Sorry about the crappy quality yesterday

Red Bull kept up the amazing work on a rain soaked day in which Vettel surpassed everyone else in terms of speed, consistency and raw talent to ease to vicotry in China.

The race was started under safety car conditions after it was judged that there was too much standing water for the cars to start safely. Kubica and Glock had decided to start from the pitlane after their terrible qualifying. So for the first 6 laps or so, the Grid order was maintained as the safety car circulated. Alonso decided to pit at this time and drop to the back of the pack to see if he could work his way back up with a massive fuel load. Needless to say, it didn't work.

When the safety car pulled in, Vettel steamed off into the distance, being chased by Webber, Barrichello and Button. Vision was appaling, and incidents were occurring all the way down the field. Hamilton battled past Raikkonen 3 times, but span away that place on the next lap only to regain it again a few laps later. He eventually made the pass stick and slowly moved up the field. Kovalainen was barely mentioned or looked at the whole race, but thanks to a very long one stop strategy, he made it upto 5th with no incidents. Trulli seemed to be a mobile chicane (as per usual) with people stacking up behind him left right and center. Buemi was on a screamer for Torro Rosso, picking off Raikkonen and Trulli in one lap!

A few laps later, after a few of the leading cars had pitted, Trulli was smahsed into by a surging Kubica. Kubica seemed to totally misjudge where Trulli was on the track (Or maybe didn't even see him) and ran straight up the back and almost over the top of the Toyota. Kubica slithered into the pits with what must of been a seriously damaged underfloor, and Trulli anaged to limp back the pits with no rear wing. This caused a second safety car to be called out as there was debris everywhere from this incident and another bizarre one on the final straight a lap after.

Vettel was ahead on the back straight, and Buemi was right behind him, Vettel jinked right in order to avoid a very slow BMW, and Buemi couldn't react fast enough and caught Vettel's rear tyre with his front wing. The wing splintered and half of it lodged itself in Buemi's rear wing, the other smashed all over the track. At the other end of that straight, a lap later Massa's Ferrari died rather strangely. He seemed to change up and gun it for the straight, and nothing happened and the engine died.

Bourdais was also having fun spinning his car around at the same corner for a few laps, before managing to finally get back on track, Nakajima was sliding off the road too. The amount of times people went wide at the final corner was almost uncountable. Front brakes were locking up (because of the low temperatures) and cars would shoot up the pitlane entry and slither back onto the race track. Shanghai luckily has more tarmac run offs than Gravel pits.

Button and Barrichello made the most of the second safety car waiting to pick up the leader, and both scrambled into the pits. There was enough of a gap for the Brawn crew to not even have to wait for Button to leave. As soon as Button left, Barrichello came in. This put Button out ahead of Webber, who had pitted just before the safety car. Vettel was still in the lead however, and was not about to give up lightly. With Button pre-occupied with his mirrors full of Webbers Red Bull, Vettel managed to escape. Button and Webber fought hard, Webber moving infront of Button when Button went wide at the Hairpin, and then Button moving back ahead when Webber went wide at the final bend. Webber agressively took the place back from Button about half a lap later. This gave Vettel enough time to build up a lead of around 18 seconds.

By this point Christian Horner (The Head Honcho at Red Bull) was having kittens and praying that neither of the cars broke. His legs were twitching in anticipation. Vettel made his final stop and came out just behind Button. Who he then forced his way past, and took the lead back when Webber pitted for the final time. Piquet lost it sometime around now under acceleration out of a corner. Slid into the gravel trap backwards, hit a polestyrene marking board and managed to get back onto the track, albeit down in last place. Further down the field, Sutil had managed to move all the way upto 6th place, in a Mercedes Engined 3-4-5-6-7. Only Fisichella was missing from the group. Barrichello had had a consitently mediocre race, never getting into trouble, but was never really there to score big.

Sutil tried to make an over ambitious move on Kovalianen's McLaren, and slid off the track and smashed into the barrier at the same corner Piquet went off on. This time, Sutil wasn't as lucky and wrecked his Force India against the barriers. The stricken car was left there until the end of the race. Nakajima had been having adventures into almost every gravel trap and run off area during the race, he very nearly had a huge accident at turn one, but managed to keep the car going all the around the outside of the gravel trap before rejoining. Eventually I think he just gave up and parked the car.

Rosberg was going to try some dying laps heroics by bolting a pair of intermediates to his Williams for his final stretch. Initially it worked out and he gained, but then the rain came down harder and he was losing upto 20 seconds a lap. Glock managed to work his way all the way upto 7th with his good speed and not getting in trouble. He was one of the few not to make any mistakes on a day were even the most experienced drivers were. However, Vettel also made none and he had a far superior car. A truly magic win for Red Bull

Driver Of the Day: Sebastian Vettel - Perfect for the entire race, fast, consistent and never made a single mistake. He is the next "Rain King."

Chinese Grand Prix Results

1. VETTEL Red Bull 1hr57m43.485s
2. WEBBER Red Bull +10.9s
3. BUTTON Brawn +44.9s
4. BARRICHELLO Brawn +1m03.7s *Fastest Lap (1:52.592s)
5. KOVALAINEN McLaren +1m05.1s
6. HAMILTON McLaren +1m11.8s
7. GLOCK Toyota +1m14.4s
8. BUEMI Toro Rosso +1m16.4s
9. ALONSO Renault +1m24.3s
10. HEIDFELD BMW +1m31.7s
11. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +1m34.1s
12. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +1m35.8s
13. KUBICA BMW +1m46.8s
14. FISICHELLA Force India +1 lap
15. ROSBERG Williams +1 lap
16. PIQUET Renault +2 laps
R. SUTIL Force India +5 laps (Lost control under braking)
R. NAKAJIMA Williams +12 laps (Retired after exploring every gravel trap)
R. MASSA Ferrari +33 laps (Engine randomly died)
R. TRULLI Toyota +37 laps (Kubica smashed into the read of him into the final corner and ripped off his rear wing)

Driver of the Day History
Australia - Jenson Button and Timo Glock
Malaysia - Timo Glock
China - Sebastian Vettel

Source? I can't find anything that says something of that description...

Anyway, Bahrain. The jewel in the Desert. F1 has been going to Bahrain since 2004. The high speed tracks suits cars that have very good aero effeciency, so expect Red Bull to be there this time around too. It also tends to throw up some interesting results because the team can mask some of the downfalls in their cars by running less wing to gain more speed on the straights.



Out in the middle of the desert, sandstorms can often cause problems for the cars as seen in a winter test where BMW, Ferrari and Toyota were caught out by the windy weather. Let's hope it doesnt pour down with rain like it did in Qatar for the MotoGP

The Bahrain track is the usual "Point and Squirt" track, very much like Australia. Expect to see alot of overtaking into turn one and turn three. Other places are turn 7 and 11 if others get good runs out of the proceeding corners.

Bahrain Grand Prix Free Practice Session One

1. HAMILTON McLaren 1m33.647s
2. HEIDFELD BMW 1m33.907s
3. KUBICA BMW 1m33.938s
4. ROSBERG Williams 1m34.227s
5. BUTTON Brawn 1m34.434s
6. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m34.502s
7. BARRICHELLO Brawn 1m34.531s
8. MASSA Ferrari 1m34.589s
9. WEBBER Red Bull 1m34.827s
10. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m34.827s
11. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m34.880s
12. VETTEL Red Bull 1m34.938s
13 PIQUET Renault 1m34.974s
14. SUTIL Force India 1m35.021s
15. TRULLI Toyota 1m35.036s
16. FISICHELLA Force India 1m35.042s
17 GLOCK Toyota 1m35.333s
18. ALONSO Renault 1m35.348s
19. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m35.353s
20. BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m35.369s

Well... errm... I guess I was wrong >.< The McLarens and BMW's are right back where they belong and the Red Bulls are nowhere to be seen. However, you can't right too much into these times as they were all very low fuel on the better tyres. As said earlier, BMW had testing knowledge of this track, so immediatly have the advantage. Expect to see them further back as the weekend goes on and people get to grips with the circuit

EDIT:

Bahrain Grand Prix Free Practice Session Two

1. ROSBERG Williams 1m33.339s
2. ALONSO Renault 1m33.530s
3. TRULLI Toyota 1m33.616s
4. VETTEL Red Bull 1m33.661s
5. WEBBER Red Bull 1m33.676s
6. BUTTON Brawn 1m33.694s
7. SUTIL Force India 1m33.763s
8. GLOCK Toyota 1m33.764s
9. BARRICHELLO Brawn 1m33.885s
10. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m33.899s
11. HAMILTON McLaren 1m33.994s
12. FISICHELLA Force India 1m34.025s
13. BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m34.127s
14. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m34.366s
15. PIQUET Renault 1m34.411s
16. MASSA Ferrari 1m34.564s
17. KUBICA BMW 1m34.605s
18. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m34.670s
19. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m34.764s
20. HEIDFELD BMW 1m34.790s

As you can see, usual form is returned in the second session today at Bahrain with Rosberg topping the time sheets. Toyota's, Red Bulls and Brawns are all there in the usual sort of order with Alonso's Renault coming out of nowhere. Sutil and Force India on the whole were running fantastically well for most of the session, Fisichella heading the time for the first half hour. McLaren, BMW and Ferrari all had torrid times this afternoon, with drivers seemingly falling off at several corners.

Most prominent of these was turn 7, the downhill tightening entry catching most of the drivers out on atleast one occasion. Hamilton was a high class casualty of this corner, really trying to ring the maximum out of the McLaren. They are still trying to get the maximum out of their interim diffuser like a lot of the other teams.

Qualyfying tomorrow... I might try and right my post live Which would be an interesting thing to try ^^

Well... Qualifying was the usual affair, until the final session where the two Toyota's came out of nowhere really to steal the show...

In the dying Minutes, Vettel then Glock and then Trulli went fastest. Webber was baulked on his final flying lap in Q1 by Sutil... Sutil went right to let Webber though on the left, but webber had already committed to going right to go around Sutil... A huge weave across the track meant both failed to get through. The Super Soft Tyres were generally better on the second flying lap of a stint, and many drivers used this to leapfrog up the order.

Provisional Bahrain GP grid

1. TRULLI Toyota
2. GLOCK Toyota
3. VETTEL Red Bull
4. BUTTON Brawn
5. HAMILTON McLaren
6. BARRICHELLO Brawn
7. ALONSO Renault
8. MASSA Ferrari
9. ROSBERG Williams
10. RAIKKONEN Ferrari
11. KOVALAINEN McLaren
12. NAKAJIMA Williams
13. KUBICA BMW
14. HEIDFELD BMW
15. PIQUET Renault
16. BUEMI Toro Rosso
17. FISICHELLA Force India
18. WEBBER Red Bull
19. SUTIL Force India (Penalised three places for penalising Webber)
20. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso

Special Live Commentary by me tomorrow on TeamSpeak if enough people turn up ^^ And Also a Live Post which will be edited and posted on continously

Am i allowed to spam "look out coming soon new shiz from dhr?" (dhr will know what i mean )

Possibly Si, It wont be for another few weeks anyway

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/watchlive/ for Live coverage online

THIS POST WILL BE EDITED DURING THE RACE

Glock mages to scamper into the lead of the race and is now streaking out and away. All sorts of action at the back of the pack, overtaking happening everywhere!

wait, when is this race

Im watching ^^

brb, watching f1

Just a note, to any Uni students without a TV licence, it's technically illegal to watch it live on the website aswell.

lol, I'm at home so a note to you it is legal!

But its a available online, how do they intend to police it?

I don't really know

I dont think they can TBH, shulbs cant watch though

Well, another brilliant race by the Brawn team and Jenson Button. All sorts of fuel strategies were being used this time out, and it wasn't until the final stops that we knew who the winner would be.

An electrifying start by Glock and Button made sure they leap frogged the people ahead of them on the grid. Glock slid past Trulli into corner one, and Button managed to scramble past Vettel in the Red Bull. Hamilton had come from nowhere to launch his KERS assisted McLaren into second, before Trulli got back past a corner later. Button also got past on the opening lap to stay with the Toyota's. Glock streaked away from Trulli through the first part of the race, with Button sticking close to Trulli, ahead of Hamilton and Vettel. Further down the field, Massa got squeezed in a Raikkonen and Alonso sandwich and lost a lot of time, the BMW's were also in the wars and never really did anything except circulate. Massa also had to do a pre-cautionary run through the pits at this time because his KERS was malfunctioning.

Button assumed the lead after the two Toyota's had pitted for their first of three stops. He really put the Hammer down and came out behind Vettel and Raikkonen. Raikkonen was fat with fuel, and Vettel was on a two stopper. Luckily, Vettel and Raikkonen both got stuck behind Trulli after their first pitstops which allowed Button to the front by some margin. Barrichello was with the pack at this time on his 3 stopper, but ended up further back as his strategy lost time in traffic. He was stuck behind the Force India of Fisichella for two laps as Fisichella was on a One Stopper. Frustrated he was asking for help, but the oertake was for position so he had to work for it. Barrichello probably made more outright overtkaing moves than almost everyone apart from mark Webber, who stormed through the field and upto 11th at the Finish. He was making moves on the first lap no one else would of even comprehended, let alone attempt.

As Button managed to move away from the cars stacked up behind Trulli (Vettel, Hamilton, Barrichello, Raikkonen) Trulli pitted and released the chasing pack of cars. Button managed to hold the gap he needed over Vettel, but he knew vettel would be a threat later in the race. Glock had mysteriously lost a huge amount of time on his second pitstop and out lap, which took him right out of contention. Raikkonen was out of sequence with the rest of the field with his exagerated long first stint. By the time the order settled down again, Button was leading from Vettel (Who had leapfrogged Trulli during his stops), Trulli, Hamilton, Barrichello, Raikkonen, Glock and Alonso. This order was maintained for the rest of the race, with incidents involving a spinning Kubica who wasn't happy at all with his BMW.

Button still needed to be wary though, Trulli was on the much faster tyre in his final stint, compared to his three stopper which had been truncated to two so he maintained the lead. However, Trulli could find no way past the Red Bull and so lost out on what could of been a fairy tale win for Toyota. Hamilton managed to snatch 4th in a car he wasn't entirely happy with, Barrichello ruing a missed opportunity in his Brawn car. Glock was looking much racier in the final stages of the race back on the Softer tyres, and was trying to beat Raikkonen home for 6th. The KERS equipped Ferrari managed to hold off the flying Toyota though. Alonso joined this part very late in the race and was not able to make any inroads on the two cars ahead of him.

So Button managed to cruise home thanks to a dominant second stint in the race (and some help from Trulli). This means he's scored 31 points out of a maximum of 35 so far this season, and Brawn GP are 22.5 points head of the next closest team in the constructors. Ross Brawn has truly made a sensational car this year, lets hope the Brawn boys can stay aherad of the pack.

Driver of The Day: Jenson Button again for me. He has grown over the winter and is now a serious threat for the Title. The coolness he oozes just shows how much he is ready for this World Championship. Mention to Nick Heidfeld for finishing 26 consecutive races without crashing or breaking down

Bahrain Grand Prix Result (57 laps)

1. BUTTON Brawn
2. VETTEL Red Bull +7.1s
3. TRULLI Toyota +9.1s (Fastest Lap: 1:34.556)
4. HAMILTON McLaren +22.0s
5. BARRICHELLO Brawn +37.7s
6. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +42.0s
7. GLOCK Toyota +42.8s
8. ALONSO Renault +52.7s
9. ROSBERG Williams +58.1s
10. PIQUET Renault +1m05.1s
11. WEBBER Red Bull +1m07.6s
12. KOVALAINEN McLaren +1m17.8s
13. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +1m18.8s
14. MASSA Ferrari +1 lap
15. FISICHELLA Force India +1 lap
16. SUTIL Force India +1 lap
17. BUEMI Toro Rosso +1 lap
18. KUBICA BMW +1 lap
19. HEIDFELD BMW +1 lap
20. NAKAJIMA Williams +9 laps (Parked it again, No reason given)

Driver of the Day History
Australia - Jenson Button and Timo Glock
Malaysia - Timo Glock
China - Sebastian Vettel
Bahrain - Jenson Button

Nice breakdown, good read.

Don't suppose we could have a point table after each race aswell, could we?

Errrm, I can try Might be a HUGE ass gap here but oh well xD

Driver	Team	Points	Wins
Jenson Button	Brawn GP - Mercedes	31	3
Rubens Barrichello	Brawn GP - Mercedes	19	0
Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing - Renault	18	1
Jarno Trulli	Toyota	14.5	0
Timo Glock	Toyota	12	0
Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing - Renault	9.5	0
Lewis Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes	9	0
Fernando Alonso	Renault	5	0
Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	4	0
Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren Mercedes	4	0
Nico Rosberg	Williams - Toyota	3.5	0
Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	3	0
Sebastian Buemi	Scuderia Torro Rosso - Ferrari	3	0
Sebastian Bourdais	Scuderia Torro Rosso - Ferrari	1	0

Yet To Score: Felipe Massa, Adrian Sutil, Nelsinho Piquet, Giancarlo Fisichella, Kazuki Nakajima, Robert Kubica

That should work >.<

King Lewie failed

Hmm there are some big names yet to score.

Oh, and the massive gap is something to do with having new lines within the table code, because it changes the to
s or something, and that's how HTML deals with it.

I wanna see how Ferrari is going to do in Spain since they say there are going to be big changes to the cars.

they're going to install a pedal system. Hope Raikkonen and Massa can pedal fast

McLaren have recieved a suspended 3 race ban for all the antics in Australia.

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=45738

Basically, if they even come close to twinging the rules over the next 12 months, they get banned for three races as of immediate effect. McLaren are on VERY thin ice....

Well Spanish Grand Prix this weekend, I've had a lot of Uni work to do last few days, so I've left it until now to post a pre race update.

Most of the major Manufacturer teams are bringing huge updates to Spain. BMW, Ferrari and Renault are all giving HUGE overhauls to their cars, and McLaren are introducing new peices at the next 3 races.

Red Bull will also have a double deck diffuser by Monaco, but they won't have them this weekend.

All talks of budget caps and rules for next year atm too, I'll post these at the end of the season, so we actually know what to expect next year. Currently there is a optional $40million budget cap, with teams that come under that budget being able to have much more freedom in designing cars, extra testing and other perks.

Anyway. Back to the weekend at hand.

Spanish Grand Prix, Circuit De Catalunya



All the teams have tested at this track, and it is usually the place where the testing form is resumed. Nrawn were especially strong here in pre-season testing. However, with other teams bringing updates, Brawn might not be so far ahead anymore.

The fast flowing nature of the circuit is one liked by the drivers, though some will admit the track is overdriven during testing, and thus the race becomes fairly dull. The only real overtaking place is into the first corner after the very long start/finish straight. And that's only if you are being brave. Campsa is the fastest corner on the track, a sweeping right hander that flows into the short back straight. The start of the lap is full of flowing bends, and the end is almost a menagerie, requiring much more effort than it used to.

Button has qualified well here before, and Barichello can never be counted out. Expect the form card to not have shifted too much. Brawn is the on form team, Button the on form man.

Friday Practice Form

Williams have headed a practice session at every grand prix this year, and Spain was no different. Rosberg flew into the top spot for Practice Session 2, after Button had topped the earlier session. The BMWs, Ferrari's and McLarens still look a long way off the pace of Brawn, Red Bull and Williams. Toyota concentrated on long tyre runs, so their times cannot be counted for the time being, their true pace masked until tomorrow morning, or even qualifying. Renault have found some time in their upgrades, with Alonso coming in third on the second session. The dominant William's look in fine shape for tomorrow though, with Nakajima and Rosberg comfortably ahead.

Although Williams seem to always go well in practice, todays times were surely sandbagging, as Rosberg spluttered out of fuel on his in lap after setting the sessions best time. In that sort of "ultra low fuel" setting, he was always going to be the fastest man.

Quali report tomorrow ^^