1:33.185

Top three: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Sergio Perez (Force India)

Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), 1:37.020

SESSION TIMES (All times local)

FP1: 14:00 - 15:30

FP2: 18:00 - 19:30

FP3: 15:00 - 16:00

Qualifying: 18:00 - 19:00

Race: 1800

TYRE CHOICES

WEATHER FORECAST

Typically dry conditions are forecast for Bahrain this weekend, but with a sharp increase in temperatures compared to the previous race in China. The biggest challenge of the Bahrain race comes from the timing of the sessions, with FP1 and FP3 largely irrelevant as they take place in the heat of the day, making FP2 the only representative session as it starts at the same time as qualifying and the race - after sunset. Following sandstorms in the week leading up to the race, high winds are again predicted for Saturday and Sunday.

PODIUM PREDICTION

1st - Sebastian Vettel

2nd - Lewis Hamilton

3rd - Kimi Raikkonen

2014 WINNING SHOT

Click here to look under the skin of the front-running 2015 cars

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.