14.43 Vettel looks pleased with that. The man knows how to win:
14.41 Here’s your top 10: Vettel, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Di Resta,
Hamilton, Perez, Webber, Alonso, Rosberg and Button.
FINAL LAP Vettel on his way to victory here. “Just stay under
control,” comes the orders. Can he resist the temptation to show off?
Oh, Hamilton’s done Webber on the inside. That’ll be fifth for Mercedes
then. Anyway, back to the action, up the top of the grid…..And
Sebastian Vettel wins the Bahrain Grand Prix!
Lap 55 Webber v Hamilton: Act Two. It’s excellent action….and has
Hamilton squeezed past him on the inside? NO! Muscular work from Webber, who
defiantly holds onto fifth place.
Lap 53 Brief flutter of British excitement as Hamilton passes Webber
for fifth place before quickly relinquishing it again.
Lap 52 GROSJEAN OVERTAKES DI RESTA! Argh, what a shame. The Frenchman
uses all his cunning and speed to overtake Di Resta on the inside.
Lap 51 Got to love national pride. Here we are absolutely gripped
over the battle third place. It’s what being British in the 21st century is
about. Third place! Woo!
Lap 50 Just 2.2sec between Britain’s Paul Di Resta and Grosjean. Seven
laps left for us to find out whether he can hold on for a first podium
place.
Lap 48 Grosjean is closing the gap on Di Resta. That battle for the
last place on the podium is going to go right down to the wire.
Lap 47 A reminder that the drivers started today’s Grand Prix without
cockpit warning lights for the fourth race in a row following ongoing
problems with the system. An FIA statement said there would be no red,
yellow or blue cockpit lights and there were also implications for when the
safety car had to be deployed.
Lap 46 Vettel’s lead cut down to around nine seconds. Surely not? Haha,
I joke. Eleven laps to go.
Lap 44 It’s looking like Vettel, Raikkonen, Di Resta top three but
Grosjean, with the medium compound tyres and six seconds behind, is by no
means out of this.
Lap 43 Now then! Di Resta back into third and looking good. Can he make
the podium for a first time?
Lap 41 Vettel has a 27 second-ish lead over Grosjean, who is three or
so ahead of Raikkonen.
Lap 40 Ah ha. We will have an investigation after some contact between
the below men on turn two a couple of laps ago:
Lap 39 Top five currently: Vettel, Grosjean, Hamilton, Raikkonen and
Perez.
Lap 37 Now then! We have a new fastest lap of the Grand Prix…..And
it’s Raikkonen with 1.38.591. He’s fifth after pitting for some hard tyres.
Lap 36 “Strategy is looking good,” says the Lotus team radio
to Raikkonen in response to some muffled questions about tyres.
Lap 34 Now then! Di Resta and Raikkonen fighting it out for second.
Aaaand it’s the Lotus into the second! He speeds past PDR and in the end it
was easily done by Raikkonen, who is 18 seconds-ish from Vettel.
Lap 33 Quick clip of Jenson Button on the radio just then. Very
muffled but he sounded irked to say the least.
Lap 32 Latest from Oliver Brown whose job it is to fly around
the world and report on inter-team rivalries:
Dear oh dear. Now McLarens at war! Perez clipping back of Button, damaged
front wing…
Lap 31 Top five: Vettel (12sec-ish lead), Di Resta (an ever-diminishing
two-second lead), Raikkonen, Webber, Button.
Lap 30 The two McLarens go side-to-side fighting for superiority. And
they clash, I think! They must have touched! Dangerous stuff but exciting to
see two team-mates taking each other on. Martin Whitmarsh looks on like an
unimpressed father.
Lap 29 Best news of the day so far: METALLICA ARE IN THE MCLAREN
GARAGE!
Lap 28 McLaren pair Button and Perez’s head-to-head is hotting up. The
Brit is in the lead as it stands, completing a decent day for Brits with Di
Resta still in second.
Lap 27 Di Resta back into second place as he continues to fight for
what would be Force India’s first podium place in, like, for-eveeeerrrrr.
Lap 25 Vettel pits and comes out with the hard tyres on. He did very
well to bide his time before that stop. A certain race winner?
Lap 23 Oliver Brown tweets….Oh please let this happen:
Vettel 14.4 secs clear of Webber but could be on four stops. What price a
second late shoot-out between the raging Bulls?
Lap 22 Vettel all on his own. An image we have become very accustomed
to:
Lap 21 Vettel way ahead here. He’s about 14 seconds ahead of team-mate
Webber.
Lap 20 Button into third place after moving ahead of Rosberg, who is
now under pressure from Grosjean….And yup, Grosjean’s ahead of Rosberg
now. He loses two places in a matter of seconds. He’s really struggling for
speed. “Submissive,” say the Sky commentators. That’s one way of
putting it….
Lap 19 Confirmation that it was a right rear puncture that brought
Massa into the pits just then.
Lap 18 “We are on plan with Kimi,” says Eric Boullier. He’s
less enthused about Grosjean’s chances. “He got some debris from other
cars,” says a less than excited Boullier.
Lap 17 More Ferrari misery. Massa called into the pits with some
damage. He’s into the garage now and away within 18 seconds.
Lap 15 Here’s a nice snap from the beginning of the race:
Lap 14 Fresh set of tyres puts Vettel back in the lead. And Oliver
Brown reckons that will be that:
At present pace Vettel will win this by country mile. Already made first
stop and lapping 3.5secs/lap quicker than Di Resta.
Lap 13 We have a new fastest lap of the day. Sebastian Vettel, third
after 12 laps, clocking 1.39.849
Lap 12 We have a new leader, as Oliver Brown explains:
Paul Di Resta leads Bahrain GP. Not words I expected to be typing. Now for
the endless Pirelli-enforced pack-shuffling…
Lap 11 Lewis Hamilton back in sixth position. Do we see him featuring
today?
Lap 10 Interesting point by the Sky commentators…..Vettel’s pace and
lead is so strong that you have to think that his fellow Red Bull, Mark
Webber, could feature at some point.
Lap nine Di Resta now up into second – about five seconds off Vettel.
Lap eight Alonso’s back in the race. So his trip to the pits a success,
then. But for how long? Ooooh, think he might be called back in. Looks like
the problem is related to his DRS rear wing flap. They’ve closed it up and
he’s back out but this is race over for Alonso.
Lap seven Massa and Rosberg’s battle for fourth is heating up.
Brazilian going hell for leather but Rosberg closing every avenue possible
with some smart driving. “Fernando: box now,” comes the call over
the radio to Alonso. He’s having some technical problems. Think that could
be a failure.
Lap six Boom! Di Resta up into the top three! He squeezes Rosberg down
into fourth with some gutsy and aggressive driving. I guess the experts were
right to be sceptical of Rosberg’s chances today – despite that pole.
Lap five So after four laps it’s Vettel, Rosberg, Alonso, Di Resta and
Massa in the top five. Webber, Button, Perez, Raikkonen and Grosjean follow.
Lap four Alonso makes full use of his DRS to briefly move into second
place. Rosberg fights him off and regains that position behind Vettel. I’m
impressed with this start…
Lap three Rosberg, in the slower car, is using all his defensive canny
to hold off an increasingly impatient Vettel. But there it is! Rosberg keeps
his compatriot at bay on turn four but seconds later the Red Bull
accelerates past to take the lead. DRS now enabled, by the way.
Lap two Rosberg begins lap two with a two-tenths of a second lead but
he briefly relinquishes it at turn four. He manages to regain it soon after
but Vettel and Alonso are using all their aggression to try and steal the
lead.
Lap one Battling work from Rosberg to just stay ahead of Massa at the
start. Frantic opening to the race….and by turn seven it’s Vettel who
storms into second place from Alonso. Phew!
13.04 LIGHTS OUT! We’re under way!
13.01 The formation lap is under way. Not long now…
12.57 Our man Oliver Brown is in place:
12.56 The wind has picked up in the desert and the temperature has
dropped a dash. Just under five minutes until lights out.
12.54 Sky’s pre-race panel all plumping for the Ferrari pair of Fernando
Alonso and Felipe Massa as winners today. Your tip?
12.47 National anthem time. Bahrainona (Our Bahrain) performed
by a brass band. Moving.
12.41 A reminder of the grid:
1 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1min 32.330secs
2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1:32.584
3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:32.667
4 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:33.207
5 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:33.235
6 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:33.246
7 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:33.078*
8 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus F1 Team 1:33.327
9 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:32.762**
10 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:33.702
11 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus F1 Team 1:33.762
12 Sergio Perez (Mex) McLaren 1:33.914
13 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:33.974
14 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari 1:33.976
15 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Williams 1:34.105
16 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:34.284
17 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:34.425
18 Charles Pic (Fra) Caterham 1:35.283
19 Jules Bianchi (Fra) Marussia 1:36.178
20 Giedo van der Garde (Ned) Caterham 1:36.304
21 Max Chilton (Gbr) Marussia 1:36.476
22 Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:34.730*
* Webber, Gutierrez qualified P5 and P18, dropped 3 and 5 grid places
respectively for collisions at previous round.
** Hamilton qualified P4, dropped 5 places for unscheduled gearbox change
12.37 Oh, this is nice. Mark Webber has received a cake for
reaching the 200 Grand Prix milestone:
12.30 F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has described the Bahrain
government as “stupid” for allowing today’s grand prix in the troubled Gulf
kingdom to give a voice to human rights protestors. In ill-judged remarks,
as pro-democracy demonstrations continued in the capital Manama, the Formula
One chief said:
We believe the government were in a way really stupid to put this race on,
because it is a platform for people to use for protesting. We don’t go
anywhere to judge how a country is run. I keep asking people, what human
rights – I don’t know what they are. The rights are that people who live in
the country abide by the laws of the country, whatever they are. I might be
in Africa and can go 200kmph on the highway with no problem. If I come to
England and do the same thing, I’m in trouble. So it’s a case of whatever
the laws are, people need to respect them.
12.25 Yesterday, Nico Rosberg gave Mercedes back-to-back pole positions
for the first time since their return to Formula One at the start of 2010. Here’s
what our man in the Middle East, Oliver Brown, made of it
all:
These are auspicious times for the Silver Arrows. Not since the days of
Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio had Mercedes secured back-to-back pole
positions, but Nico Rosberg confirmed their restoration as a power in
Formula One by propelling them once more to the front of the grid for the
Bahrain Grand Prix. t was the first time Mercedes had seized consecutive
poles since 1955, as Rosberg signalled the scale of the team’s ambition
since its return in 2010. “We want to be the best,” he said. “We want to
dominate.”
12.20 Good afternoon and thanks for joining me for live coverage of
what should be an utterly low-key and incident-free Grand Prix from the
Middle East……..I’m joking, of course, since we all know that nothing is
ever simple in the world of Formula One. This race has been followed by
politics, protest and that staple of any good Grand Prix – some words of
wisdom from Bernie Ecclestone but is going ahead nonetheless. The show must
go on!