The first practice sessions of 2010 gave very little away in terms of how the teams will run in the race; however it did give the teams the opportunity to run on the extended circuit - something already covered here).It appeared as if most of the teams were trying out heavy runs to see how they will go in the race, except for HRT who just seemed happy to get their car running for the first time. Unfortunately for the new Spanish team, Bruno Senna only managed three laps in the morning and not a whole lot more during the second session and was way off the front running pace - his HRT machine looking massively unstable through the faster sweeps.
The teams that everyone expected to be fast - Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes - did not disappoint and there were signs of Force India tagging onto the back of that group. At the back end of the field, the teams that were expected to be off the pace - Lotus, Virgin and the aforementioned HRT - were indeed quite off the pace. An unretired Michael Schumacher seemed to be struggling with his new Mercedes car if the reports from the pits are to be believed, although his new team mate, Nico Rosberg, found his car much more comfortable.
There were also a couple of wheel problems over the first couple of days of running. On Friday afternoon, a wheel nut from Bruno Senna's car came free at the end of second practice, thereby stopping his session and Timo Glock's Virgin Racing machine lost his front right wheel during Saturday morning, leaving him trundling around the circuit on three wheels.
Come qualifying, Sebastian Vettel secured the first pole of the season only just 1/10th of a second ahead of Felipe Massa and a further 4/10th's of a second in front of Fernando Alonso - a key early victory for the Brazilian driver in his first back since his horrific injury in Hungary last season. Congratulations to Timo Glock for being the first if the new teams and an even greater heads up must be given to Karun Chandhok whose first ever laps in the HRT machine was during today's qualifying session - I cannot remember the last time I saw such a cool driver as Chandhok, when facing the possibility of not racing.
On Sunday, the reshaped circuit decreed that the race came in at 49 laps and of the top 10, it was Adrian Sutil who looked like he might spring a surprise as he started from 10th place with the harder tyres; unfortunately contact from his team mate Antonio Liuzzi spun the young German down to back of the field. The Renault of Robert Kubica also spun exiting turn 1 where he joined Sutil. Both Sutil and Kubica showed very good pace during the race, so to be handicapped so early in the event made sure that points would not be coming their way. An interesting return to racing for the 7-time World Champion Michael Schumacher as he finished in 6th place, behind Rosberg; however the returnee still managed to get to the line ahead of the defending champion Jenson Button.
For the new teams, it was a mixed series of results as both Lotus cars managed to finish the race - an excellent result in itself - made even better by Kovalainen beating Buemi by the flag. Chandhok retired following contact with the barrier on lap 2, while both Virgin's and the second HRT of Senna retired with mechanical problems.
Another shame for the race was Vettel dropping back with a cracked exhaust - a failure that nullified the battle at the front, as the Ferrari duo of Massa and Alonso appeared to settle into engine saving mode once the Red Bull was out of the way. Alonso stretched his legs and won the Grand Prix by quite a large margin ahead of his team mate, with Lewis Hamilton in third place - Vettel eventually finished in fourth place. It was quite noticeable during Alonso's slow down lap that his fist was out and he was waving his hands in celebration - to no one. There were absolutely no grandstands or general admission areas in the middle of the track and apart from a few marshals, there was absolutely no one around - it was a very eerie sight.
All in all, it was not a great race, but then again Bahrain has rarely produced stunning Grand Prix. It also doesn't help that it is very hard to tell any of the corners apart in the middle of the desert track and it only makes me want the Australian Grand Prix to come around quicker. The next race takes place in Melbourne in two weeks time. It should be interesting to see if Ferrari and Red Bull can continue their Bahrain pace. My thanks to ICON, Kartographie Huber and Hot Maps for supplying the extremely detailed map of the Sakhir circuit above - their website should anyone want a swift look around can be found at hot-map.com.
ICON Website
Kartographie Huber Website
Race Rating: 2 out of 5
Sakhir, Bahrain Grand Prix (Round 1, March 14th)
1. ALONSO Ferrari 49 Laps
2. MASSA Ferrari +16.0s
4. VETTEL Red Bull +38.7s
6. SCHUMACHER Mercedes +44.1s
7. BUTTON McLaren +45.2s
10. BARRICHELLO Williams +62.4s
11. KUBICA Renault +69.0s
14. HULKENBERG Williams +1 lap
15. KOVALAINEN Lotus +2 laps
16. BUEMI Toro Rosso +3 laps
17. TRULLI Lotus +3 laps
R. DE LA ROSA Sauber +21 laps
R. SENNA HRT +32 laps
R. PETROV Renault +36 laps
R. KOBAYASHI Sauber +38 laps
R. DI GRASSI Virgin +47 laps
R. CHANDHOK HRT +48 laps
Sakhir, Qualifying (March 13th)
3rd Session
1 VETTEL Red Bull 1m54.101s
2
3 ALONSO Ferrari 1m54.608s
9 KUBICA Renault 1m55.885s
2nd Session
11 BARRICHELLO Williams 1m55.330s
15 BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m56.265s
18 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m57.071s
19 GLOCK Virgin 1m59.728s
20 TRULLI Lotus 1m59.852s
21 KOVALAINEN Lotus 2m00.313s
23 SENNA HRT 2m03.240s
24 CHANDHOK HRT 2m04.904s
Sakhir, 3rd Free Practice (March 13th)
1 ALONSO Ferrari 1m54.099s
3 WEBBER Red Bull 1m54.500s
4 SCHUMACHER Mercedes 1m54.533s
5 VETTEL Red Bull 1m54.646s
6 MASSA Ferrari 1m54.739s
7 BUTTON McLaren 1m55.000s
8 KUBICA Renault 1m55.331s
9 LIUZZI Force India 1m55.432s
10 HULKENBERG Williams 1m55.461s
11 SUTIL Force India 1m55.521s
12 HAMILTON McLaren 1m55.860s
13 DE LA ROSA Sauber 1m56.063s
14 BARRICHELLO Williams 1m56.259s
15 BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m56.295s
16 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m56.504s
17 KOBAYASHI Sauber 1m56.530s
18 PETROV Renault 1m56.811s
19 GLOCK Virgin 1m59.173s
20 KOVALAINEN Lotus 1m59.789s
21 TRULLI Lotus 2m01.259s
22 SENNA HRT 2m04.001s
23 DI GRASSI Virgin no time
24 CHANDHOK HRT no time
Sakhir, 2nd Free Practice (March 12th)
1 ROSBERG Mercedes 1m55.409s
3 SCHUMACHER Mercedes 1m55.903s
5 VETTEL Red Bull 1m56.459s
9 ALONSO Ferrari 1m57.140s
10 DE LA
11 KOBAYASHI Sauber 1m57.352s
13 BARRICHELLO Williams 1m57.452s
14 LIUZZI Force
16 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m59.799s
19 TRULLI Lotus 2m00.990s
20 GLOCK Virgin 2m02.037s
21 DI GRASSI Virgin 2m02.188s
23 BUEMI Toro Rosso no time
Sakhir, 1st Free Practice (March 12th)
1 SUTIL Force
2 ALONSO Ferrari 1m56.766s
3 KUBICA Renault 1m57.041s
4
5 BUTTON McLaren 1m57.068s
6
7 LIUZZI Force
8 ROSBERG Mercedes 1m57.199s
9 WEBBER Red Bull 1m57.255s
10 SCHUMACHER Mercedes 1m57.662s
11 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m57.722s
12 HULKENBERG Williams 1m57.894s
13 VETTEL Red Bull 1m57.943s
14 BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m58.399s
15 BARRICHELLO Williams 1m58.782s
16 PETROV Renault 1m58.880s
17 DE LA
18 KOBAYASHI Sauber 2m01.388s
19 GLOCK Virgin 2m03.680s
20 KOVALAINEN Lotus 2m03.848s
21 TRULLI Lotus 2m03.970s
22 DI GRASSI Virgin no time
23 SENNA HRT no time
24 CHANDHOK HRT no time
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