Brilliant Opener

Over the final laps we had no idea who was going to win between Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton. Truth be told Max let it slip by not being patient enough and overtook on a part of the course where he ran off the track and had to give the lead back. A stupid mistake as he had the race for the taking.

Hamilton was clinging on for the last 5 laps and finally edged it by 0.4 seconds. This is more like how motor racing should be and a competitive season looks to be on the cards after a 7 year wait.

Red Bull can improve still as Verstappen's car had differential issues which interferes with the back wheel drive car. The team will get that right for the next outing and throw in Sergio Perez to the mix and the team looks a whole lot stronger to last season. Sergio started from the pits after experiencing a total shut down on his warm up lap and still managed 6th spot overall which is a decent result.

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We didn't learn much about the cars tonight after one race except that Haas will struggle having two rookie drivers. Mazepin managed to last all of 3 corners before crashing out with no one else involved. The commentators called it saying he stepped on the power too soon and spun off. I know his dad bought his seat for him but he is an embarrassment and looks out of his depth. When you have the slowest car on track what is the point of powering up too soon and rather get into the race first.

Maybe he is not too smart as the team principal Gunter Steiner wasn't expecting much results wise and just asked his drivers to bring the cars home in one piece. He spent the weekend doing multiple spin offs so learnt nothing during the practice sessions. I must admit I haven't seen a worse driver on the track for many years and he could be a danger safety wise to other drivers if he manages to complete a lap.

Next up is racing in 3 weeks time at Imola, Italy which gives the teams time to work on any obvious problems. I expect Red Bull to take the next one on todays performances as they do look much stronger this season. Imola should suit them more than Bahrain as it is a quicker track.