GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX - 2016

[J.Clark]

I had hoped someone would take this up, but . . .

Bahrain is in interesting circuit, one of those carved out of a desert, with the first race run in 2004.  It does not present the technical challenges of many circuits.  In a way, that is good, as it gives an opportunity for drivers to show their speed.

The race is 57 laps around the 5.4 km (3.3 miles) "Tilkedrome", which has 15 turns and four long straights, two with DRS zones.  There is some elevation change, but it is so slight and so gradual that it is difficult to even see on a television.  If memory serves, I think this track is hard on tires.  The entire circuit is below sea level.  Turn 4 is the high point and is still about meter below sea level, not that this is important, but it is an interesting bit of trivia.
The majority of corners are relatively high speed.  Turns 2 and 14 are the most important to get right with regard to the apex, as they are both setting the driver up for a long straight.

This will be the 12th time Formula 1 has been run here.  It is the 13th year for the circuit, but back in 2011, it was not held due to civil unrest in Bahrain and concerns for the safety of teams and fans alike.

It was changed from a day time race to a night time race a couple of years ago.  Frankly, the spectacle of the night time racing, under the lights, is greatly enhanced.  I like it 

The lap record of 1:31.447 was set back in 2005 by Pedro de la Rosa according to Formula1.com; however, Wikepedia lists that record as belonging Michael at 1:30.252 in 2004.  I am not going to spend any time looking up the resolution.  I thought it interesting that PDR was listed as holding a record.  I think it may have been that Michael did it on a slightly modified circuit - I believe the layout was changed, which would provide a simple and easily understood reason for the disparity.
Race winners on the grid:
Alonso (3), but he will not be on the grid due to failing his medical
Hamilton (2)
Massa (2)
Vettel (2)
Button (1)
Hamilton, and Vettel are both likely candidates to add another win here, but Rosberg, who has yet to win this one is far from unlikely, especially following his win in Australia and the special significance this circuit has for him - where he made his debut in 2006.  I don't think the Williams has the pace, but the circuit is one Massa has to like, and Kimi has an outside chance.

The race has been won less than 50% of the time from pole, but has never been won by a driver not qualifying in row 1 or 2.

Tire selections:
Team/Driver                   M   S   SS
Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton   1   6   6
Mercedes: Nico Rosberg   1   6   6
Ferrari: Sebastian Vettel   3   4   6
Ferrari: Kimi Raikkonen           3   4   6
Williams: Felipe Massa           3   3   7
Williams: Valtteri Bottas   3   3   7
Red Bull: Daniel Ricciardo   2   5   6
Red Bull: Daniil Kvyat           2   5   6
Force India: Sergio Perez   2   5   6
Force India: Nico Hulkenberg   2   5   6
Renault: Kevin Magnussen   1   5   7
Renault: Jolyon Palmer           1   5   7
Toro Rosso: Max Verstappen   1   7   5
Toro Rosso: Carlos Sainz   2   6   5
McLaren: Fernando Alonso   3   4   6
McLaren: Jenson Button   3   4   6
Sauber: Marcus Ericsson   3   5   5
Sauber: Felipe Nasr           4   4   5
Manor: Pascal Wehrlein   4   5   4
Manor: Rio Haryanto           4   5   4
Haas: Romain Grosjean   2   4   7
Haas: Esteban Gutierrez   1   5   7
Renault, Williams and Haas have each chosen an extra set of SS.
Mercedes, Renault and one of the Haas cars have only 1 set of M.
It does appear from this that teams and drivers are working on different strategies involving tire management well ahead of the race.


 :good:For those who can get it, NBCSports will have the coverage in the States, and I have learned that they will live streaming coverage of FFP-1 and Saturday's practice as well, all on their website.

[J.Clark]

This was on facebook today.   

[cosworth151]

I think the circuit has used the same 5.41 km configuration for every F1 except 2010. That year, a longer, 6.30 km circuit was used. It added a twisty, 8 turn bit between the current turns 4 & 5.

[Jericoke]

"The entire circuit is below sea level.  Turn 4 is the high point and is still about meter below sea level, not that this is important, but it is an interesting bit of trivia."

The altitude of the track is relevant, as they cars are finely tuned aerodynamic machines, and while a person won't notice much air pressure at a few meters difference, an inverted wing trying to keep four wheels on the corner at 150 kph certainly will.

I'd guess turbo charged engines are less susceptible to air pressure than the normally aspirated engines were, but given how much work those turbos do, the thicker air would have to taken into account somewhere.

[Steve A.]

One of my least favourite races, well ok I just don't like it. But of course as it's full coverage then I will still sit through it.

[J.Clark]

FFP-1 resutls:
1.  Rosberg      Mercedes   1m 32.294
2.  Hamilton   Mercedes   1m 32.799
3.  Raikkonen   Ferrari   1m 34.128
4.  Ricciardo   Red Bull   1m 34.461
5.  Kvyat      Red Bull   1m 34.541
6.  Hulkenberg   Force India   1m 34.601
7. Sainz Jr      Toro Rosso   1m 34.793
8. Verstappen    Toro Rosso   1m 34.860
9. Grosjean        Haas     1m 35.000
10. Massa      Williams   1m 35.006
11. Vettel      Ferrari   1m 35.073
12. Bottas      Williams   1m 35.174
13. Gutierrez      Haas      1m 35.309
14. Button      McLaren   1m 35.440
15. Magnussen   Renault   1m 35.490
16. Ericsson   Sauber   1m 35.728
17. Wehrlein    MRT      1m 36.371
18. Vandoorne   McLaren   1m 36.392
19. Nasr      Sauber   1m 36.719
20. Palmer      Renault   1m 36.939
21. Celis Jr      Force India   1m 37.287
22. Haryanto    MRTs   1m 37.714

[Irisado]

Second practice results can be found here.

Rosberg is looking pretty good for pole, based on low fuel running.  His confidence is definitely on the rise, so maybe it will be harder for Hamilton to beat him this year than I thought.

Force India were a bit slower than I thought they would be, Manor look well placed to challenge Sauber, and Haas continue to show the sort of pace that would get them into Q2, assuming the qualifying system doesn't mess up their plans again.

The rest of practice played out largely as expected, save for Button being third fastest in that second session.  McLaren looked very surprised, and it certainly surprised me too.  I doubt that they'll replicate that pace in qualifying, but it was a long time since McLaren have shown that turn of speed in a session.

[J.Clark]

1.  Rosberg      Mercedes   1m 31.001
1.  Hamilton   Mercedes   1m 31.242
3.  Button      McLaren   1m 32.281
4.  Verstappen    Toro Rosso   1m 32.406
5.  Raikkonen   Ferrari   1m 32.452
6.  Vettel      Ferrari   1m 32.650
7.  Kvyat      Red Bull   1m 32.703
8.  Bottas      Williams   1m 32.792
9.  Ricciardo   Red Bull   1m 32.870
10. Massa      Williams   1m 32.873
11. Vandoorne   McLaren   1m 32.999
12. Gutierrez      Haas     1m 33.129
13. Sainz Jr    Toro Rosso   1m 33.177
14. Grosjean       Haas    1m 22.384
15. Perez      Force India   1m 33.406
16. Magnussen   Renault   1m 33.447
17. Hulkenberg   Force India   1m 33.570
18. Palmer      Renault   1m 33.640
19. Wehrlein    MRT           1m 33.953
20. Ericsson   Sauber   1m 34.224
21. Nasr      Sauber   1m 34.477
22. Haryanto    MRT     1m 34.562

General matters taken:
Button and Honda have turned up the wick.
Gremlins have found Vettel - could cost a grid spot penalty.
Haas had another front wing issue.

Driver interviews regarding new qualifying format proved to be all negative except for Palmer, who has only gone through it once so I don't too much weight on his opinion of it at the moment.

[J.Clark]

Saturday practice times:
1.  Vettel              Ferrari   1m 31.683
2.  Raikkonen      Ferrari   1m 31.723
3.  Rosberg              Mercedes   1m 32.104
4.  Hamilton      Mercedes   1m 32.160
5.  Bottas              Williams   1m 32.675
6.  Grosjean               Haas     1m 33.082
7.  Kvyat              Red Bull   1m 33.113
8. Gutierrez               Haas     1m 33.337
9. Massa              Williams   1m 33.363
10 Ricciardo      Red Bull   1m 33.519
11. Ericsson      Sauber   1m 33.569
12. Magnussen      Renault   1m 33.617
13. Button              McLaren   1m 33.704
14. Vandoorne      McLaren   1m 33.744
15. Verstappen       Toro Rosso   1m 33.778
16. Sainz Jr               Toro Rosso   1m 34.003
17. Nasr              Sauber   1m 34.013
18. Hulkenberg      Force India   1m 34.128
19. Perez              Force India   1m 34.281
20. Palmer              Renault   1m 34.424
21. Haryanto          MRT      1m 35.546
22. Wehrlein          MRT      1m 35.724

Interesting results this morning.
A Ferrari front row for the race would be a refreshing change.

Rosberg slightly quicker than Hamilton.

Bottas and Williams in general have looked good this morning.

Haas - OMG - If they could start both cars in the top 10 in their second race, what a huge accomplishment that would be.

McLaren look to be getting closer to their old form, and keep in mind that Button put in a lap that was 1.5 seconds quicker than this one.

I watched this practice on a live stream video at NBCSPORTS.COM.  By all appearances, the teams looked for the most part to be looking for the optimum lap on the two compounds they plan to run.  There were not a lot of cars circulating constantly.  That live feed link was pretty good too for watching things other than just the cars on track; although, there was no commentary.

[cosworth151]

Ferrari looked like the real deal in Quali. They were within a blink of Merc. Haas did very well just missing Q3. Grosjean pointed out that P9 is actually better than making Q3 since they gat tire choice for the start.

Wehrlein looked very good in the Manor. Vandoorne did an outstanding job considering that he'd never driven the car prior to Friday.

Hopefully this will be the last of this terrible quali format.

[J.Clark]

I didn't watch it yet, as the delay means it won't begin for another 15 minutes.

I think we had a better Q1 and Q2, based upon watching live timing and the Crash.net live commentary; however, Q3 looked to be little different, other than Hamilton taking pole away from Nico.

1.  Hamilton   Mercedes   1m 29.493
2.  Rosberg      Mercedes   1m 29.570
3.  Vettel      Ferrari   1m 30.012
4.  Raikkonen   Ferrari   1m 30.244
5.  Ricciardo   Red Bull   1m 30.854
6.  Bottas      Williams   1m 31.153
7.  Massa      Williams   1m 31.155
8.  Hulkenberg   Force India   1m 31.620
9.  Grosjean       Haas     1m 31.756
10. Verstappen    Toro Rosso   1m 31.772
11. Sainz Jr      Toro Rosso   1m 31.816
12. Vandoorne   McLaren   1m 31,934
13. Gutierrez      Haas     1m 31.945
14. Button      McLaren   1m 31.998
15. Kvyat      Red Bull   1m 32.241
16. Wehrlein    MRT      1m 32.806
17. Ericsson   Sauber   1m 32.840
18. Perez      Force India   1m 32.911
19. Magnussen   Renault   1m 33.181
20. Palmer      Renault   1m 33.438
21. Haryanto   MRT      1m 34.190
22. Nasr      Sauber   1m 34.388

Hamilton could end up in P5 at the end of lap one again -   

Haas was very impressive!  Grosjean figures P9 is better than the top 8 as they will have the opportunity to start on whatever tire strategy they desire.

[cosworth151]

Magnussen will start from the pits for failing to stop at the weighbridge during practice. He said he thought the signal was for Kyvat.

[vintly]

Excellent Q3 laps from Lewis and Nico, top-drawer precision driving. Other than that, qualifying was an appalling disregard for common sense, as proved now twice.

Maggers was right in thinking the signal was for Kvyat, but was also for him too. A touch unlucky, as in the past we hear that when two cars have been coming past the weighting when the red light is on, and the first one pulls over, it's then waived on as they're only flagging the second car. Maggers assumed they were only stopping Kvyat. But, he did go through a red light, so couldn't grumble much, and didn't. i think he was slightly buoyed up by beating Palmer for the first time this year in a session of any sort.

[J.Clark]

I heard some talk of Ferrari being quicker off the line than the Mercs because they have a better clutch system and Hamilton says he hasn't quite figured it out yet. 

 

It wouldn't bother me a bit to have a repeat of Australia with the two Mercs behind the two Ferrari at the end of lap one.  It would make for some interesting racing up front.

This race could be affected by tires - in a big way.
The circuit is hard on them.

Start is just over an hour away now - I'm ready.

[Irisado]

Isn't it amazing how a small change to the start procedure has made the opening laps so much more exciting?  Now that drivers actually have to judge the start for themselves, we're seeing some errors creeping in, and that's spicing up the racing.

For the second race in a row, Hamilton lost his chance to win through making a poor start.  Yes, Bottas colliding with him wasn't his fault, but if he had made a better start the Williams would not have been down the inside into turn one.  Hamilton was fortunate only to suffer damage and not be spun around completely.

Rosberg gave a textbook performance out front, and looks quite strong now.  Five race wins in a row (including last season) is impressive.  I'm still not sure that he has the edge on Hamilton this year, I want to see both of them get off the line together before making that assessment, but so far the signs are that the championship is going to be a lot tighter this year.

I had to laugh when Vettel's engine blew up on the formation lap.  Twenty years ago, the same thing happened to Schumacher's Ferrari at the 1996 French Grand Prix, so that was an interesting coincidence.  Ferrari definitely have problems with their engine this year, as was indicated during testing, and that makes for more compelling viewing, knowing that one of the top teams has the potential for reliability issues.

There was plenty of good racing through the midfield as well.  Grosjean and Haas were sensational again, Wehrlein impressed for Manor, Red Bull were faster than I expected, Williams slower than I thought, and Force India had a total disaster.  An impressive debut from Vandoorne too, although I think Button would have finished much higher in the other McLaren had his ERS not failed.

I hope that we continue to get races like this one with a jumbled up first lap order, as it definitely makes things much more exciting.  Now if they could just revert to the old qualifying system things would be looking promising all round.