Bahrain Grand Prix Review

Bahrain seems to be one of those tracks that divides drivers more than most - some go well there, others habitually do not. And, of all the main contenders, Massa also seems to have a greater fluctuation between those tracks where he performs acceptably, and others where he dominates. Sakhir is one of the latter, along with Istanbul and Interlagos. It is worth remembering that two years ago, in his first race for Ferrari, he came within 0.047s of pipping Michael Schumacher for pole...

This year, going almost 0.7s faster than anyone else in Q2 said it all. Apart from the small blip of Robert Kubica stealing pole, the Bahrain GP was a cakewalk for Felipe. With the F2008 carrying on from where it had left off at Sepang, having dealt with Kubica off the line and with Raikkonen moving into 2nd place early, it was simply a matter of keeping the Finn at bay, which proved even easier when Kimi pitted before the Brazilian at both rounds of pit stops.

This put Massa's qualifying efforts into even clearer perspective, as he had been 0.3s faster than Raikkonen in Q3. Although the BMWs kept the Ferraris honest, after the second stops it was game over, and a matter of conserving the car for Spain. But it remains to be seen whether this win will provide the impetus for a spurt that puts Felipe back into title contention. Put bluntly, the doubts raised by his mistakes in the first two races cannot be erased by a win at a track where the Brazilian always goes well.

By contrast, Raikkonen has never particularly shone at this circuit, and so walking away with eight points for 2nd was arguably mission accomplished. His move around Kubica at turns one and two was masterful, and the rest of his afternoon was spent making sure that Massa's life wasn't made easy, whilst at the same time being pestered by Kubica, especially in the last stint, without ever being seriously challenged. More importantly, after Lewis Hamilton's disastrous day, Kimi has now assumed the championship lead.

But if BMW is a genuine challenger this year, on the evidence of the first three races it may also be Kubica who takes up the attack. His qualifying performances have been stunning, and he has a 3-0 record over Nick Heidfeld already. He made up for missing the top spot in Australia by nailing his final Q3 lap and becoming the first Pole to sit on pole. And although he has been on lighter fuel than Heidfeld, in Malaysia and now in Bahrain he has not conceded an advantage to his team-mate as a result.

Nerves probably got the better of Robert at the start and in the opening laps, but there was never any doubt that the Ferraris would have got past him at some stage. More impressive was the fact that he kept them in sight all race and staved off Heidfeld. Apart from a good move inside Jarno Trulli's Toyota early in proceedings, Nick's modus operandi of consistently picking up points, which now has him 2nd to Raikkonen in the championship, is starting to look a bit ponderous.

McLaren are down to 3rd in the constructors' table with 28 points, playing Ferrari's 29 and BMW on 30, but they have cause for concern after Malaysia and Bahrain. Their steady form in Melbourne seems to have evaporated, the MP4-23 has looked a comparative handful, and they will need their development step ahead of Barcelona to surpass the development steps that the other teams are going to make, in order to catapult them back into championship competitiveness.

One does not really know what to make of Heikki Kovalainen's performance. He's relatively close to Hamilton on qualifying pace, he ran wide at turns 9 and 10 in the early stages which allowed Heidfeld past, and thereafter he never really put the BMW under pressure despite pitting later at the second stops. And yet, for the second time in three races, he set the fastest lap of the race, by a not inconsiderable 0.372s over Heidfeld. One lap speed is not being translated into sustained race pace.

Once the unlikely-but-you-had-to-wonder suspicions about a brake-test had been disproved, attention turned to the fact that Hamilton had damaged his bridge wing in the concertina of turn 4 on the first lap, so with reduced drag no wonder he closed quickly on Fernando's Renault. It was, basically, Lewis' misjudgement. With his car's aero wounded, and being put on essentially a one-stop strategy, Hamilton was only 19th in the fastest lap standings, 2.3s off Kovalainen's best, and came home a lapped 13th.

Again we must make mention of ITV's dreadful coverage of this incident, which not only accused Alonso of brake-testing Lewis, but tried and convicted him of it without evidence. In the wake of the news that the BBC will be taking over coverage of F1 from ITV, there appears to be a feeling that perhaps a return to the BBC might also herald a return to relatively unbiased coverage of the plight of British protagonists in the title hunt. Martin Brundle did his reputation as an analyst less susceptible to such jingoism a great deal of harm.

If we digress momentarily, Lewis' incident and ITV's boorish coverage topped off a woeful week and weekend for Brits pretty much all round - all except for Anthony Davidson who finished, um, 16th. David Coulthard and Jenson Button both suffered punctures in first-lap incidents, and then proceeded to squabble hard over 19th position, so hard that they collided with each other at turn 8. It was the F1 equivalent of that comical everyday situation when two people meet in the street, and then keep moving in the same direction in trying to let the other past.

Button initiated the contretemps by shaping to try a passing move where he had succeeded previously, only for David to get him on a switchback. But this time it was never on, and DC rightly tried to block. Then both realised that discretion was the better part of valour; Coulthard straightened slightly but Jenson, in a panic having had his original move cut off, locked his brakes. The Scot decided to turn in anyway without giving the Englishman room, and the inevitable occurred.

Much has already been written and said about this, but the point is that every aspect of this sorry affair is lamentable. No doubt the News of the World's sensationalist reporting is shameful, and no doubt that Max's escapades are his own business, but pitiful nevertheless. However, anyone who takes a holier-than-thou attitude need be careful that they are not sitting in glass houses throwing stones. We read the articles and watched the videos after all. And who among us don't have things in our lives we'd prefer remain private?

Nazi connotations or not, it is the perception of those undertones, especially given Mosley's own family history, that matters. And the perception is that, even if this has not tarnished F1 and motorsport's reputation, it has certainly turned Max into a laughing stock. In those circumstances, Mosley's refusal to graciously step down is arrogant in the extreme. For these reasons, we give the 'Fools of Britannia' sextet of Hamilton, ITV, Coulthard, Button, News of the World and Mosley the 'Reject of the Race' award this time around.

In much more positive news, Toyota continued their promising start to the season. Trulli is recapturing the career-best form that he showed in the first halves of 2004 and 2005 and ran 6th pretty much all race, brushing off the challenges firstly of Nico Rosberg and then Mark Webber. But it was Timo Glock who impressed even more. Starting 13th, the German's first stint was brilliant, lasting 24 laps and running as high as 3rd, allowing him to leapfrog Alonso and move up to a net 9th which he held for the rest of the race.

REJECT OF THE RACE
'Fools Britannia' Sextet
Hamilton, ITV, DC, JB, News of the World, Mosley

In some ways, under the present qualifying system it is well-known that 11th can be an advantageous grid position for it allows that driver to be fuelled as heavily as his team dares. Yes, Webber was fuelled heavier than all of the top ten, but only a lap heavier than Massa, Heidfeld and Kovalainen. And, tellingly, the Australian's second stop came before Trulli's, losing any chance he had of snatching 6th from the Toyota. It felt like a fence-sitting strategy that didn't utilise the RB04's pace to the full.

Williams did bounce back from their disastrous display in Malaysia, but perhaps also not as much as they could have. Rosberg topping Saturday free practice was certainly eye-opening, but in the race his first stop was as early as Kubica's, which made him a sitting duck for Webber, and thereafter he ran a lonely 8th. Kazuki Nakajima continues on his steep learning curve. Williams put him on a one-stopper after he qualified 16th, which didn't get him anywhere in the race, especially when he too got bogged at the start.

So far this season the Japanese driver hasn't had much of the pace that he demonstrated in Brazil last year, and Williams isn't the kind of team that will show limitless patience towards him. They employed him not only at Toyota's behest, but to provide spirited support to Rosberg and not just to gain experience. Kazuki needs to dramatically up his game when the circus begins the European leg of the season on tracks which he knows from GP2 last year.

That cannot bode well. Renault will have an update for Barcelona, but so will everyone else, and it is difficult to see how they will be able to regularly overcome Williams, Red Bull and Toyota before they can even get a sniff at BMW, McLaren and Ferrari. Nelsinho Piquet's race was also hindered by gearbox problems and an early spin, before the transmission issues sidelined him for good, making the Brazilian the only mechanically-induced retirement all race. So Renault have reliability concerns as well.

Honda's hopes had rested with Button, who qualified a fine 9th, but after Jenson fell down the order with his early puncture it was up to Barrichello to defend the team's honour. Hunting down Alonso towards the end was a decent effort, but it confirms that points will be hard to come by for Honda this year despite their improved form. Of greater interest will be to watch the internal battle between Button and Barrichello, as neither is showing signs of establishing an ascendancy over the other in 2008 so far.

We said last time that 17th on the grid and 12th in the race could become familiar territory for Giancarlo Fisichella and Force India, and so it proved with Fisi starting 18th and finishing 12th again. But, given that he was 11th in the fastest lap standings ahead of both Renaults, and that at the chequered flag he was comfortably ahead of Hamilton, Nakajima and Sebastien Bourdais, and it shows that the Italian and his team are making the best of what they've got.

Now that Sutil has recorded a finish, it leaves Sebastian Vettel as the only driver yet to have seen the chequered, and surprisingly it was Bourdais who had the better pace out of the Toro Rosso duo this weekend. With Vettel's exuberance perhaps playing a part in the first lap incidents which put him out on the spot, that cleared the path for Bourdais to complete his role as the team's flag bearer, the Frenchman coming home a quiet but solid 15th in what could prove to be a significant confidence-booster for him.

The Super Aguris ran in tandem all race, and though the perception is that Takuma Sato is the better qualifier but Davidson the better racer, the roles were somewhat reversed here. Sato blotted his copybook in qualifying with his Q1 crash, whilst Davidson came within 0.3s of Sutil and 0.6s of Vettel. But whilst Davidson also ended up with a fastest lap that put him 14th in the rankings, almost 0.6s faster than Sato, but for a botched second stop Taku would have finished ahead.

And so the first three flyaways are over, with the championships set up deliciously - two points separating the top three teams, five points separating the top five drivers, and that doesn't include Massa. Some say that the title battle really begins when the teams return to Europe and the off-track development war can commence as well. But in this day and age, lost points in the early races can prove costly; thankfully, none of the main protagonists have conceded so much ground that they are out of contention already.