Well done Bahrain, that was rather entertaining - and for most drivers the right balance of tyre compound allocation and degradation resulted in some rather entertaining racing, although it got a little too close for some of the people involved. I think there needs to be a video made of this race, placed on DVD and mailed directly to Ross Brawn and Christian Horner, with a accompanying note stating 'this is how team-mates should race each other' signed McLaren - because that was brilliant. Previous seasons have seen this being a sedentary race for a large proportion, because of the configuration of the track and the amount of dust and debris offline. But GP2 has helped clear some of the track in the morning, opening various overtaking opportunities even aware from the designated DRS areas - which helps if that special wing device decides to fail... It seems odd that after an entire year of racing has passed, so many changes and the form has oscillated the results of one of the most enthralling races at the track since it's arrival on the calender in 2004 - the top results are an exact match to those one year ago...
The Race
Some races have an air of anticipation about them as the cars sit on the grid, the likes of Spa, Monaco, Australia and Suzuka - Bahrain has never really been part of that list, it is not a lap that has minimal overtaking or races that are completely stagnant, but it is just missing something. To think that there are some motions floating around considering making this venue the opening round of the season. It has been done before and it was not really that impressive, especially in 2010 when is was paired with the completely unnecessary 24h extended track layout.
As soon as the lights went out Vettel went to take the lead from Rosberg, but in the process was passed on the outside of turn one by the Ferrari of Alonso - a position he immediately re-took in turn four. In the middle of the pack Perez learned from the last race where he saw Raikkonen go well without front wing elements and used Button to trim off the entire endplate in the first corner - not that this was picked up by SKY tv. In fact throughout the entire race they failed to notice the damage to the car... oh dear.. There was some more contact round the remainder of the lap as Felipe Massa biffed Adrian Sutil off at turn four giving the German a puncture and a damaged wing.Gutierrez also broke another front wing on the back of a Marussia. But the largest collision befell Jean Eric Vergne who for some reason was in the middle of the track - there was no enough footage to see if he span the car around there or something but was collected by the Caterham of Charles Pic. The Torro Rosso was ruined but made it to the pits and Pic needed complete new nose section from the damage.
Back at the front Vettel was on the attack, his first attempt on the outside of turn four didn't pay off so instead he repeated the move he made on Alonso on the first lap to take the position away from Nico Rosberg...and the German bloke was never seen again. Rosberg was starting to see a queue forming behind him now lead by Alonso and remarkably Di Resta - an inherent lack of race pace in the Mercedes saw both Fernando and Paul go sailing by in the DRS zone on the main straight. Once Alonso got to the front of the train he was immediately caught by the Force India and everyone else, because the rear wing flap was jammed open. The Ferrari was forced to pit twice to correct the problem dropping him well out of contention.
As the first round of stops began Di Resta cycled through to the lead ahead of Raikkonen both of whom were on two stop strategies allowing themselves some clean air, which worked out better for Raikkonen being able to exploit the race pace of the car. Things were going well for the other Lotus to, after making a poor start, Grosjean was making forward progress passing Perez and closing in on Massa. Remember that German Bloke from before, well he decided he didn't like not being up front, despite it only being part of the natural strategy fluctuation - and caught an passed Raikkonen on the alternate strategy as Di Resta pitted from the lead. Things were going from bad to worse down at Ferrari as Felipe Massa suffered a tyre failure similar to Hamilton's in FP3, however an investigation suggested that shrapnel was the cause of the failure... but lightning can't strike twice, surely.
Button found himself battling with his team-mate Perez and what ensued was some of the entertaining wheel to wheel racing of the year - the sort of thing you'd see in BTCC (which I've recorded but haven't seen yet) banging wheels and running each other off the track at various corners in the first sector. Focussing their battles at anywhere between turns 1 and 6, everywhere else was declared a cease fire zone. Sergio was instructed after China to be a bit more assertive in his overtaking, and well.. it certainly paid off it was brilliant - not that Jenson seemed awfully pleased about the battle. But the best thing is that it was allowed to happen, Mercedes and Red Bull have put their respective feet down on in house competition and battling but down at McLaren open warfare is completely allowed and that is great. The same principle did put Hamilton in the wall in Canada in 2011 but well played all round. Perez did push the envelope a little far at times - easing across on the straight before turn 4 and making contact. Followed up by the Mexican running into the rear of Jenson's car with the shattered end of his front wing risking a puncture.
Speaking of punctures, Massa was approaching the points once more and therefore the Ferrari team were due some more misfortune based on the way this race was playing out for them - and sure enough on exiting the final corner Felipe's rear tyre seemed to completely tear in half. Suffering an even more comprehensive failure than the first time sending the car back down the field. Where Alonso was battling with the Williams team and doing surprisingly well for a car without the use of the DRS, because if he considered opening the flap it would jam again. But managed to work his way past both Bottas and Maldonado over a series of laps and back into the points - where another queue was starting to form. Once more behind Rosberg in a Mercedes which was going through tyres like me in an all you can eat buffet. It was a convergence of several different strategies and cars on different paces, all of those paces seemed to be faster than Rosbergs...
A little further up front Raikkonen had caught back up with Di Resta following their round of stops in the battle of the those on the two stop strategy - and the battle for second considering there was a German Bloke miles out front... like we haven't seen that happen before...In this little conflict there was only one victor as Kimi opened the DRS and coasted past. A collection of cars all found themselves on the same stretch of tarmac again including both Mercedes', both McLarens, Webber and Alonso - with the Australian at the head of the queue. Because this battle wasn't populated enough Grosjean pitted exited the pits right beside Jenson Button easing the McLaren wide in turn one and set off after Webber's Red Bull catching mark within a matter of laps on the fresher tyres. It was the two McLaren drivers who found them selves at war once again as Perez was preoccupied racing with Rosberg - Jenson gained a draft from both cars and was close to going three wide on the main straight but decided against risking more contact
Webber had the other Mercedes for immediate company, along with Alonso and the McLaren drivers eyeing up more pieces of carbon fibre to knock off each other. At first it seemed that Hamilton made light work of the Red Bull capitalising on Webber's lack of traction out of turn one and took the place - but Mark re-took the place on the main straight the following lap. Both cars were running short on tyres but took part in an epic duel for a series of laps - Webber driving the widest Red Bull ever. Button and Perez were at it again and this allowed Alonso back into proceedings passing Jenson into the often unused turn 8 - because not having DRS doesn't matter in that part of the lap. Fernando's crusade against Perez was not as simple, given the current day the Mexican was having, Alonso's first attack in turn four saw him running off the circuit as the McLaren driver didn't leave too much room on the exit.
With only a few laps remaining this is time traditionally when things have calmed down - in Malaysia the entire race had virtually been called off, this time, not so much - except for Vettel of course - he was far enough ahead he'd probably won already. Raikkonen was also safe in second, but Di Resta was not... the promise of his first podium was dwindling under the threat of a charging Lotus - Grosjean was ripping seconds out of the advantage the Force India had. On lap 52, Romain drafted up behind Paul and made the pass look easy, Di Resta probably could have fought some more but it would only be delaying the inevitable. The other car experiencing late race tyre dramas was Mark Webber, coming under attack from Hamilton with Perez waiting in the wings. Lewis was finally able defeat the Australian down in turn one, as a result the car was much slower on the exit allowing Perez to get a run also passing Webber in turn four - there would have been time to recover the lost positions but this happened to be the final lap and there was no coming back.
Vettel took an easy win out front, followed some time later by the two Lotus cars, Raikkonen first - in a complete replica of the same race last season, although it was much more fun this time around. Di Resta taking a career equalling best fourth place, ahead of Hamilton who somehow found himself in fifth place at the end of the race. Sixth was Perez after having a very active race, delivering the sort of racing we need every weekend, passing Webber on the final lap who finished 7th. Alonso recovered from his DRS dramas early in the race to score the only points Ferrari were getting today. At the end of the points were the two drivers forced through tyre wear to make four stops - Jenson ahead of Nico Rosberg.
The Bonus Points Championship points winners
This race, there were plenty of nominees for the major points some for speed and performance, while some for general entertainment through out the race so here are the winners:
- 25pts - Romain Grosjean - from outside the points to the podium, passing people without hitting them and recovering from a bad start - decent day all round
- 18pts - Paul Di Resta - lead the race and almost made his first visit to the podium
- 15pts - Sergio Perez - For being massively entertaining and competing with stongly with a weaker car
- 12pts - Jenson Button - The other half of that brilliant battle, but lost out on tyre wear later in the race
- 10pts - Sebastien Vettel - That was dominant, and a great early pass on Alonso
- 8pts - Kimi Raikkonen - A well executed strategic race onto the podium
- 6pts - Fernando Alonso - Who needs DRS...
- 4pts - Charles Pic - Beating a Sauber on pace, and not being lapped until six laps from home
- 2pts - Nico Rosberg - Gets a couple of points for not giving up in the many battles he faced today.
- 1pt - McLaren - That is how you run a team people...
The Penalty Points championhip
Because there were miraculously no official penalties issued today - Webber only handed a reprimand for the contact with Rosberg in turn two, because the incident was so minimal. There was also an investigation into an unsafe release for Van Der Garde late in the race, but nothing seems to come from that either. Additionally because there was so much great, close and well behaved racing today there is very little that I need to penalise - today has been a good day, through the BTCC probably has some penalty point worthy driving going on there waiting on the recorder for a later time.
I am only going to give one point to Jean Eric Vergne who appeared to crash into Van Der Garde on the opening lap, seemingly pulling into the path of the Caterham - if alternate evidence comes to light that point might be revoked.
Looking ahead to Spain
We are heading back to Europe, and aside from the opening race of the season this is considered one of the most important race of the season, because this is where all the season defining updates and upgrades start coming to the cars. Parts that could make McLaren a race winning car again, making up for the early season lack of pace in the fly-away races - they could also bring Caterham off the back row, Pic has made massive strides with the current updates, so who knows what the bigger steps will bring. The race order can be completely redressed, especially in the midfield where the smallest changes can make the biggest positional ground, aiming to catch Force India at the top of that part of the field.
In a sense the Spanish GP is less of a race and more of an exhibition event to demonstrate what those upgrades are, in an effort to re-establish supremacy and make progress on their immediate competitors. The track is primarily a testing facility for pre-season testing and therefore everyone knows the venue in great detail and is more of a driving circuit than a racing one - which is why that appalling chicane was slapped on the end of the lap... in an attempt to increase overtaking and make it more raceable. Yet we've seen fantastic races on tracks that don't encourage it - Valencia 2012 is the ultimate example of that, even today unleashed some fantastic battles, as the Indycar Grand Prix of Long Beach is on now, I shall bid you all farewell from Blog HQ...
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