Kimi Raikkonen has told reporters that his sixth place in the Bahrain Grand Prix today, which awarded Ferrari 3 points their first 3 of the season is just not good enough for a team of their calbire.
The Italian outfit have struggled all season, and narrowly avoided making 2009 their worst start to a season ever with the 3 points today.
However Raikkonen said they needed to improve, and scene as this race was at the maximum of the F60’s potential, he is hoping that a swathe of new aerodynamic parts to be introduced ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix will help them close the gap and get onto the podium.
“I am happy to have picked up a few points but I can’t be that pleased with our performance level,” said Raikkonen. “I’ve been around long enough not to get very excited about a sixth place. We are well aware we have to improve.
“In theory, the new package we will have in Barcelona should see us make a good step forward, but we won’t know just how big it will be compared to the others until we are on track in Spain.
“Today, we got the most out of the F60’s current potential, even if I lost a bit of time in my final pitstop because of a problem with a part of the fairing on the left front wheel which cost me the chance of exiting pitlane ahead of Barrichello.”
Jarno Trulli has admitted that he was highly disappointed not to be giving Toyota the champagne glory of a first victory tonight, after he failed to win the Bahrain Grand Prix despite starting on pole.
The Italian had to make do with third position instead.
He started in first but was passed into the first corner by his team mate Timo Glock, who was lighter on fuel. He struggled with graining hard compound tyres, and was also passed by Sebastian Vettel during the race before finishing in third position.
“I’m a little bit disappointed because I was waiting for the first win for Toyota,” said Trulli. “Unfortunately the start cost me a position. From then on, it was a hard race.
“I was following my team-mate, I was going longer and then during the second stint we went long on hard tyres. I was really fighting with a lot of cars. I was not really quick, but was competitive on the harder tyres.”
“Eventually, Vettel took the position after my last stop. He was on the hard tyres and I was on the softs and I was pushing him because I was quicker. But there was no way of overtaking.
“I want to thank the team because they have done a very good job. Let’s fight again in the next race.”
Jenson Button, the world championship leader, proclaimed that his victory in today’s Bahrain Grand Prix was the best of the season.
Button has been racing under the Brawn GP banner, a team born from the ashes of the failed and closed Honda Racing Team.
The Brawn car arrived in Australia and was supremely dominant, winning that race, and then Button made it two with a win in Malaysia. They struggled a little in China, and in Bahrain they appeared not to have a competitive edge. However good strategy and Button’s supreme overtake on Hamilton meant he was first past the chequered flag.
Button increased his lead to 12 points over team mate Rubens Barrichello in the title hunt.
“This win was the best of the lot. We didn’t have that competitive edge. It is the fourth flyaway, we have a lot of bits that need to be changed and getting a bit aged, so to come away from this race is great and we are now looking at improving the car.” Button said post-race
“This was a tough race for us. This weekend we haven’t had pace we had in the first three races. These guys have probably gone past us, but the first part of race was very important. I made it work and came out of first corner in third, a tough race.”
Jenson Button stormed to victory in today’s Bahrain Grand Prix, despite lacking KERS and Ross Brawn admitting his cars had major cooling issues.
A great strategy from the master Brawn led the British driver to the top step of the podium for the third time this season, the fourth in his career which began back in 2000 with Williams.
Race Review
The Toyota’s started on the front row but it was anything but a friendly rivalry with Timo Glock disposing of Jarno Trulli into turn 1.
Felipe Massa in the Ferrari had a great KERS start, and Rubens Barrichello was forced to defend, pushing the Ferrari onto the red/white paint right down the pitwall. However he left himself open to attack and Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen passed them both, before Massa tagged Raikkonen from behind damaging his front wing. Hamilton also had a great start, getting up to 3rd place.
Further back in the field, Mark Webber was making use of a light and fast car overtaking many on the first lap. Robert Kubica and Kazuki Nakajima tripped over each other sending debris flying, as at times cars were four a breast the track. Both pitted at the end of lap 1 for new noses, Massa at the end of lap 2 with a KERS problem on top of needing a new cone.
Some laps in a faster Button was able to slipstream Lewis Hamilton down the main straight. The McLaren drivers KERS system couldnt keep Button behind any more. It was a great overtake.
Glock pitted early on lap 11, and the harder compound tyres did not work well for him, destroying any chance of victory. He would later end up in 7th place, behind the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen who had a quiet afternoon a few great overtakes, and at one point leading the race. Iceman was super-cool in making sure he got some point on the board for the Scuderia who were under the watchful eye of Luca di Montezemolo.
Vettel too could have won the race, but he got stuck in traffic, and that ended his chances. Rubens Barrichello to was fast, but a combination of a 3 stop strategy and also getting stuck behind Nelson Piquet Jr (who incidentally for all his flailing arms, Rubens was racing him). Barrichello could have lost out to Kimi Raikkonen had he not defended well into Turn 1 after his final stop.
Jarno Trulli also struggled on the harder compound tyres, and he lost around 1 second per lap to leader Button. By the time Vettel got past Trulli, Button was some 12 seconds ahead.
Fernando Alonso pulled a great performance to end up 8th, scoring the last point ahead of Nico Rosberg. Nelson Piquet Jr ended up 10th, in a much better performance where he raced well holding off both Rubens Barrichello, and late into the race a far superior Mark Webber.
Kazuki Nakajima was the only retirement of the race, with a fuel pressure problem.
Adrian Sutil has been handed a 3 place grid penalty for tomrrow’s Bahrain Grand Prix after the stewards deemed that he blocked Australian Mark Webber in Qualifying session 1.
The German thought Webber was on an outlap, and was trying to steal his position, so defended the Australian’s overtaking move into the final corner. However Webber was on a hot lap, not an outlap like Adrian.
Webber was very angry about the situation.
“I just tried to stay in my position to get a clear start to the lap. It was a misunderstanding and I apologised to Mark after the end of the session,” said Sutil.
Toyota secured a front row lock-out for tomorrow’s Bahrain Grand Prix after a very successful session for the Japanese automotive company. Jarno Trulli will start on pole, with Timo Glock admitting he just couldn’t make the first grid slot.
Sebastian Vettel, the winner of the Chinese Grand Prix last week has to settle for third. His team mate Mark Webber was knocked out in Q1 after being blocked by Adrian Sutil (16th). We await a stewards decision on whether the young German will recieve a penalty.
Jenson Button, the current leader of the World Championship starts third, with Lewis Hamilton alongside in 6th. Barrichello and Alonso make up the next row with strong performances from their drivers, and Ferrari got both cars in the top 10 with Massa starting 8th and Raikkonen 10th.
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:32.779 1:32.671 1:33.431
2. Glock Toyota (B) 1:33.165 1:32.613 1:33.712
3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:32.680 1:32.474 1:34.015
4. Button Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:32.978 1:32.842 1:34.044
5. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:32.851 1:32.877 1:34.196
6. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:33.116 1:32.842 1:34.239
7. Alonso Renault (B) 1:33.627 1:32.860 1:34.578
8. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:33.297 1:33.014 1:34.818
9. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:33.672 1:33.166 1:35.134
10. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:33.117 1:32.827 1:35.380
11. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:33.479 1:33.242
12. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:33.221 1:33.348
13. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:33.495 1:33.487
14. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:33.377 1:33.562
15. Piquet Renault (B) 1:33.608 1:33.941
16. Sutil Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:33.722
17. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:33.753
18. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:33.910
19. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:34.038
20. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:34.159
Nico Rosberg took top spot, with special diffuser cars being dominant once again. Red Bull found their form again after great racing last weekend with the 1-2 finish. Ferrari look even slower, Kimi reckons they are 1 second off the pace.
People who live around Bahrain, and many officials connected with the event would like the race to move to Saturday and be raced on a Saturday afternoon instead of a Sunday because in the Gulf Sunday is a normal working and school day.
The provisional date of the 2009 event is Sunday 19th April, the first day of Summer term for pupils in Bahraini schools, leading the principal of St Christopher’s School to delay the start of term so he and children can watch the race.
“We consider that F1 should, in future years, consider a Saturday date for race days in Muslim countries and hope that some consideration might be given to this by the worldwide F1 body,” St Christopher’s School Principal Ed Goodwin is quoted as saying by Gulf Weekly.
Similar problems were encountered in Qatar with the MotoGP, however these have now been dispelled with the race being run under floodlights at night.
Martin Whittaker, CEO of Bahrain circuit reckons it is highly unlikely the date would ever move to a Saturday.
“The FIA and Formula One have for many years worked towards continuity in qualifying and race day timings. Moving the race to a Saturday would cause many, many problems for the organisers of the championship – not least in global television schedules” he commented.
Felipe Massa has won this afternoon’s 2008 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix. The Brazilian has now won the rae 2 years in a row, and looked comfortable as he cruised to victory in the scarlet coloured Ferrari.
His team mate and current world champion Kimi Raikkonen brought the other car home in 2nd, to make a fabulous 1-2 for the dominant team in the pitlane.
Race Review
Right from the start, Ferrari wanted to hammer home the advantage. Robert Kubica didn’t get the best of starts, and despite being on the dirty side Felipe Massa got terrific traction and passed the Pole before turn 1. Lewis Hamilton didn’t seem to pull away and was swallowed up by the pack.
The main pack evened out a bit into turn 1, with Raikkonen and Kovalainen jostling for position before Raikkonen cruised around the McLaren.
Further on in the lap there was an incident involving Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, David Coulthard and Adrian Sutil. They clashed around turn 4-5 and Vettel was left with suspension failure, a 1st lap retirement for the talented German. Coulthard got a major rear puncture, which was lucky not to sharde the bodywork of the RBR4 to pieces. Button also had to pit along with the Scot.
Just moments later after the first corners, Lewis Hamilton smashed into the back of a slow accelarating Fernando Alonso. The British driver mounted the back of the Renault removing the front wing and other aerodynamic pieces and causing more damage to a car which had already been pieced back together. Alonso had a chunk taken from his rear wing, but managed to continue throughout the race. Hamilton had to pit, and adjust his strategy. HE returned to the race in 18th place.
He was cruising around at the back, with David Coulthard and Jenson Button behind. The front began to sort itself out, and the positions rarely changed – only at the pitstops.
Jenson Button then tried a move on the inside of David Coulthard but went in way to hot, mounted up the side of the Red Bull drivers car, knocking his front win off in the process. They took a trip off across the tarmac run-off areas and Button had to pit once again.
The main flow of pitstops then started, with Kubica as expected being one of the first to pit. Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest lap of the race, then the fastest middle sector before pitting ahead of Felipe Massa, a real suprise. Only a lap later did the Brazilian enter the pits for new tyres and fuel.
The stops had no major dramas, and Rubens Barrichello didn’t exceed the pit limit this week! I must commend the FOM Television service’s cracking onboard mechanics pictures, the wheel man on the Williams this week was terrific, as was the fuel man on BMW Sauber’s stops in Malaysia. More of these please! As too was the return of the graphic showing where the competitors were on track.
In the middle stint, not much happened with minor midfield jostling and Timo Glock pushing well up the field on his long first stint.
Alonso was defiantly beginning to struggle without the rear wing being complete late on, and Rubens Barrichello was hounding the Spaniard.
Lewis Hamilton made minor progress around the Aguri’s, and later Fisichella’s Force India, but after losing the wing the fight seemed to have disappeared from his game. No points this week.
Nelson Piquet then retired, his gearbox packing up. He had issues from the parade lap, on the team radio complaining that 2nd gear was missing.
Commendment to the Toyota’s who had a solid race and look good. Also to BMW Sauber who were definitely the competing team this week.
Hamilton was lapped, heartbreaking for him in his 20th race in F1.
Massa crossed the line comfortably to win the race, much to the joy of the mechanics and his family who were watching in the pits. Kimi Raikkonen was in 2nd place, surviving a minor illness to pick up 8 points pusihing him into 1st place in the drivers title race. Robert Kubica continued a good weekend for BMW getting 3rd, a podium but not the win he wanted to turn pole position into.
Classified Results
Position
Driver
Team
Time
1
F. Massa
Ferrari
1.31.06.970
2
K. Raikkonen
Ferrari
+3.339
3
R. Kubica
BMW Sauber
+4.998
4
N. Heidfeld
BMW Sauber
+8.409
5
H. Kovalainen
McLaren
+26.789
6
J. Trulli
Toyota
+41.314
7
M. Webber
Red Bull Racing
+45.473
8
N. Rosberg
Williams
+55.889
9
T. Glock
Toyota
+1.09.500
10
F. Alonso
Renault
+1.17.181
11
R. Barrichello
Honda
+1.17.862
12
G. Fisichella
Force India
+1 lap
13
L. Hamilton
McLaren
+1 lap
14
K. Nakajima
Williams
+1 lap
15
S. Bourdais
Toro Rosso
+1 lap
16
A. Davidson
Super Aguri
+1 lap
17
T. Sato
Super Aguri
+1 lap
18
D. Coulthard
Red Bull Racing
+1 lap
19
A. Sutil
Force India
+2 laps
Fastest Lap:
Driver
Team
Lap
Reason
N. Piquet
Renault
42
Gearbox
J. Button
Honda
20
Accident
S. Vettel
Toro Rosso
1
Accident-Suspension
Drivers Comments
Felipe Massa (1st): “This race was quite difficult, I didn’t want to make any mistakes, I wanted to bring the car home and control the pace, I had all the time in my mind what happened in the last race and I am sure that is normal, and what is in my mind now is the victory.”
Kimi Raikkonen (2nd): “We finished second, so never mind, next race will be different. We are leading the championship and that is the main thing, but it was not the easiest weekend for sure.”
Mark Webber (7th): “The guys did a good job here all weekend. There were quite a few incidents in the first few laps, which we were able to capitalise on.”
Fernando Alonso (10th): “I think the whole team knows we need to improve as quickly as possible because nobody likes to complete 58 laps in 10th place or 11th,”
Lewis Hamilton (13th): “It was a very poor performance and I sort of let the team down today.
Sebastien Bourdais (15th): “I did the best I could trying to drive as consistently as possible, making no mistakes. However, for a while I had a problem with the brakes. On the plus side, I have completed another race distance, feeling fine at the end of it, which is satisfying.
Anthony Davidson (16th): “It was an enjoyable race today. To come home with another two-car finish is great for the team,”
Jenson Button (Ret): “It was a frustrating race for me because I had a good start and I don’t know what happened in Turn Four,”
Robert Kubica has grabbed a maiden pole position for tomorrow’s Bahrain Grand Prix, displacing the top 2 teams from the front rows.
The Pole was 2 hundreths of a second faster than Felipe Massa , who settled for second place after being the fastest driver by a long way through Q1 and Q2.
It was not plain sailing for Massa, who nearly got a penalty for completing a hot lap under waved yellow flags after Sato’s incident. The FIA deemed that the Aguri was well of the track, and there wasn’t a lot Massa could have done about it.
Britian’s Lewis Hamilton continued struggling with his McLaren, rebuilt after Friday’s accident, settling for 3rd place.
World Champion Kimi Raikkonen is down in 4th, but he is likely to have a large fuel load and is already tipping a good race tomorrow.
Kovalainen was 5th, Heidfeld 6th and Trulli 7th, wrapping up the main front running positions.
Jenson Button managed to squeeze into Q3, Honda’s first in some time, and put the RA108 into 9th place, marginally ahead of Fernando Alonso who looked to be struggling in the Renault.
The mid-field held the usual story, with Mark Webber in 11th just missing out on Q3, with Barrichello just behind in 12th, during Q2 the Brazilian was holding 10th place.
Timo Glock couldn’t pull the Toyota around the Sakhir circuit as well as Trulli and has 13th position.
Sebastien Bourdais looks to be settling into Scuderia Toro Rosso well, putting the STR2B into 14th. Talented team mate Sebastian Vettel could only make 19th.
For the back 2 teams it was a tough day. Force India were right down the back end in 18th and 20th, Fisichella’s dream Q2 still looks a way off. And for Aguri, things seem to be going from bad to worse in 21st and 22nd, Sato causing a red flag with 4:30 to go of Q1.
