Max Verstappen coasting to victory in Sakhir final 12 months (ALI HAIDER)
McLaren’s Lando Norris holds a wafer-thin benefit over four-time world champion Max Verstappen going into this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
Right here AFP Sport appears to be like at 5 storylines forward of the fourth race of 24 within the 2025 Method One season:
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Momentum with Max?
Max Verstappen arrives in Bahrain recent from among the finest weekends of his life, on the monitor no less than, in Japan. After a elegant pole final Saturday in Suzuka he held the McLarens at bay with a managed drive to haul a Purple Bull automobile that has but to succeed in its full potential over the road to maneuver one level behind Lando Norris on this planet championship. He has received on the final two journeys to Sakhir, with Purple Bull posting a 1-2 in each races.
Whereas which may be a tall order with Yuki Tsunoda going through a steep studying curve on this solely his second run out for Purple Bull since dramatically changing Liam Lawson, Verstappen is within the temper to kick up a sandstorm within the Bahrain desert.
He conceded he would nonetheless have to “push the automobile to the restrict” however is approaching the weekend with a spring in his step. “Bahrain is usually someplace the place now we have gone nicely,” he stated this week.
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“I do all the time get pleasure from going there so trying ahead to seeing what this week brings and hopefully we will maximise the efficiency of the automobile as finest we will.”
Ferrari search options
Removed from being a stepping stone to better issues, Ferrari have endured a difficult time since Lewis Hamilton’s inaugural win for the Scuderia within the Shanghai dash final month.
A double disqualification for the seven-time champion and Charles Leclerc within the race in China was adopted by a fourth place for Leclerc with Hamilton three spots additional again final Sunday.
Ferrari’s purpose now’s to eke out each ounce of efficiency from the SF-25 in qualifying and Sunday’s race.
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“We aren’t the place we wish to be by way of automobile efficiency, and we’re working arduous with the purpose of constructing stable progress. This shall be our primary focus in Sakhir,” stated staff boss Fred Vasseur.
Kimi slicing a touch
Mercedes chief Toto Wolff has each proper to really feel smug. His gamble in changing one of many all-time legends of the game, Hamilton, with an Italian teenager who solely handed his driving check in January totally vindicated. Kimi Antonelli has excelled in his three races to this point for the Silver Arrows to take a seat a exceptional fifth within the drivers’ desk. Final weekend he grew to become the youngest driver in F1 historical past to steer a race, breaking a report held by Verstappen from again in 2016. He additionally grew to become the youngest driver to assert a quickest lap. But to complete outdoors the highest 10 he’s main the way in which for the six full-time rookies on the 2025 grid. Not dangerous for the 18-year-old who remains to be revising for his college exams.
Subsequent era on present
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Friday’s opening follow will characteristic a number of groups giving potential stars of the longer term a spin. Amongst them is Dino Beganovic, who holds twin Swedish and Bosnian nationality. The Ferrari academy Method Two driver takes Leclerc’s seat in ‘FP1’. “I actually cannot watch for the weekend. I am simply going to benefit from the second, in addition to serving to the staff as a lot as I can,” the 21-year-old stated. Others on present shall be Dane Frederik Vesti for Mercedes and Japan’s Ryo Hirakawa for Haas.
From camels to Purple Bulls
Constructed on a former camel farm, Purple Bulls now strut across the venue which hosted its first grand prix – received by Michael Schumacher – in 2004. It could be surrounded by desert, however not like Zandvoort, carved into dunes on the Dutch coast, there’s barely a grain of sand blown onto the monitor within the typically blustery circumstances. That is due to a particular sticky adhesive substance sprayed across the 5.412km circuit to cut back the chance.
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