Bahrain GP

[hockeygod2787]

Hey guys, as u all kno the 2005 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain grand prix is this weekend.. ne one have ne predictions as to who may win the pole position/ the grand prix in general ??

[Dreamspawn]

I'm going ot on the line Renault 3/3 on poles as for the win Renault or Ferrari.

[RallyRaider]

Guys, please write coherently.
You agreed to write in coherent, professional English when you joined AF, so please be bothered to take the time or don't bother posting here in future. Your choice.

As for the winner, heres hoping Kimi will have a good chance if only he can get a clean run. Pedro de la Rossa will be in the second Mac substituting for Montoya who injured himself playing tennis (!?). Third driver will be Wurz, for whom a special larger MP4/20 will be needed...

Ferrari and Bridgestone are an unknown quantity and could do anything with the new car and (I guess) tyres, hopefully more of the same.

[RallyRaider]

Well after the fist two practice sessions Ferrari don't look Sepang bad, but haven't proved to be any better than they were at Melbourne. Although they were fastish at times early on at Malaysia so anything could happen yet. Rubens Barrichello had problems with his gearbox and couldn't do any running in the second session. I wonder if ther will be any more gremlins with the new cars this weekend?

Alex Wurz, in his first ever run in the MP4/20 blitzed the field on a presumably low fuel lap.

[camaroincal]

I hope Alonso gets his second in a row en route to a WDC! :-)

[RallyRaider]

First qualifying was run yesterday and produced a very tight grouping of results. Ferrari and Bridgestone are definitely back in the hunt, although suffering from new car troubles. Or at least Barichello is, I guess they'll be Christmas treeing his car to keep Schumacher’s running if need be.

What is most amazing is the continued pace of the Toyota, especially in the less error prone hands of Jarno Trulli. McLaren still aren't quite there. Wurz and de la Rossa both did well.

[crayzayjay]

Nice start to the race. Lots of overtaking in the field

[crayzayjay]

Schumacher's off... gearbox problems according to Brundle...

First retirement for technical reasons in 58 GP's.

[crayzayjay]

BOOM. Heidfeld's engine gives up on its second consecutive GP.

[ales]

Thanks God for Pedro. PdlR = 90 % of entertainment in the race! Even with the mistakes he's made I'm impressed - shows he's trying.

[crayzayjay]

Yes, his overtaking attempts were pretty fun to watch

Not a bad race overall, i thought.

[RallyRaider]

I actually enjoyed that race. Pedro de la Rossa definitely was the star, once he got in the groove. Good thing he messed up early so he could provide us with such entertainment during the latter half! I hope McLaren can sort their single lap pace so they can be up there with Toyota (!), Renault may be too far ahead. Fortunate for several runners Bahrain has such plentiful runoff areas!

Amazing to see Ferrari on the ragged edge of development and paying the price in reliability. I'd so much liked to have seen Schumacher last a bit longer so we'd know how heavy he was fuelled. Pretty light I'd imagine.

[Dreamspawn]

my prediction was right yay for me!! Renault 3/3 can we expect 4/4?

[rapstagangsta]

IMO the best race in a while, with Pedro de la Rossa providing a lot of entertainment. The battle he had with Mark Webber was very interesting indeed. Gutted to see Schumi out of the race so early, but it was also great to see Alonso score another victory. However, I think Ferrari are very much still an unknown quantity. Early form shows them to be off the pace(way off to be fair), but one should never count them out the championship. Could Imola be the place where Ferrari return to bullet-proof reliability, and dominating speed, and F1 becomes a procession again?

[RallyRaider]

I wouldn't say Ferrari are way off the pace, but they do have work to do. I suspect a large part of their famous reliability was because of the margin they had in the package, they simply didn't need to push the car hard enough to break. They may not have that luxury again for a while.

It’s also interesting to see that the more things change in F1 the more they stay the same. McLarens have been very gentle on tyres for years and that continues to be the case now, so much so that lack of heat in the tyres is hurting them in qualifying. Ferraris on the other hand often worked their tyres much harder, something that is killing them right now. Of course the last two races are quite out of the ordinary in the high temperatures experienced, again traditionally a strong point for Michelin. Given the right conditions and sufficient debugging Ferrari will be a threat again very soon I fear. Although the big head start Alonso now has means that even if Renault lose the edge in speed, reliability could see him through.