A lot has been said about the circumstances the Bahrain Grand Prix took place in this weekend, the rights and wrongs of it have been well documented so let’s focus on what Formula 1 actually came to do and that’s race.
World champion Sebastian Vettel hasn’t had the best of
starts to the season but he made a dramatic return to form today, starting from
pole position he lead almost every lap minus pit stops to record his 22nd
victory in a fantastically controlled drive.
Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus took second place only four
races into his comeback and many would argue perhaps victory should have been
his. He was a major player today.
Vettel started brilliantly and shot into the distance like
we saw so many times last year. He’s certainly not forgotten how to control a race
and opened up a sizeable gap in just a few laps. At the same time Kimi
Raikkonen had rocketed off the line from 11th, slicing through the middle of the pack on
the run to the first corner before taking the outside line into turn 1and
parking himself neatly into 7th place.
Kimi looked aggressive from the start utilising his new sets of tyres he'd saved in qualifying and was already
hassling Jenson Button’s McLaren for 6th in the early laps. A slight
error dropped him behind Massa but he was soon back past on lap 5 and then on
laps 7 and 9 continued to charge passed Button then Alonso to move into 5th.
With the first pit stops completed Vettel maintained a
comfortable 5 second gap back to Romain Grosjean, but Kimi by now (lap 13) had
latched onto the back of Mark Webber in the second Red Bull and into turn 11 he
out braked him in a clinical manoeuvre to 3rd place and so began the
next charge, to close the gap to the leaders.
He was utterly relentless, he may seem almost as if he doesn’t
care outside the cockpit, but once that visor comes down Kimi is as focused as
the best of them. He was around 10 seconds back from his team mate but by lap
21 Kimi was on his back ready to pass.
Now here’s the little question mark on whether Lotus should
have told Grosjean to let him through? Of course you could argue that’s not
racing, but the speed with which Kimi caught him and at the same time was
catching Vettel surely they could see the win was on here?
Three laps circling behind Grosjean cost Kimi around two
seconds, lost time which would have meant he was that much closer to Vettel
when he was in a position to challenge for the lead. And challenge he did,
after the second pit stops between laps 24-26 Raikkonen continued to
remorselessly catch Vettel so that by lap 34 he was in a position to pass.
Perhaps if he had not been held up he’d have been able to
make a move earlier, but as it was he was restricted to lap 36 where the race
could have changed. DRS activated, KERs used, Kimi was in the slipstream of
Vettel, this was his moment to take the lead, pulling out from behind the Red
Bull to the inside line into the braking zone.
Vettel is a great defensive driver, although leaving it
slightly late as Kimi pulled to the inside Vettel moved to block, unsettling
the Finn just enough for him to back out of it and go to the outside which just
didn’t work.
From then on he wasn’t quite close enough to make another
challenge, and covering Vettel’s final pit stop on lap 40, the Lotus pitted a
few laps earlier than they wanted resulting in him putting the medium compound
back on so they’d be sure it would last. Ideally if they’d stayed out a few
laps longer they’d have put the softer tyre back on, but it wasn’t to be and
Vettel led Kimi over the line by a little over 3 seconds.
Kimi was outstanding and despite scoring a podium so early
in his comeback said he was even a bit disappointed not to get the win. Vettel
on the other hand was obviously elated. His index finger raised yet again, this
was proof how hard Red Bull has worked to get their car back to the front.
More adjustments to the rear of the car and the exhausts
have balanced it much more to Vettel’s liking and he repaid them superbly.
The other stars of
the race: Grosjean, di Resta and Massa
Behind the top two Grosjean scored his first podium finish
with a fantastic drive. He wasn’t all that far behind as well after making a
great start and using DRS to pass Webber and Lewis Hamilton fairly quickly to
move into 2nd place before Kimi caught him up.
It’s been a good couple of races for Grosjean and he’s more
than proving his worth after his first troubled stint in Formula 1 in 2009.
Lotus look set to stay in contention too after exploiting their first clean
weekend almost to the maximum.
Paul di Resta gave Force India something to cheer about
after some team personnel were caught up in the protests happening in Bahrain
on Wednesday night. After the team missed second practice it was a great result
to get into the top ten qualifying and even better to be the only team to make
a two stop strategy work.
di Resta picked his fights well, knowing who to battle
against and who to let go to make his two stop strategy work (the only one to
do so), it was intelligent racing and he’s certainly putting one over on his
team mate Nico Hulkenberg at the moment which will certainly please him.
Finally my other star from today is Felipe Massa, he may
have been out qualified again by Fernando Alonso and finished behind him but it
was a lot more confident performance than we’ve seen from him in a long time.
He started 14th but had only been half a second
behind Alonso who was 4th in Q2 just showing how tight the pack is
at the moment. He made a meteoric start and was up to 8th by turn 2.
He put a sneaky move on Raikkonen and although he lost it a few laps later he
was always in contention for points and never far behind Alonso.
If he had been the first to pit of the two Ferrari’s in the
last two pit stops I think he would have finished in front of his team mate; a
good confidence booster for the Brazilian.
McLaren’s Woes
Red Bull’s renaissance came on the same weekend that McLaren
seemingly imploded. After the first three races where it was generally accepted
that they have the best overall package, but in race trim they can’t seem to
extract the maximum pace from the tyres.
Apart from Australia, they haven’t had a consistent pace
from the car throughout a race. Button was running 7th in the
closing laps closing on Rosberg and di Resta when a puncture forced him to pit
3 laps from the end. He came back in a lap later to retire the car with a
differential failure.
Lewis Hamilton suffered three slow pit stops which cost him
an estimated 17 seconds. It wouldn’t have put him in contention for the win,
but he’d have been further up the order than his eventual 8th place
finish.
McLaren look like they need to regroup quickly if they’re
not to let their early season advantage disappear. Although that advantage only
appeared to be for one race really, since then it just so happens that 2012 is
throwing up all sorts of variables, mainly to do with working the tyres that
change up the order.
Other top 10
finishers
The celebrations of China were now a distant memory as
Mercedes had to be content with a 5th and 10th place
finish from Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher respectively.
Rosberg was 9th after a terrible start from his
top 5 grid slot. He had some fairly spectacular incidents when he looked like
he cut across very sharply in front of Hamilton and Alonso, forcing them off
the road. No action was taken however. Alonso’s reaction to this was tweeted
thusly: "I think you are going to have fun in future races! You can
defend position as you want and you can overtake outside the track!
Enjoy!"
Schumacher charged through from 22nd on the grid
after a wing failure and gearbox penalty in qualifying. It hasn’t been a great
start to the season and he seems to be becoming frustrated with having to
manage the tyres all the time rather than just race as he commented to the BBC
after the race.
The rest of the top 10 was completed by Mark Webber’s now
traditional fourth place, he was never in the running for victory and it seems
strange that as soon as Vettel is back to winning form Webber slips back a bit.
Fernando Alonso was 7th after another combative
drive. Thanks to his Malaysian win and his never say die attitude to grab
points in the other races he is equal 4th in the championship only
10 points off the lead of Vettel. If Ferrari updates work for Spain he’s
positioned himself nicely as the season kicks off in Europe.
No points for Toro Rosso despite 6th on the grid
for Daniel Ricciardo who dropped back badly at the start. Williams and Sauber
also had pointless days.
Updating to Europe
So now we head to the Spanish Grand Prix in three weeks. Before
that there’s an in season test for the first time since 2008 at Mugello where
the teams will be feverishly trying out their updates.
There’s been a lot to absorb from the first four races, no
team has stolen a march and the conditions and temperatures effecting the tyres
on race day have given us different pace setters at every race so far.
It’s all adding up to a classic season of Formula 1 but
perversely as we head back to Europe the familiar names on top of the
championship tables are Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull.
all photo's taken from autosport.com
No comments:
Post a Comment