BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX #2

Original race weekend dates: December 4 - 6, 2020

In summary: Hamilton is out of the car this weekend because he got Covid! They decide to put George Russell in Hamilton's car. He drove PERFECTLY, but Mercedes messed up his pit stop so badly that he didn't even get a podium. It was beyond HEARTBREAKING. Also, Max and Charles tangled early in the race and both crashed out and I seriously thought they were going to fight each other but they didn't. In the end, Perez got his first win (yay!) and then a weird podium of Ocon in second and Stroll in third (ha). But I just really wanted this one for George.

My notes from the weekend:

FP1

• it’s been a week full of F1 news including recovering Grosjean updates, Grosjean returning to Bahrain track to thank people that helped him in last week’s accident, them announcing Mick Schumacher and Mazepin for Haas next year, Hamilton got covid so they have George Russell in the Mercedes this weekend, Jack Aitken in at Williams for George, Grosjean replaced while he recovers by Fittipaldi

• They’ve even replaced the pictures over the garages to be updated with who is there this week, so George is over the Mercedes garage!

• The worlds eyes are on George as he goes out in Hamilton’s car

• George is at the top of the charts in P1! Which further proves that Hamilton’s championships have been won by the car and not necessarily the driver oh my gosh

• Alex and Charles have offs but are fine

FP2

• Seb has a dramatic spin but he doesn’t go into the wall and keeps going

• Charles radios in that something broke and doesn’t think he will make it back to the pit with no drive at all but he does make it back to the pit lane and they have to push him the rest of the way

• Probably no more charles this session because he would need an entire new gearbox

• Lando went over a curb and got quite a lot of damage to the bottom of the car

• Gasly hurt his hand on flying gravel

• Bottas was having a really bad session and we don’t know why but he was all over the curbs and corners

• George finished at the top of the charts for both FP1 and FP2

• Max has a spin

• They have to change Seb’s entire engine before qualifying

• Charles spins but is fine

Qualifying

• in q1, they are all sitting in garages waiting for clear track in anticipation of all the traffic

• Lando has his time deleted in q1 so he has to go again

• Aiken is beating Latifi in Q1 even though this is Aikens first session! Ouch for Latifi

• Out in Q1: Mags, Latifi, Aiken, Raikkonen and Fittipaldi

• Aiken didn’t end up out qualifying Latifi in the end but it was fun while it lasted

• Alex Albon was nearly out in Q1 when Red Bull didn’t send him out again but fortunately he stayed in 15th

• Out in q2: Ocon, Albon, Seb, Gio and Lando

• Lando had some problems and it was messy and he just didn’t get through

• Ooooo Albon isnt through, this is bad

• Charles did get into Q3 though!

• Charles pulled an AMAZING lap in Q3 out of nowhere which was so incredible that Charles just got out of the car and went to the pit wall to watch it

• In the end, Bot gets pole but George is behind him only by .022 of a second! Then Max and then CHARLES which really just came out of nowhere and it’s so awesome

Race

• Lando and Fittipaldi got engine changes so they start at the back from penalties

• Grosjean announced earlier today that he won’t be returning for the last race

• George retains the lead!!

• First lap incident at the back of the pack with Alex maybe hitting Kimi and Kimi goes spinning, which looked like it was going to be the big opening lap incident UNTIL

• Max Perez and Bottas going three wide and Max backed out of it to be safe and wise but then Charles locked up in a corner and Perez didn’t leave enough room and Charles went into Perez when he lost control of the car and Maxy tried to avoid it but he ended up in the wall next to Charles and I was SO terrified Max was gonna get out of the car and start a fight with Charles but instead Max just kicked the wall and then later they were talking so I think they’re okay

• Bot had lap times deleted for track limits

• Ocon finally did a good pass and Martin Brundle was like oh wow this is the best thing he’s done all season

• After Russell pits HE REPORTS NO POWER but then it turns out it was a default setting he had to turn off and now it’s fine but it scared me so much

• Seb has had two slow stops so far, what is wrong with Ferrari

• Latifi pulled over to the side and yellow flag and it triggers a virtual safety car and thank goodness it was only virtual because if he got a full safety car then it could have allowed Bot to catch

• Stroll passed by Perez and then he immediately passed Ocon

• At that point, everything became INSANITY and I am going to let the F1.com summary do the rest of the recap from this point: "Sergio Perez is still waiting to hear whether he will even be racing in Formula 1 next year, but on Sunday evening he put those concerns to one side to drive to a brilliant first F1 victory in the Sakhir Grand Prix. The Mexican dropped to stone dead last on the first lap after tangling with Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc – who both crashed out as as result – but then began fighting his way back through the field on the short Outer Loop track in Bahrain. Perez's win was aided by a nightmare race for Mercedes, who had George Russell leading Valtteri Bottas in the first half of the race, only for a pit stop to ruin both of their races, with Russell's made even worse by a late puncture. That left the track clear for Perez to take Racing Point's first ever win, with his team mate Lance Stroll in third, and Renault's Esteban Ocon scoring his first career podium finish in second."

• OH MY GOSH POOR GEORGE!! THIS WAS THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL BY MERCEDES. MERCEDES CONSPIRACY EVERYWHERE

• Really happy for Perez, but just wish it could have been George who did absolutely nothing wrong all weekend and the only reason he didn't win was because Mercedes - in a HIGHLY UNUSUAL move - messed up both of their pitstops. They have never messed up a pit stop, and I'm supposed to just accept that BOTH pit stops just happened to be messed up in one go at the same time hat George was racing Hamilton's car and making it look easy??????

• What a disgrace

• Perez wins, Ocon in Second, Stroll in third. Huh???