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2018 Bahrain Grand Prix
2018 Bahrain Grand Prix
Race 2 of 21 in the 2018 Formula One World Championship
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Race details
Date	8 April 2018
Official name	Formula 1 2018 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix
Location	Bahrain International Circuit; Sakhir, Bahrain
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.412 km (3.362 miles)
Distance	57 laps, 308.238 km (191.530 miles)
Weather	Clear
Attendance	95,000
Pole position
Driver	Sebastian Vettel;
Time	1:27.958
Fastest lap
Driver	Valtteri Bottas
Time	1:33.740 on lap 22
Podium
First	Sebastian Vettel;
Second	Valtteri Bottas;
Third	Lewis Hamilton;
	Lap leaders ;

The 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 2018 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix)^[1] was a Formula One motor race that took place on 8 April 2018 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain.^[3] The race was the second round of the 2018 Formula One World Championship and marked the 14th time that the Bahrain Grand Prix had been run as a round of the Formula One World Championship.

Sebastian Vettel was the defending race winner. He entered the round with a seven-point lead over Lewis Hamilton in the World Drivers' Championship.^[4]^[5] In the World Constructors' Championship standings, Ferrari hold a ten-point lead over Mercedes.

Report

Practice

Daniel Ricciardo was fastest in first practice with Kimi Räikkönen fastest in second and third practice.^[6]^[7]^[8]

Qualifying

Sebastian Vettel qualified on pole position with a time of 1:27.958, a new outright track record, with teammate Kimi Räikkönen second. Mercedes locked out the second row, although Lewis Hamilton subsequently took a five place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change and started from ninth on the grid. Pierre Gasly made Q3 for the first time in his career, eventually qualifying in sixth. Max Verstappen started the race in fifteenth position, having been prevented from taking part in Q2 following a crash in Q1 after he lost control of his throttle as his car rode over a kerb.^[9]

Race

At the start, Vettel got away well, leading into turn 1. Bottas overtook Raikkonen to claim 2nd, and Gasly also overtook Ricciardo to claim 4th. However, Ricciardo got 4th place back at turn 4, on the first lap. Max Verstappen made up ground on the first lap so he was behind Lewis Hamilton, who'd fallen to 10th place. The pair fought at turn 1 on lap 2, with Verstappen puncturing his left rear tyre. His teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, experienced an electrical shutdown at the same time, forcing him to retire. Brendon Hartley received a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision with Sergio Pérez. Verstappen then lost drive, also forcing him to retire from the Grand Prix. This was the first time in 8 years that both Red Bull Racing drivers retired from a Grand Prix, and the first time since the 2016 Russian Grand Prix that Red Bull did not score a point. It was also the first time since the 2010 Korean Grand Prix that neither Red Bull was classified. Hamilton overtook Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hülkenberg into one corner to move up into 6th place. He then passed Kevin Magnussen and Pierre Gasly in the next few laps to move up into 4th place.

During his second pit stop on lap 35, Kimi Räikkönen struck Ferrari tyre changer Francesco Cigarini with his left rear tyre as his car left the pit box, breaking Cigarini's tibia and fibula.^[10] The incident was caused by the Ferrari pit box's light incorrectly switching to green despite the fact that the left rear tyre had never actually been changed.^[11] After analysis, the faulty green was determined to have been caused by the pit system checking (only) if the wheel was securely fitted, and if the wheel gun had been "sufficiently active" beforehand.^[10] Räikkönen immediately stopped in the pit lane on advice over team radio and retired the car. Räikkönen's retirement promoted Lewis Hamilton to the podium, and Ferrari was subsequently fined €50,000 for an unsafe pit release.^[12]

Räikkönen's pit lane incident meant that teammate Sebastian Vettel could not carry out his second pit stop on schedule, and had to extend the stint on his soft tyres for 30% longer than the expected lifespan of the tyres, as stated by Pirelli. Towards the end of the race, with Vettel struggling with his tyres, Bottas got within DRS range of Vettel, but could not pass for the lead of the race. Pierre Gasly finished the race in P4, equalling Toro Rosso's best result in 2017, scoring Honda's best result since returning to F1 and earning him his first points in F1.

After the race, Brendon Hartley and Sergio Pérez both received 30 second time penalties for failing to maintain position on the formation lap.^[13]

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	Car no.	Driver	Constructor	Qualifying times			Final grid
Pos.	Car no.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Final grid
1	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:29.060	1:28.341	1:27.958	1
2	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:28.951	1:28.515	1:28.101	2
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:29.275	1:28.794	1:28.124	3
4	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:29.396	1:28.458	1:28.220	9¹
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	1:29.552	1:28.962	1:28.398	4
6	10	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	1:30.121	1:29.836	1:29.329	5
7	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1:29.594	1:29.623	1:29.358	6
8	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1:30.260	1:29.187	1:29.570	7
9	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India-Mercedes	1:30.338	1:30.009	1:29.874	8
10	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Renault	1:29.893	1:29.802	1:29.986	10
11	28	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	1:30.412	1:30.105		11
12	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	1:30.218	1:30.156		12
13	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Renault	1:30.530²	1:30.212		13
14	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Renault	1:30.479	1:30.525		14
15	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	1:29.374	No time		15
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	1:30.530²			16
17	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	1:31.063			17
18	35	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams-Mercedes	1:31.414			18
19	16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber-Ferrari	1:31.420			19
20	18	Lance Stroll	Williams-Mercedes	1:31.503			20
107% time: 1:35.177
Source:^[14]

Notes

^1 – Lewis Hamilton received a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.^[15]
^2 – Fernando Alonso and Romain Grosjean set identical lap times in Q1. As Alonso was the first to set his time, he was considered to have qualified ahead of Grosjean and advanced to Q2.

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	57	1:32:01.940	1	25
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	57	+0.699	3	18
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	57	+6.512	9	15
4	10	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	57	+1:02.234	5	12
5	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	57	+1:15.046	6	10
6	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	57	+1:39.024	7	8
7	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Renault	56	+1 lap	13	6
8	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Renault	56	+1 lap	14	4
9	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	56	+1 lap	17	2
10	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India-Mercedes	56	+1 lap	8	1
11	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Renault	56	+1 lap	10
12	16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber-Ferrari	56	+1 lap	19
13	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	56	+1 lap	16
14	18	Lance Stroll	Williams-Mercedes	56	+1 lap	20
15	35	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams-Mercedes	56	+1 lap	18
16¹	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	56	+1 lap	12
17²	28	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	56	+1 lap	11
Ret	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	35	Wheel	2
Ret	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	3	Transmission	15
Ret	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	1	Electrics	4
Source:^[16]

Notes

^1 – Sergio Pérez originally finished in twelfth place but had thirty seconds added to race time for overtaking on the formation lap.
^2 – Brendon Hartley originally finished in thirteenth place but had thirty seconds added to race time for failing to retake his original starting position before reaching the safety-car line on the formation lap.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos.	Driver	Points
	1	Sebastian Vettel	50
	2	Lewis Hamilton	33
5	3	Valtteri Bottas	22
1	4	Fernando Alonso	16
2	5	Kimi Räikkönen	15
Source:^[17]

Constructors' Championship standings

	Pos.	Constructor	Points
	1	Ferrari	65
	2	Mercedes	55
1	3	McLaren-Renault	22
1	4	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	20
	5	Renault	15
Source:^[17]

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

^ ^a ^b "Formula 1 2018 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix". Formula1.com. Formula One World Championship Limited. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
^ "Record Attendance at Sold Out 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix". f1destinations.com. 6 March 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
^ "FIA announces World Motor Sport Council decisions". Federation Internationale de l'Automobile. 6 December 2017. Archived from the original on 7 December 2017. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
^ "2017 Bahrain Grand Prix Race – Official Classification". FIA.com. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 16 April 2017. Archived from the original on 16 April 2017.
^ "Formula 1 2018 Rolex Australian Grand Prix – Race Result". Formula1.com. Formula One World Championship Limited. 25 March 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
^ "Formula 1 2018 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix – Practice 1". Formula1.com. Formula One World Championship Limited. 6 April 2018. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
^ "Formula 1 2018 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix – Practice 2". Formula1.com. Formula One World Championship Limited. 6 April 2018. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
^ "Formula 1 2018 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix – Practice 3". Formula1.com. Formula One World Championship Limited. 7 April 2018. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
^ Anderson, Ben (19 April 2018). "Why the Verstappen bubble has finally burst". Autosport.com. Autosport Media UK. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
^ ^a ^b "Ferrari explains error that injured mechanic in Bahrain Grand Prix". Eurosport. 13 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
^ "Ferrari mechanic suffers broken leg when hit by Kimi Raikkonen in pits at Bahrain GP". abc.net.au. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 9 April 2018. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
^ "Ferrari handed big fine for Raikkonen unsafe release". Formula1.com. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
^ "Hartley and Perez penalised over F1 formation lap mix-up". www.crash.net. 9 April 2018. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
^ "Formula 1 2018 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix – Qualifying". Formula1.com. Formula One World Championship Limited. 7 April 2018. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
^ "Hamilton set for gearbox penalty". Speedcafe. 7 April 2018.
^ "Formula 1 2018 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix – Race Result". Formula1.com. Formula One World Championship Limited. 8 April 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
^ ^a ^b "Bahrain 2018 – Championship". StatsF1. Retrieved 9 February 2019.

External links

The race on Formula1.com

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