At the end of another day of rehearsing and making a complete mess of the scenes I am supposed to remember in a voice which is about as consistent as McLaren's pit stops it;s a disappointment to find that the BBC were giving the race session a whopping five minutes more coverage than qualifying, what happened to the two hour extended highlights package then... As a result the following series of necessarily long and plentiful paragraphs will be a little on the disjointed side somewhat, combined with the fact this document is being composed in the late evening since it the first opportunity that fits. Suppose it's relevant to get the excuses in early as an explanation, because even having just caught up with the footage it has simply washed over my mind without making any form of lasting impression, much in the way that my lines have failed to be loaded into memory.
The race, well the portions I can remember, did indeed lead to a mostly interesting result some of it familiar and some of it less so, some very interesting moves in the transition period between the green light at the beginning and the that flag at the end. It won't be winning any awards for the most entertaining race, but those things are hard to assess after building a highlights reel means taking an axe to the original footage. And I've made one, albeit rather badly, as per normal here at blog HQ, so I know that a lot of material is going to be left on the cutting room floor as the final product looks more like swiss cheese than a compete program.
The race highlights
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| Rosberg out of turn 10. credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk for the image |
At the start Vettel launched away while the rows behind left the positions in order with Rosberg dropping back as Alonso moved forwards. Despite the amount of cars running and this being the final race of the weekend the track surface remained exceptionally dusty, it looked about as well used as my social life - dead and decaying. Through the sandy mists the cars were running three and four wide in some places, it is as this moment you expect to see the odd shard of carbon fibre cast into the air as front wings are clipped in the close quarters of the opening lap. It wasn't completely damage free however as Heikki in the high qualifying Catherham tried to go round the outside of Ricciardo in turn 10, how these cars ended up on the same part of the track is anyone's guess but they did. Consequently Kovalainen ended up with a flat rear tyre and fell down the field after pitting for a new one.
The German Bloke remained in the position he had become accustomed too over the past couple of years, ahead of Hamilton in second, Webber third marginally ahead of Grosjean, positions that were to remain fairly constant for the opening few laps. It was the leading Lotus of Romain that was the first of the leading cars to make a move, using the powers of DRS to pass the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton on the inside of turn one. A little further back Teh Massa was running in the points, hoping to actually achieve some this season as it has been a little barren on that front, it could be stated that his overall score is the official measurement of my level of human interaction. But saying that, things are more comfortable in the solitary confinement of this corner that is blog HQ.
It was time for the early pit stops, as the tyre degradation was quite high this weekend, high enough for Oh Sch...umacher to have a sufficient rant about them post race, for now the German on his recovery mission was presently in 12th. Back in pit lane Fernando and Hamilton were receiving new wheels, Alonso left dodging One-Stop Perez Stopping at the same time, Lewis however was still there with more problems with the rear wheel. As Perez exited the lane two-wide with Oh Sch...macher, Hamilton was finally released following a nine second stop - the same amount of time that cost Button the chance of winning the Chinese GP last weekend. Life for Hamilton was about to get a lot more interesting, as he rejoined the track alongside Rosberg, Nico claimed the position but was slow out of the first corner sequence. Lewis had a much better run on the Mercedes and Rosberg duly defended, and then defended some more and then defended until there was no more road left to defend on. Did this phase Hamilton?, not to much because where he was going he didn't need roads, passing the German on the false sand coloured concrete. Rosberg did complain on the radio that Lewis passed him off the track but in fairness there wasn't much room for the McLaren elsewhere - so that is an epic move in the blog's book.
Returning now to the world at Lotus and it was the turn of Kimi Raikkonen to start making some ground demonstrating that the car had definite pace in the hands of both drivers as Grosjean was matching Vettel's times towards the front. Kimi had found himself on the back of the second Red Bull of Mark Webber, after trying to make the pass into turn nine, as that clearly wasn't possible the Finn settled for a pass on the inside of turn 11. This left only two cars between him and the lead, the first of which was his team-mate not too much further down the road. Looking a little further back, Di Resta on fresher tyres was catching cars that hadn't stopped in the form of One-Stop Perez and Pastor Maldonado in a battle of their own. A battle which probably covered several laps but the BBC highlights only showed Paul drive up to the back of the pair and shoot down the inside of turn four as the other two distracted by each other drifted wide.
The race entered the half-way stage as Kimi had caught the other Lotus, and Grosjean put up very little resistance to his team-mate as the two cars switched positions - and Vettel had a new Lotus hunting him down. It was also pit-stop time again and McLaren hadn't quite gotten the idea of how to put left rear wheels back on their race cars. Out on track Alonso had found himself behind Nico Rosberg in the same place Hamilton did 15 laps earlier. In a moment of deja vu, Nico defended the position and defended some more once more all the way to the end of the track, and Alsono found that there was no more track under his wheels. In contrast to Hamilton's moment Fernando wasn't able to pass the Mercedes and spent the rest of the lap shouting on the radio and gesticulating wildly at the German, and feeling generally rather displeased about the whole thing. While in the background Maldonado was helping himself to some impromptu doughnuts on the exit of turn three suffering a rear puncture which caused enough damage to retire the car.
As the leaders completed their penultimate stops Raikkonen was much closer to the back of the Red Bull out front, working away on the gap lap after lap. Once he had reached the 1s zone required to activate the DRS system Vettel's lead came under threat, the Finn used the extra speed to charge at the German Bloke on the main straight. The closing speed was supreme and Kimi drafted up to the Sebastien's rear wing, Raikkonen looked to the inside but the door was very gently closed, there was space to try and force a pass but in interests of risk avoidance Kimi held back. Which was rather odd, the guy who drove at full speed through a cloud of smoke at the top of Radillon at Spa not going for a race winning mood - Lotus must have used a lot of ice cream to bribe him to be more conservative with the car.
Their battle trailed off as the tyres began to degrade - opting to take their final stops on the same lap cemented the positions, Kimi's fresher tyres weren't enough to erode the time difference and close back on the rear of the Red Bull out front. A little firther back and Paul Di Resta was coming under attack from the McLaren of Jenson Button a battle that was cut short as the second McLaren encountered difficulties in the left rear wheel, this time on track. Jenson picked up a puncture, no idea where from but he lost lots of time pitting to replace it knocking him out of the points and elevating Teh Massa into the points for the first time all season. More reliability woes were striking at Williams as Bruno Senna pulled the car into the garage for retirement, making it a double DNF for the team that performed so well in China, moving Oh Sch...umacher into the points from the penultimate row of the grid. Life in Buttons world went from bad to worse when he suffered a cracked exhaust and the car started to sound like a diseased tractor and was running about as fast until it too had to be driven into retirement two laps from home.
The laps had elapsed, I'm sure there was supposed to be more but from some of them must have been left on the cutting room floor. So a little ahead of the normal schedule the chequered flag was waved to greet Sebastien Vettel to his first win of the year and continues the run of unique winners this season. The podium was completed by the two Lotus cars headed by Kimi Raikkonen ahead of Grosjean, Webber came home 4th again, the only position he has achieved this season. Rosberg had taken Paul Di Resta to claim fifth position as Alonso ran out of time to pass the Force India, crossing the line just behind the Scotsman in 7th place. After the two difficult pitstops Hamilton ended up down in eighth position ahead of his best friend Teh Massa who earns his first points. And the final official point of the race went to Oh Sch...umacher whose charge only brought him to the fringe of the points. Indicating that with the cars running more equally Webber-esque recovery drives are a lot less likely to complete.
The bonus points winners
I had considered only offering half points for this event as most of the laps probably didn't end up in the recording and stayed in the editing office, thankfully everything is on the BBC next time round. But it would rather make a mess of the overall standings and I don't really want .5 points floating around so here are the full winners from the Bahrain GP.
25pts - Kimi Raikkonen - for well almost winning mostly, from 11th on the grid, fully exploiting the amount of fresh tyres available
18pts - Romain Grosjean - a podium in the fourth race in the car is an impressive feat, even if this is his second visit to F1
15pts - Paul Di Resta - a strong race holding off the Ferrari at the end and passing two cars at once
12pts - Sebastien Vettel - does get some points for winning and returning to the top of the results
10pts - Lewis Hamilton - passing Rosberg on the grass, a very ballsy pass off the track
8pts - Michael Oh Sch...umacher - A decent recovery drive from 22nd into the end of the points
6pts - Teh Massa - Look Felipe has points, two of them at that well done there
4pts - Mark Webber - has to have four points for finishing fourth for the fourth time in a row
2pts - Vitaly Petrov - for finishing ahead of Heikki even if it was on the back of a puncture
1pt - Bahrain - for managing to run the race without any major track protests.
The penalty points championship
Despite both of Rosbergs incidents being investigated by the stewards no official action was taken and all grid penalties pre-race were due to mechanical issues and gearbox changes, meaning Heikki remains the only one with an official penalty except the fine for Mercedes for the wheel for Schumacher. So on that note we move swiftly onto the penalty points instead.
- Nico Rosberg -Has to have a penalty point for forcing two drivers off the track onto the sand coloured concrete.
- McLaren - How can one of the best teams on the grid manage to ruin so many pitstops
Looking on to Spain
We now head on to the start of the European season where the development race really starts to kick off, as the teams are closer to their factories and the influx of upgrades and parts. It all begins at the primary testing facility in Barcelona the traditional start of this phase of the season and more importantly is is one of the race on the BBC, out of the five races it will only be the second which is rather depressing like a lot of things. But the darkness of the corner Blog HQ hides itself away in, the coming race the competition of the early season could start to unravel as the field will began to separate. The development race could see the formation of distinct division one as we saw last year, but it could also see the likes of Caterham close in on the rest of the field.
One of the important things of returning to Europe is the time zones, race in the early afternoon to be enjoyed with choclate, race snacks and tea, no horrifically early mornings and sleep deprived sessions. But on the other side of this shiny coin are the events stolen by Sky television where the hacked to pieces TV highlights will cast into the long forgotten reaches of the evening which makes these posts more challenging to write as it is now closing rapidly on midnight and I have yet to do anything that isn't either rehearsing or writing this document. However neither of them is a chore or a strain, just all consuming of time but that is the way as the time till curtain up approaches and the next time this blog goes live the show will be over and the posts may make more sense so until then this is farewell for now.
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