Another race and another win for Mercedes in 2014. After an eventful race, here’s what’s coming up on tomorrow’s #F1Chat…
First of all, what did you think of the race? Mercedes dominated all weekend, but what did you think of the action further down the field and the part the different strategies played in the outcome of the race?
Towards the end of the race, Pastor Maldonado made contact with Esteban Gutierrez as he exited the pits. The Lotus hit the Sauber into turn one sending Gutierrez flipping upside down. What did you think of the incident? Maldonado claimed “Esteban seemed to be off his line coming into turn one – maybe he missed his braking point, I don’t know – and by then I was in the corner with nowhere to go.” The Lotus driver received a 10-second stop-and-go penalty in the race, followed by a five-place grid-drop for the next race in China, and three points on his license. What do you make of these penalties – are they fair? In comparison to Daniel Ricciardo’s penalties for the loose wheel in Malaysia, do you think these penalties are fair?
There were plenty of battles between teammates and fights for track position during the race, and Lewis Hamilton said afterwards that he was able to race like he did back in his karting days – what did you think of the on-track battles, particularly between teammates? What was your overtake of the race? Which driver impressed you the most on track?
Sergio Perez was on the podium alongside the Mercedes drivers – thoughts on Force India’s race? The Williams drivers were both involved with lots of battles during the race. Felipe Massa made a great start, up to third by turn one – thoughts on the team’s weekend?
Red Bull’s split strategy meant Sebastian Vettel struggled in the race, while Ricciardo managed to finish 4th, despite starting 13th after a 10-place grid-drop following last weekend’s post-race penalty. Thoughts on Red Bull’s race?
Ferrari also struggled – Kimi Raikkonen was hit once again by Kevin Magnussen on the first lap and Fernando Alonso struggled, both being overtaken throughout the race by the Williams and Force India drivers. Thoughts on their weekend? Raikkonen said after the race that he feels the Mercedes-powered cars are in a different class to Ferrari – he’ll be driving for 2 days in the forthcoming Bahrain test and says he won’t rest until ‘the situation changes’ – thoughts on this?
McLaren had a dismal race with both cars retiring – thoughts on their weekend?
Finally, who was your driver of the day? And what did you think of the new time for the Bahrain Grand Prix – is it better as a night race?
Join us tomorrow at the usual time of 4pm Eastern US, 9pm UK. Follow @F1Chat for the questions and use the #F1Chat hashtag to answer the questions. As always, we look forward to discussing the race tomorrow…
