Bahrain - Sakhir

[schumi]

Moving on from the Max Mosely scandal and looking to the race ahead, we now move on to Bahrain. This is Ferrari’s second home, and Felipe Massa will be hoping to capitalise on that. Michael Schumacher says he has “no more jokers left to play” and he’s right. Rumours of Alonso leaving Renault, and the team not being happy with Massa’s performance are going hand in hand, although I’m inclined to take it with a mountainous pinch of salt. But with Kimi Raikkonen looking to reduce the gap between himself and Hamilton, Massa’s going to have his work cut out to score big points, and get himself on the driver’s championship table, and, of course, BMW and McLaren will be hot on Ferrari’s heels. Which team will come out on top in Bahrain?

[Genghis]

Do Ferrari really want Alonso?

At the moment, they seem to have two drivers who get on with each other.

Wouldn't the introduction of Alonso upset things? I can't see Alonso playing the dutiful No. 2 to the superior driving skills of Raikkonen, somehow.

If Ferrari are to offload Massa, surely they'd be better off going after an upand-coming talent such as Kubica or Piquet Jr.

[schumi]

It’s all a bit complicated. Alonso has a two year deal with Renault, but says he might be looking to get out of it if they don’t perform. Massa has the longest contract, with Ferrari – until the end of 2010, but with his current form, the rumours were bound to start. If anyone’s likely to be leaving Ferrari I’d say it would be Kimi – his contract is until the end of 2009, but he’s been said in the past he doesn’t want to hang around too long. It’s mainly speculation – putting two and two together and getting five – but Massa’s form has to be a concern.

Edit: what's this "1" business?

[Genghis]

Apr 3, 2008 19:30:45 GMT @schumi said:

Edit: what's this "1" business?

Schumi - That would be telling.

[schumi]

That's Singapore in September, and, interestingly (or not!), also anti-clockwise. Looking forward to it.

[schumi]

Qualifying:

There were two notable newsworthy incidents before qualifying – the big news about Max Mosley reverberating around the paddock, and Lewis Hamilton’s crash during Friday practise, to which he admitted fault. There is to be a meeting of the FIA as soon as possible, where Max will seek the support of the individual countries who make up the organisation. Jackie Stewart says Mosley’s position as President is untenable, whilst BMW, Mercedes, Honda and Toyota have all spoken out, and the Prince of Bahrain told Max he was unwelcome at the circuit. Apparently, Stewart’s views are fairly typical in the paddock.

There has been a new rule introduced in the wake of Malaysia to avoid a repeat of drivers on a fuel-saving in-lap baulking those on flying laps, and the minimum time of 1:39 per lap must now be observed, excluding time taken in the pit lane.

The first session got underway, with Hamilton looking to make up for his practise error. With just under seven minutes to go, Sato spun off by the entrance to the pit-lane, bringing out the yellow flags, before the session was stopped to recover the stricken Super Aguri. During this time, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa set the fastest lap of the session, and there was some speculation as to whether his lap would be allowed, as he’d done it under the yellow flags.

No-one this season has been penalised for this offence, and where it has occurred, only a warning has been given, and Mike Gascoigne said he didn’t see any problems with Massa’s lap. No penalty was given, and the session finished with the flowing drivers out:

17..D Coulthard
18..G Fisichella
19..S Vettel
20..A Sutil
21..A Davidson
22..T Sato

The second session got underway, and was pretty standard with no dramas, the drivers finishing as follows:

11..M Webber
12..R Barrichello
13..T Glock
14..N Piquet
15..S Bourdais
16..K Nakajima

Again, Massa had topped the timings, clearly out to put recent criticism behind him, but Button, in an attempt to get into the final session, had used up all four of his allocated sets of soft tyres, meaning he’d have to go into the final shoot-out with hard tyres only. This proved not to be a problem, and he managed to out-qualify Fernando Alonso in the Renault, whilst Massa, Kubica and Hamilton traded fastest laps at the front. The final few minutes saw Massa again set the fastest time, but he was eventually beaten by Robert Kubica, who claimed a fantastic maiden pole position, both for himself and his team, BMW.

The top 10 look like this:

1..R Kubica
2..F Massa
3..L Hamilton
4..K Raikkonen
5..H Kovalainen
6..N Heidfeld
7..J Trulli
8..N Rosberg
9..J Button
10..F Alonso

[Deleted]

Pre-race, it was announced that McLaren would be moved back down to the end of the pit-lane. They didn’t seem too fazed by it, but it does mean they only have two garages, whereas Force India, next door, have three, and the teams at the front of the pit-lane have four.

Felipe Massa had a problem with his ear plugs, meaning he couldn’t hear any of the information being passed on to him, and so was very late coming to the grid, but there were no problems with the car itself.

As the lights went out, Massa got the immediate drop on Kubica, and led the pack into the first bend, as Hamilton, by contrast, had a terrible start, and ended up in 10th place behind his old team-mate, Alonso. Meanwhile, the Toro Rosso of Vettel looked to give up its engine, seeing the German immediately forced into retirement. Race control warned of oil on the track at turns 5-8, which, minutes later, both Piquet and Bourdais came across, causing both of them to spin, although both managed to get back on to the race track. The main incident in the opening lap was Lewis Hamilton going into the back of Fernando Alonso – the former losing his front wing, and damaging the rear of the Renault. Speculation was that Alonso may have brake tested his old team-mate, or at least not accelerated at the usual rate. Raikkonen overtook Kubica as Hamilton pitted for fuel and a new nose, and both Coulthard and Button were the victims of a puncture, possibly caused by the debris from the McLaren - both coming in for tyre changes.

On lap 5, the leaders were Massa, Raikkonen, Kubica.

Lap 7, and Hamilton, as a result, was back in 18th. Massa, up front, knocking in fastest laps as his team mate kept pace with him, then repaid the compliment, putting in some fastest laps of his own.

Lap 16, and Alonso reported a vibration at the rear of the car, whilst Hamilton was having aerodynamic problems of his own, and clearly struggling with the McLaren as a result of their earlier contact.

Lap 18 saw Kubica pit, with Raikkonen again setting the fastest lap. Kubica, pushing hard on his out-lap, locked up and ran wide into the bend, costing himself a little time, as Coulthard and Button collide in an incident where both seemed to be at equal fault. Button, trying to overtake the Scot, lost his back end going into turn 8 and went up the inside. Coulthard cuts across him, but left the Brit no-where to go, and Button ended up losing his own front wing.

Lap 21, and Kimi Raikkonen was the first of the Ferraris to pit, as Honda cleared a space in the garage for Button, and Coulthard pitted for a new nose. Massa took a scheduled stop, and rejoined still in control of the race, as Hamilton monetarily lost control of his damaged McLaren, causing him to go well wide of the racing line, but rejoined, and passed Sato for p15.

Lap 29 saw Hamilton lining up Fisichella, but still struggling with the car. He eventually passed him into turn one – two laps later. Raikkonen flying, as Hamilton pitted, and McLaren took the gamble on changing their strategy – refuelling him until the end of the race, and changing to the compulsory harder tyres.

Lap 38, and Piquet went off the race track for a second time due to a problem with his car, allowing Hamilton through. The Brazilian later retired with a gearbox problem, which will see him demoted on the grid in Spain as a punishment for having to change it. Meanwhile, Raikkonen pitted for his final stop, followed by his team-mate one lap later, who was a bit slow in getting away. Ferrari have done away with the lollipop for pit stops, and have implemented a traffic light system instead.

Lap 42, and Kubica passed Trulli in the Toyota. With 9 laps to go, Barrichello moved up behind Alonso, and Kubica was gaining ground on Raikkonen, but neither were able to make the move, and the race was pretty straight-forward from then on. In the closing stages, Hamilton passed Nakajima for a lowly 13th place, before Massa took the chequered flag (waved by Eric Clapton) to claim his sixth race win, and his second consecutive win in Bahrain.

Final result:

1..F Massa
2..K Raikkonen
3..R Kubica
4..N Heidfeld
5..H Kovalainen
6..J Trulli
7..M Webber
8..N Rosberg

[Deleted]

Who needs sleeping pills when we've got F1.

The 6 lap handicap race for Edwardian cars at VSCC Mallory Park in July sees as much genuine passing as a whole F1 season.

I will tip off dates when some of this stuff happens.

Go. Be astonished.

[schumi]

Turns out the Hamilton/Alonso accident yesterday was caused by an aerodynamic failure on the McLaren which caused a sudden burst of speed.

Renault responded angrily to Martin Brundle’s accusation of brake testing, and provided the data to disprove the theory, despite McLaren not having lodged an appeal.

[Genghis]

Apr 7, 2008 14:41:20 GMT @schumi said:

Turns out the Hamilton/Alonso accident yesterday was caused by an aerodynamic failure on the McLaren which caused a sudden burst of speed.

Renault responded angrily to Martin Brundle’s accusation of brake testing, and provided the data to disprove the theory, despite McLaren not having lodged an appeal.

Brundle probably did himself no favours at all yesterday, if he wants the BBC job in 2009.