Duel Highlights
Round 2: Bahrain Grand Prix

Duel 1: AKU (Mercedes-AMG Petronas) VS APP (McLaren)

The first Duel of the second round began with the Round 1 winner, Akula of the Mercedes-AMG team versing Applejack of the McLaren team. However, things were different.

Rather than his original black-with-red-highlights colour scheme, Akula had swapped it out with a more black-and-red shark-themed livery instead. A black shark stretched its way across the body of the car with a ferocious shark's mouth on the nose. The changeling came up with this livery hours before the start of the final race in the Australian Grand Prix, but decided to apply it before this round. Also, his Mercedes was modified to be lighter and more agile, whilst retaining its original power and braking capacity. The McLaren remained unchanged.

Once again, just like in Melbourne (when he faced Ocellus), Akula showed no mercy to the Element of Honesty. And once again, Applejack found herself unable to catch up to the Mercedes. Applejack couldn't find a way to get past Vettel during the race, and she ended up losing via the 'Mercy Rule', after just 2 laps.

Duel 2: OSC (Aston-Martin Red Bull) VS OCE (Toro Rosso)

Duel No. 2 was held between Oscura of the Aston-Martin Red Bull and Ocellus of the Red Bull Toro Rosso team. This was an opportunity for Aston-Martin to get a driver into the final and FINALLY get some points on the board. And Oscura didn't let her boss down. Since she was in a much faster RB15, the dark unicorn had no problem keeping ahead of the shy changeling, allowing her to take the win.

Duel 3: FLT (Toro Rosso) VS RBD (Scuderia Ferrari)

Duel 3 looked to be a white-wash for the Ferrari team, with their star driver, Rainbow Dash going against fellow pegasus Fluttershy of the Red Bull Toro Rosso team. Going into the Duel, Rainbow was very cocky, thinking the race was as good as hers.

But, as shown in Duel 5, overconfidence killed the cat.

Exiting out of Turn 7 on the fourth lap, Dash accidentally went too wide. Her back-right wheel touched the grass on the outside of the turn, causing her to spin. As she went sideways across the track, she almost was collected by Pierre Gasly in his RB15, before hitting the gravel trap. Although the Ferrari wasn't damaged, it was stuck in the gravel.

And under official FIA rules, Rainbow (just like Pinkie Pie and Silverstream had to do in Melbourne) had to forfeit the Duel, giving the win to Fluttershy.

Duel 4: SPI (Scuderia Ferrari) VS TWI (Mercedes-AMG Petronas)

Duel 4 was a hell of a race. Ferrari's No. 3 driver, Captain Spitfire was up against the Mercedes team's No. 3 driver, Twilight Sparkle. Unlike Rainbow Dash, Spitfire saw the Princess of Friendship as a notable opponent and vowed not to make the same mistake that her colleague made.

Also, Twilight would have a race on her hooves, as since they both had some of the more powerful cars in the field, they were positioned further down the grid, to give them more of a challenge. And the race was one well fought, right up until Spitfire misjudged her braking point going into Turn 1 on the final lap. Her Ferrari went up the back of Daniel Ricciardo's Renault and the Captain of the Wonderbolts was eliminated.

All three drivers in the Mercedes team had made it to the finals.

Duel 6: CHS (Aston-Martin Red Bull) VS GAL (Racing Point/Force India)

Duel 6 was between another two drivers with a lot on the line. Cheese Sandwich of the Aston-Martin Red Bull team versus Gallus of the Racing Point team. Cheese, suffering from a humiliating crash in Australia is looking for redemption for the previous race and some points for the Red Bull team on the board. Gallus, although he actually completed the race came outside the required Top 10 points finishers, so he is also racing for the same thing.

However, despite being considerably faster than a regular RP19, his skill behind the wheel was easily matched by the training that Cheese received from his mentor, Pierre Gasly. Also, the RB15 in use by the Red Bull team was a much more competitive car than the Racing Point RP19. So, no matter what Gallus tried to do, he just couldn't catch the more-skillfully driven Red Bull of Cheese Sandwich, allowing Red Bull to take the win.

Duel 8: CHR (HAAS) VS GLA (HAAS)

A Duel between teammates, both drivers in the HAAS F1 Team going head-to-head. Only one was going through, but that didn't stop them from going at it. The two unreformable villains went at it, not letting up with their racing moves. However, in this Duel, was the event that triggered a series of events that lead the two HAAS drivers to become rivals.

On Turn 4 on the third lap, Chrysalis made an attempt to pass Gladmane. However, as Chrysalis moved to the inside to pass, Gladmane did a big no-no and moved to the inside line under braking to block her. And Chrysalis wasn't very happy about that, despite being a villain.

Needless to say, she didn't improve the situation. Moments later, going into the hairpin at Turn 10, Chrysalis made an attempt to pass Gladmane again. This time, Gladmane didn't attempt to move under braking. But also, there wasn't enough space for Chrysalis to make a clean overtake. But she tried anyway. And going into the corner, Chrysalis' VF-19 touched wheels with Gladmane. Although there was no damage, Gladmane was just as frustrated with Chrysalis as she was with him.

In the end, it was Chrysalis' move in the Turn 10 hairpin that got her the win.

Duel 9: PIN (Aston-Martin Red Bull) VS DNG (Scuderia Ferrari)

A Duel between two friends from rival teams, Pinkie had to face off against her old friend in the Scuderia Ferrari team, DangerDean. And in a rare point, the importance of her goal (making it into the final race of the round) outweighed her friendship with the British Speedfreak. Not that she loses her friendship with him.

And despite having a near-uncontrollable car, she learnt from her mistake in the first round and raced on Soft tires instead of Hards. However, Danger's SF90 was way faster than Pinkie's RB15. But Pinkie didn't stop trying from winning. Danger had led the race the whole time, but going into the final lap, Pinkie started to somehow catch up with Danger, managing to get side-by-side with Dean in the final corners and racing down the straight together.

This was when Dean performed his first and only selfless act the entire season. Instead of going full throttle and racing away, he instead took his hoof off the throttle and allowed Pinkie to have the win.

Duel 10: SIL (Racing Point/Force India) VS LTD (Scuderia Ferrari)

Another Duel of David VS Goliath, with Silverstream of the Racing Point team versus Lightning Dust of the Scuderia Ferrari team. However, this time, Lightning Dust didn't underestimate her opponent and raced to her fullest extent. Lightning didn't give the excitable hippogriff a chance, easily taking victory from the Racing Point driver via the 'Mercy Rule'.

All within just two laps!

Duel 11: YON (Williams) VS RAR (Renault)

Duel 11 was to be a doozy. Yona Yak of the Williams team taking on Rarity Belle of the Renault team. However, instead of being a doozy, it actually showed the weaknesses of the Williams FW42 when compared with the rest of the cars in the field. Right from the jump, Rarity had held her lead against the yak. Although the R.S.19 fielded by Renault wasn't a high-end car (like the SF90 of Ferrari and the F1 W10 EQ Power+ of Mercedes), it was damn better than the FW42. Not only was the FW42 heavier and very unstable, it was a very slow car and not very competitive in the season. The only reason that managed to get Williams a high finishing position in the first round was a very competitive strategy that got both Yona and Sandbar 7th and 8th.

But the only reason that they were able to get into the finals was because their opponents had both crashed in their respective Duels. And this time, there would be no mercy for Yona. Her dreadfully slow Williams was no match for Rarity's lightnened R.S.19, and unlike Silverstream, she didn't suffer from any understeer or oversteer. Rarity easily maintained her position and won the Duel.

Duel 12: BMI (McLaren) VS SAN (Williams)

If Duel 11 proved the weaknesses of the Williams car, Duel 12 only sealed it. This time, it was Yona's teammate in Williams, Sandbar taking on the more powerful McLaren driven by Big Macintosh. Once again, the poor speed of the Williams car left Sandbar in the rear as Big Mac stormed ahead. But on Lap 4, things got worse for the Williams team.

Going through Turn 12, the steering on Sandbar's FW42 failed. Immediately, Sandbar took his hoof off the throttle and his forward momentum carried him off the track, through the gravel trap and into the wall. His car suffered damage to the front wing and both front wheels came off. What's more, his car became stuck in the gravel trap.

Sandbar had to forfeit, and Big Macintosh completed the 12 finalists.

Author's Note

For those of you that actually watched the F1 2019 season, or know it very well, will see that I have put foreshadowing in one of the Duels regarding one of the teams. I didn't hide it that much, so those who don't follow F1 or don't know of the incident that I'm referring too will be able to discover it.