Bahrain 2008 : Massa Rebounds a Ferrari 1-2 !!!

Felipe Massa rebounded from his shaky start to the 2008 season by beating teammate Kimi Raikkonen to victory in a Ferrari-dominated Bahrain Grand Prix.

Pole-winner Robert Kubica took another podium for BMW in third, ahead of teammate Nick Heidfeld - a result that puts the team into the lead of the constructors' championship for the first time in their short history.

But it was a disastrous day for pre-race championship leaders Lewis Hamilton and McLaren. The Briton lost seven places off the line with a very poor start, then hit former teammate Fernando Alonso and broke his front wing. He could only finish 13th, while teammate Heikki Kovalainen was a quiet fifth.

Massa instantly shot past front row partner Kubica and into the race lead at the start, with Kovalainen dodging around Hamilton to move up to third. The Finn out-muscled countryman Raikkonen through Turns 1 and 2, but was repassed by the world champion further ahead the opening lap.

Raikkonen then rapidly caught and passed Kubica for second, driving around the outside of the Pole at Turn 1 on lap three, while Kovalainen lost another place to Heidfeld when he ran wide on the same lap.

Hamilton's bad start had dropped him to 10th, and he was attempting to pass Alonso for ninth when he clipped the back of the Renault as they accelerated out of Turn 2. The McLaren briefly became airborne and lost its front wing, leaving Hamilton down in 18th and a minute behind the leaders after he pitted for repairs.

This tangle was one of several early incidents, with Jenson Button (Honda), Adrian Sutil (Force India) and David Coulthard (Red Bull) all having to pit with damage after a chaotic opening lap. Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel sustained broken suspension, while Renault driver Nelson Piquet spun down the order on the second lap. He recovered several positions before retiring with gearbox failure.

At the front, Massa edged away from Raikkonen and established a five-second early lead. Kubica kept Raikkonen under pressure until pitting on lap 17, three laps earlier than Raikkonen, who was the first Ferrari driver to stop.

Moving your attention to the other drivers, Rubens Barichello, Mark Webber, and Giancarlo Fisichella so far are the standouts in this category with my edge going to Giancarlo Fisichella. I give him the edge over Rubens Barichello just barely. Fisichella is silencing his critics just as much as Massa has to. After crashing out in Australia, he has rebounded and been very consistent; has had 2 strong drives taking his Force to 12th position in the last 2 races. I might just give him a Ferrari to drive.

Honda too have improved, no doubt and so has Rubens. By the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix, he was challenging Alonso for 10th place. It may have been a damaged Renault Alonso was driving, but nevertheless Honda has improved so far. I look ahead to Barcelona for the next aero change.Mark Webber has been consistent at 7th place since the last 2 races. He dropped one grid position in Malaysia starting 6th and finishing 7th. In Bahrain his qualifying was much worse starting 11th on the gird, but pulling again up to 7th. More importantly he has scored points in these last to races. The standings so far are

Classified:
1. Massa Ferrari 1h31:06.970
2. Raikkonen Ferrari + 3.339
3. Kubica BMW Sauber + 4.998
4. Heidfeld BMW Sauber + 8.409
5. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes + 26.789
6. Trulli Toyota + 41.314
7. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 45.473
8. Rosberg Williams-Toyota + 55.889
9. Glock Toyota + 1:09.500
10. Alonso Renault + 1:17.181
11. Barrichello Honda + 1:17.862
12. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari + 1 lap
13. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 1 lap
14. Nakajima Williams-Toyota + 1 lap
15. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
16. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda + 1 lap
17. SatoSuper Aguri-Honda + 1 lap
18. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault + 1 lap
19. Sutil Force India-Ferrari + 2 laps

Fastest lap:
Kovalainen, 1:33.193

Not classified/retirements:
Piquet Renault 42 laps
Button Honda 20 laps
Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1 lap

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Bahrain F1 GP 2008 - Qualifying : Kubica gives BMW Sauber maiden pole in Bahrain

Another great qualifying and this time its BMW-Sauber’s Robert Kubica grabbing pole on his last flying lap inching ahead of Felipe Massa of Ferrari. As has been the norm lately, BMW-Sauber kept a low profile right up until qualifying and then showed what they really had.

For most of the weekend, Felipe Massa was the story as he topped the time charts just about everywhere he could including in qualifying right up to the end only to lose pole to Robert Kubica. So far Kimi Raikkonen is flying under the wire and finishes in 4th outside second row and watching Massa take all the Ferrari glory.

Lewis Hamilton showed no ill effects from yesterdays shunt and managed 3rd best time just over a tenth off Massa. Topping the top 5 is Heikki Kovalainen who still needs to find something extra from himself and his MP4-23 to challenge the new 3 team competition now including BMW-Sauber. However, Nick Heidfeld is frustrated with his car or shall I say his inability to get comfortable with it. He’s not liking the tight and twitchy car as much as Robert Kubica and it showed today with his 6th grid spot behind Kovalainen.

Honda continues to slowly improve as Jenson Button climbed into Q3 for the first time this season. Great drive for him especially since his position is one ahead of Fernando Alonso who will start 10th. For Fernando, that’s got to hurt especially when he was very hopeful of a Q3. Rubens Barichello drove well, but was bumped in the dying seconds of Q2 and will start 12th.

Jarno Trulli for Toyota really outpaced his teammate Timo Glock. Trulli who of course can qualify with the best of them ended up 7th and Timo struggled to only 13th. I think maybe a top 10 for Jarno is achievable.

The same for Williams with Nico Rosberg qualifying in 8th, miles ahead of Kazuki Nakajima who could only manage 16th. Nakajima should be able to do much better than 16th and has a lot of work ahead of him this year. I don’t know about him.

What to say about Red Bull. David Coulthard has got to be making it very difficult for his team as he is never short of criticism of the RB4. It was the same today as he couldn’t get speed out of the corners and wasn’t shy about letting everyone know. He wasn’t even able to get out of Q1 and will start 17th. Mark Webber did much better and just missed Q3 on the last flying laps and starts 11th. Clearly he can handle the car.

Force India still trying for Q2. Giancarlo Fisichella muffed his first flyer and could only grab 18th with Adrian Sutil 20th. Not a good weekend so far for Force India.

The last 2 spots are of course taken by Super Aguri. Anthony Davidson 21st and Takuma Sato who spun into the end of the pit wall 22nd.

Here’s how they stand:

1. Robert Kubica Poland BMW Sauber F1 Team-BMW 1:33.096
2. Felipe Massa Brazil Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro-Ferrari 1:33.123
3. Lewis Hamilton Britain Vodafone McLaren Mercedes-Mercedes 1:33.292
4. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro-Ferrari 1:33.418
5. Heikki Kovalainen Finland Vodafone McLaren Mercedes-Mercedes 1:33.488
6. Nick Heidfeld Germany BMW Sauber F1 Team-BMW 1:33.737
7. Jarno Trulli Italy Panasonic Toyota Racing-Toyota 1:33.994
8. Nico Rosberg Germany AT&T Williams-Toyota 1:34.015
9. Jenson Button Britain Honda Racing F1 Team-Honda 1:35.057
10. Fernando Alonso Spain ING Renault F1 Team-Renault 1:35.115
11. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:32.371
12. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Honda Racing F1 Team-Honda 1:32.508
13. Timo Glock Germany Panasonic Toyota Racing-Toyota 1:32.528
14. Nelson Piquet Jr Brazil ING Renault F1 Team-Renault 1:32.790
15. Sebastien Bourdais France Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:32.915
16. Kazuki Nakajima Japan AT&T Williams-Toyota 1:32.943
17. David Coulthard Britain Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:33.433
18. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Force India F1 Team-Ferrari 1:33.501
19. Sebastian Vettel Germany Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:33.562
20. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India F1 Team-Ferrari 1:33.845
21. Anthony Davidson Britain Super Aguri F1 Team-Honda 1:34.140
22. Takuma Sato Japan Super Aguri F1 Team-Honda 1:35.725

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Bahrain F1 GP 2008 - Testing

It’s great to see some driving action again rather than the boring politics. Mr. Mosley’s tryst with hookers and lack of inputs from the pits made the racing junkie yearn for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Felipe Massa led teammate Kimi Raikkonen in a Ferrari one-two in the first free practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Williams' Nico Rosberg took third with a late qualifying-style run, ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen.

Everything seemed to look similar in the 2nd practice run until things changed a bit for one Mr. Hamilton. The Briton lost control of his car on the exit of Turn 7 and spun across the track, hitting the opposite barriers side-on and causing heavy damage to the right-hand side of the car. Hamilton was unharmed in the incident.

As if to rub salt in the wound, Raikkonen then banged in a new fastest lap of the session moments later, at 1m 32.327s. Massa, who had been quickest since deposing Hamilton early on, looked like dropping to second but then made a low-fuel run for the best lap of the day in 1m 31.420s.

Heikki Kovalainen vaulted up to third with 1m 32.752s just before team mate Hamilton crashed, the latter’s once-quickest time of 1m 32.847s leaving him fourth.

Behind them, Robert Kubica kept BMW Sauber close to McLaren with 1m 32.915s, and Nico Rosberg maintained his form with sixth place and 1m 33.022s for Williams. With Kazuki Nakajima in eighth with 1m 33.098s, there was an air of quiet satisfaction in the English team.

David Coulthard gave Red Bull continued cheer with seventh place on 1m 33.048s, but Mark Webber was on a different programme and was 13th on 1m 33.782s.

There was a little more excitement when Adrian Sutil and Fernando Alonso came together after Alonso braked late into the corner. Fernando Alonso wasn’t pleased with his outings today saying they lacked grip and a lot speed that must be worked on before the race.

All in all it was a good day for Ferrari with Massa topping the times in both sessions showing everyone he can drive in the sand. Raikkonen had another and predictably good day with the second fastest time in both sessions.

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