That Haas to be painful...

Justin:

I won't apologise for spotting a great pun and going for it with the headline there.

I was absolutely gutted for the Haas team though. They were running, what was it 4th and 5th, or 4th and 6th and looking pretty comfortable to be honest before disaster struck. Of the midfield teams, they were clearly the quickest behind the top 3 of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. They were holding off Renault and McLaren pretty easily. Still, the big positive to take forward is that if they have that genuine pace for the year, then big points are on the horizon for sure.

Fernando Alonso got F1 Driver of the Day for a gutsy, fighty and opportunistic drive. He pounced on the virtual safety car to pit and then jump a couple of cars. Of course a spinning Max helped his cause, but Alonso came out of the pits in front of Max in 5th and held him back for the rest of the race. A good start for McLaren with Stoffel also in the points. I have to say, I am loving Kimoa sponsoring McLaren - witness Zak Brown wearing the very cool sunnies produced by the company owned by his star driver.

All in all, I have to say that this was a pretty average race overall. Lewis was walking it until Mercedes misjudged things and allowed a very opportunistic Vettel a chance with the virtual safety car pit stops. Give Vettel a sniff of blood and he'll bring it home. Then it was Lewis following Seb for the rest of the race. The Mercedes doesn't run too well in dirty air, actually not many of the cars do in this incarnation of the formula - witness Bottas struggling in 15th for a fair while before starting to progress through to 8th.

No fighting at the front. Which was one of my big annoyances from last year - minimal action mano a mano at the front. All the fun fighting is in midfield still, and there didn't seem to be a great deal of that today either.

There was a great overtake by Ricciardo on one of the Renaults I think. That guy can brake later than anyone! Fantastic stuff.

Anyway, on to Bahrain we go.