Bahrain always strikes me as an odd place to hold a grand
prix. A tiny Gulf island kingdom that I actually lived on for three years as a
tot while my dad worked there and while I was hugely surprised when they did
actually get a grand prix, I have to give Tilka credit on this one, though not
for the 2011 lay out. That was awful.
Anyway, the grand prix brought about a sense of déjà vu
with the continued human rights issues in the country and the result giving me
a sinking feeling, though I won’t spoil anything (though by the time I post
this the result will be well known and analysed from every angle you can
imagine and a few you couldn’t imagine) before you click ‘Read More’.
Circuit: Bahrain
International Circuit
2012 Winner: Sebastian
Vettel
2012 Pole: Sebastian
Vettel
2013 Tyre
Compounds: Medium and Hard
Before the meeting started, Pirelli made a change to
their tyre choices for the event, a choice that was apparently made before
Malaysia so it seems they realised sooner than we thought their tyres weren’t
up for it.
On this particular track, with it’s tricky high speed
corners that temp you to brake later then you should at awkward angles, tyres
would be important but hopefully not as critical as they had been so far this
year.
After the surprise of the tyre choice change, there was a
nice surprise in the return of Heikki Kovalinen as Caterham reserve driver. He
took Van der Garde’s seat in first practice to show the younger drivers what’s
what, setting a faster time then Pic who had several upgrades bolted to his car
as the weekend progressed.
Marussia also ran a reserve driver, this one being one of
the best examples of a pay driver in Rodolfo Gonzalez. Checking back on his
past performances, it’s clear he’s not good enough for F1 as the only championship
he won was a chronically under populated British Formula 3 championship after
apparently being in kart racing at the same time as me. Seeing as he didn’t do
well I didn’t even notice him at the time.
Moving up the field, it seemed the Ferraris still had
pace but couldn’t quite evade the rest of the field as the top nine driver’s
fastest laps were within a second of each other. The second practice put
Raikkonen and the Red Bulls in the top positions, but it was becoming apparent
Mercedes hadn’t cured the rear tyre issues that had plagued them since 2010.
Sadly for Mercedes things got worse when a tyre failed
(due to debris according to Pirelli) on Hamilton’s car and sent a shock through
the drive train, destroying the gear box and forcing a change which resulted in
a five place grid penalty for the Briton.
Further back again, Caterham were looking to have the
measure of Marussia for a change, or at least when it came to Pic as Van der
Garde still didn’t look particularly strong. Williams were as lost as they had
looked all season while the Saubers and Toro Rossos didn’t look as strong as
they had so far this year.
With so many drivers close to each other on single lap
pace and multiple cars looking strong in race trim, things looked interesting
at the start of qualifying.
Again, the drivers didn’t immediately dive out as they
used to do as they attempted to save tyres once again. The Saubers tried their
luck first before the main contenders headed out to do a single lap late on.
Alonso was over half a second clear at the top of the
tables, but further back the Williams set identical times for sixteenth and
seventeen’s with Maldonado landing in the unfortunate latter figure as he set
his lap after Bottas. Gutierrez joined the Venezuelan, putting the Mexican plum
last on the grid with his penalty. After finding a tool in his cockpit early
on, Van der Garde managed to beat out Chilton while his team mate was ahead of
both him and Bianchi.
Despite looking strong, Grosjean just missed the cut
along with the Toro Rossos, Perez and the surviving Sauber and Williams. Button
was elated to sneak into the top ten as the McLaren hadn’t looked particularly
fantastic so far.
In final qualifying, it seemed each team had their own
ideas of how to go about the final hot lap and the start of the race with a mix
of tyres. Vettel, Raikkonen and Alonso looked to be the favourites for pole
with an outside chance for either of the Mercedes drivers as despite their
struggles, they looked strong over a single lap.
Surprisingly, Button didn’t set a lap while Alonso bailed
out of his second attempt as Raikkonen failed to put together a good lap.
Vettel put in a good lap but was piped to pole by Rosberg while Hamilton set a
reasonable but not fantastic lap.
With their penalties, Webber and Hamilton lined up
seventh and ninth respectively while the Force Indias took up the third row of
the grid.
Despite Rosberg’s pole lap, he wasn’t likely to win the
race as most expected the real battle to be between Vettel and Alonso, possibly
with Massa or Raikkonen keeping them company.
The start was relatively even, with Alonso, Di Resta,
Perez and Maldonado making good starts but Rosberg held the lead. Alonso, who
had moved up to second at the first corner, made a mistake into the fourth
corner and Vettel pounced on the opportunity, but either way Rosberg wasn’t
getting away as further back, Gutierrez ran into Van der Garde.
A couple laps later, Vettel managed to get by Rosberg and
made good his escape as the Mercedes held up the rest of the field. Alonso made
it past a few laps later while Massa and the Force Indias looked like they may
be in contention until the Ferrari and Sutil had a run in with each other.
Vergne and Pic joined in on the bumping action as the French drivers gained a puncture
and damaged front wing respectively from running into each other.
A couple laps later, Vettel managed to get by Rosberg and
made good his escape as the Mercedes held up the rest of the field. Alonso made
it past a few laps later while Massa and the Force Indias looked like they may
be in contention until the Ferrari and Sutil had a run in with each other.
Vergne and Pic joined in on the bumping action as the French drivers gained a puncture
and damaged front wing respectively from running into each other.
Stranger was yet to come however as while Di Resta chased
Alonso, the Spaniard’s DRS flap broke and got stuck well past it’s ‘open’
position, forcing him to pit twice to attempt repairs before the system was
deactivated.
As the first set of pit stops re-organised the field, the
main battle came from Rosberg, Grosjean, Massa and surprisingly the McLarens,
the five fighting hard while Vergne retired from the race with damage from his
run in with Pic.
While they fought, the lead Red Bull seemed to vanish,
prompting a few ‘missing’ posters to crop up as people wondered where Vettel
had gone while his team mate ran in second. Di Resta was showing well as he ran
in third, but Raikkonen was constantly staking if not quite impressing on the
top three at the moment. Meanwhile, Hamilton was struggling to get very far
into the points on his current tyres while Rosberg continued to hold up the
cars behind him.
Massa, however, was the next driver to run into problems
as he suffered a tyre issue not massively dissimilar to Hamilton’s, though the
Brazilian didn’t suffer the same catastrophic damage and was able to continue
after a quick pit stop. Hulkenburg, Bottas and Riccardo barely featured at all
as Maldonado dealt with them while Pic got ahead of the Marussias and his team
mate again.
As the pit stops continued to shake up the field
(needlessly if you ask me, drivers can’t really battle when they have vastly
different levels of tyre grip) Raikkonen managed to make his way into second as the McLarens finally evaded Rosberg, despite constant battles between themselves that seemed to upset Button slightly. Grosjean had also managed to pick up his pace, as had Hamilton while the Frenchmen set about chasing down Di Resta.
different levels of tyre grip) Raikkonen managed to make his way into second as the McLarens finally evaded Rosberg, despite constant battles between themselves that seemed to upset Button slightly. Grosjean had also managed to pick up his pace, as had Hamilton while the Frenchmen set about chasing down Di Resta.
Rosberg attempted to keep with the McLarens but soon had
to pit towards the end of the race, as surprisingly did Button, leaving Perez
in a strong position. Hamilton caught and passed Webber but a mistake put the
Brit behind the Aussie while Grosjean caught and passed Di Resta for third, the
scot struggling on his worn tyres. Hamilton was able to retake Webber again on
the last lap while Massa and Sutil, after their own problems earlier in the
race, missed out on any points.
As he stood on the podium, I couldn’t help but hope this
wasn’t going to be the picture of the championship once again, though the podium is similar to last year's, though Adrian Newey seems to have grown hair and become a woman... unless that's not him....
Race Results:
| Driver | Constructor | Race Time | Grid | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1:36.00.498 | 2 |
| 2nd | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | +09.609 | 8 |
| 3rd | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | +19.507 | 11 |
| 4th | Paul Di Resta | Force India | +21.727 | 5 |
| 5th | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +35.230 | 9 |
| 6th | Sergio Perez | McLaren | +35.998 | 12 |
| 7th | Mark Webber | Red Bull | +37.244 | 7 |
| 8th | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | +37.574 | 3 |
| 9th | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | +41.126 | 1 |
| 10th | Jenson Button | McLaren | +46.631 | 10 |
| 11th | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | +1.06.450 | 17 |
| 12th | Nico Hulkenburg | Sauber | +1.12.933 | 14 |
| 13th | Adrian Sutil | Force India | +1.16.719 | 6 |
| 14th | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | +1.21.511 | 15 |
| 15th | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | +1.26.364 | 4 |
| 16th | Daniel Riccardo | Toro Rosso | +1 lap | 13 |
| 17th | Charles Pic | Caterham | +1 lap | 18 |
| 18th | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | +1 lap | 22 |
| 19th | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | +1 lap | 19 |
| 20th | Max Chilton | Marussia | +1 lap | 21 |
| 21st | Giedo Van der Garde | Caterham | +2 laps | 20 |
| 22nd | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | DNF (Damage) | 16 |
Driver’s Championship:
| Driver | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Sebastian Vettel | 77 |
| 2nd | Kimi Raikkonen | 67 (-10) |
| 3rd | Lewis Hamilton | 50 (-27) |
| 4th | Fernando Alonso | 47 (-30) |
| 5th | Mark Webber | 32 (-45) |
| 6th | Felipe Massa | 30 (-47) |
| 7th | Romain Grosjean | 26 (-51) |
| 8th | Paul Di Resta | 20 (-57) |
| 9th | Nico Rosberg | 14 (-63) |
| 10th | Jenson Button | 13 (-64) |
| 11th | Sergio Perez | 10 (-67) |
| 12th | Adrian Sutil | 6 (-71) |
| 13th | Daniel Riccardo | 6 (-71) |
| 14th | Nico Hulkenburg | 5 (-72) |
| 15th | Jean-Eric Vergne | 1 (-76) |
Constructor’s Championship:
| Constructor | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Red Bull | 109 |
| 2nd | Lotus | 93 (-16) |
| 3rd | Ferrari | 77 (-32) |
| 4th | Mercedes | 64 (-45) |
| 5th | Force India | 26 (-83) |
| 6th | McLaren | 23 (-86) |
| 7th | Toro Rosso | 7 (-102) |
| 8th | Sauber | 5 (-104) |
No comments:
Post a Comment