2008 Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix

[Dino Scuderia]

Yes, they are confusing at first glance.

[Jack_Bauer]

Under-pressure Ferrari driver Felipe Massa answered his critics in the best possible way with a faultless victory for the second year running in Bahrain. It was an imperious performance from the Ferrari team all round as Kimi Raikkonen took the lead in the World Championship race after finishing second. Interestingly the cars that were closest to challenging the Ferraris were not McLaren-Mercedes, they were the BMW F1.08s as Kubica showed that his pole-setting pace was no fluke. BMW are the real deal, no doubt about it. And what of the McLarens? Well Hamilton had a poor start and a crash and ended up a lowly thirteenth, while Kovalainen showed that the McLarens probably didn't have the pace in the car to challenge the Ferraris anyway.

The race had drama from the very first seconds of the race as Lewis Hamilton didn't get the car away from the line at all well. Whether that was a problem on the car or driver error remains to be seen, but either way he found himself plummeting down the field, eventually emerging from the first couple of corners down in tenth place. To make matters worse for McLaren Felipe Massa had managed to get ahead of Kubica into turn one and had clean air to drive away from the pack at the front. Elsewhere on the first lap Jenson Button managed to pick up a rear puncture. The unscheduled stop ruined all his brilliant work from yesterday's qualifying. Also shortly after the start Sebastien Vettel's engine lunched itself, another curious Ferrari engine failure.

The biggest talking point of the race was to come on lap 2. On the run up the hill towards Turn 4 Lewis Hamilton was chasing his old adversary Fernando Alonso when Hamilton crashed into the back of the Renault's right rear tyre. Hamilton's car was launched up in the air briefly and his front wing was torn off, effectively ending all hopes he had of getting any decent points. It was certainly a highly unusual accident. Seeing cars collide like that under braking is not that unusual, as a fraction of a second earlier/later onto the brakes can create a huge speed differential in an F1 car. To see it happen under acceleration is just bizarre. I can't remember ever seeing an incident quite like it. One wonders whether McLaren will ask the race stewards to investigate the matter further to look into just why Fernando Alonso seemed suddenly so slow.

The news of Hamilton's demise would have been music to the ears of the Ferrari drivers, and things were about to get better for the Scuderia as on lap 3 Raikkonen was able to dive past Kubica for second place. It was becoming clear that this was to be a straight battle between the Ferrari drivers for the race win; nobody else had a hope. Elsewhere Nico Rosberg put an excellent move on Jarno Trulli to get up to sixth briefly. However, it transpired that the Williams didn't really have the pace to live with the Toyotas and Trulli was able to retake the position shortly after. McLaren's hopes rested on the shoulders of Heikki Kovalainen but instead of taking the fight to the Ferraris and Kubica he was slipping back into the clutches of Nick Heidfeld. The MP4-28 seemed to be struggling with traction out the slow corners, whereas the BMWs were superb in those areas. It didn't take long for the opportunity to present itself to Heidfeld and sure enough he was able to put a good passing move on the Finn. It was all going wrong for McLaren.

At this early stage of the race all four British drivers were bunched together at the very back of the field. Hamilton eventually started to make progress through the field, but it was clear from the onboard TV shots that his car had suffered some damage aside from the front wing and wasn't handling at all well. Things were about to get worse for two of the other Brits in the race. Button was on a charge in the Honda and was rapidly catching Coulthard's Red Bull. DC seemed to make a sight error in turn 6 as Jenson got an excellent run on him coming through 7. Button took a gamble and went for an ambitious move down the inside into turn 8. DC second guessed the move and closed the door before it had really opened. Button was already committed and had nowhere to go. He took evasive action but it was always going to end in tears. They tangled and both went off the track, and the Honda emerged minus its front wing.

At the first round of pitstops we learned that Kubica was indeed the lightest driver on the grid, perhaps explaining some of his qualifying pace. There was something of a surprise when it turned out that Raikkonen was the first to pit. The fact that he was in the lightest Ferrari and could only manage fourth on the grid shows that it was a rather mediocre qualifying effort form the world champion yesterday. The front runner emerged from the pits without any changes in position.

There was an interesting battle brewing at the back of the field with the two Super Aguris running nose to tail for the entire race. Sato lead through most the race after getting the jump on Davidson from the start. But by the end of the race Davidson emerged victorious, one of the few times that the Brit has managed to get the better of his more experienced teammate on the track.

Throughout the race the Ferraris were in a race of their own. They exchanged fastest laps throughout the race and there was certainly no suggestion of Massa yielding to Raikkonen. They were racing hard, which is refreshing to see from the Ferrari team. Raikkonen's big chance would be to get ahead at the final pit stop. Sadly we were robbed of seeing a really close battle between the two as Kimi ran into very heavy traffic on his out laps, costing him vital seconds. Massa was able to keep the lead with room to spare. And that was how it would finish.

The two BMWs were comfortably in third and fourth behind the Ferraris, with Kovalainen's McLaren a lonely fifth place. Trulli put in another good performance for the Toyota team in sixth, fending off the attentions of Mark Webber. Rosberg picked up the final point on offer with Glock and Alonso rounding out the top ten. The other notable performance of the day was Giancarlo Fisichella taking an impressive 12th place for the fledgling Force India team.

So after three races we can be in no doubt that Ferrari are strong favourites to emerge with the two championships come October. After a sticky start they have bounced back in style, leaving their rivals with a lot of work to do. None more so than McLaren, who now appear to have slipped behind BMW in terms of raw pace. You can be sure there will be plenty of updates coming for all teams for the start of the European season in a couple of weeks, and McLaren will be praying that they help them claw back some of Ferrari's current advantage. Roll on Barcelona...

Provisional Race Result

1. Massa
2. Raikkonen
3. Kubica
4. Heidfeld
5. Kovalainen
6. Trulli
7. Webber
8. Rosberg
9. Glock
10. Alonso
11. Barrichello
12. Fisichella
13. Hamilton
14. Nakajima
15. Bourdais
16. Davidson
17. Sato
18. Coulthard
19. Sutil
ret Piquet
ret Button
ret Vettel

[Dino Scuderia]

New standings.


1 K.raikkonen 1 10 8 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 19
02 N.heidfeld 8 3 5 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 16
03 L.hamilton 10 4 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 14
04 R.kubica -- 8 6 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 14
05 H.kovalainen 4 6 4 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 14
06 F.massa -- -- 10 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 10
07 J.trulli -- 5 3 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 8
08 N.rosberg 6 -- 1 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 7
09 F.alonso 5 1 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 6
10 M.webber -- 2 2 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 4
11 K.nakajima 3 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 3
12 S.bourdais 2 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 2

[go.pawel]

I especially like how the constructors classification looks now

1. BMW Sauber - 30
2. Ferrari - 29
3. McLaren - 28
4. Williams - 10
5. Toyota - 8
6. Renault - 6
7. Red Bull - 4
8. Toro Rosso - 2
9. Honda - 0
10. Force India - 0
11. Super Aguri - 0

Originally Posted by faksta

BTW, should the race be stopped in case there will be too small number of cars on track?

No, there's no such thing as a minimum number of cars on the track. In Monaco in 1996 only 3 cars crossed the finish line.
It is interesting to note however, that if less than 12 cars are available for start, the race may (but doesn't have to) be cancelled.

[RacingManiac]

Originally Posted by Dino Scuderia

How can you brake test under acceleration? It's wasn't a braking incident.

Well if F1 car is capable of tremandous acceleration, simply by not accelerating as hard will constitute a brake test...as Matra said without TC the lifting of throttle due to wheelspin-related issue can be his escape clause....

This is even more apparent at speed since F1 cars will all the downforce and wing they are carrying simply by not being on the gas will decelerate at 1G @ 200mph....

[Dino Scuderia]

Alonso probably lifted anticipating Hamiltion take the hint and go on by.

[Zytek_Fan]

BMW Sauber is definitely the dark horse in this year's title race

[RacingManiac]

Pat Symond of Renault was reported by Autosport to have made Alonso's telemetry at the moment in question available to everybody, Alonso was flat on throttle with no brake being engage either....so sucks to be Alonso to have Hamilton making a bad car worse by taking a chunk out of his rear wing...

[charged]

Originally Posted by RacingManiac

Pat Symond of Renault was reported by Autosport to have made Alonso's telemetry at the moment in question available to everybody, Alonso was flat on throttle with no brake being engage either....so sucks to be Alonso to have Hamilton making a bad car worse by taking a chunk out of his rear wing...

Hamilton made a mistake pure and simple, if that is the case those ITV hamilton loving commentators should be made to apologise publicly to Alonso.. They said it was Alonso brake checking Hamilton which isnt the case.

Will be watching the wheels coverage from now on, the ITV commentators are far too pro hamilton. I think hamilton has immense talent but the commentators are making me dislike him

Jack_Bauer originally posted

Hmmm, apparently the McLaren engineers in the pits are questioning what made Alonso suddenly so slow on the straight there. Suggestions that perhaps Alonso brake tested him. If he DID brake test him, then he ought to have his super-license revoked and kicked out of the sport.

So what should happen to Hamilton for his life endangering move on Alonso or is it a racing incident ? Did Hamilton do it on purpose to take Alonso out ?

[whiteballz]

So, My understanding is that alonso will claim he lifted off to control wheelspin? With all the electronic gismo's wont they be able to match the RPM's against the vehicle speed to see wether the engine was running theoretically faster than the wheels?

I still dont see why alonso needed to lift off coming out of a slow corner? I didnt notice any wheelspin coming from his car out of the corner. After watching the race from start to finish (go webber) which happens to be the first time since probably 2004 - I actually enjoyed the race. Back to my point, Coming out of the warm up lap when the cars deliberately spun the rear tyres the cars slid completely sideways and very fast, alonso stayed pointing dead straight ahead if he had to lift off due to wheelspin.(reflexes of a jedi much?)

Its not that I have a man crush on hamilton, Its just I dont see the reason for the incident to have occured in the first place.

BTW i agree that the commentators are so pro hamilton its abit offputting, but they still are more entertaining than the guys from channel ten

[RacingManiac]

At anyrate there wasn't any brake-checking, Renault clarified it themselves....

British media in general are Pro-Hamilton, and they are pretty much the English-speaking F1 media circus itself. So its hard to avoid that, I still would watch ITV more than I'd SPEED though, since I can't stand the SPEED people and the fact that really they are just watching TV and F1 timing page with a phoneline to Peter Windsor....who also have a man crush on Hamilton...

[Zytek_Fan]

Turn on a Spanish F1 broadcast and see how that turns out

[RacingManiac]

As I said, English speaking.....like I'd imagine the Italian one would be pretty nasty too, but I won't be able to understand it....

[Zytek_Fan]

ahaha I made this, but forgot to post it.

[torque55]

i didnt understand why hamilton kept showing his fist when he was passing the slow cars although he was on the same lap. Or does he think that the other drivers should move over if he is behind them

overall a pretty bad day for mclaren and a perfect result for ferrari.