BAHRAIN GP QUALIFYING

It was great to be able to watch a qualifying session after so many months being laid off. Especially with all the rule changes and limited testing due to weather. I was quite surprised to see Vettel grab pole at the last moment but when I think about it, I shouldn't be because Vettel has shown last year that he is very adept at grabbing pole in 1 banzai last minute lap.

As expected, the new teams were seriously off the pace and filled up the back of the grid. I wasn't paying any attention to them to be honest except for Karun Chandok as he did no running until today and at least the car ran.

Q2 was as expected. Q3 was more interesting as a Renault and Force India made it through. I was not surprised at Kubica being there because he is such a competitive driver but maybe I was surprised at a Renault being there. If Kubica was in a better car, he would have shown up higher.

Force India is another surprise and especially Sutil. He has shown that he can stick his car where it matters, if only he had a McLaren. But I won't be surprised in the race tomorrow if he manages to secure a good points haul because the car seems stable and fast, if only the team doesn't let him down. At least he won't have to worry about Kimi crashing into him.

McLaren and Ferrari seemed closer during testing and practice but somehow McLaren lost downforce and speed when it mattered. I wonder what happened. But it shows the difference between Hamilton and Button with both separated by 4 positions. But what is worrying is the pace between Hamilton and Vettel which is a second. Has Red Bull been sandbagging all this while?

This year the gap between cars were huge. Past years the gap was 2 seconds for the entire grid. Now the difference between P1 and P10 is 2.2 seconds! Lets go racing.