Battles in Bahrain

Before writing anything about Bahrain, I must apologise (to anyone who visits regularly enough to notice) that I have not uploaded a race report for China. I was asleep when the GP occurred, and set my DVR recorder to capture it, but it failed to do so, and I couldn't get the facts I needed to write a detailed enough report. The report was called 'No one finer than Fernando in China', in case you've been enjoying my pun titles. Anywho, I digress, we move on to Bahrain.

Friday saw former teammates Massa and Raikkonen top the timing sheets, with the Brazilian on top on P1, and the Iceman leading the way on Friday afternoon. Lewis Hamilton languished in 13th and 10th in the respective sessions. This was after opting to try out the Orange-banded hard tyres to better understand the Mercedes' high degradation rates in a long run. Familiar face Heikki Kovalainen was back in the Caterham garage on Friday; the team which are still developing, felt that their inexperienced driver pairing was not cutting the mustard in developing new parts, giving the popular Finn another taste of racing.

After a brilliant outing in China, Hamilton had a rotten stroke of luck on Saturday. Coming down the back straight, the rear-left  tyre failed, leading to a collapse of the suspension. This damaged the gearbox, and he received a 5-place grid penalty for replacing it before Q1 even started. The Brit was in good company for those with penalites, Esteban Gutierrez incurred a 5-place drop for clattering into the back of Adrian Sutil last weekend, and Webber had a more modest 3-place penalty for (what I thought was a racing incident) tangling with Daniel Ricciardo as well.

Lewis' lightning reactions saved the car from further damage

It was thought the puncture was due to debris

As Q1 got underway the pressure was of course incredible. The usual backmarkers fell out; both Marussia and Caterhams, however, for the first time the season, Bianchi was not the best of the bottom teams, instead Pic took that distinction. Interestingly, both Williams cars set identical times, however since Valtteri Bottas set his time first, Maldonado was left to sulk with the other fall guys.

Cars Eliminated after Q1 (With penalties applied)
17 - Maldonado
18 - Pic
19 - Bianchi
20 - van der Garde
21 - Chilton
22 - Gutierrez

Nothing spectacular happened in Q2, although Button was rather jubilant at getting into Q3 at all' exclaiming to his engineer:
"Yaaaaay! Did what you said Dave"

Cars Eliminated after Q2
11 - Grosjean
12 - Perez
13 - Ricciardo
14 - Hulkenberg
15 - Bottas
16 - Vergne

In Q3 no one could touch Rosberg. The German grabbed his second career pole just over a year after his first in China last year; the first back-to-back Mercedes poles since the 1950s. Felipe Massa was the only top-10 driver to qualify on hard tyres. Due to Webber and Hamilton's penalties, the Force Indias lined up a fantastically, occupying row 3 of the grid.

The final top ten (With penalties applied)
1 - Rosberg
2 - Vettel
3 - Alonso
4 - Massa
5 - di Resta
6 - Sutil
7 - Webber
8 - Raikkonen
9 -Hamilton
10 - Button

The tension mounted as you would expect. Rosberg led the cars round for the formation lap for the second time in his career. Lights out, and the Mercedes maintained the lead, with Vettel waiting in the wings. in the midfield, Massa and Sutil got too close for comfort; Felipe damaging his front wing, and Adrian gaining a puncture. Contact did not restrict itself to the front of the pack either. Starting at the back, Esteban Gutierrez was keen to make up places, but the Mexican's haste was too great, and he damaged his front wing on Geido van der Garde. The Dutchman's plight continued when he T-boned Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso, causing a puncture.

Hard-charging Esteban's inexperience got the better of him

JEV's crippled Toro Rosso

Fernando Alonso was tipped to be strong in Bahrain. After his exceptional win in China, the Spaniard looked racy in the early stages, making a better start than Vettel and taking second place for part of a lap. He made his way past Rosberg and began to chase down Vettel, using DRS on the Mercedes. But then, a problem. The DRS flap folded upwards of the hinge. The flap, which adds 200Kg of downforce to the back of the car was flapping about and it's a wonder how Alonso was able to maintain pace with the back of the car so loose. Clearly this was a safety hazard, so the team brought him in.

The problem first identified

It looked to have gone away; the team coincided the quick fix with his first pit stop, but when using the flap to pass one of the Marussia cars, it reappeared, and he was sent back and told not to use the system. This severely curbed his speed in the race.

Fixed?...

Passing Bianchi has never been so dangerous

No, Domenicali hasn't lost a fiver; they're fixing the rear wing

Pitting on Lap 10 for Vettel gifted Paul di Resta the lead; something that first occurred at this race a year ago. The Scot's reputation preceded him in the past, being introduced as "The guy that used to beat Sebastian Vettel, but here he was in Bahrain, battling his old foe once more. Paul's sniff of a podium faded when he pitted on lap 14, which put Raikkonen at the front, but expect to see the Force India right up there later in the season.

After passing Raikkonen on Lap 15 Vettel sauntered off in to the distance. His stranglehold was so great on this race that the cameras all but forgot the young German for the rest of the race. And thank goodness. What an incredible battle ensued behind the leader. Pirelli's aim of creating confusion and unpredictability truly came to light. I had no idea who would be on the podium until... I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Grosjean and Perez engaged in a fantastic dice for what was at the time 8th place. Both young drivers achieved three podium finishes last year and are arguably very well matched. The Lotus remained ahead for the time being.
Lap 17 saw Vergne retire from his tangle with van der Garde earlier, the bodywork was too damaged. At the same time, another Ferrari-engined car suffered bad luck and it was that of Felipe Massa. Similar to Hamilton on Saturday he suffered a rear right tyre delamination, indicated by the easiness of Grosjean and Perez passing him.

At the beginning of lap 20 Rosberg's downward spiral continued, being relegated to fourth, then fifth, by Button and Grosjean. The McLaren passed him easily at turn 2 following a snap of oversteer, but Romain's pass was far more spectacular, going round the outside of him at turn 4. The young Frenchman was looking rapid indeed. He hassled Jenson until the McLaren pitted on lap 22, emerging just behind his team mate who was still trying to pass Rosberg.

Perez did sink Rosberg later that lap. Mercedes' tyre woes were evident once again, with Nico freefalling through the pack, and Hamilton complaining:

"The rears are going off...balance is really poor"

Nico got back past Sergio on Lap 24, but by the end of the lap, both McLarens had closed onto him. Perez zipped by with aid of DRS, then Button too, although a late move across the track from Perez nearly took them both out.

The tussle comes to a head

Paul di Resta slipped by Grosjean on lap 27 to confirm that the Lotus had no grip left with which to defend; he pitted at the end of the lap.
The two McLarens could not get enough of one another. They were oh-so-close to touching each other in between turns 1 and 2 on lap 30, but Sergio succeeded where he had failed two corners later, sanding off his front wing end-plate on Jenson's rear right tyre.

A little too close to your team mate?

Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh had told Checo to "Get [his] elbows out", but that was a little too feisty. Much like Newton's Third law, the reaction to Perez' move was just as hot-headed from Button, and he shoved the Mexican Protege onto the sandy kerbs two laps later.

Pride was at stake here, and Jenson knew it

Grosjean's fantastic race continued, and he demoted Perez to 7th, while at about the same time, his team mate Raikkonen slipped past di Resta for second.

Felipe Massa suffered ghastly fortune on lap 37 with a second rear right tyre failure. The sidewall quite literally ripped away from the tyre surface and put his race even further down the toilet. The only Silver lining was that it happened right before pit entry, so he didn't have to limp round for a lap in that condition. You got the feeling that at Pirelli, someone's head would roll, even if Massa's tyre couldn't.

In the divorce proceedings, Mr Sidewall and Mrs Surface went their separate ways

The action came off the boil in the latter stages of the race. As the different strategies fell into place, positions shifted, but they were inevitable moves.
By lap 46, Button was looking the worse for wear, and he was ditched by teammates former and current, in the forms of Hamilton and Perez. Alonso had somehow recovered back into the points from his terrible start, and scythed his way past Button to take 8th mere corners later.

Lap 52 saw two of the stars of the race, di Resta and Grosjean dicing for the final podium position, and the Lotus on fresher tyres was clearly in more optimal conditions to snatch it. Perez had been temporarily behind Alonso after the Spaniard got the better of him on lap 56, but now Sergio wanted it back.

Similarly, Hamilton who had been dropped to 6th by Webber, wanted that place back. The duo fought tooth and nail for 5th until the very last lap. Hamilton grabbed 5th, but Webber, who looked a little unsettled was pipped to sixth by Perez in the final sector.

The race concluded with Vettel 9 seconds ahead of Raikkonen, who had a very quiet race. Only one retirement made this a very tidy race, but there must have been about a hundred overtaking manouvres; this was an incredible Grand Prix!

Identical, triple-Renault-powered podium to last year's race.

Driver of the day? Pfft, good luck deciding that, it could be anyone! It's definitely between di Resta, Grosjean and Perez, but other than that, I really can't decide. Next race is Spain, in three weeks.

Lap Leaders
Rosberg 1-3
Vettel 4-10
di Resta 11-14
K Raikkonen 14
S Vettel 15-57

Finishing Positions
1. S Vettel, Red Bull
2. K Raikkonen, Lotus
3. R Grosjean, Lotus
4. P di Resta, Force India
5. L Hamilton, Mercedes
6. S Perez, McLaren
7. M Webber, Red Bull
8. F Alonso, Ferrari
9. N Rosberg, Mercedes
10. J Button, McLaren
11. P Maldonado, Williams
12. N Hulkenberg, Sauber
13. A Sutil, Force India
14. V Bottas, Williams
15. F Massa, Ferrari
16. D Ricciardo, Toro Rosso
17. C Pic, Caterham
18. E Gutierrez, Sauber
19. J Bianchi, Marussia
20. M Chilton, Marussia
21. G van der Garde

Out/Unclassified
JE Vergne, Toro Rosso (Collision Damage)