Well, well, I can say I failed to see that one coming, all throughout the run up to today's session there was a lot of theories and predictions as to who was going to line up on the front of the grid, all of the key representatives were put forward. Yet the car that is sitting there on pole for tomorrow's race never came up any of those conversations, but those conversations did thankfully step away from the inherent discussions of controversy and of life on the other side of the barriers in real Bahrain. It was feared that nothing else would be mentioned, but things seem contained and allowing us to focus on the track action instead. Action this weekend which gained an interesting dimension towards the end of final practice, as tyres were questioned once more, even through Pirelli had decided not to bring the softer compound and replaced that selection with the mediums. It could be considered that the decision is a reflex action based on how badly they degraded in China - managing 22 miles before being useless. But GP2 are using the softer tyres, and those lasted 14 laps on admittedly slower cars. Everything came under scrutiny when Hamilton suffered a significant tyre delamination failure, which subsequently ruined the suspension and broke the gearbox. Replacing the gearbox mid-weekend incurs a 5 place grid penalty.
Combined with Gutierrez's penalty for crashing into Sutil and Webber's penalty for crashing into Vergne and there was going to be re-arranging of the grid once the session was complete. Today we actually saw drivers taking to the track for the majority of the session unlike the barren nothingness that took place for some the session in China. Another issue sparking more complaints at the tyres and throwing more accusations at Pirelli and to the organisation of the current qualifying format. So how did things play out today.
This time last week as the green light came on, we all took off to make some tea because no-one really felt like taking part, today was different, as there was only a couple of minutes of dead time before the first cars left the garage. It was the Sauber team, paving the way clearing the road of any dust and sand that settled from the wind since FP3 - a lack of early grip showed through in Hulkenberg's opening lap sliding the car through the middle sector and running wide through turn 8. There were confused faces down at Lotus, probably, not that we saw any of them, but the pace the car had in practice had gone missing and their initial times place them close to relegation.
Down in this relegation zone change was afoot - Caterham had brought some new parts to the car, and they were working on Pic's car - the only one with the new bits, running almost a second quicker than Bianchi's Marussia. Van Der Garde in the older spec car, was having a tougher time of it, and had noticeably less grip, powersliding out of turn seven - but was able to beat Chilton in the duel of the people with more money than ability than speed at the back. Speaking of people who are here due to money, Esteban Gutierrez was not having a good day, again - losing lots of time to Hulkenberg and being well and truly locked in relegation behind the Williams team. An interesting scenario had developed at the Williams as both drivers set exactly the time down to a thousandth of a second - but Bottas set the time first so lined up ahead of Maldonado. The situation was then made more interesting by Ricciardo - who went faster then the Williams pair and into Q2, meaning Maldonado was knocked out on the same time as a car that wasn't Joined by Gutierrez and the four bottom cars.
Off and into Q2, and we saw cars heading out onto track from the start once more, and competitive cars at that - with Red Bull, Lotus and Mercedes leaving the garages. From the bunch it was the Red Bull team who went to the top of the timesheets first, Vettel beating Webber's base line time, and the Australian was running with fuel and four tyres this afternoon. Then the order took an interesting turn... Paul Di Resta went fastest for Force India and held that position for quite a while. Down in the relegation zone it was the usual suspects struggling to get any further up the grid, featuring Torro Rosso who didn't have the same speed as in China, none of them were going to make it out of the relegation zone. Neither was Bottas who only made it through by luck rather than anything else, but the question of who was going to join them was a little more hotly contested.
Di Resta's time had finally been beaten at the front by the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso - even if it was only by 0.019s, a job that was much more comprehensively done by the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg who found almost half a second over the rest of the field. Back at the opposite end of proceedings and Lotus were still off the pace, with Grosjean out of Q2 on current pace, and Raikkonen only just a few places further up. As the positions fluctuated in the final part of the session it was McLaren who showed they were well off the pace... again, but having less of a good time than in China, Jenson only barely managed to make into Q1, which is why Grosjean wasn't. As for One-Stop Perez, things were not so fortunate as the Mexican was unable to make any progress on 12th, joining Romain, STR and Hulkenberg in relegation
Next up it was Q1, and there were cars at the beginning because tyres were not as much of an endangered species as they were in our last foray in China, allowing teams to opt for two runs, an opportunity a few partook of. Force India, Mercedes and Alonso left the pit lane to set an opening lap time, and despite the results of Q2, it seemed that Fernando remained the favourite from this subset of competitors. The Ferrari driver did set a strong opening lap, but it was only good enough for second place, because there was a Mercedes in front of him - in contrary to the team order in that particular garage it was Rosberg again leading his team-mate, and finishing the first run on provisional pole. However neither of the Red Bulls or FP1 pace-setter Massa had been out...
After a brief intervening period the cars set out again, all ten cars went out, with the prospect of me not having to give out penalty points for not setting a time seeming promising. What was also more interesting was that Felipe Massa left the pits on the harder tyre, Ferrari were certainly up to something on that side of the garage. A plan that when revealed later was even more inspired, as the team realised that any time and grid position deficit would be countered by driver penalties and leave Felipe with a stronger race strategy. Vettel tried and failed to beat the Mercedes and lines up 2nd, ahead of Ferrari pairing, lead by Fernando. The third row belongs to the Force India team both benefiting from penalties for Hamilton and Webber, gaining two places in the process. Webber is 7th after qualifying 5th, one of his penalised places erased by Hamilton's penalty. Raikkonen has lost some pace and was only able to reach 8th place having qualified 9th, but has potentially very consistent and strong race pace. Lewis' final grid slot turned out be 9th following the five place grid drop, ahead of his old team-mate Button who failed to set a lap. Leaving Rosberg with pole position, his second for the team.
The Bonus Points Championship points winners
We have had a little more running this afternoon and therefore, some more reasons to hand out the all important bonus points:
- 10pts - Paul Di Resta - Very strong performance today, into the top 5 (penalty assisted) as well as strong Q2 showing despite shouting at his team in the process
- 8pts - Nico Rosberg - Not bad for a number two driver down at Mercedes
- 6pts - Charles Pic - Defeated all of the bottom teams and finally someone beats Bianchi, the updates are working there
- 5pts - Felipe Massa - Well played there, well played indeed ending up 4th on the harder tyres
- 4pts - Adrian Sutil - Another strong Force India performance
- 3pts - Giedo Van Der Garde - For not being last, and much closer to the other Marussia car
- 2pts - Williams - Two cars on an identical time, that's consistency and equality right there
- 1pt - Alexander Rossi - Turns up in GP2 for the first time and ends up on the podium, while the very highly rated Frijns had contact and didn't finish well.
The Penalty Points Series
Although Hamilton was handed a grid penalty today, it was for a technical infringement due to a gearbox replacement from the tyre failure this morning in FP3. So there are no driving infringements to add to the table, we move swiftly onto the penalty points series. There is only one penalty to add to the list and that belongs to Jenson for the simple problem of not completing a lap in Q1.
Looking ahead to tomorrow
Just as I said in China, Bahrain never inspires monumental amounts of excitement, but it is a track where positions can, and will change - with the dual DRS zones, the second of which is an interesting prospect. On the exit of a corner where errors are common leaving the defending driver even more vulnerable. The penalties have left some drivers out of position, especially Hamilton considering the speed that Nico has got out of the sister Mercedes putting it on pole. I think that this race could well be more interesting and intriguing than most races on the small island, with tyres being more durable and resilient than those brought to China. So until then, this is farewell from me here at Blog HQ.
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