Bahrain Race... Alonso leads redwash

Well... what did you think?

The first race of 2010 wasn't stunningly exciting, was it? Pretty unexciting in fact. Interesting yes, but not a thriller.

The new kids on the block (Lotus, Hispania & Virgin) weren't as far off the pace as expected, but were pretty much about as reliable as we expected (ie, not very) with the exception of Lotus, who got 1 car to the end and the other at least classified as a finisher. Hispania just got the better of Virgin when Senna dragged his car into it's 19th lap before it finally packed up. Chandhok managed less that 5 laps in the entire weekend in his Hispania - a bump he didn't even know was there got him on his 2nd race lap.

After my irritation with BBC commentator Jonathan Legard last year ("Hamilton pushes on"), Pit lane poppet Lee Mackenzie got my goat this weekend with her brilliant questioning style. I think she instructed every driver that dropped out of the race to "Just tell us what happened". Oooh. Good idea Lee. They probably hadn't thought of that.

Anyway, the race itself saw Webber deploying a brilliant smokescreen tactic to try and stop anyone from overtaking him, and Alonso laid down the first marker to his team mate by nipping past Massa at the start. Vettel looked to have it in the bag until a dodgy spark plug caused him problems (it wasn't the exhaust, no. The big hole in his bodywork was though). The inevitable happened, and he was passed by Alonso, Massa and Hamilton. Schumacher didn't shine, getting beaten by Rosberg (bet he's happy!) and Button wound up 7th. Welcome to McLaren Jens - I suspect you'd better get used to this. The Saubers seem to have been fast in testing only, and neither of them made it to the end either.

So Alonso won on his first outing for Ferrari. Shame he hadn't practiced what to do during the Italian national anthem. Schumi used to conduct the team, Massa always does a spot of chest thumping. Kimi looked, er, well, bored. Nando looked decidedly awkward and uncomfortable. Still, he'll get used to it.

As for the rule changes, the pit stops were great, cars nipping in and out rapidly, but there wasn't much in the way of overtaking on track and nearly everyone changed tyres once only. Even then, no-one seemed to be clinging on to the track by the tips of their tyres. What's the betting we get a mandatory 2 stops introduced if that keeps up?

F1 2010 - 7 out of 10. Must try harder.

(The Monkees would very much like you to board the Last Train To Clarksville.)

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