The memories of the controversial 2021 title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix have barely faded, but this weekend new world champion Max Verstappen and the ousted Lewis Hamilton will renew their rivalry for a much-anticipated sequel.

Sky Sports F1 pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz joins hosts Matt Clayton and Michael Lamonato to discuss how the all-new revolutionary F1 cars looked on track at the Bahrain test, whether Red Bull should be considered pre-season favourites and if Mercedes is off the pace, why Ferrari can approach 2022 with genuine optimism, how Daniel Ricciardo will cope with an interrupted preseason and predict who will be this year’s world champion.

We debate the meaning of ton(ne), centilitre and other measurements. Rob assembles his Formula McGinley F1 Fantasy competition live on air but is banned for a profane team name. Michael takes the name Mike Krack in vain.

The Formula 1 pre-season closed in Bahrain on Saturday night, and through the haze of testing uncertainty came one seemingly irrefutable fact: Red Bull Racing is the team to beat.

It’s notoriously difficult to deduce an accurate competitive order from pre-season testing times. It’s impossible to know for certain fuel levels and engine modes, and with lap times being set at different times of day, when the track is in different conditions, no two laps can be directly comparable.

But after six days of testing at two different tracks we can begin to sketch the basic outline of the field ahead of next weekend’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, and some undoubted winners and losers are starting to take shape.

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The first of the final three days of F1 testing is in the books, but all anyone wants to talk about is Mercedes.

The Silver Arrows unveiled a dramatically updated package in the Bahrain pit lane, impressing and stoking controversy in equal measure in what could be the sport’s first flashpoint of the year.

Further down the pitlane, Italy’s two teams performed strongly, with Pierre Gasly setting the day’s fastest time, while Valtteri Bottas’s new team, Alfa Romeo, finally got a clean day of running in the books after a difficult first test in Spain.

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Formula 1 closes its pre-season campaign this weekend, with three days of testing beginning Thursday (tonight) at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Just 30 hours of crucial track time remains before the first round of the season, and while some teams will be aiming to build on decent foundations laid during February testing, several others are already playing catch-up thanks to reliability problems.

Once the sun sets in Sakhir on Saturday night we’ll have a rough understanding of the competitive order, but with the first race taking place at this same venue, expect some teams to keep at least a card or two close to their chests for another week.

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Wheel-to-wheel racing, pit wall tactics and an unexpected winner — the Bahrain Grand Prix had it all, and it teased what’s shaping up to be a thrilling season of grand prix racing.

Ten-time Grand Prix winner Gerhard Berger joins us to reflect on his 14-year F1® career, shares memories of his time at Ferrari and McLaren, and reminisce about his two victories in Australia. We also wrap up a dramatic showdown between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen at the F1® season-opener in Bahrain.

Featuring F1.com senior writer Lawrence Barretto. Lewis Hamilton beats Max Verstappen to the Bahrain chequered flag in a thrilling desert duel, but how did Mercedes manage to beat Red Bull Racing with a slower car?

Lewis Hamilton stays on the track just long enough to win a ripping race in Bahrain. No-one cares about Aston Martin. We forget the names of the Sydney Olympics mascots.

Lewis Hamilton held off Max Verstappen for victory by just 0.745s after a titanic duel at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Hamilton and Verstappen ran different strategies that saw the lead change three times in the pit lane, but brought the pair together for a wheel-to-wheel battle for the final six laps.

The Red Bull Racing car was sporting tires 10 laps fresher than the Mercedes, and Verstappen seemed sure to turn that pace advantage into the win that had seemed certain when he took pole by 0.4s on Saturday night.

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Lewis Hamilton leaps from his car

Lewis Hamilton has snatched victory from polesitter Max Verstappen by less than a second in a classic Bahrain Grand Prix to open the Formula 1 season.

Max Verstappen's RB16B sparks in the night-time

For the first time in the turbo-hybrid era a non-Mercedes driver will line up from pole position for a season-opening grand prix, but can Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton to the first victory of the campaign?

Max Verstappen gives the thumbs up after taking pole

Max Verstappen has broken reigning champion Lewis Hamilton in the fight for pole position at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen confirmed Red Bull Racing’s ascendancy with a comfortable pole position over Lewis Hamilton at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Dutchman held a slender 0.023s advantage over the Mercedes after the pair’s first laps of the top-10 shootout but radioed his team that he wasn’t happy with his lap, hinting at more pace to be squeezed from his RB16B. He duly delivered with a second blistering lap of 1m 28.997s, dismissing Hamilton by 0.388s.

It’s the first time Mercedes hasn’t taken the first pole position of the season since the 2013 Australian Grand Prix, also the scene of Red Bull Racing’s last season-opening pole.

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Max Verstappen kept Red Bull Racing on top in the only night-time practice session at the Bahrain Grand Prix, while McLaren’s Lando Norris was his closest pursuer.

The Dutchman’s lap of 1m30.847s was enough to continue his control of the time sheet after also leading first practice in the heat of the late afternoon sun. Friday evening practice is the only session of the Bahrain Grand Prix representative of the after-dark qualifying and race conditions and is therefore considered a more accurate measure of relative performance.

Norris was the surprise next-quickest driver, only 0.095s adrift. His Mercedes-powered McLaren team suggested the Briton’s soft-shod lap was the car’s first performance run after eschewing low-fuel running during pre-season testing. Lewis Hamilton followed in third as the fastest Mercedes driver, but the Briton was 0.235s off Verstappen’s pace.

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Max Verstappen opened the 2021 Formula 1 season with the fastest time of first practice for Red Bull Racing at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The Dutchman rocketed to the top of the time sheet with a lap of 1m31.394s in the final five minutes of the session with a fresh set of soft tires.

The Honda-powered RB16B was 0.298s quicker than Mercedes’s Valtteri Bottas, but the practice hour did little to clarify the competitive order between the two constructor giants.

Red Bull Racing and Mercedes spent the first half of the session rotating through top spot of the order, with Sergio Perez opening proceedings for his new team first before being usurped by Lewis Hamilton and in turn Bottas.

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I preview the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix with last year’ spodcast guest Abhishek Takle.