Welcome to the 4th race this season.. The 2013 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix held on the Bahrain International Circuit.. Just like the last couple of years, this year too there are a lot of protests in the region targeted against the race.. But Bernie being the man he is, decided the teams will race no matter what! Why confirm a race here when you know something like this will come up.. Well being the middle east there is obviously a lot of money involved so that could be a prime factor in making a decision..
Practice:
Bright and sunny skies welcomed the fans and F1 personnel to the BIC.. Practice 1 began and what a start it was for Ferrari.. The team looked really good and the results proved it.. Massa P1 and Alonso P2.. The rest of the pack were consistent from last race with Mercedes and Red Bull looking strong.. Button finished in P6 and the Force India's finished ahead of the shockingly slow Lotus cars.. Practice 2 quickly changed things around for Lotus with Kimi finishing in P1 followed by Webber, Vettel and Alonso.. On saturday morning in Practice 3, Ferrari and Alonso went on top again and things looked even better for them and things were heating up for qualifying, literally! Hamilton suffered a delamination on his left rear tyre and because of the gear box change he had a 5 place grid penalty.. And a special mention for Mark Webber who is competing in his 200th Grand Prix this weekend.. Keep it up mate!
Qualifying:
Q1 began with blistering pace from Alonso's Ferrari, he eventually set the fastest lap in Q1.. At the back of the grid the usual suspects in the form of Caterham and Marussia dropped out, Caterham looked very quick courtesy the new updates they brought in for this race. The other two who dropped out were Gutierrez and Maldonado.. The only surprise from Q2 was Grosjean not getting through to Q3.. The others who dropped out were the two Torro Rosso's, Hulkenburg, Bottas and Perez, who is still trying to find the rhythm in his Mclaren.. Force India managed to get both their cars into Q3.. The final 10 minute session began and I expected Vettel to put in the best lap but I was shocked after Rosberg set the fastest lap taking the second consecutive pole position for Mercedes.. The new kings of one lap pace? Too early to say.. Behind him as expected it was Vettel and Alonso.. Both contenders for Sunday's race.. Kimi's Lotus never found the pace it did in practice.. He qualified in 9th and will move up one position because of the penalty Hamilton got.. The two Force India's will start from 5th and 6th.. Looking good for them..
Race:
Rosberg on pole right alongside Vettel and in front of Alonso.. The start was AMAZING.. Alonso over took Vettel but it wasn't long before Vettel got past and started attacking Rosberg.. Bad start for Sutil as he had contact with Massa's Ferrari and suffered a Puncture and he fell back.. Hamilton fell behind Grosjean and Vergne also suffered puncture and was last after the first couple of laps.. It wasn't long before Alonso got past Rosberg whose tires were falling off the pace.. Di Resta had pace and got past Rosberg ..
Alonso had a uncommon problem wherein his DRS flap remained open and just wouldn't close, Schumi suffered the same problem in Canada that caused him to retire, Nando came into the pits and got that fixed... A couple of laps later he suffered from the same problem.. Not a good early stint for him..
Everyone except Di Resta and Raikkonen pit by lap 15.. These two were leading the race with Vettel and Webber behind them.. Red Bull had good consistent pace throughout and were 1 and 2 after the first set of pit-stops.. Very Good first stint for Webber, moving up from 7th to 2nd..
First, and eventually the only, retirement came from Torro Rosso's Jean Eric Vergne who suffered an early puncture and never made up ground after that..
The two Mclaren's had a good fight between them for 7th and 8th and later moved up to 5th and 6th.. Thats the best the team can do unless there are some major retirements at the front of the field.. Di Resta had really good race pace and was in P2 at half race distance.. It was going to be a fight between him and Raikkonen for P3..
Ferrari were having an unimpressive race with Massa in 9th and Alonso in 12th at the half way mark.. Not a good weekend for the team.. The Mercedes team too didn't really have anything to be very happy about with their cars racing in 7th and 9th..
There was good fight for positions 5 through 8 between Button, Perez, Grosjean and Rosberg.. The two Mclaren's touching each other.. And Grosjean almost touching the back of Perez's Mclaren before passing Perez and later Button for P4 on lap 34..
Vettel was unbeatable.. He kept racing perfectly lap after lap.. Noone had a chance to even get close to him.. He had a lead of almost 30 seconds at one point of time.. This lead was just going to get bigger..
Raikkonen pit for what was going to be his last stop on lap 35.. Now it was a race to the finish and in his case a race for P3 or maybe even P2..
Webber pit for the last time and after that he never was on par with his first stint and dropped back.. Later on he had a fight with Hamilton for 5th.. Grosjean who was running in 2nd made his final stop and came out in 5th.. He was quick enough to hunt down Di Resta, whose tires were falling off the pace, for 3rd place.. Something that was not expected.. So now it was Vettel, Raikkonen and Grosjean top 3..
Alonso made a late charge and got past Button and Rosberg and then had a good fight with Perez for 7th but since he didn't have DRS he could not get past..
The battle between Hamilton and Webber wasn't over until the very last lap when Hamilton got past the Red Bull into turn 1 and maintained the advantage to the chequered flag.. Webber also lost out to Perez in the last lap and finally finished in 7th..
At the end of the 57th lap Sebastian Vettel took his 28th career victory, a really well deserved and a commanding victory.. He was followed by the two Lotus cars of Raikkonen and Grosjean.. The top three exactly same like last year's Bahrain Grand Prix.. A bit of a Deja Vu moment there..
Di Resta was the driver of the day for me.. Even though he finished in 4th and deserved to be on the podium he showed us what he is made of.. A late race drop in pace and maybe a misjudged pit stop caused him a sure shot 3rd place.. Still this equals his best finish yet and there's a lot more to come from him..
Massa had a disastrous outing and wasn't able to really to show us the pace he had in Practice.. Charles Pic finished ahead of Gutierrez and that's surely a good sign for the team.. Max Chilton celebrates his 22nd birthday today.. Happy Birthday Max!
Results:
Thats the first 4 races of the season done and its clear now that Red Bull and Lotus are the fastest.. Ferrari are right up there too.. Mercedes have the qualifying pace and need to look at improving their race pace and get on the podium and win races..Mclaren! results don't really prove anything for them.. They really need to improve over the next 3 weeks and come back stronger in Spain.. Force India have had a good first few races even though they had a non finish in Malaysia.. Right now they are ahead of Mclaren in the championship and that's surely going to give them a confidence boost going into the European leg of the season..
In the second half of the grid Torro Rosso are leading the Sauber team.. Sauber has not shown even the slightest of signs of the team they were last year.. Need to improve greatly.. Williams are having another disastrous season with not a single point scored out of 4 races.. Lets hope Spain changes their fortune, after all the win in Spain last year alone gave the team a third of their overall points haul for the season.. Marussia's Bianchi has given the team a lot of hope to finish ahead of the Caterham's.. His season so far has bought him a lot of positive attention and that's only going to get better as the season progresses..
3 weeks until Spain and that's quite a long break.. Many teams still have a lot to prove.. Red Bull and Lotus are the only ones who can be relaxed for now before they continue their excellent season so far..
Kimi please stay at Lotus and don't move elsewhere.. Lotus is the only team where Kimi can be KIMI..
Enjoy the days ahead and be sure to catch up on F1.. See ya all in 3 weeks.. :)
Practice:
Bright and sunny skies welcomed the fans and F1 personnel to the BIC.. Practice 1 began and what a start it was for Ferrari.. The team looked really good and the results proved it.. Massa P1 and Alonso P2.. The rest of the pack were consistent from last race with Mercedes and Red Bull looking strong.. Button finished in P6 and the Force India's finished ahead of the shockingly slow Lotus cars.. Practice 2 quickly changed things around for Lotus with Kimi finishing in P1 followed by Webber, Vettel and Alonso.. On saturday morning in Practice 3, Ferrari and Alonso went on top again and things looked even better for them and things were heating up for qualifying, literally! Hamilton suffered a delamination on his left rear tyre and because of the gear box change he had a 5 place grid penalty.. And a special mention for Mark Webber who is competing in his 200th Grand Prix this weekend.. Keep it up mate!
Qualifying:
Q1 began with blistering pace from Alonso's Ferrari, he eventually set the fastest lap in Q1.. At the back of the grid the usual suspects in the form of Caterham and Marussia dropped out, Caterham looked very quick courtesy the new updates they brought in for this race. The other two who dropped out were Gutierrez and Maldonado.. The only surprise from Q2 was Grosjean not getting through to Q3.. The others who dropped out were the two Torro Rosso's, Hulkenburg, Bottas and Perez, who is still trying to find the rhythm in his Mclaren.. Force India managed to get both their cars into Q3.. The final 10 minute session began and I expected Vettel to put in the best lap but I was shocked after Rosberg set the fastest lap taking the second consecutive pole position for Mercedes.. The new kings of one lap pace? Too early to say.. Behind him as expected it was Vettel and Alonso.. Both contenders for Sunday's race.. Kimi's Lotus never found the pace it did in practice.. He qualified in 9th and will move up one position because of the penalty Hamilton got.. The two Force India's will start from 5th and 6th.. Looking good for them..
Race:
Rosberg on pole right alongside Vettel and in front of Alonso.. The start was AMAZING.. Alonso over took Vettel but it wasn't long before Vettel got past and started attacking Rosberg.. Bad start for Sutil as he had contact with Massa's Ferrari and suffered a Puncture and he fell back.. Hamilton fell behind Grosjean and Vergne also suffered puncture and was last after the first couple of laps.. It wasn't long before Alonso got past Rosberg whose tires were falling off the pace.. Di Resta had pace and got past Rosberg ..
Alonso had a uncommon problem wherein his DRS flap remained open and just wouldn't close, Schumi suffered the same problem in Canada that caused him to retire, Nando came into the pits and got that fixed... A couple of laps later he suffered from the same problem.. Not a good early stint for him..
Everyone except Di Resta and Raikkonen pit by lap 15.. These two were leading the race with Vettel and Webber behind them.. Red Bull had good consistent pace throughout and were 1 and 2 after the first set of pit-stops.. Very Good first stint for Webber, moving up from 7th to 2nd..
First, and eventually the only, retirement came from Torro Rosso's Jean Eric Vergne who suffered an early puncture and never made up ground after that..
The two Mclaren's had a good fight between them for 7th and 8th and later moved up to 5th and 6th.. Thats the best the team can do unless there are some major retirements at the front of the field.. Di Resta had really good race pace and was in P2 at half race distance.. It was going to be a fight between him and Raikkonen for P3..
Ferrari were having an unimpressive race with Massa in 9th and Alonso in 12th at the half way mark.. Not a good weekend for the team.. The Mercedes team too didn't really have anything to be very happy about with their cars racing in 7th and 9th..
There was good fight for positions 5 through 8 between Button, Perez, Grosjean and Rosberg.. The two Mclaren's touching each other.. And Grosjean almost touching the back of Perez's Mclaren before passing Perez and later Button for P4 on lap 34..
Vettel was unbeatable.. He kept racing perfectly lap after lap.. Noone had a chance to even get close to him.. He had a lead of almost 30 seconds at one point of time.. This lead was just going to get bigger..
Raikkonen pit for what was going to be his last stop on lap 35.. Now it was a race to the finish and in his case a race for P3 or maybe even P2..
Webber pit for the last time and after that he never was on par with his first stint and dropped back.. Later on he had a fight with Hamilton for 5th.. Grosjean who was running in 2nd made his final stop and came out in 5th.. He was quick enough to hunt down Di Resta, whose tires were falling off the pace, for 3rd place.. Something that was not expected.. So now it was Vettel, Raikkonen and Grosjean top 3..
Alonso made a late charge and got past Button and Rosberg and then had a good fight with Perez for 7th but since he didn't have DRS he could not get past..
The battle between Hamilton and Webber wasn't over until the very last lap when Hamilton got past the Red Bull into turn 1 and maintained the advantage to the chequered flag.. Webber also lost out to Perez in the last lap and finally finished in 7th..
Di Resta was the driver of the day for me.. Even though he finished in 4th and deserved to be on the podium he showed us what he is made of.. A late race drop in pace and maybe a misjudged pit stop caused him a sure shot 3rd place.. Still this equals his best finish yet and there's a lot more to come from him..
Massa had a disastrous outing and wasn't able to really to show us the pace he had in Practice.. Charles Pic finished ahead of Gutierrez and that's surely a good sign for the team.. Max Chilton celebrates his 22nd birthday today.. Happy Birthday Max!
Results:
Thats the first 4 races of the season done and its clear now that Red Bull and Lotus are the fastest.. Ferrari are right up there too.. Mercedes have the qualifying pace and need to look at improving their race pace and get on the podium and win races..Mclaren! results don't really prove anything for them.. They really need to improve over the next 3 weeks and come back stronger in Spain.. Force India have had a good first few races even though they had a non finish in Malaysia.. Right now they are ahead of Mclaren in the championship and that's surely going to give them a confidence boost going into the European leg of the season..
In the second half of the grid Torro Rosso are leading the Sauber team.. Sauber has not shown even the slightest of signs of the team they were last year.. Need to improve greatly.. Williams are having another disastrous season with not a single point scored out of 4 races.. Lets hope Spain changes their fortune, after all the win in Spain last year alone gave the team a third of their overall points haul for the season.. Marussia's Bianchi has given the team a lot of hope to finish ahead of the Caterham's.. His season so far has bought him a lot of positive attention and that's only going to get better as the season progresses..
3 weeks until Spain and that's quite a long break.. Many teams still have a lot to prove.. Red Bull and Lotus are the only ones who can be relaxed for now before they continue their excellent season so far..
Kimi please stay at Lotus and don't move elsewhere.. Lotus is the only team where Kimi can be KIMI..
Enjoy the days ahead and be sure to catch up on F1.. See ya all in 3 weeks.. :)
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