Crown

I guess praying for rain on this GP is too far a shot? 

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Haha! Apparently, it rained overnight and there is a small risk of a sandstorm and even some rain!

Qualification lap times

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/results/9712813.stm

Starting grid positions

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/results/9712812.stm
 

997.1 C2S GT Silver/Cocoa, -20mm/LSD, PSE, short shifter, SportDesign rims, Zuffenhausen pickup, BMW Z4 2.5i Roadster Sterling Grey/Red

ha! I sang in the shower this morning and I guess that was more powerful than prayer 

It rained this morning as well... some rain right in the middle of the race would be great! 

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McLaren has forgotten how to do pit stops !

2 x 12 seconds pit stops for Hamilton ... the pit crew destroyed his race.

997.1 C2S GT Silver/Cocoa, -20mm/LSD, PSE, short shifter, SportDesign rims, Zuffenhausen pickup, BMW Z4 2.5i Roadster Sterling Grey/Red

easy_rider911:

McLaren has forgotten how to do pit stops !

2 x 12 seconds pit stops for Hamilton ... the pit crew destroyed his race.

That was unbelievable, he was the championship leader before the race and they can't be doing such mistakes, Hamiltonm muct be so mad and rightly so. And what a shame about Button.

I hope the give Rosberg a penalty for those two maneuvers on Hamiltona and Alonso, do it one time and you could blame coincidence, two times on the same spot to two drivers and thats showing intent. Very dangerous.

RBR and Lotus were oon another planet today, they were 1 second a lap faster overall than the rest of the teams. Hopefully that won't be the case on other GP's as we have been enjoying a back and forth competitiveness from one track to the next that has been making this season very entertaining. There is only 10 points between Alo/But in 4th/5th to Vet on 1st in the champioinsip.

Ferrari claims they will bring some improvements for the next race in Spain in 3 weeks, they better be something because they are making a fool of themselves, even Force India finishes in front of them...

Amazing Kimi from 11th and even finishing in fornt of his teamate.

Wow what a race, again it was quite entertaining to watch. I didn't get bored.

Congrats to Vettel and RBR for having been serious about stepping it up. 1st and 4th is a fantastic result. Vettel showed everyone how great he is, it was a superb race from him despite all the talk.. German press (idiots) started talking that Vettel is gone bla bla bla.

McLaren really had a poor race, those pitstops killed them but even without those mistakes, they seriously lacked pace and fell into the very mid of the field.. goes to show how close things are this season.

Rosberg, penalty? I am sorry, but why? He is ALLOWED to make one defending move and neither of the guys behind him were even near to be next to him to have ANY kind of claim. I thought it was great seeing Rosberg so hungry and it will well defended. Keep in mind, this is a pretty weak spot to overtake. First incident perhaps a warning, Hamilton really did the danger driving and only put himself at risk.. The other incident was normal racing with Alonso, he was no where near the Mercedes and shouldn't complain and wine about it later on... Race pace showed the Ferrari wasn't even faster at all... race result shows the same. Alonso could have waited for the straight and use his DRS etc.. Frankly, it was just an incident to let his angry for the lack of performance of Ferrari out.

Lotus really did amazing today, so much speed in the corners yet also the fastest cars on the straights! Wow! Hats off to both drivers for finally taking home two very good finishes to reward the team. I'd love to see Lotus on more podiums this season..

Schumi, another very poor Q and a bit of bad luck, but he actually had a very decent race driving into the points from the back of the field. It must be very frustrating for him, but today he kept his cool and didn't lose his front wing of some incident. But fact remains that Rosberg is a full 30+ points ahead of him in the standings.

I think more so than anything today was important that RBR showed the rest of F1 that they are serious about defending their title. Vettel was relieved to get a pole-1st weekend and quiet the haters. He also took a very important championship lead today, which was just what he needed.

We know the fields are very close and so tiny mistakes are absolutely fatal (Mclaren pitstops...) This is F1 racing at its' best!!!

Pace standings:

RBR
Lotus
Mercedes
McLaren/Ferrari
Force India
Sauber

Amazing 4 winners in 4 races.

I think whatever qualification advantage McLaren had at the very start of the season has been caught up by Mercedes (and to an extent by RBR) and whatever race advantage McLaren had at the start of the season has been caught up by RBR and Lotus.

Vettel drove a perfect race weekend.

Button's puncture at the end was a sad way to end a terrible weekend for McLaren. Hamilton drove his best today but the team destroyed his chances. They had the same wheel gun problem with Button in China and then twice with Hamilton in Bahrain. No excuses - that carelessness is costly.

Ferrari is lost right now. Malaysia was a bonus since the rain made it possible for Alonso to capitalise. It was about the driver's skill not the car's deficiencies.

Webber had a solid performance but it just looked and felt like 2011 again ... he was completely outperformed by Vettel today.

Lotus had a wonderful race ... a pity they didn't let Raikkonen past Grosjean earlier. If they had done so, I think Raikkonen could even have won today. But he is back, as good as ever. No comeback rustiness like Schumi has had (and still has to an extent).

Rosberg is allowed 1 move to defend but he did so IMHO without leaving at least 1 car gap for Hamilton and then Alonso. He complained that Hamilton overtook him off the track but that was because he ran him off the track! The way I saw it - Rosberg erred twice. I'm not surprised Alonso was furious.

Schumi had no DRS in qualification, ran wide and didn't make it to Q2. That ruined his race. He spent most of the race trying to recover. Overall, not a race weekend to remember.

Some solid performances from Force India, Sauber and Williams. Maldonado is developing a habit of not bringing the car home. Too many driver errors (spins etc).

During the pre-season, at Toro Rosso, I expected Vergne to outperform Ricciardo. I could not have been more wrong. Ricciardo has been superb in the first 4 races. Vergne hardly deserves his race seat. Amazing how it has played out so far.

Same again at Force India. I expected Hulkenberg to be fractionally quicker than Di Resta. I think they are similar on pace but Di Resta is showing that he is a much smarter, much more savvy driver than his team mate.

I'm disappointed with Caterham. I think they need to be performing better. Kovalainen reached Q2 yesterday but couldn't deliver in the race. Petrov is proving to be a non entity.

Marussia were invisible today and HRT is an embarrassment.

Thank goodness the race weekend passed with only 1 protestor fatality.

All in all, the only people IMO who will leave happy are the 3 guys on the podium. I guess it was inevitable that this race would be a bit of a let down after the superb race in Shanghai. And all the political issues didn't help.

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997.1 C2S GT Silver/Cocoa, -20mm/LSD, PSE, short shifter, SportDesign rims, Zuffenhausen pickup, BMW Z4 2.5i Roadster Sterling Grey/Red

Great race on a great track ! So happy new teams are making it to the front.

Well done to Kimi  and Grosjean.

Rosberg's moves were not great, but I would not want to see him sanctioned for that. We do need a bit of action in F1 

 997.2 C2S, PDK, -20mm

Atzporsche:

Congrats to Vettel and RBR for having been serious about stepping it up. 1st and 4th is a fantastic result. Vettel showed everyone how great he is, it was a superb race from him despite all the talk.. German press (idiots) started talking that Vettel is gone bla bla bla.

Not so great when you start from pole with a car on the race that is 1 second per lap faster than everybody else except for one, Kimi, how started from 11th and still finished the race right behind him. Now that was superb. Should Kimi have started on the first line, Vettel would not even be able to see Kimi a head of him on the last lap today.

. Alonso could have waited for the straight and use his DRS etc.. 

With the Ferrari's top speed? when ius the last time you saw Alonso overtake on a stright this year...

easy_rider911:

Rosberg is allowed 1 move to defend but he did so IMHO without leaving at least 1 car gap for Hamilton and then Alonso. He complained that Hamilton overtook him off the track but that was because he ran him off the track! The way I saw it - Rosberg erred twice. I'm not surprised Alonso was furious.

Exactly. Very dangerous and unnecesary. 

Carlos from Spain:

Atzporsche:

Congrats to Vettel and RBR for having been serious about stepping it up. 1st and 4th is a fantastic result. Vettel showed everyone how great he is, it was a superb race from him despite all the talk.. German press (idiots) started talking that Vettel is gone bla bla bla.

Not so great when you start from pole with a car on the race that is 1 second per lap faster than everybody else except for one, Kimi, how started from 11th and still finished the race right behind him. Now that was superb. Should Kimi have started on the first line, Vettel would not even be able to see Kimi a head of him on the last lap today.

Like Easy said, Vettel drove a perfect race, like it or not

Alonso better make sure Ferrari gets 5th in the constructors this season Mercedes is out of their league

Kimi's performance raises an interesting point. Top 4 finishers were all powered by Renault. Vettel thanked the team of engineers on saturday for their great work, so obviously Renault has done an amazing job with the mapping of their engines. The Lotus is the fastest top speed car on the track, without really compromising corner speeds either! Good stuff. Your argument is probably all these podium finishers were undeserved because their cars are so damn fast, well there is a lot of driver skill involved as well. How else do you judge Kimi's performance as so much better than Vettel's because the way I see it he only started a few meters behind him. Overtaking means nothing, with that speed and DRS it wasn't too difficult (Kimi said so himself). Had Lotus played their strategy a little better they could have beaten Vettel since quite clearly Lotus had the fastest car. However, Vettel beat them hence he did a perfect race.

Atzporsche:

Like Easy said, Vettel drove a perfect race, like it or not

That I don't deny, I'm just pointing out that its easy to do so when you start from pole and with such a car who's only your rival started 11th, that may be only a few metters behind in the start line but with 9 cars in between them and so  loosing time having to claw his way up the ranks during the race. Had they both started next to each other, it would have been Kimi's "more than" perfect race who would of won.

Ferrari at this pace will be lucky to walk away with a fifth on the constructors...  afterall, Mercedes, RBR, McLaren, Lotus, RBR, and Sauber have better cars than them, that puts them on 7th by car alone, and in reality Ferrari only has one driver scoring points for them   (...unbelievable that Massa has only 2 points so far! ... and Alonso 43 only 10 behind the leader with the Ferrari).

McLaren got terrible pit stops this year, yesterday they could offer to Hamilton a coffee during his first two pit stops. If they want to be be championship contenders, they should replace or improve their pit crew, because mistakes like that are unacceptable in battle for a championship..

Anyway, finally we have a season which is very interesting - a lot of different teams can win and battle for a championship will be very close and unpredictable.

Interesting analysis from James Allen on how Raikkonen could (and should) have won

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/04/how-raikkonen-nearly-won-in-bahrain/

Gary Anderson's analysis on the race

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17816565

Alonso (IMO rightly) is furious with the decision not to penalise Rosberg - it makes it open season to drive anyone off the track - which is surely wrong IMO.

http://www.planetf1.com/news/3213/7694693/Alonso-Angered-By-Rosberg-Exoneration

Andrew Benson's views on the Rosberg manoeuvres on Hamilton and Alonso

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/04/unanswered_questions_for_rosbe.html

Schumi criticises Pirelli tyres

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17808768

IMO he is right - high tyre degradation is OK but not to the extent that tyre management becomes more important than racing ...

Pirelli's reaction

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/04/pirelli-surprised-by-schumacher-attack-on-short-life-tyres/

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Thanks for the links, Easy. Lotus´ strategy and performance at Bahrain just shows how much smarter one might be after the race, being able to evaluate all aspects. I am nonetheless impressed by Raikkonen, considering that Grosjean showed some strong performance in GP2 last season and is no rookie either. Raikkonen also appears much more mature than in his previous years, as he seems to use his talent much more effectively.

Rosberg´s maneuvers shouldn´t need to be worth so much debate but it shows the dilemma in F1. Alonso, and others, are following a codex to leave room and respect the opponent. They go great lengths on the track to beat the others but remain fair towards each others. Drivers like Schumacher, Hamilton and in this single case Rosberg have stretched the line beyond the accepted norm. Alonso is right that the outcome would´ve been different had there been a wall. Just... there was no wall. In the quest for a more "viewer efficiency" the runoff areas have been paved and not even equipped with a low friction surface. Therefore the border of the track is only a mandated line.

Yeah, good point :) Hindsight is a wonderful thing :)

In the case of Hamilton there was a metal barrier (with orange markings) and Hamilton passed very close to it, a bit too close for comfort IMO.

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Regardless of the stewarts desitions it was a very unsportive move by Rosberg, especially because after doing it to Hamilton and seeing what happened and how dangerous it was, he was willing to do it again to Alonso (in an even worse manner than to Hamilton) with no regard to the posible consecuences to the other driver. Very dirty driving IMO not in the spirit of F1.

And while being paved with concrete it was less dangerous than other tracks, it sets a very bad precedents for drivers in the future, who is to say now that grass is ok or not? and gravel?, and how much distance can you push outside?, how close to a wall? Its just comon sense and downright the ethical thing to do to leave at least one car width of track asfalt in those cases and if he passes you then tough luck, return it to him on the next lap if you can. That is what they will probably agree on on the driver's meeting IMO.

Carlos from Spain:

Regardless of the stewarts desitions it was a very unsportive move by Rosberg, especially because after doing it to Hamilton and seeing what happened and how dangerous it was, he was willing to do it again to Alonso (in an even worse manner than to Hamilton) with no regard to the posible consecuences to the other driver. Very dirty driving IMO not in the spirit of F1.

And while being paved with concrete it was less dangerous than other tracks, it sets a very bad precedents for drivers in the future, who is to say now that grass is ok or not? and gravel?, and how much distance can you push outside?, how close to a wall? Its just comon sense and downright the ethical thing to do to leave at least one car width of track asfalt in those cases and if he passes you then tough luck, return it to him on the next lap if you can. That is what they will probably agree on on the driver's meeting IMO.

While I don't agree with the move, it sure made for some enjoyable F1-spectacle from the comfort of my living room.

PlanetF1's Pete Gill expresses his views on the race

http://www.planetf1.com/race-features/7694963/Conclusions-From-Bahrain-GP

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