The opening round of the championship was already a great show - Championship leader Nico Rosberg got the better of Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel had the pace to win, Romain Grosjean took Driver of the Day honours for a sensational debut at Haas, and Toro Rosso's young duo of Verstappen and Sainz pulled no punches on each other.
There was also an appalling wreck early in the race involving two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso, who walked away from one of the most visibly destroyed race cars that most of us had ever seen. But further tests after the crash concluded that he'd sustained injuries to his chest that would not allow Alonso, the winningest driver in Bahrain GP history, to be cleared to race.
So who takes over at McLaren Honda at Bahrain? Why, that'd be none other than the reigning GP2 Series champion - and RaceDepartment alum - Stoffel Vandoorne, who becomes the 24th Belgian driver to race in Formula 1.
Rated by a number of observers as the top Formula 1 prospect, 24-year-old Vandoorne already has a record of success in Bahrain - in two visits to the island in the Gulf as a GP2 driver, Vandoorne won the main feature race each year. He will be rushing over from a Super Formula test in Japan, to compete in Bahrain on short notice - but Vandoorne will be extremely motivated to get into the points for McLaren on debut. Then, next month, he makes his Super Formula debut.
For the last two years, Lewis Hamilton has won the Bahrain Grand Prix, but he's not had it easy at the end by any means. Nico Rosberg pushed him with all of his worth to the victory in the closing laps back in 2014. Last year, a brake issue saw Hamilton rapidly lose pace over the final laps, and Kimi Raikkonen nearly came back from an insurmountable deficit to win his first race for Ferrari since 2009.
Raikkonen has had a somewhat lackluster return to Ferrari on the whole, and his 2016 campaign got off to a heated start - quite literally, as his car caught fire. And while he's never won at Bahrain in ten career starts, he's finished second in three of the last four races. And now we know that Ferrari are closer to matching Mercedes' pace than initially thought in the off-season - could this finally be the Iceman's year to win it? He'll face tough competition within his own team - Sebastian Vettel, third in Melbourne, has won here twice.
Further down the order, Force India are bringing wholesale upgrades to Bahrain for the VJM09 - one that could hopefully see them repeat their heroics of 2014, where Nico Hulkenberg finished fifth, and Sergio Perez finished third. Renault also arrive with engine upgrades, hoping to get Kevin Magnussen and the refreshingly competitive(!) Jolyon Palmer into the points this time around.
Then there's the issue of that qualifying format. Yeah buddy, it's back! The hope for a much better "show" in the time trials than the one seen in Melbourne rests on the teams and strategists now having a degree of familiarity with the new format and giving their drivers a chance to perform within the constraints of the 90-second elimination windows.
The Bahrain GP is part of a colossal weekend of racing around the world, and even with the recent and, frankly, quite valid talk of the questionable direction the sport has been led into, this should be another thrilling race to look forward to.
Schedule (all times GMT)
Free Practice 1: 11:00-12:30
Free Practice 2: 15:00-16:30
Free Practice 3: 12:00-13:00
Qualifying: 15:00-16:00
Race (57 Laps): 15:00
. Vandoorne vs Verstappen. ...should be interesting. All that Belgian ( yes Verstappen is semi-Belgian)racing talent...it's in our DNA, dudes! 
