Bahrain Grand Prix: Rampant Red Bull Charges
The Front Runners Red Bull got things perfect this time out for Vettel, preserving his hard tyres for the race so he had new sets to run on and then finding excellent pace whilst looking after them, streaking away into a lead that was unassailable to the pursuing Lotus. Webber had a strong race, pitting early for new rubber and racing beautifully hard against the Mercedes and McLarens for good points, only to be mugged of two places on the final lap to relegate him to a somewhat undeserved seventh. Its a return to form that other teams will hope to stamp out with updated packages for Barcelona. Raikkonen took another second place for Lotus with a finely driven strategic race, closing down Di Resta in the middle of the race without destroying his tyres to win the two-stop battle. Grosjean produced a brilliant performance from 11th on the grid, driving through the points battles to third place, stealing the final podium position from Force India with five laps to go on his medium tyres. Force India were without a doubt front-runners this weekend, showing consistent, sustainable pace ahead of their contemporaries. Paul di Resta drove an excellent race, showing brilliant pace to run in second place after the first stops, hassling Alonsos Ferrari and clearly comfortable. He was cruelly denied his first podium finish, but still equalled his best ever finish in fourth and after this race it may not be too far off, especially at another power circuit such as Spa or Monza. Bad luck struck again as Adrian Sutil clobbered Felipe Massas Ferrari on the opening lap and was left running at the back of the field, only able to make it back up to 13th, but with encouraging pace. Mercedes again couldnt deliver on their qualifying pace in Bahrain, with Hamilton taking fifth in a drive from a penalised ninth, coming strong at the end of the race to win a titanic battle with Mark Webber on the final lap with a DRS-aided dive into turn one, extracting a good result with strategy and speed where it counted after what looked early on as though it could be a very disappointing day. Rosberg looked very racy throughout, getting wheel-to-wheel with plenty of others and colliding with Webber on lap 38 as he tried to desperately hold onto a difficult F1 W04, with rear tyre wear again rearing its head for the Brackley-based outfit. Eventually Rosberg was forced into a fourth stop and could only take ninth. In a race where tyre life was at a premium, McLaren might have been expected to deliver more, and early in the race it looked as though they might do so, running in contact with the leaders after Ferraris problems began to unfold. Perez delivered a 21-lap stint on a set of option tyres in the middle of the race, and overall showed far more what would be expected of him, pushing hard and racing Jenson. On an equal strategy to their rivals, McLaren had a lot more potential here than in previous rounds, and despite some aggressive action that must have had the pit wall team watching through their fingers Perez took a solid sixth, stealing it from Webber on the last lap to maximise their result. Button struggled with pace into the middle of the race and had to make a fourth stop for tyres before the end, taking the final championship point in a car that clearly demonstrated McLarens issues with rear downforce and traction. Ferraris race turned into a nightmare from the first corner, as Massa collided with Sutil to damage his front wing. Fernando Alonso was afflicted as his DRS rear wing flap inverted and jammed open on lap 7, forcing an early stop on lap 8 for tyres and to close it. However he was back again on lap 9 as it stuck open again as soon as he used it, and once it was pushed down again he was left unable to use it for the rest of the race, hampering what became a great recovery from the back of the field to finish an eventual eighth place. Felipe Massa ran competitively through the first stint but pitted only a few laps after the option runners with his hard tyres, failing to make the strategy work as he limped to 15th position. Pace wasnt great following that, and then things went from bad to worse as he suffered a right rear tyre failure on lap 18 and then again on lap 37, akin to Hamiltons in FP3, which will surely become part of the Pirelli compound debate due shortly. Ferrari will be working hard in the next 3 weeks to do their utmost to take big points in Spain for the sake of the championship without doubt.