Whilst the Bahrain GP weekend saw a
lot of people towing the Bernie line, and attempting to make the volatile
situation in the country seem like a minor inconvenience, Force India personnel
having a worryingly near miss with some petrol bombs summed up the event
neatly, not to mention scarily.
With two of their team traumatised
enough to head home, team Fifi were the only ones bold enough to say “sod this”,
and elected to miss the second free practice session to allow their shaken personnel
to head back to hotels before dusk.
None of the other teams followed
suit, but there was a definite sensation that the school bully had frightened
them enough that they weren’t willing to step out of line and risk the wrath of
the Diminutive One.
Putting the dark atmosphere to one
side, the season was finely poised, with no clear pace-setters apparent after
the first 3 rounds, and a win separating the first 7 drivers. Shocks were
clearly on the cards, and Q1 deposited the first unpleasant one into Schumi’s
lap, as a late effort by Kovalainen saw Michael fail to make it into Q2. Queue
a long face. Oh, hang on... yeah.
Maldonado was already facing a 5
place grid penalty for shonky gearboxiness, and with Senna only making 15th,
Pastor’s final position of 22nd signalled a stonking reality check
for Williams after their recent good form. Massa once again dropped out in Q2,
as did Raikkonen and Kobayashi, leaving Ricciardo with a stunning 6th
on the grid, with Grosjean just behind him, whilst Vettel pulled his finger out
twice – once to claim pole, the second time to waggle it around in front of the
cameras again. Oh, how we’ve missed that. Whoa – my sarcasm meter just
exploded.
Race day saw Schumi with more bad
luck as he had gearbox wonkiness, the subsequent penalty dropping him to 22nd.
He must have used a black cat to break some mirrors under a ladder factory, so
crappily is his season turning out.
At the start, Button slipped back
from 4th, with Grosjean brilliantly bagging JB’s slot, and a
fast-starting Alonso up to 5th, whilst the Sebulator nipped off
sharpish.
At the none-too-pointy end of the
field, Kovalainen’s great quail was instantly negated by a puncture, whilst
Michael began a steady climb through the field.
By lap 6, Seb was 4.5 seconds clear,
with Hamilton defending from Grosjean, who brilliantly passed Lewis the
following lap, whilst Raikkonen jumped the other McLaren of Button.
Lewis’ afternoon went awry at his
first pitstop, as a grumpy wheelnut refused to go back on, leaving him 12
seconds to wonder why his wheels were worryingly wubbish. Sorry.
On the 24th time around the sandbox,
di Resta brilliantly zipped past a battling Maldonado and Perez, whilst
differing tyre strategies saw Kimi pass Romain for 2nd.
Very recent history repeated itself
for Hamilton at his second stop – same wheel, same problem, another 12 second wait
– meaning his afternoon was pretty much ruined.
Maldonado spun violently enough on
lap 28 to scare his car into failing altogether, whilst Rosberg repeated an
earlier move he had made on Hamilton on Alonso, making his one move to defend
his position so huge that it encompassed the full width of the track, and most
of the car park too. After the earlier move, Nico has been cheeky enough to
radio in and say that Hamilton has passed him whilst off the track, but this
time it was an aggrieved Alonso who radioed in to remind the world that YOU HAVE
TO LEAVE SPACE, in an oddly high-pitched voice.
35 laps in, and Kimi was all over
Vettel. His ragged attempt to get past turned out to be his only real chance.
Stopping together 5 laps later meant his chances were gone.
With 5 laps left, Rosberg nipped
past di Resta, and on the following tour, the poor afternoon for McLaren took a
further nasty turn as Button limped in with a puncture, returning to the track
in a lowly 13th.
As the lap counter showed just 3
remaining, Seb had a 3 second advantage, and when it clicked down to 2, the
McLaren luck machine dealt them a final bitter blow as JB retired, with the
exhaust exhausted.
So Vettel got to give his finger another
airing, and jumped into a slim lead in the championship. He’s got it for the
next 3 weeks, but it’s by no means guaranteed after that.
Raikkonen was an excellent 3rd,
whilst Grosjean claimed the final podium position following a great drive. He
seems really rather quick, doesn’t he? Schumacher scraped into the point in 10th,
whilst Ricciardo did a great job of blowing his great quail effort big time,
tumbling to a lowly 15th.
Post-race, a disgruntled Schumi gave
the Pirelli tyres a verbal kicking, Alonso grumbled about Rosberg (who got away
with his aggressive moves following stewardly investigation) and everyone bade
a none-too-fond farewell to Bahrain.
Let’s
hope that by next year, they really HAVE sorted it out over there, and F1 and
it’s fans don’t have to go through another weekend of fear and fake smiles...
(Currently cruising through the Peter Gabriel section of my CD collection - Long Walk Home is an excellently atmospheric film score...)
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