After a journey into 3 of the beautiful tracks of the racing calendar, we return to the ex-season opener and, for all the Ferrari fans, still the season opener, the land of dust underneath and heat above- Bahrain! A track and race is being looked forward to by all the rookies, including struggling Alonso, as it hosted the pre-season testing a couple of months ago, thereby putting them in a better place than ever before a race weekend. Out of the 3 practice sessions, only one came anywhere close to being representative of the competitive sessions which meant only one thing, yep, you guessed it right- Rookies in bulk in FP1 This played perfectly for an interesting battle of strategies made only better by the track permitting no less than a 2-stop as the track offers a much abrasive tarmac than any of the ones before.

McLaren seemed on a league of their own, so it became more of a matter of settling the grid from P3 and beyond, but little did we know that Bahrain is gonna compensate and more for a stinker of a race in Japan, and that began right from the qualifying hour. Two sides of a story playing in the Red Bull garage as Max seemed to struggle the whole weekend with the car and only manage to put it into P7 marking his worst start around the track while on the other hand Yuki made his first Q3 appearance with the car. A similar story played out with McLaren as well, as Oscar Piastri clinched the pole while his teammate slotted in P6 after paying for his mistake in the final Q3 lap. Leclerc and Russel occupied the rows behind Oscar, looking for any or every sneaky move into turn 1.

The most exciting first lap followed the lights-out in the Bahrain Grand Prix as Lando made great strides in turn 1, coming out in P3 and putting him at a place to challenge for a win, but those dreams were soon put to rest after a 5-second penalty handed out to him for his car being a few centimeters ahead of his grid box (reported first by Detective Max ofcourse) and from then on it became more of a flat out and fierce battle for the two remaining podium spots. A race so interesting that the broadcasters decided to remove the timing graphics to help us get a better view of everything that was going on. (A masterstroke, in my opinion). Russel hung to the P2 as Lando crossed to complete the podium, and since none of you might have seen the winner cross the line, thanks to the graphics director, Oscar Piastri came to win the Bahrain Grand Prix. (You're welcome.)

 Marc Marquez came in determined to compensate and more for the one-off no-win performance from the last Grand Prix. An amazing (yet boring) conversion from the Marquez brothers to finish P1 and P2 after starting (any guess?) P1 and P2 for the Saturday Sprint, while Franco Morbidelli completed the sprint podium. The double in Doha - who'd have thought it? Oh right! Literally everyone. Marc Marquez was the rider to earn the lead into Turn 1, but as the field exited the opening corner, contact was made with Alex Marquez, with a piece of bodywork coming off the rear end of his red machine. This gifted Morbidelli to take a very unexpected lead into Turn 2 as Viñales made life even harder for Alex Marquez. Jorge Martin’s crash saw his end to the weekend while a great battle up front lit-up the scene of Qatar Grand Prix as Marquez and Vinales went back and forth in their battle for the win giving fans a thrilling experience in a race weekend they did not expect much from.

This was not just another race weekend, at least for the Grid Master’s Off 2 Bahrain and Off 2 Qatar contest winners, as they found themselves experiencing the pinnacle of two different motorsport racing disciplines under the amazing racing tracks of Bahrain and Qatar. It proved a phenomenal experience for so many of the racing fans who fell in love with these sports, never expecting to experience the magic in such proximity, be it witnessing the Grid Walk in Bahrain or the undisputed charm of the motor-riders in Qatar. These winners have proved that ultimate love and passion for the sport goes a long way to unlock special experiences in the sport itself, and this could be you next time, so stay tuned as we look forward to rolling out many more OFF 2 RACING EXPERIENCES contests soon only on Grid Master.

Mercedes losing its star driver in Lewis Hamilton was the headline that clouded over any and every news coming out of the Mercedes’ garage the last season. The pressure was mounted on George Russel who now steps into the leader role of the team with young Kimi Antonelli as his teammate. After the 4 races in the season we can say one thing for certain is that Toto Wolff is no more missing Lewis Hamilton one bit assuming the fact that he ever did. Toto must be tempted to text ‘Thank you’ to Lewis out of the blue as his departure has gifted Toto a star driver line-up in George and Kimi with so much potentital that puts them in a title contention of they manage to build a strong car next day or next decade. Lewis might have been the one to break-up by saying ‘It’s not you it’s me’ but Toto has clearly came out on the better end of it.

  We had our first multiple Grand Prix winner in Oscar Piastri after 4 races which only goes to prove how competitive this season is shaping out to be. The qualifying in Bahrain, expecially Q3 has given us a true representation of how close it is with all the teams (except Stake ofcourse, they are always a safe bet) and any mistake from the McLaren drivers opens the doors for someone like George or Max or Charles to sneak right in.

Dive into this competitive grid with fierce battles to come by participating in the Jeddah Grand Prix Contest live on Grid Master to win big with your crazy prediction which might even play out scene to scene thanks to the possibility of mistakes from any of the drivers on the forefront.

Grid Master’s Live Race Screening returns for the Jeddah Grand Prix! Join the room with other crazy racing fans for a race that expects to deliver legendary performances from drivers determined and hungry to prove a lot to us and themselves. Live watching experience, prize distribution and whole buch of fun comes back alive . Celebrate the pinnacle of motor-racing around the high speed turns of Jeddah with Grid Master and other passionate fans. Stay tuned for more updates!

BAHRAIN KARTHIKEYAN

Presenting a brand new section of your much-loved newsletter, called DID YOU KNOW? A segment where we take random, interesting, shocking facts, trivia and stories, realising how they painted the motorsport world, how we now see and love!

Pitstop strategy was a major headline out of the Bahrain Grand Prix but do you guys wonder why couldn’t the driver just keep pitting for medium or soft tyres instead of changing compounds and struggling on the hard? Well that can never be the case as FIA mandates every driver to run atleast two different tyre compounds out of the given three during a racing session, non-compliance by any team or driver leads to a straight-away disqualification.