Red Bull gives you wins. Adrian Newey's RB5 has struck back for the non-diffusers in a race where Robert Kubica tried to re-enact Canada 2007 and the stewards got some much-deserved sleep.
STAR OF THE RACE
Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Winner
Vettel showed that his Monza race victory for Toro Rosso in 2008 was no fluke. Not that many people thought it was. The German driver didn't put a foot wrong in a car that was supremely adapted to the conditions.
While all around were wobbling, going straight on, and exploring interesting new parts of the circuit, the Red Bulls stuck the track. Just as at Silverstone in 2008 with Lewis Hamilton, had the team not been cautious and let Sebastian off the leash, he would have finished 30+ seconds clear of Webber.
OVERTAKING MOVE OF THE RACE
Lap 32 Mark Webber on Jenson Button
Webber had a great race. He's been in so many good positions before that were interrupted by fate or mechanical failure but today all the driveshaft seals stayed in place and he was able to enjoy a much-deserved second place.
Though he went wide on the final turn of Lap 31, he gathered the car up and came storming past Jenson Button on the outside of Turn 7 to take back second place within eight corners. Though Hamilton and others made that kind of pass throughout the race there was far more at stake when Mark did it - and he went on to set a string of personal best lap times for the four laps following.
WINNERS
Jenson Button, Brawn, 3rd
Jenson was far quicker than Rubens Barrichello's Brawn in race pace even though he had to give best to the Brazilian in qualifying.
Clearly the Brawns had problems getting heat into the tyres - that's why he was weaving on the straights sometimes and also why Rubens Barrichello fastest lap came after a pit-stop when they'd pre-heated the tyres. But third place is not-too-shabby and there's very little chance of there being rain in Bahrain.
So, a day to bank the points. And nice to see Jenson genuinely happy for Red Bull boss Christian Horner in the pre-podium ceremony. Your rival trounces you and you're pleased for them - Sportmanship doesn't come any better than that.
The "milepost" leads the World Championship from the "nearly-retired" old git. Long may it stay that way.
Rubens Barrichello, Brawn, 4th
On fuel adjusted pace Rubens was the unofficial polesitter in China. Things went downhill after the start of the race but he still brought the car home in P4. Had Lewis Hamilton kept his car on the road consistently then it might well have been P5.
Rubens may have been unlucky but it's just payback time for his spell at Ferrari alongside Schumacher when he was the unluckiest F1 driver of all time.
Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, 5th
Lewis Hamilton, Mclaren, 6th
Kovalainen was slower than Hamilton but had far fewer adventures. It's a credit to Lewis that he could make so many overtaking moves and not hit anyone, but his title of Der Regenmeister has to be officially withdrawn and handed over to Vettel.
It would be interesting to take a poll of the Mclaren team personnel right now and ask them who they'd sooner have in the garages during a race - Anthony Hamilton or Dave Ryan.
The Hamiltons are in danger of becoming like the Cash-for-Questions Conservative Hamiltons, Neil and Christina, figures of fun, thanks to their posturing of total innocence in Melbourne Porkygate. The speed at which they chose to distance themselves from the affair (he's a World Champion, he should know his own mind) and potentially exit the team has left a very nasty taste.
The offence was a minor one. Stewards are staggeringly inconsistent and proven to be incompetent, and so telling a little white lie to hoodwink them is all part of the game. But it's the aftermath that has been so damaging.
Timo Glock, Toyota, 7th
Glock should have been penalised for sideswiping Nick Heidfeld on Lap 14 so he was a lucky lucky boy to get away with P7. He admitted an error under braking, like Vettel in Melbourne, but the stewards didn't even investigate it.
How does that work then? Are the rules different if the race is a busy one. You have a driver who doesn't even claim "it's a racing accident" putting his hands up and no sanction. Surely we should review the radio transcripts, dig up YouTube clips and reconvene the stewards in Bahrain and take this further...? Or not as it doesn't involve Mclaren.
Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 8th
Another great race from Buemi. Though it's still a bit unfair to see them score constructor points and for Ferrari to be mocked in comparison. They are not a constructor, they are just a clone of the Red Bull with less development time.
LOSERS
Ferrari, 10th and DNF
It may be the Scuderia's worst start to the season in 27 years, but the potential is there. Felipe Massa was driving strongly in conditions that don't usually suit him when his car gave out. Raikkonen qualified inside the top 10. It's not where they usually are after the third race but it's a cathartic release from all those Todt/Brawn/Byrne/Schumi years. And Bahrain has always been a good circuit for them.
Fernando Alonso, Renault, 9th
As he was only 8th in the Q2 qualifying session you knew straight away that P2 on the grid was a bit of showboating from the Renault team. What they hoped to achieve from that is hard to fathom and the fact that an experienced World Champion was happy to go along with it is also a bit mysterious.
Alonso could have been up there with Glock contesting P7 but a disastrous spin sent him back to P13 in the latter stages and he never recovered.
Nelson Piquet Junior, Renault, 16th
For a race in which Lewis Hamilton was all over the place Nelson Piquet was doing very well to keep out of trouble till Lap 28. Or as someone next to me said so succently "****ing miracle". Having done so well Junior proceeded to derange a front wing at Turn 5 and then rattled the Armco with another trademark snatched brake move requiring another front wing.
Like we've said before, Nelsinho and Alonso in the same team is like keeping a donkey in a field with a race horse. He's there for company and not to make the thoroughbred feel threatened. His role is not to be faster than Fernando, which he manages effortlessly.
The only trouble is that teams cannot continue with drivers that exit in Q3 when their team-mates get through to Q1 (though Alonso had a higher spec car at his disposal for this race). Bourdais, Nakajima and Piquet are all staring into the abyss.
Adrian Sutil, Force India, DNF
He'd done really well to hold off Heidfeld, Glock and Alonso - and the two or three points were nearly in the bag. Then BANG! At least it was his mistake this time.
BBC Coverage
The BBC upped their coverage of the sport by replacing Eddie Jordan with ex-Toyota, ex-Force India technical director Mike Gascoyne. A good move. Mike added a level of technical insight that ITV never even began to provide, and though Jordan is good at saying the things most people choose to avoid, Gascoyne has only just left the sport while Jordan is a has-been.
The most interesting thing that Mike had to say was about FOTA's technical group, which Ross Brawn heads and he was a part of (on behalf of Force India). When Ross Brawn made the offer to close off aero loopholes in the 2009 regulations back in March 2008, which would have harmonised diffuser development, he needed unanimous support.
He didn't get it because two teams objected - Renault and BMW were happy with the rules as they were draughted. Now Flavio Briatore is thrashing around like a wounded elephant about depriving the Brawn team of TV money and it's clearly his own fault.
That amiable freak of nature Jake Humphry failed to ask either Gascoyne or Coulthard why we saw footage of Heikki Kovalainen's Mclaren being held up by Vettel in Q2 yet there were no consequences.
At the French GP when Kovalainen held someone up less significantly he was given a grid penalty - did McLaren opt to sit on their hands because they preferred to have Vettel rather than Alonso on pole or were they earning brownie points with Red Bull?
We'd sooner find that out that than have reminiscences about David Coulthard's underpants.
During the commentary Jonathan Leggard was keen to show Martin Brundle just how many things he could remember about F1 in the past in the same hammy way that the teams were asking their drivers how conditions were on the circuit. "Is the circuit bone dry where you are, Fernando?" "Si."
We had a bit of vicar-speak on Lap 7. Talking about Fernando Alonso, Jonathan spouted, "You could just tell his gander was up on the grid." Oi Leggard: this isn't Jeeves and Wooster. Fernando's bally Renault is going awfully quickly, let's hope he doesn't go orf the track, doncha know.
Flavio Briatore
Briatore is staggering around taking a swipe at his F1 rivals like a cross between a tragic Shakespeare character and Tony Soprano. "Rage, rage against the dying of the light!"
The TV pictures of him walking to the grid made it look like he was on extreme medication, all he needed to resemble James Gandolfini in the hit TV series was less hair and that towelling bathrobe.
The ferocity and absurdity of his accusations make it sound like this is his last season in F1. We've now found out that Ross Brawn offered to close the loopholes in the tech regulations in March 2008 and Renault were one of the two teams who objected. If Flav genuinely wanted to save the money he is spending on a new diffuser, then he should hire a driver who doesn't get through three noses in a race.
Pat Symmonds was asked why Briatore made such stupid remarks about a driver (the milepost) he tried to hire recently and adopted the kind of forced chuckle adopted by people who've had their elderly parents escape from the local secure Alzheimer's Unit.
Jean Todt, Max's 'Chosen One?'
Poor old Jean Todt was obviously keen not to be the focus of attention on the grid. Looking like a wet hobbit with his trademark gallic nose sticking out from underneath an anonymous anorak, he was being taken round by Max Mosley's FIA race representative (and Ferrari PR lobbyist) Allan Donnelly. The second he saw the TV cameras the two mysteriously parted company and Jean put an embarrassed hand up as if to say there must be something more interesting you can film . So what have those two got planned?
Andrew T. Davies
Source : Planet F1
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