Mercedes takes a huge jump forward in the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix

The 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix has just zoomed around the corner! In Sakhir, Bahrain, on March 31, Formula One racers met at the Bahrain International Circuit to compete against each other for top prize. The race is the second round of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship and marked the fifteenth time that the Bahrain Grand Prix was run as a round of the Formula One World Championship.

Heading into the Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas led the World Drivers’ Championship by 8 points over teammate Lewis Hamilton. Their team, Mercedes, was holding a 22-point lead over Ferrari in the World Constructors’ Championships. The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand in drivers for either the race or practice.

Before the race, it was announced that an extra drag reduction system (DRS) zone would be added to the circuit. In addition to the DRS zones between turns 15 and 1 and between turns 10 and 11, an extra DRS zone was added between turns 3 and 4. This change is expected to increase the number of overtakes and promote more pit stops during the race. The first practice session happened without major incident and ended with a Ferrari one-two with Charles Leclerc leading Sebastian Vettel with Leclerc comfortably beating the next fastest constructor by nearly one second. The second and third practice sessions also ended with a comfortable Ferrari one-two although it was Leclerc who was leading Vettel in third practice.

The classification for this round of the Grand Prix had two parts. The first part was the Qualifying Classification; which had 20 racers to start out with, and eliminated 5 racers each in the 2nd and 3rd practice round. Based off this classification process, the places on the grid (the starting position in the beginning of the race) are decided. So in the Race Classification, the racers competed to add points to their rank.

Currently, Valtteri Bottas (Finland) has the highest of 44 points with Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain) close behind with a score of 43 points. Max Verstappen (Netherlands) is third with a score of 27 points, Charles Leclerc (Monaco) has advanced to fourth with a score of 26 points, and Sebastian Vettel was bumped down to fifth with a score of 22 points. The Constructors’ Championships standing have Mercedes in first place with 87 points, followed by Ferrari, with 48 points, Red Bull Racing-Honda with 31 points, Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari with 10 points, and McLaren-Renault with 8 points.

Featured Image – Winner Valtteri Bottas in the lead Courtesy of ksassets.timeincuk.net

by Isaac Ma