Jenson Button braved heat and burning flesh to take the win in Bahrain in round four of the 2009 Formula One World Championship. Vettel remains a strong contender for the title taking second place.

Ferrari scored their first points of the season but continue to have KERS reliability issues. Massa’s race was ruined early when he had KERS malfunction and his strategy ruined.

Photos from the race will be on motorsportf1media.org by the end of the day with a download link to go with it.

A delayed post!

Jenson Button wins third win in the initial four races at Sakhir circuit in Bahrain. Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing was second. The difference between the two was that latter was stuck for most of race behind Toyota. Also, it seems like Ross Brawn has given Jenson Button has given a lot of confidence this year apart from a fast car. It now talk of every town whether Jenson Button can bring home the championship at the end of the season.

Kimi Raikkonen brought home Ferrari’s first points of the season.  Also called by Montezemolo, the morale boosting points!

Lewis Hamilton came fourth with a strong race and an impressive pace. He started using KERS optimally to go as high as second. The new found pace has made the team believe that they can win races this year and its not too late.

All the focus now shift on the verdict FIA will be giving to McLaren during mid-week!

F1 Hybrid car for Buemi

STR has explained why Buemi’s car was nearly impossible to drive in Bahrain:

“When he came in for a pit stop, the team realised a 20 centimetre long piece of debris off one of the BMWs had bounced off the track and lodged itself in Seb’s front wing”.

“It completely changed the balance of the car and I was losing masses of time on every lap and there was nothing I could do” said Buemi.

Buemi now faces a penalty for the Spanish GP, having used an illegal damper in Bahrain.

F1 Webber should sing

The good thing with the current qualifying format is that it provides us with the certainty that their will be a race in every F1 weekend.

The bad thing is that most of the F1 drivers are quite good. They only depend on the performance of their cars and the ingenuity of their engineers.

Webber gave himself no chance to perform well in Bahrain. His race “was screwed” in qualifying. This despite having one of the best cars of the bunch, the best car according to Button, who himself won three of the four first races of the season.

Bad strategies from most teams will always come as a justification that this time was not their time. Like the two Beemers (bummers) who had the bad idea to both lose their noses in the opening lap of the grand prix.

At the end of the day the qualifying session comes as an extra challenge for the drivers themselves. They cannot ignore that F1 unlike WRC is not a competition where the road belongs to one competitor at a time. In Nascar it’s even more difficult to perform, as a split second decision can earn or cost you twenty places.

Vettel made his luck in China. He nearly ended his session in Q1. In the second and third round he did one lap only and in both occasions Vettel was the fastest. As he admitted: “if you only have one lap and if you have any mistake, you go wide or whatever, there is no second chance and it means it is the end.”

There will always be a bit of sand in motor racing, and it is quite fortunate. It will be up to every driver to admit that his choices were good or bad. Luck will only give you the best car or the worst.

This should give Webber a good reason to look forward to Barcelona.

Could Mclaren still win this championship?

It’s not impossible that Mclaren could fight back and win a championship this season. The amount of progress that they have made since pre-season testing has been staggering. In the test in Spain they were over two seconds of the pace of Brawn GP. However Mclaren have immense resources and personnel. If anyone can quickly cure their problems and close the gap then it’s Mclaren. Remember 2004 when Mclaren came back to win at Spa after a dreadfully slow and unreliable start to the season.

Each weekend so far this season they have made strides forward. Hamilton did a great qualifying lap and was 5^thon the grid on merit rather the result of a lighter fuel load. He qualified ahead of Barrichello with more fuel on board.

In the race he was able to keep up with the front runners, but fell back a bit in the last stint. 4^th was still a stunning result for the team. This a result which many would have regarded as impossible before the season began.

Perhaps the most impressive fact was Lewis’s position in the fastest laps of the race chart. His lap was less than 0.4 seconds slower than Trulli’s quickest lap. Both their fastest laps were set towards the end of the first stint. That is now the gap Mclaren have between themselves and the front three of Red Bull, Toyota and Brawn (who incidentally are now much more closely matched than at the start of 2009).

In Spain Mclaren will be bringing a substantial upgrade. A few weeks ago there were predictions from people inside the team, saying that the car would fly in Spain. That suggestion sounded crazy back then, but after seeing the progress the car is making, then maybe it’s not impossible.

Mclaren will have keep control of their expectations as other teams including Ferrari and BMW Sauber are planning massive upgrades are. Brawn GP are also introducing their first major season upgrade in Spain. Therefore they can’t be too cocky.

Nobody is going to be standing still between now and Spain. Lewis admitted that there is even a chance of Mclaren falling backwards in Spain. It all depends on how good everyone else’s major upgrades. The order could look completely different in Spain as the field is so tight. A few tenth’s worth of development will shuffle teams around.

Catalunya is a circuit where it’s important to have really good aerodynamic efficiency, and good tyre management. This is a very demanding circuit where cars with shortcomings are found out. If Mclaren can show a good performance there, then signs could be very promising for the rest of the season.

I think McLaren will end up winning races this season but I feel they will have to wait a bit longer. I can see them returning as regular front runners in the second half of the season.

In terms of the championship it could be too late by then. The gap could be too big to close down. Of course the other factor is what punishment Mclaren receive from the WMSC on Wednesday.

Why were BMW Sauber down at the back of the field?

BMW Sauber probably had their worse race since starting out in 2006. Their race went downhill right front the start when they made contact with other cars on the first lap. Both cars lost some aerodynamic parts, and this affected their performance for the rest of the duration.

BMW Sauber seem to have gone backwards since the season began, as opposed to making some progress as Ferrari, Renault and Mclaren have. For a team that were so bullish about their championship chances in 2009 it has been a very disappointing start.

It will feel even more disappointing to the team, since they shifted focus onto the 2009 car after their win in Canada last season. This was despite the fact Robert Kubica was leading the championship after that race.

Any hope of Robert Kubica leading the championship at some point this season look pretty grim. They have pinned all their hopes on an upgrade in Spain, but everyone will have upgrades. It will have to be a pretty spectacular upgrade if they want to challenge for this year’s title.

They may now regret that they didn’t push harder for the 2008 title. Then again they won’t have been expecting Mclaren and Ferrari not to make so many errors in the 2^nd half of the season. However if you have any sniff at all of challenging for a title you should always try and push for it.

Instead they pinned 2009 as their major title challenge. Maybe 2008 could have been that year and it eluded them.

Have the teams running KERs lost out?

The three front runners: Brawn GP, Toyota and Red Bull do not use the KERs system. The teams that have used the KERs system so far: Mclaren, Ferrari, Renault and BMW Sauber have all endured difficult starts to the season.

It seems that the KERs system hasn’t given the teams running it, as much of an advantage as predicted in the early stages. It’s useful at the start on tracks with a long run down to turn 1. It has also proven to be very useful when defending a position, and occasionally when on the offence.

In terms of the overall lap time KERs hasn’t added that much. Maybe around 0.3 seconds per lap.

The teams operating KERs have spent millions and invested a huge amount of time in getting in the device to work in terms of performance, safety and reliability. Also they have had to deal with the weight disadvantage from it. They are not as free to distribute the weight around the car.

The teams who opted not to run KERs have been more fully focused in adapting their cars to the new aerodynamic regulations. There has been more time to be won from adapting this approach. KERs haven’t taken up a large weight on their minds (quite literally).

Those teams who opted to run KERs haven’t spent as much time purely focusing on the aerodynamics, and have been building their car to accommodate KERs.

Toyota has been the most critical of KERs saying that at most tracks it won’t be much of an advantage. So far they look to be right. Many thought teams like Toyota would suffer in races because of having no KERs system. It hasn’t worked out that way at all.

Building a car that doesn’t have to accommodate KERs, and focusing purely on the aero has proved the correct decision as it stands.

Will a KERs car win a race this season? I think Mclaren may win a few races later on in the season, but I don’t hold as much hope for the others.

Has overtaking improved?

Bahrain was the first “normal conditions” race. In Australia the race was in the evening with cooler track temperatures. Also the super -soft tyre there turned out to be a disaster. That had a major effect on spicing up that race. Sepang and Shanghai were both wet races.

Bahrain was then a true test of much overtaking has improved. Overall it didn’t turn out to be a race with much overtaking. On a track where its ment to be easy to overtake, that’s not good news. We saw quite a few battles in the early laps of the race, but that’s when the field was still bunched together after the start.

The new regulations were supposed to make the following time just one second. Vettel was much faster when he was following Hamilton and Trulli, but he never came close to overtaking them. The Trulli train made an unwelcome return.

The cars look as if they can follow each other a little bit more closely but not necessarily close enough to make overtaking easier. Overall I would say there has been a slight improvement in overtaking, but not the significant improvement fans were hoping. Most of the drivers have all commented that overtaking is still difficult. Timo Glock went as far as saying it was now even tougher.

Overtaking cars with KERs is near impossible if you don’t have the system yourself. A driver who has KERs can press the button when the car behind is in their slipstream and pull away. It’s vital not to end up behind a car that uses the system as some found out to their cost in the Bahrain GP. This is why Button’s move on Hamilton on lap 2 was so special and critical to his race result.

A factor in Bahrain was that the slipstreams were very hot due to the conditions. Some drivers may have been holding back, due to overheating issues.

Therefore I think Spain may be the confirmation of whether the racing has improved or not. In Spain we always tend to get dull races. If we see a few more moves than usual, then there has been a definite step forward. If we get the usual tedious Spanish GP then we know that not enough has been done to help address the overtaking issue. A re-think may be necessary.

The Bahrain GP weekend was another intriguing F1 race weekend with plenty more thinking points. Let’s look at the main talking points of this weekend’s action.

Button’s pass on Hamilton sets him up to win against the odds. Was it his best performance of the season so far?

Going into the race it wasn’t looking brilliant for Jenson. He had qualified 4^th and was surrounded by KERs cars. To make matters worse the Brawn GP was struggling badly with overheating. The temperature was three or four degrees higher than they could realistically cope with. The Brawn GP car wouldn’t be able to cope with staying in another car’s turbulent air.

The first couple of laps were going to be crucial if Jenson was going to have any chance to challenge for this victory. Button got a decent start and was able to get ahead of Sebastien Vettel. Unfortunately Hamilton pressed his KERs button halfway down the straight and was able to get ahead. Button was also heavily challenged by the Ferraris but he managed to hold them off. That was critical.

Button was currently 4^th behind Hamilton, and the two Toyotas running away ahead. Button had to pass Hamilton. At the end of the first lap Hamilton made an error at turn 14. This allowed Button to get up right close. Button then nailed Hamilton in a very brave out-braking move into turn 1. Had Button not made this move, he would have been stuck behind Hamilton for a long time. He would have then had to hang back so his car didn’t overheat.

However now he had some clear track, and importantly clean air. He managed to keep the gap to the Toyotas stable. He was running longer and was able to leapfrog the pair of them at the pit stops.

As the Trulli train formed Button was able to get away and build a gap of around thirteen seconds, which he then maintained for the rest of the race.

It was a fantastic performance by Jenson Button. This was his best drive of the season. The car didn’t have the advantage it had at previous events. There was the overheating issue too, which Ross Brawn described before the race as “trouble”. He had a lot of work to do at the start to make a victory challenge even possible. He pulled it off brilliantly.

He has now extended his championship lead to 12 points, and is looking in brilliant shape.

Should Toyota have won their first race?

I think they should have done, and they may well look back on this race with some regret. Toyota was very fast this weekend. They were comfortably the quickest in qualifying (and that’s even taking into account the fuel loads). They were also 1-2 in the fastest lap of the race charts. In terms of pace they had the edge on their closest rivals.

In the first stint they were dominating and looking in great shape. However from the 1^st stop onwards it started to go wrong and they fell backwards.

They decided to switch onto the harder tyre for their long middle stint, which proved to be the wrong move. Both Trulli and Glock struggled for performance on this tyre. Trulli held up Vettel and Hamilton losing ground on Button with each passing lap. Glock struggled even more with the tyres and fell even further back. They should have put on the super-softs for this stint of the race.

Trulli was then on the right tyre for the last stint. However he then ended up being leapfrogged by Vettel, who was running longer than him in the second stint. If Trulli could have passed Vettel early on in the stint, he could have put pressure on Button (who was now doing his stint with the harder and slower tyre), and make him have to push and put his revs up higher. Jarno however never got close to attempting a move on the young German.

Trulli ended up with a podium at the end of the race, but it could have been a completely different story. Toyota lost out by being too conservative on their strategy. This is something that they have now conceded.

A key factor could have been Toyota’s lack experience at racing at the front of the pack. Ross Brawn on the other hand has years of experience at calling the shots at the front. He hardly ever makes a strategic error. I think this is an important difference between the two teams. I am sure Toyota will have learnt a lot from this race and their race tactics will improve in future.

The team are looking in very good shape at the moment and they will get another opportunity to win soon.

Vettel was the pre-race favourite after the car weights were revealed. Why didn’t he win?

Vettel could have challenged for the win but didn’t end in clean air when he needed to be. At the start he was overtaken by Hamilton, but wasn’t able to re-pass him quickly like Button was able to. Vettel couldn’t find a way past. Every time Vettel was getting close Hamilton could defend with his KERs button. He ended spending the whole stint behind Lewis. This lost him over ten seconds.

In the second stint he then got stuck behind Jarno Trulli’s Toyota. At this point of the race Vettel was around one second faster than Jarno but couldn’t find a way through. This allowed Button to drive into the distance.

Vettel managed to leap into 2^nd place after the second round of pit stops but it was too late. He also had Jarno Trulli on the super-soft tyre right behind him, and therefore was now defending against him.

Being behind slower cars cost him the potential of challenging for a second successive victory, but 2^nd is still an extremely strong result. Maybe he should have tried a lunge into turn 1, as Button did to Lewis with success early on in the race.

Burning hot Sakhir International Circuit proved lucky for Ferrari as Kimi Raikkonen scored 3 valuable championship points in Bahrain GP.

Superficially, these points hardly matter for a team like Ferrari in its championship bid (which looks like long lost). But it was a huge morale boost, which the team needed badly. The main issue of reliability apparently seemed solved for one Ferrari, ended Massa’s chance of scoring after 5 laps. Huge questionmark over feasibility of KERS system still lingers over Ferrari pits as a malfunction only made KERS a burden for the rest of the race. It was really painful to see race leader Jenson Button lap past him halfway through the race! In addition to development of rear double decker diffuser, sorting this mess up will be a huge challenge for the team before F1 enters Europe on 10th May, at Spain.

If experts are to be believed, all the teams will be ready with their versions or equivalents of rear double decker diffusers. So it will be interesting to see whether Brawn GP will continue to dominate due to their headstart or not.

Jenson Button took a comfortable win in the Bahrain GP to take three wins from the first four GP’s of the season and moves to 31 points, 11 points clear of teammate Rubens Barrichello. With Barrichello finishing 5th, the Brawn team moves 23 points clear of Red Bull.

The race got off to a great start with Timo Glock getting ahead of Trulli while Hamilton made the best of the KERS system to move ahead of both Button and Vettel to move into 3rd place by the end of the first turn. Hamilton stayed in this position for most of the first lap but Button made the most important move of the race going into turn 1 the second time around. Outbraking Hamilton heading into the corner, Button was able to make the move stick and he was able to get on with the business of chasing the Toyotas ahead of him. Vettel was not able to do this and it cost him valuable seconds which could have spent making up the gap to the front runners to make his fuel strategy work.

Glock was the first into the pits on lap 11 and when he reentered in traffic with the harder tyre and this virtually ended Glock’s chances at running at the front. Vettel tried to make the most of his strategy staying out until lap 19 but when he pitted from the lead he reentered behind Trulli but ahead of Hamilton. By this time Trulli was 1 second per lap slower due to the medium tyre, furthering hampering Vettel’s chances at fighting for the win.By the team he had gotten past Trulli, Button was already comfortably in the lead and Vettel’s only chance was to hope for reliability issues.

Behind the top four, Barrichello gambled on a three stop strategy which left him fighting in traffic and he would eventually finish in 5th place behind Hamilton  who ended the race in 4th. Behind Barichello, Kimi Raikkonen took 6th after displaying some of the determination and skill that made him world champion to give Ferrari their first points for the season. He was followed by Glock, Alonso and Nico Rosberg who again had a disappointing race for the Williams team. The under-performing Nelson Piquet had his best finish of the season in 10th place only 13 seconds behind teammate Alonso. Webber was able to make it from 18th to 11th and he wass followed by Kovalainen who had to recover from another terrible start which had  him as low as 16th at one point. Bourdais took 13th spot to outperform his rookie teammate Buemi who was down in 17th and hardly made an appearance for the race. There was disappointment again for Felipe Massa who could only manage 14th and just ahead of the two Force India drivers, but the biggest disappointment of the dayt had to be in the BMW team. Both Kubica and Heidfeld lacked the pace to compete even in the midfield and came 18th and 19th respectively ahead of Kaz Nakajima who retired late in the race.

No ha sido uno de los grandes premios más emocionantes. Con todo decidido casi desde el principio, los adelantamientos se limitaron a las paradas en boxes. Las nuevas reglas para favorecer los adelantamientos no tuvieron un gran impacto, teniendo tres diferentes coches – Red Bull, Toyota, McLaren – siguiend de cerca uno a otro en menos de un segundo durante el segundo tramo de la carrera.

Los Brawn GP volvieron a demostrar su superioridad, dejando claro que de no haber sido por la lluvia hubieran ganado en China.

Red Bull es el equipo con mas posibilidades de mejora (dicen que en Mónaco), recordad ni difusor, ni KERS, y tendrán los dos mejoras casi seguro en algún momento del campeonato.

Alonso dejó muestras de su competitividad en un gran adelantamiento a Trulli, pero ente la clasificación de ayer, y una mala salida hoy tapado por Rosberg, se le escapo cualquier posibilidad de podio. Renault todavia está lejos del ritmo de carrera de los de delante.

Ferrari está anunciando su vuelta y definitiamente debe estar arriba em Barcelona – hoy fueron mejores que los Renault, y por supuesto McLaren, y el ínclito Hamilton, que poco a poco van rebajando la distancia con los de arriba.

F1 Bahrain GP qualifying: Toyota’s roadshow

Vettel was once again the happy man in Bahrein. I don’t know what this guy drinks but it works very well for him. It’s fresher than the Kimi brew.

Surprisingly Trulli and Glock did not seem overwhelmed by their performance after the qualifying session.

As hinted by Vettel, the two Toyotas were much lighter than the rest of the grid. The strategy of the Japanese team was clear: be on pole to please Mr Okamoto.

In race such strategy will not work that well, but since the Toyota cars won’t have anymore breaks after ten laps, they might not even need to refuel.

Vettel, Hamilton, Button and Alonso were more conservative. Both Ferrari as well.  Barrichello was quite light and he should have earned the pole.

Either Brawn GP have lost their advantage, or Barrichello would not be able to win the race anyway, even with.. let’s say a Ferrari.

As usual the practice sessions had not been very revealing.

Trulli takes pole in Bahrain!

Wow. Formula One really is a sending us on a crazy journey of discovery this year. Firstly, we have one of last years poorest teams (albeit with a new name) running away with the first two races, then two grandee teams performing much worse than we would normally expect. And now – perhaps the most shocking of all – a Toyota could win tomorrows race!

 Trulli – master qualifier does it again!

Toyota finally seem to have a car capable of winning. It’s taken years of investment in cars that always looked a couple of years out of date, but now they have built a car that was actually one of the most exciting in terms of design. And its paying off. In Jarno’s hands, it’s on pole, and in Glock’s hands, it’s steamed through the field in races. Toyota are the only team in F1 to win a race (Force India did in their Jordan guise) but it may not be long until every team in F1 has won a race at some point in their history, something which used to seem impossible.

However, ther are suggestions that Toyota’s brakes may give them cause for concern during the race. It also appears that Toyota were running rather light – but if they can pull away quick enough, there is still every chance they could do it.

Brawn loosing their edge?

It’s too early to say that Brawn are already loosing their edge over their rivals. Firstly, their car is extremely good with tyres, and secondly, Button was only a little lighter than Vettel and a ton heavier than the Toyotas.

It’s race pace that really matters when you have a car as good as the Brawn, and if the strategy is right, Button may well do it, but it will be more of a fight than it was in Australia. If Button can do it with so much pressure, he;’ll finally be able to start shaking off the image of a ‘great – but not first class – driver’.

Red Bull still in the mix

It testament to Adrian Newey and the technical ability of the Red Bull team (we shouldn’t forget Geoff Willis and the other guys), that they are still in the mix at the front despite the competition around them having a double-decker diffuser. I’d be tempted not to mess around too much with the car – adding one may well take away it edge which would be incredible!

The fact remains that Vettel could win again tomorrow. It’d be great for F1 if he did…

McLaren – on their way back to the front?

McLaren’s pace of development suggests that they will be fighting for wins by the end of the season. They are in a different league to the two other teams everyone was expecting would be winning this year – Ferrari and BMW-Sauber. It’ll do Hamilton a lot of good to prove that he can be a part of a team that develops a car from a relatively poor starting position into a front runner.

Of course, we should always remeber the Ferrari of 2005. It looked like they were sorting out their problems at the begining of the European season only for them to move backwards again fairly quickly. They aren’t out of the water yet…

Force India – the disappointment of qualifying – and others

I was hoping for a good showing by the Silverstone squad. I don’t know why they can’t quite manage it – they’ve added a new diffuser and still can’t run with the midfield. They must start to improve soon of they are to stop the potential fall back down the order to the very back of the field. Luckily, they may well have some competition down there next year which would be good for them.

Sutil messing up Webber’s lap was, well, frankly stupid, but I sense he felt he finally had a half decent car and just got too aggressive. He’ll start right at the back now.

Williams had what appeared to be a poor qualifying, but Nico Rosberg has a huge amount of fuel on board and may well be able to fight for points. And Nelson Piquet Jr has continued galloping towards the F1 exit door. He’ll be gone soon.

Jarno Trulli got the fourth pole position of his career when he beat his teammate Timo Glock by 0.3 of a second and Toyota’s first grid lockout. Trulli later dedicated the pole position to his fellow countrymen who suffered during this months earthquake.

Q3 belonged to the Toyota’s from the opening runs as they were 1-2 after their first stints but were moved off the front by Button and the fast improving McLaren of Lewis Hamilton who were both on hot laps together. However Button’s hold on pole was short lived as Timo Glock went much faster with a 1:33:712 and looked quite convincing for the pole position. Vettel and Trulli were on hot laps together and even though Vettel looked threatening in sector 1, he couldn’t move Glock and finished 0.3 seconds off the Germans pace but moved Button down to fourth. Trulli however was in hot pursuit and posted a time of 1:33:413 to grab pole and the Toyota front row lock out.

Rubens Barrichello was unable to prevent Lewis Hamilton from splitting the two Brawn cars and finished in 6th spot while Fernando Alonso claimed seventh spot in the Renault ahead of Felipe Massa who had his best qualifying performance of the season with 8th place. Behind Massa was Williams’ Nico Rosberg was once more unable to turn his practice pace into qualifying form and finished a disappointing 9th ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Those who failed to make the final shootout included Heikki Kovalainen and Nakajima who were followed by the struggling BMW’s of Kubica and Heidfeld who finished in 13th and 14th spots respectively. Noteably absent from Q2 and possibly Q3 was Mark Webber who was blocked by Adrian Sutil early in Q1 and will start from 18th. For this Sutil was penalised 3 grid spots and dropped to 19th just ahead of Bourdais who was again outclassed by Toro Rosso teammate and rookie Sebastien Buemi.

1. Trulli       Toyota                 648.5

 2. Glock        Toyota                 643.0

 3. Vettel       Red Bull-Renault       659.0

 4. Button       Brawn-Mercedes         652.5

 5. Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes       652.5

 6. Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes         649.0

 7. Alonso       Renault                650.5

 8. Massa        Ferrari                664.5

 9. Rosberg      Williams-Toyota        670.5

10. Raikkonen    Ferrari                671.5

11. Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes       678.5

12. Nakajima     Williams-Toyota        680.9

13. Kubica       BMW-Sauber             698.6

14. Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber             696.3

15. Piquet       Renault                677.6

16. Sutil        Force India-Mercedes   679.0

17. Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari     678.5

18. Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes   652.0

19. Webber       Red Bull-Renault       656.0

20. Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     667.5

Finally the car weights are in and there are some very interesting conclusions. The Toyotas aren’t that much lighter as many were expecting. Sebastien Vettel is heavier than those around him meaning that he did an outstanding lap, and is in a very strong position.

Timo Glock is the lightest of the front runners and he will come in around lap 12/13. Trulli has two laps more fuel and will be in on lap 14/15. Jenson Button will be in on lap 15/16. So this is only one lap after Trulli is due to stop. This means that Trulli comfortably beat Button on merit, and not because of a much lighter fuel load. This just shows what a brilliant lap Trulli produced. It’s what we have come to expect from him.

Vettel looks like he is in a great position. He has qualified third and he has about six laps more fuel than Glock and about three or four laps more fuel than polesitter Trulli. He will be visiting the pits for the first time on lap 18/19.

Hamilton will also come in on lap 15/16. He got amongst the Brawn GPs on merit. He had more fuel on board than Barrichello who is behind him. Mclaren has made a massive stride forward in the last few weeks.

Barrichello is down in 6^th and only has 14/15 laps of fuel on board. Barrichello simply didn’t have a great lap at all. He has it all to do tommorrow.

Massa, Rosberg and Raikkonen are the heaviest men of the top 10 and will all be doing a long first stint beyond 20 laps.

The BMW Saubers are the heaviest cars on the grid and will be going beyond lap 30. They are surely on a one stop strategy.

Summary of difference in laps of fuel between the front runners

Timo Glock is the lightest on fuel

Jarno Trulli + 2/3 laps

Rubens Barrichello + 2/3 laps

Jenson Button +3/4 laps

Lewis Hamilton + 3/4 laps

Sebastien Vettel +5/6 laps

My race predictions

Tommorrow is looking like it’s a very open race. Brawn GP are going to have work extremely hard if they want to win this race. In qualifying the fuel loads show that Brawn GP was beaten on pure pace. Jarno Trulli beat Button by just over 0.6 seconds. Being one or 2 laps lighter doesn’t account for all that time difference. Brawn GP look like they have been overtaken in terms of one lap pace.

Toyota is just very quick this weekend. We hadn’t seen their full potential yet this season as they have had some penalties, and we have had two rain affected races. Today they have proven that they have a fast car.

Whether they can translate that to their maiden F1 win is a different matter.

Brawn GP’s long runs have looked very good, although their race pace isn’t as dominant as it was in Australia. They are able to look after their tyres, particularly the super-softs better than anybody else. However we now know that they can’t rely on having substantially more fuel, so they are going to have to overtake cars if they want to win this race. Their other main problem is that they are surrounded by cars with KERs. Off the line KERs will be a big advantage here, as it’s a much longer run down to turn 1 than in China last week.

This means by the end of lap one, Brawn could be as many as three or four positions down on where they started. This means that despite their likely superior race pace, they could well end up giving themselves far too much to do to win this race. If they get stuck behind cars with KERs it will be very tough to overtake them, as the boast button will be used in order to defend.

Vettel is my favourite for tommorrow’s race. The Red Bull looks to be working very well around Bahrain just as it did in China. He is also heavier than the Toyotas ahead of him, and the cars directly behind him. If he gets a solid start and keeps Toyota in sight, then come the pit stops he has a great chance of leapfrogging them. He has shown how strong his race pace is so far this season. But like the Brawns he too has be wary of the KERs cars.

Hamilton has got an outside chance of a podium tomorrow. The car looks much better this weekend, and he seems very positive and up for the battle. 5^th was a great result for him. He is the first of the KERs cars on the grid, and he will fancy his chances at getting amongst the front runners into turn 1.

I think this race will either be won by Timo Glock or Sebastien Vettel. Jarno Trulli’s race pace isn’t as strong as his one lap place so I think he will start well but fall back as the race progesses. Vettel and Glock will take over the battle for the win. As Vettel is heavier than Glock, and has been looking strong all weekend I will back him for the victory. It will be very closely fought though.

Button could join this battle if he gets a good start and doesn’t lose too much time behind KERS cars. The first couple of laps tomorrow are going to be critical in how the battle for victory unfolds, and who is going to contest it.

I think we are in for a great race with lots of overtaking tomorrow. Let’s hope we don’t get the sandstorm that is currently being predicted.

My top 8 predictions

1.      Sebastien Vettel

2.      Timo Glock

3.      Jenson Button

4.      Lewis Hamilton

5.      Jarno Trulli

6.      Rubens Barrichello

7.      Heikki Kovalainen

8.      Felipe Massa

Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock will start tomorrow’s Gulf Air Bahrain GP at 1 and 2 position respectively followed by Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing. Toyoto used their experience of pre-season practice at Bahrain and if they finish in this position tomorrow, will open the season open.

The most promising part of the qualifying was the pace of Lewis Hamilton of McLaren who split Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello of Brawn GP.

With the field catching up on double diffusers and other developments Brawn GP are feeling the heat! Much dreaded will be a double diffuser on a Red Bull car as Vettel achieved third qualifying with 10.5 kg more weight that Toyota of Jarno Trulli!!

The two Ferrari are at 8 and 10 as Felipe Massa qualified 8 and Kimi Raikkonen 10. If they aren’t able to gather a point in this race it will be their worst start ever!!!

Adrian Sutil qualified 16 but impeded Mark Webber and was handed a 3 place penalty.

The best part however is the season is open and upto developments by the time championship enter European phase.

A Toyota esteve imbatível na sessão de Qualificação para o GP do Bahrein, com Jarno Trulli a obter a pole position, logo na frente de Timo Glock e do Red Bull de Sebastien Vettel.

A temporada 2009 está a ser uma das mais imprevistas da história da Fórmula , e agora foi a vez de a Toyota surpreender, mostrando-se imbatível na Qualificação para o GP do Bahrein, com o veterano Jarno Trulli a conquistar a pole position, a quarta da sua carreira, e a terceira da Toyota.

Para a equipa nipónica, o dia de hoje será para festejos, já que além da pole de Trulli, com uma volta feita em 1:33.431s, a primeira linha será só Toyota, com Timo Glock a fazer o 2º tempo, a 0.281s do colega de equipa. Esta é a primeira vez que a primeira linha da grelha é totalmente Toyota.

Trulli afirmou que “Não foi uma qualificação fácil para ninguém e em especial para nós, já que sofremos com alguns problemas ao longo do fim-de-semana, primeiro com a bomba de combustível e depois com os travões, que não estavam ao meu gosto, mas sabia que tinha um bom carro e que podia lutar pela ‘pole’. Estou muito feliz pela equipa, que passou por momentos difíceis nestas últimas semanas”.

O veterano confessou ainda que “não estava muito confiante para a Qualificação porque trabalhámos, sobretudo, para a corrida”.

Timo Glock mostrou-se igualmente muito satisfeito com a sua prestação, apesar de também reconhecer algumas dificuldades com os travões ao longo do fim-de-semana. O alemão afirmou que “Foi uma boa qualificação, mas foi muito dificil, já que o vento mudou e tornou o carro mais dificil de pilotar. Dei o meu melhor, mas sabia que seria complicado bater o Jarno na Qualificação, ainda para mais depois de cometer um pequeno erro”.

Em 3º irá partir Sebastien Vettel, que se mostrou também satisfeito com a sua performance. O jovem alemão da Red Bull espera que os Toyota parem mais cedo para o reabastecimento na corrida. Fazendo alusão a uma possível diferença de peso dos Toyota em relação à concorrência, Vettel afirmou que “Foi uma boa sessão para nós. Na Q1 tínhamos um carro muito rápido e não tivemos problemas, na Q2 voltámos a ser os mais rápidos mas na Q3 os Toyota foram, simplesmente, mais rápidos. Estou ansioso pela corrida, e espero que os Toyota parem mais cedo que nós”.

Jenson Button não conseguiu fazer melhor do que o 4º tempo, sendo que esta é a primeira vez que um Brawn GP não partirá nos três primeiros. Logo atrás irá partir Lewis Hamilton, que conseguiu fazer a 5ª marca no seu McLaren, conseguindo ficar pela primeira vez nesta temporada à frente de um dos Brawn GP, neste caso o de Rubens Barrichello, sendo o único dos carros da equipa de Woking a conseguir chegar à última fase da Qualificação. Heikki Kovalainen não fez mais do que o 11º tempo.

Fernando Alonso não foi capaz de surpreender como fez na China, sendo apenas o sétimo mais rápido, logo na frente do melhor dos Ferrari, de Felipe Massa, que desta vez chegou à Q3, que já não disputava desde o GP da Austrália. Pela primeira vez na temporada, a Escuderia de Maranello colocou os seus dois carros entre os dez primeiros, com Kimi Raikkonen a ser o décimo mais rápido, mas o finlandês deverá ter uma estratégia diferente, já que fez um tempo mais de dois segundos pior do que o de Trulli.

Ainda piores estiveram os BMW Sauber, que mais uma vez não conseguiram entrar na fase decisiva da qualificação, com Robert Kubica e Nick Heidfeld a não fazerem melhor do que o 13º e 14º tempos, respectivamente.

A Toro Rosso esteve mais apagada, não conseguindo colocar nenhum dos seus monolugares na 2ª fase da Qualificação. O Red Bull de Mark Webber foi uma das desilusões, não fazendo melhor do que a 19ª marca, o que se explica pelo facto de na sua última volta rápida ter sido bastante prejudicado por pilotos mais lentos, em especial por Adrian Sutil, que fez o 16º tempo. Contudo, por causa do ocorrido, o alemão irá perder 3 lugares na grelha.

Eis a classificação:

Pos Piloto       Equipa                   Q1        Q2        Q3   
 1. Trulli       Toyota                1:32.779  1:32.671  1:33.431
 2. Glock        Toyota                1:33.165  1:32.613  1:33.712
 3. Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      1:32.680  1:32.474  1:34.015
 4. Button       Brawn-Mercedes        1:32.978  1:32.842  1:34.044
 5. Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      1:32.851  1:32.877  1:34.196
 6. Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        1:33.116  1:32.842  1:34.239
 7. Alonso       Renault               1:33.627  1:32.860  1:34.578
 8. Massa        Ferrari               1:33.297  1:33.014  1:34.818
 9. Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       1:33.672  1:33.166  1:35.134
10. Raikkonen    Ferrari               1:33.117  1:32.827  1:35.380
11. Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      1:33.479  1:33.242
12. Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       1:33.221  1:33.348
13. Kubica       BMW-Sauber            1:33.495  1:33.487
14. Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            1:33.377  1:33.562
15. Piquet       Renault               1:33.608  1:33.941
16. Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1:33.722
17. Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:33.753
18. Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  1:33.910
19. Webber       Red Bull-Renault      1:34.038
20. Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:34.159

Com a penalização de Sutil, deve ser esta a grelha de partida:

Pos Piloto       Equipa                   Q1        Q2        Q3         
 1. Trulli       Toyota                1:32.779  1:32.671  1:33.431
 2. Glock        Toyota                1:33.165  1:32.613  1:33.712
 3. Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      1:32.680  1:32.474  1:34.015
 4. Button       Brawn-Mercedes        1:32.978  1:32.842  1:34.044
 5. Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      1:32.851  1:32.877  1:34.196
 6. Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        1:33.116  1:32.842  1:34.239
 7. Alonso       Renault               1:33.627  1:32.860  1:34.578
 8. Massa        Ferrari               1:33.297  1:33.014  1:34.818
 9. Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       1:33.672  1:33.166  1:35.134
10. Raikkonen    Ferrari               1:33.117  1:32.827  1:35.380
11. Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      1:33.479  1:33.242
12. Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       1:33.221  1:33.348
13. Kubica       BMW-Sauber            1:33.495  1:33.487
14. Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            1:33.377  1:33.562
15. Piquet       Renault               1:33.608  1:33.941
16. Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:33.753
17. Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  1:33.910
18. Webber       Red Bull-Renault      1:34.038
19. Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1:33.722 
20. Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:34.159

fontes: http://autosport.aeiou.pt/gen.pl?p=stories&op=view&fokey=as.stories/70026

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74801 (penalização de Sutil)

Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock claimed Toyota’s first ever Formula 1 front row sweep as the Japanese manufacturer dominated Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying.

The result was Toyota’s first pole since the 2005 Japanese GP, and came after increasingly impressive progress from the team in the opening rounds of the season.

Trulli and Glock held first and second after the early runs of Q3, and although Jenson Button (Brawn) and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) briefly pushed them down the order – fleetingly making it an all-British front row – the Toyota duo moved back to the top with their final runs.

Pole ultimately went to Trulli by 0.3 seconds, with his team-mate Glock enjoying the same margin back to third-placed Sebastian Vettel, whose excellent qualifying form for Red Bull continued.

Championship leader Button had to settle for fourth, ahead of Hamilton and Rubens Barrichello in the second Brawn.

Fernando Alonso claimed seventh for Renault, with the Ferraris in eighth and 10th – Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen split by Williams’s Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton’s progress actually knocked his McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen outside the Q3 cut-off, leaving him 11th, alongside Kazuki Nakajima, who was closer to Williams team-mate Rosberg than at recent races but still not quick enough for the top ten.

The BMWs will share row seven after another disappointing performance, while Renault’s Nelson Piquet finally reached Q2 for the first time in 2009, only for his error at the final corner to leave him 15th.

Last week’s third-place qualifier and second place finisher Mark Webber is set to start from the back row of the grid in Bahrain – but through no fault of his own.

The Red Bull was on course to easily make the Q2 cut when Webber was impeded by Adrian Sutil’s at the entry to the final corner, leaving the Australian in the bottom quarter of the grid along with the Force Indias and Toro Rossos.

Sutil managed a season-best 16th, although this will be in jeopardy if the stewards opt to issue any penalties over the Webber incident.

in: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74801

Sutil handed three-place penalty

Adrian Sutil has been handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Mark Webber during qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Force India driver had qualified in 16th position, but will now start from 19th after he spoilt Webber’s final run in Q1.

The Red Bull Racing driver was knocked out in the first session after the incident.

“I just tried to stay in my position to get a clear start to the lap. It was a misunderstanding and I apologised to Mark after the end of the session,” said Sutil.

in: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74812

Here are the standings:

Pos Driver       Team                      Q1        Q2        Q3      
 1. Trulli       Toyota                1:32.779  1:32.671  1:33.431
 2. Glock        Toyota                1:33.165  1:32.613  1:33.712
 3. Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      1:32.680  1:32.474  1:34.015
 4. Button       Brawn-Mercedes        1:32.978  1:32.842  1:34.044
 5. Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      1:32.851  1:32.877  1:34.196
 6. Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        1:33.116  1:32.842  1:34.239
 7. Alonso       Renault               1:33.627  1:32.860  1:34.578
 8. Massa        Ferrari               1:33.297  1:33.014  1:34.818
 9. Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       1:33.672  1:33.166  1:35.134
10. Raikkonen    Ferrari               1:33.117  1:32.827  1:35.380
11. Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      1:33.479  1:33.242
12. Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       1:33.221  1:33.348
13. Kubica       BMW-Sauber            1:33.495  1:33.487
14. Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            1:33.377  1:33.562
15. Piquet       Renault               1:33.608  1:33.941
16. Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1:33.722
17. Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:33.753
18. Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  1:33.910
19. Webber       Red Bull-Renault      1:34.038
20. Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:34.159

With Sutil penalized, the starding grid must be:

Pos Driver       Team                      Q1        Q2        Q3      
 1. Trulli       Toyota                1:32.779  1:32.671  1:33.431
 2. Glock        Toyota                1:33.165  1:32.613  1:33.712
 3. Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      1:32.680  1:32.474  1:34.015
 4. Button       Brawn-Mercedes        1:32.978  1:32.842  1:34.044
 5. Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      1:32.851  1:32.877  1:34.196
 6. Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        1:33.116  1:32.842  1:34.239
 7. Alonso       Renault               1:33.627  1:32.860  1:34.578
 8. Massa        Ferrari               1:33.297  1:33.014  1:34.818
 9. Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       1:33.672  1:33.166  1:35.134
10. Raikkonen    Ferrari               1:33.117  1:32.827  1:35.380
11. Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      1:33.479  1:33.242
12. Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       1:33.221  1:33.348
13. Kubica       BMW-Sauber            1:33.495  1:33.487
14. Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            1:33.377  1:33.562
15. Piquet       Renault               1:33.608  1:33.941
16. Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:33.753
17. Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  1:33.910
18. Webber       Red Bull-Renault      1:34.038
19. Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1:33.722 
20. Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:34.159

The final practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix provided a mix of emotions for Timo Glock, who set the fastest time of the weekend so far and then promptly stopped out on track with a technical problem.

The German’s final flier on super-softs, a 1m32.605s, was enough to topple Lewis Hamilton’s best up until that point by more than 0.3 seconds.

But on the following lap, with five minutes of the hour long session left to go, Glock’s car appeared to suffer some kind of electrical fault and he was forced to coast to the side of the backstraight.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa improved to second fastest in the last minutes of the session, eclipsing this year’s free practice star Nico Rosberg in the process.

Hamilton, who was fastest for much of the session, eventually tumbled down to fourth, while Kimi Raikkonen – who set the early pace – was fifth.

Nelson Piquet, who appears to be having a stronger weekend than of late, was sixth quickest ahead of BMW’s Robert Kubica and Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima. Jarno Trulli didn’t seem to go for a low-fuel run and ended up ninth, while Nick Heidfeld completed the top ten.

There were few incidents in the session, Heikki Kovalainen, who ended the session 12th behind Sebastian Vettel, had a throttle sensor problem early on.

Sebastien Bourdais also found himself pit-bound for much of the second half of the hour and ended practice in last place.

Here are the standings:

Pos  Driver        Team                 Time               Laps
 1.  Glock         Toyota               1:32.605           16
 2.  Massa         Ferrari              1:32.728 + 0.123   20
 3.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      1:32.906 + 0.301   18
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     1:32.975 + 0.370   16
 5.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              1:32.986 + 0.381   18
 6.  Piquet        Renault              1:33.176 + 0.571   19
 7.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           1:33.195 + 0.590   13
 8.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      1:33.302 + 0.697   17
 9.  Trulli        Toyota               1:33.397 + 0.792   19
10.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           1:33.415 + 0.810   14
11.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     1:33.443 + 0.838   16
12.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     1:33.478 + 0.873   12
13.  Alonso        Renault              1:33.482 + 0.877   13
14.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes 1:33.534 + 0.929   17
15.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    1:33.586 + 0.981   17
16.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    1:33.686 + 1.081   17
17.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:33.720 + 1.115   15
18.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     1:33.726 + 1.121   14
19.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes 1:33.962 + 1.357   15
20.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:34.990 + 2.385    7

in: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74795