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Bahrain Grand Prix: Formula One live blog

8th April, 2018
When: 1am AEST
Where: Bahrain International Circuit
Ferrari were once again off the pace. (GEPA pictures/Red Bull Content Pool)
Roar Guru
8th April, 2018
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From the sunshine of Albert Park, to the bright lights of Sakhir, the Formula One world championship arrives in the Kingdom of Bahrain for the second round of the 2018 season. Join The Roar for a live blog of the Bahrain Grand Prix from 1am AEST.

Hosting its fourteenth grand prix and fifth race under lights, Bahrain has always proved to throw up exhilarating contests and 2018 should be no different – with three teams potentially vying for the win.

57-laps will be contested across the 5.4km power circuit, where horsepower is just as important as chassis balance. Overtaking is more common than in Melbourne too.

Tyres too, play a larger role in Bahrain as supposed to Melbourne, with Pirelli hoping for a two-stop race at the front of the field – with the medium, soft and supersoft tyres available to the drivers.

As far as past form is concerned, Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari hold the most wins at this circuit for both driver and team, with the German having notched his third victory here last year and the Scuderia’s fifth.

Vettel’s teammate Kimi Räikkönen holds the record for the most podiums with a total of eight, though it’s a stat that holds ill-fate, as the Finn is yet to record a win.

Ferrari are in the best place to chase for a sixth win, with both their cars locking out the front-row of the grid, headed by Sebastian Vettel on pole position.

Räikkönen who’s arguably been the fastest all weekend, was aggrieved by traffic at the end of Q3, though can be confident for a good start.

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Mixed fortunes for both Mercedes AMG and Red Bull see one of their cars each out of position. Lewis Hamilton will drop to ninth with that 5-place gearbox penalty, whilst Max Verstappen found the wall in Q2 and will start fifteenth.

The star of qualifying was Pierre Gasly, who with Hamilton’s penalty will start fifth for the Honda powered Toro Rosso. Again, there will be a question regarding reliability, following that engine failure in Melbourne.

Kevin Magnussen in the Haas has the chance to right the wrongs too of the first race, from inside the top ten, whilst the Renault duo also look strong inside the ten to challenge for a haul of points.

Can Seb make it two from two then? Or will the Iceman at last be able to break his drought of wins, dating back to 2013?

For live blog coverage of the Bahrain Grand Prix, join me on The Roar from 1am AEST Monday morning, for what should be another cracking race.

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