Bahrain Grand Prix (Sakhir) - 04. 05 & 06 April 2008

Race Sunday - (06 April 2008)

Felipe Massa outdragged pole man Robert KubicaKimi Raikkonen (+3.3 secs) demoting the pole man on lap three to third place (+4.9 secs), these three drivers holding these positions for the rest of the race, apart from pit stops. Lewis Hamilton had an “uncharacteristically” slow start only to run into the back of Fernando Alonso´s rear, causing all sorts of unnecessary speculation as to whether the Spaniard had done this on purpose! Fernando continued with a damaged rear wing to finish 10^th, whilst Lewis came into the pits for a new nose. Running with a heavy fuel load he could only manage to finish 13^th behind Giancarlo Fisichella´s Force India (ex Spyker) putting up a good performance. Nick Heidfeld (+8.4 secs) put in a challange towards the end to try and wrest the podium from his team mate Kubica., but could not manage it, having to settle for 4^th place, setting fastest lap, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen who annexed it soon after, having an undramatic drive to 5th in a McLaren that was simply not fast enough to challenge either the Ferrari or the BMW., the German chassis giving half a second away to the Italian job. Jarno Trulli (+41.3 secs) took 6^th, showing that Toyota are more consistent this year, holding off Mark Webber. (+45.4 secs). into turn one to take the lead, Williams’ Nico Rosberg (+55.8 secs), completing the points scorers. Toro Rosso’s Sebastian VettelJenson Button’s hopes were dashed by the need for a pit stop for damage repair at the end of the opening lap, and another after a passing move on David Coulthard that went drastically wrong as the Scotsman closed the door – a racing incident!Nelson Piquet had mechanical failures and had to retire again this weekend. retired on lap 1 with a mechanical failure.

Q1. Q2 & Q3 Saturday – (05 April 2008)

Beat Kubica (1:33.096) the Pole taking the “pole” the first time for BMW and in doing so upseting the form book. Felipe Massa (1:33.123) had looked strong all weekend to date, but at the press debriefing complain of not being able to get a clear lap. Lewis Hamilton (1:33.292) managed third place ahead his chief threat Kimi Räikkönen (1:33.418) and his team mate Heikki Kovalainen (1:33.488) fifth, with BMW`s Nick Heidfeld (1:33.737) showing Ferrari and McLaren that there is now a third team in the contention for both driver and constructors championship this year. Jarno Trulli (1:33.737) and Nico Rosberg (1:34.015) saying that they had overcome the teams Malaysian bad showing and happy with qualifing on the harder surface today, the German having set the fastest time this morning are on row four. Row five Jenson Button (1:35.057) in the top ten for the first time this year and Fernando Alonso (1:35.115) complete the top ten.

Practice - Friday (04 April)

Felipe Massa (1m 32.233s) was dominant in both the morning and afternoon sessions in the morning narrowly beating team mate Kimi Raikkonen by 0.117s and again in the afternoon. In the morning Williams were relieved to be ahead with Nico Rosberg (1m 32.415s) ahead of the 2 McLaren´s of Lewis Hamilton (1m 32.705s) and Heikki Kovalainen (1m 32.868s).

This afternoon Lewis Hamilton lost control exiting Turn Seven, the fast chicane, with 10 minutes left to run. He caught the ensuing slide and held it, but ran out of road and his MP4-23 struck a barrier heavily enough to loosen two wheels and causing considerable damage. He was unhurt. Massa (1m 31.420s) at the last minute did the best lap of the day ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen (1m 32.752s) his team mate managing a fourth with 1m 32.752s. Robert Kubica´s BMW Sauber close to the McLaren with 1m 32.915s. Nico Rosberg (1m 33.022s) sixth sandwiching David Coulthard (1m 33.048s) between the second Williams of Kazuki Nakajima (1m 33.098s) eigth. Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais (1m 33.197s), Renault’s Nelson Piquet (1m 33.247s) claimed the last two top ten spots this afternoon.

Bahrain Grand Prix on ITV
Live qualifying
Saturday 5 April 1110-1335 ITV1 and itv.com/f1
Qualifying highlights Sunday 6 April 1015-1120 ITV4
Live race
Sunday 6 April 1130-1430 ITV1 and itv.com/f1
Highlights Sunday 6 April 2345-0045 ITV1
Highlights re-run Monday 7 April 1800-1900 ITV4

Pre weekend comment

Schumacher tips Massa to bounce back - "He has zero points for the season, so it is not the best of starts…he has played his jokers so far, and doesn't really have any more jokers to play," Schumacher said in an interview with Reuters. "But things will turn around very quickly I think in his favour. He is certainly still very capable of winning the championship this year. Massa is very focused, knows what is going on and what he has to do, Pressure is normal in our world and I am certain he knows how to deal with it.”

Nick Heidfeld - "After some initial problems, we have made great progress during the winter tests,” he said on the team’s official website. "Most of the new parts we have added to the car have worked, and have allowed us to significantly improve the car's performance. For this reason, I am optimistic that we are not yet at our limit. There is still more potential for improvement. We have come closer to achieving this goal at the races in Australia and Malaysia. You can see that we have a good basis for success. However, there was one team and one car that was faster than us in both races. With this in mind, we must keep on improving and closing the gap."

Kimi Raikkonen - "Never mind the championship - it's much too early to make any kind of conclusions as to who is who. We have to wait some more races to get the picture of who are the main contenders for the title. It's going to be as tight as it was last year, that is for sure. Now it's a battle between three teams instead of two. Ferrari and McLaren have won the first two races, but let's not forget that BMW have had two second places. So any slip up by Ferrari and McLaren, and they will be there to pick up the points. This time you really have to fight for every point you get."