2010 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix

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maximumattack
I'd like to see/read an interview with Mark to hear his views on Q3.
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From formula1.com

Mark Webber (6th, Q3 - 1m 55.284s)
“I did my worst lap at the most important time today. It was going well until Turn 16, but it wasn’t so good from there on. Seb did a good job for pole position; there was more in the car than sixth today. It’s disappointing, but all is not lost and it’s a long race tomorrow.”
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http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/3/10519.html
 
I had the F1.com glitch, too... but I was able to re-register within qualifying.

Better than what's going on with the former F1-Live... (now ESPN)... the site completely shut down on me during the first stint of qualifying, while I was waiting for my F1.com confirmation!

Does this mean that interest in F1 is that great at the start of this season? :lol:

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RE: gap between first and third: Many of the top ten were capable of better times, so I'd expect the differences to even out over the course of the race... OR... the performance difference will grow greater as the tires wear out. Who knows?
 
I haven't read up on any post qualy interviews or press releases but, I don't think it would be unwise to assume that the grid positions will not be a true reflection of the performance capabilities of the cars/teams. I thought Mansell (on the BBC coverage) made an interesting point about how a race without refuelling is very much for the thinking driver. His example being the legendary 'Professor' Prost.

I can't help but feel it would be wrong to write off Webber, Button or even Schumi for the win and, I have my reservations about Vettel. Maybe this is unfair but I just don't rate the guy that highly. If I were a betting man I'd put money on him pitting first too. If the rumours about the Red Bull being harsher on the tyres than other teams, to put in a lap that was one of the quickest over the last two days just shouts out 'crazy' to me.

I can't help but think we are going to be on the edge of our seats for the whole race tomorrow and it will be anything but straight forward, I can't wait!! :drool:
 
I think its fair to question Vettel's ability - he's not really proven himself an overtaker and appears to let the pressure get to him at times. But he has started from pole before and dominated the race many times, so I think he's a safe bet personally.
I have no idea what to predict for the race, I expect it to be exciting though, especially near the end.

Brilliant to see that Chandhok could make it, now the HRT guys just have to trundle at the back and avoid hitting anything, it would be stupid for them to try anything into turn 1.
Good to see an even battle so far with Lotus vs. Virgin and I think Barrichello is in a brilliant position for the race. Maybe even Sutil is too with his scrubbed harder tyres.

Ferrari - top notch performance, its close between the teammates, as it is almost every team down the field it seems. From testing, I expect them to run away with it, but it depends on the tyres holding up.
Red Bull - again, amazing performance from Vettel, but their race pace will be interesting.
McLaren - a bit disappointing but good to watch the battle between Button and Hamilton, especially for tyre wear ;)
Mercedes - again, teammate battle is the interest, Rosberg seems to have Schumi beat and is all smiles about it.
Midfield - looking good for most teams except Toro Rosso and Sauber, guess they will be relying on race pace. Force India did indeed surprise :p
Lotus - Excellent so far, no problems and both drivers having a good start to their season. Very professional.
Virgin - I was surprised to see Glock steal new team pole, hopefully the car holds together so they can battle Lotus for best new team honours.
HRT - My new favourite underdogs, just good to see them make it and Karun and Bruno are great personalities. Will cheer them on to the finish.

Its nice to have the old qualifying back, where it was important but not to the point of making the race effectively over - Red Bull have questionable race pace and the Saubers and McLarens are thought to have good race pace.
Not to mention the tyres are a complete unknown, especially those softs the Q3 people were using. In other words, its not over yet!

Looking forward to this race! 👍

My only issue is the new FOM graphics - which are crap basically. I had little idea who was where without referring to internet live timing, this is not helpful for the general audience and made qualifying a little less exciting for some.
 
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Vettel has had some amazing drives in the past, and he's shown the ability to push a car to its limits. He may not have the same racecraft (yet) as some of the greats, but with a car that's arguably the class of the field (instead of being second best to Brawn/Mercedes GP as in last season), he may be able to take it.
 
The other weak spot is Red Bull's strategies from the pit wall, remember last year where they failed to get Vettel past Massa at Catalunya?
 
Well... less chance of fluff-ups there... tire strategy will matter more... but seeing as how the top three lap seem to have stuck to the softer tire, they're all taking that gamble. The big issue right now will be the quality of the pit crew. Didn't matter as much two years ago, since fueling always took longer than tire changes... and didn't matter last year except for the times Renault flubbed with those ugly wheel covers... but I don't think there's anything major they could do to ruin his race. It'll all come down to how well the RBR manages its tires.

This is all theoretical... none of us will know much of how this season will shape up until they've finally run full race distance with the full-race fuel load. This will be interesting to watch.
 
Right - I had to watch an abridged verison of Quali... but I caught FP3... (So apologies for any inaccuracies below)

So how did Chandok Qualify?

And from what I could see 1-9 are on options - and Sutil is on primes.

Nicely done by Massa and Rosberg who were widely considered to be their teams second drivers... Button and Webber seemed to choke at the vital moment... (or did Lewis do really well?)

Are Sutil and Rubens the men to watch?! Hmmm - looking forward to tom.

C.

EDIT : Rosberg said "Options are the best race tyre for the first few laps" - Is this bluster?
 
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What do you mean? How well did Chandhok do or you mean why was he allowed to qualify?
Well, he was allowed to because the rule that means all drivers must complete 3 practice laps was probably wavered considering HRT's circumstances. After seeing how well Chandhok did, I think it was the correct decision, at least HRT can now get some decent data tomorrow.
As for how well Karun did...well I think he did as well as any other driver could do in the circumstances. I doubt even the champions on the grid could have done much more, Karun wasn't far off Bruno's pace and reportedly was driving the car in shakedown condition - i.e. running the engine low and just testing systems while attempting to finish laps.

I think what has impressed me most about HRT is the level of determination, professionalism and reliability out of the box they have shown. Both drivers appear to be level-headed and are taking it easy but still doing their best. Bruno and Karun are great guys too, I think this team has quickly become a fan favourite - definitely the underdog everyone's heart goes out to I think. Not that they didn't bring their problems on themselves, but they have still managed to turn it around impressively and are quickly building themselves a respectable and solid future.

Even just yesterday I thought that Karun would be all over the place in Qualy after no time in the car, so I'm very impressed with his approach and attitude. Though I guess there is no other sensible way to go about it, its still so easy to try and prove a point and crash the car. All they have to do now is avoid a turn 1 accident and run their own race, it would be stupid to bin it on the 1st lap and there's little point in trying to battle with anyone else with the car so off the pace (and probably badly setup).
 
Interesting qualifying session. Race should be good tomorrow, it's Sky+'d unfortunately :(
 
RE: Ardius

When I was watching FP3 they were saying that because he'd not done 3 laps in practice - then he wouldn't be allowed to Qualify... so was confused as to how he was driving...

So basically - they waived the rule for this race?

And looking at his time (I think it was about half a second behind Senna) I agree that it was a good idea... I thought that (when I left after FP3) it was a shame that there were only going to be 23 cars at the race...

The bending/tweaking of the rules are a good thing... I know that some people will tell us that it's inconsistent (as usual) - but it proves that these people are human.

C.
 
yeti
Are Sutil and Rubens the men to watch?! Hmmm - looking forward to tom.
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Thing is, you have got to have a really good car to profit from that situation. I can see Sutil pulling off a nice profit as the Force India doesn't seem too far off the pace of the higher placed cars. But Barrichello? I don't think so, the Williams is not as fast as the Force India. If Vettel pulls away 2 seconds a lap for 15 laps, and seeing pitstops will last less than last year, I can't see Barrichello being such a threat for the front runners.
 
Bram Turismo
Thing is, you have got to have a really good car to profit from that situation. I can see Sutil pulling off a nice profit as the Force India doesn't seem too far off the pace of the higher placed cars. But Barrichello? I don't think so, the Williams is not as fast as the Force India. If Vettel pulls away 2 seconds a lap for 15 laps, and seeing pitstops will last less than last year, I can't see Barrichello being such a threat for the front runners.
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Indeed - but will the supersofts last 15 laps with a full load of fuel? (I appreciate that this is mostly a rhetorical question as we can't possibly know until tomorrow!!)

Nico said in his post quali interview - if you oversteered one bend - then you overheated the tyres instantly... and they were shot for the next 2 bends or so - until they cooled down a bit.

C.
 
Well I think that such rules are pretty much thrown in to provide a legal reason to kick drivers or out of the session if they are desperately bad. But seeing as Chandhok isn't a Yuji Ide (or so it seems so far), the FIA were proved right to do so. Otherwise it would have made the team's struggle that bit harder, although I'm fairly sure that if Chandhok's pace had been catastrophically bad (like up to 20 seconds or something) then the FIA would probably have met a bit more resistance from the teams for letting them in the race.

Now we just have to hope the car starts properly tomorrow and they manage to survive long enough to start the race, as we know, even getting off the grid can be a struggle.
 
Ardius
Well I think that such rules are pretty much thrown in to provide a legal reason to kick drivers or out of the session if they are desperately bad. But seeing as Chandhok isn't a Yuji Ide (or so it seems so far), the FIA were proved right to do so. Otherwise it would have made the team's struggle that bit harder, although I'm fairly sure that if Chandhok's pace had been catastrophically bad (like up to 20 seconds or something) then the FIA would probably have met a bit more resistance from the teams for letting them in the race.

Now we just have to hope the car starts properly tomorrow and they manage to survive long enough to start the race, as we know, even getting off the grid can be a struggle.
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Agreed - that car seems to have some gremlins in it somewhere - in FP3 he said that they'd finished the car overnight and it was ready to go... then the following morning - they started it up - and it went wrong!!

At least they have an hour of "testing" to get to the grid tomorrow morning... hmmm - that's a question - how does that work... when do they fill them up? Before they leave the pits? So any laps they do on the way to the grid will use fuel? (and of course for the front runners - tyres?)

C.
 
Yeah, they fill them up before going to the grid, I doubt we will see many drivers doing those extra fuel burning laps we saw in previous years before the race. They only did that to change their fuel strategy before, HRT wouldn't gain much doing that now (after all, they would have to keep passing through the pitlane each time).
Besides, why do that when they can just take it easy in the race? There's no need to be messing about like that, they should be fine in the race as long as they keep out of trouble and the car starts ok.
 
My prediction for tomorrow is Alonso for the win, Schumacher for 5th and Sauber to claw in some points. As crack pot as that sounds, I have a good feeling about it :p

The new FOM graphics are downright awful. What happened to the wonderfully clean previous ones? :\

Also, I liked the small interview Barrichello gave.

"So, Schumacher just ahead of you on the grid. What do you think?"
"Haaaa, I've got fresh tyres!"

Looking forward to it :D
 
Ardius
Yeah, they fill them up before going to the grid, I doubt we will see many drivers doing those extra fuel burning laps we saw in previous years before the race. They only did that to change their fuel strategy before, HRT wouldn't gain much doing that now (after all, they would have to keep passing through the pitlane each time).
Besides, why do that when they can just take it easy in the race? There's no need to be messing about like that, they should be fine in the race as long as they keep out of trouble and the car starts ok.
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You don't think that might be useful (especially for Chandok)?

I guess they can't do any setup changes - although of course - they can - because they may as well break "parc ferme" rules because they're already at the back?!

Lots of other questions we'll get answered tomorrow I guess...
How thirsty is the Ferrari engine?
How frugal is the Renault engine?
Does the "knee gate" help McLaren overtake?
Does Virgin have big enough fuel tanks?
Is P11 good?
Is Q3 and running on the prime tyres better than options despite being back a bit?
How many cars will make it round Turn 1? (Turn 1 being an (almost) hairpin)
How many overtakes will we see tomorrow?
When will McLaren fit KERS to their car?

C.
 
FYI - Just to confirm the tyre choice for tomorrow's top ten...

formula1.com
Sutil said he was very happy, and that 10th place after a Q3 run was a great achievement, especially as he was the only runner to use the harder tyre.
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C.
 
yeti
You don't think that might be useful (especially for Chandok)?

I guess they can't do any setup changes - although of course - they can - because they may as well break "parc ferme" rules because they're already at the back?!
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No, because they don't know the fuel consumption rate of their car in race form, so any fuel they waste going around for setup changes may edge them closer to not finishing the race. Besides, there is very little setup changes they can make beyond driver comfort without having the benefit of the timing to observe the results of their changes.
Setup should be the least of their worries for the moment, for now its running the car and evaluating the baseline performance and getting the team some experience in running a race weekend. Attempting to perfect a fast setup should not really be a target for this weekend, there isn't many large scale setup changes they can make anyway before tomorrow, parc ferme or not and without testing such changes, there is little reason in running the risk other than to maybe make the setup a bit easier even if its slower.
 
You make a good point... however whatabout Chandok... he is said to be running in "safe" mode on his engine... will that be turned off at the race?

Could more running mean that he *could* (if they're currently thinking of leaving it on) turn it off for the race?!

C.
 
They ran the engine on low revs and short shift the gears and probably reduced power too just to make sure they set a time (and thus were qualified for the race). I imagine they'll run the engines at full tilt tomorrow, there is no reason not to other than if they are still worried about reliability (like if the cooling is not good).

Oh and I didn't spot this before, some humor from the Lotus guys:

147851.jpg
 
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:lol:👍

yeti
FYI - Just to confirm the tyre choice for tomorrow's top ten...



C.
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That would explain his rather "dissapointing" performance then. I expected him to upset the Mercedes' more since he has been up there all weekend as well as in Q1 and Q2. Seeing where Force India were on the grid this time last year, I really have to say hats off to those chaps. I can't wait to see what Sutil does tomorrow. As long as he's not the same crash magnet anymore :lol:
 
Yeah, I follow some teams' official Twitter accounts and Lotus' is the funniest. Virgin Racing is cool too.
 
Bad Webber, not a good lap by him, really should have been an easy 1-2 for Red Bull, But We'll see how Webber's stradegy plays out
 
Can't wait for the race!!

Was an interesting Qualifying session yesterday... For the race today, I'm just hoping to see both the Lotus finish the race if not beating the Virgins. Sauber performance yesterday was a bit of a dissapointment. I really thought they could do much better after what an impressive winter testing times.

Owh, congratulations to Vettel for his pole and Ferrari looks like a threat to Red Bull while Schumi is hmmm.... owkey good to see him in the top 10 at least for his comeback into the pinnacle of motorsport.
 
And no penalty for Felipe... Well what happened??
 
No idea, don't think there will be a penalty because they are still allowed 8 different engines remember ;).
All I know is that its for "precaution" like the tweet says.
 
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