Bahrain - Sakhir

12/03 - 14/03 2010

Lap Distance 6.299 Km

Race 49 Laps 308.405 Km

Fernando Alonso won the Bahrain GP first time out for Ferrari today. To the Maranello teams delight Alonso was followed home by his team mate Felipe Massa who afterwards said he was pleased with the result and thankful to be back in F1 following his horror crash last season. Alonso benefitted from an exhaust problem that struck the early and dominant leader Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull and allowed the Spaniard to catch and pass him on Lap 35. Massa immediately followed suit and so did Lewis Hamilton, the top four finishing the race in that order. It looked as though Vettel would also be passed by the Mercedes GP cars of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher in the closing stages but he nursed the car home ahead of the chasing Silver Arrows. Jenson Button finished in seventh place never really in contention with the leaders and afterwards hinting that he may have been slightly too conservative in the care of his tyres, something he would need to work on going forward. Mark Webber finished eighth after dropping back early on following a spin and although he recovered was not able to claw his way back to the leaders despite having what looked to be a faster car. Vitantonio Liuzzi made a good debut for the Force India Team taking ninth place, with the Williams of Rubens Barrichello closing out the top ten. Robert Kubica was next up for Renault, a disappointing eleventh ahead of the Force India of Adrian Sutil in twelfth. There were only three other cars running at the flag, Jaime Alguersuari, Nico Hulkenberg and the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen. So it was a strong start to the season for Ferrari but also an ominous message was sent out to everyone from the Red Bull team of just how fast the 2010 Adrian Newey designed car is, for certain Vettel would have won the race but for the exhaust failure.
 

The eagerly awaited start of what promises to be a scintillating Formula 1 season got underway in Bahrain today. With the return of the legendary Michael Schumacher and the Lotus and Senna names to the sport there was a huge amount of interest and high expectations surrounding the proceedings. Appropriately it was the Lotus of Jarno Trulli that was first out on track as the morning session got underway. The surprise performance of the session though came from the Force India of German ace Adrian Sutil who ended the session some 0.2s ahead of Ferrari's new recruit and ex double world champion Fernando Alonso. Robert Kubica was next up in third place for his new team Renault with Felipe Massa's Ferrari fourth fastest. The McLarens of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton closed out the top six fastest in the first session. The second session saw the proceedings dominated by Mercedes powered cars with Nico Rosberg fastest and making an early point to his illustrious and vastly more experienced Mercedes team mate Michael Schumacher who was third fastest. Lewis Hamilton was second almost a half second adrift of Rosberg with Jenson Button fourth. Sebastian Vettel was the fastest of the Red Bull drivers with team mate Mark Webber way down in 17th place after suffering drive shaft problems early on in the session. Williams rookie Nico 'the Hulk' Hulkenberg was a very creditable sixth fastest with his more experienced team mate Rubens Barrichello also new to the team back in thirteenth. The Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were seventh and ninth fastest sandwiching the impressive newcomer to the Renault team Vitaly Petrov. Pedro De La Rosa rounded out the top ten fastest in the Sauber. Just over four seconds separated the top sixteen. The Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen was the fastest of the new teams and drivers albeit over five seconds behind the leader and occupying eighteenth fastest place ahead of his team mate Jarno Trulli. The Virgin cars of Timo Glock and Lucas Di Grassi were next, with Bruno Senna in twenty second place for the new Hispania Racing Team and over ten seconds adrift of the fastest lap. Toro Rosso's Sebastian Buemi and HRT's Karun Chandhock failed to set a time, with the latter also unable to complete a lap in the first session. Controversy of the day went to McLaren with their 'innovative' cooling duct, said to increase top speed by stalling the rear wing. There is some speculation that the driver plays a part in its operation by covering a hole in the cockpit. Rival teams are already saying that they will have no alternative but to produce similar designs to prevent McLaren from stealing an advantage.
 

The wait is over and it was Sebastian Vettel on pole position for Red Bull in Bahrain. It was a superb lap from a surprised Vettel, beating off the second placed Ferrari of Felipe Massa and third placed Ferrari of Fernando Alonso. Lewis Hamilton claimed fourth place gaining an advantage over his new team mate Jenson Button who made it through to the final part of qualifying but only managed eighth. Nico Rosberg followed through for Mercedes and kept the upper hand over his team mate Michael Schumacher as the Silver Arrows drivers secured fifth and seventh places on the grid. Slotting in to sixth place was Mark Webber in the second Red Bull car after having made a small mistake in the second sector. Robert Kubica finished the final shoot out in ninth place for Renault with Adrian Sutil closing out the top ten with a solid performance for the Force India team. Strangely enough the aero flap on the McLarens has faded into the background somewhat!.
 

01 A Sutil
1m 56.583s
02 F Alonso
1m 56.766s
03 R Kubica
1m 57.041s
04 F Massa
1m 57.055s
05 J Button
1m 57.068s
06 L Hamilton
1m 57.163s
07 V Liuzzi
1m 57.194s
08 N Rosberg
1m 57.199s
09 M Webber
1m 57.255s
10 M Schumacher
1m 57.662s
11 J Alguersuari
1m 57.722s
12 N Hulkenberg
1m 57.894s
13 S Vettel
1m 57.943s
14 S Buemi
1m 58.399s
15  R Barrichello
1m 58.782s
16 V Petrov
1m 58.880s
17 P De La Rosa
2m 0.250s
18 K Kobayashi
2m 1.388s
19 T Glock
2m 3.680s
20 H Kovalainen
2m 3.848s
21 J Trulli
2m 3.970s
22 L Di Grassi
No time
23 B Senna
No time
24 K Chandhok
No time
 

01 S Vettel
1m 54.101s
02 F Massa
1m 54.242s
03 F Alonso
1m 54.608s
04 L Hamilton
1m 55.217s
05 N Rosberg
1m 55.241s
06 M Webber
1m 55.284s
07 M Schumacher
1m 55.524s
08 J Button
1m 55.672s
09 R Kubica
1m 55.885s
Eliminated Q2
10 A Sutil
1m 56.309s
11 R Barrichello
1m 55.33s
12 V Liuzzi
1m 55.653s
13 N Hulkenberg
1m 55.857s
14 P De La Rosa
1m 56.237s
15  S Buemi
1m 56.265s
16 K Kobayashi
1m 56.27s
17 V Petrov
1m 56.619s
Eliminated Q1
18 J Alguersuari
1m 57.071s
19 T Glock
1m 59.728s
20 J Trulli
1m 59.852s
21 H Kovalainen
1m 0.313s
22 L Di Grassi
1m 0.587s
23 B Senna
1m 3.24s
24 K Chandhok
1m 4.904s
 

01 N Rosberg
1m 55.409s
02 L Hamilton
1m 55.854s
03 M Schumacher
1m 55.903s
04 J Button
1m 55.076s
05 S Vettel
1m 56.459s
06 N Hulkenberg
1m 56.501s
07 F Massa
1m 56.555s
08 V Petrov
1m 56.750s
09 F Alonso
1m 57.140s
10 P De La Rosa
1m 57.255s
11 K Kobayashi
1m 57.352s
12 A Sutil
1m 57.361s
13 R Barrichello
1m 57.452s
14 V Liuzzi
1m 57.833s
15  R Kubica
1m 58.155s
16 J Alguersuari
1m 59.799s
17 M Webber
2m 0.444s
18 H Kovalainen
2m 0.873s
19 J Trulli
2m 0.990s
20 T Glock
2m 2.037s
21 L Di Grassi
2m 2.188s
22 B Senna
2m 6.968s
23 S Buemi
No time
24 K Chandhok
No time
 

01 F Alonso
1m 54.099s
02 N Rosberg
1m 54.368s
03 M Webber
1m 54.500s
04 M Schumacher
1m 54.533s
05 S Vettel
1m 54.646s
06 F Massa
1m 54.739s
07 J Button
1m 55.000s
08 R Kubica
1m 55.331s
09 V Liuzzi
1m 55.432s
10 N Hulkenberg
1m 55.461s
11 A Sutil
1m 55.521s
12 L Hamilton
1m 55.86s
13 P De La Rosa
1m 55.063s
14 R Barrichello
1m 56.259s
15  S Buemi
1m 56.295s
16 J Alguersuari
1m 56.504s
17 K Kobayashi
1m 56.530s
18 V Petrov
1m 56.811s
19 T Glock
1m 59.173s
20 H Kovalainen
1m 59.789s
21 J Trulli
2m 01.259s
22 B Senna
2m 04.001s
23 L Di Grassi
No time
24 K Chandhok
No time
 

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01  F Alonso
02  F Massa
03  L Hamilton
04  S Vettel
05  N Rosberg
06  M Schumacher
07  J Button
08  M Webber
09  V Liuzzi
10  R Barrichello
11  R Kubica
12  A Sutil
13  J Alguersuari
14  N Hulkenberg
15  H Kovalainen
16  S Buemi
17  J Trulli

Retired
L2 K Chandhok
L3 L Di Grassi
L15 V Petrov
L18 T Glock
L19 B Senna
L29 P De La Rosa

Fastest Lap
F Alonso
1m 58.287s L45