15.07 It’s a big day too for Jenson Button, who is driving in his 250th
race. For someone who had been written off by many a few seasons ago, it’s
an excellent achievement.
14.54 We can take pops at Ecclestone all we like, but I have to admit
he’s excellent at building up excitement around F1.
14.47 Well we’ve started this up rather early, haven’t we? There are
still a couple of hours until the race, er, drives off (what is the correct
verb for the start of an F1 race?) so why not have a read of Oliver
Brown’s excellent piece on the harsher realities facing Bahrain, away
from the glitz and glamour of the Grand Prix?
14.20 We’ve got an
update on the latest from Bernie Ecclestone regarding proposed rule
changes, although there doesn’t appear to be any hint of what said changes
might be. Doesn’t Bernie come across as a loveable fellow? “But I don’t
think that’s [reduced fuel consumption] Formula One business. They should do
it in touring cars or something, but not in Formula One.”
Sure thing Bernie, you’re in an oil state with a bunch of very, very rich men
after all. Why bother with fuel conservation, doing your bit for saving the
planet and all that, lest it make the spectacle slightly less ostentatious.
Still, distracts from all those questions over human rights in the country
and stuff, doesn’t it?
Come on Bernie, it’s surely not that hard to keep a little dignity in F1 is
it?
11.56 Good afternoon. Welcome to our live coverage of the 2014 Grand
Prix from Bahrain (that’s the Grand Prix; we’re based in lil’ ol’ London I’m
afraid). We’ll be getting things underway from around 2pm-ish, by which
point we should know, er, what rules they’ll be racing under for the
forseeable future (read: the next couple of weeks at any rate). Our F1
expert Dan
Johnson is the man out in Bahrain for us today and he’ll be sending
over regular updates to help those of us less knowledgeable than him – which
is to say most people – keep up-to-date with happenings out east.
The race starts at 4pm UK time, but we’ll be here with you for a couple
of hours before that. In the meantime, why not have a read of Dan’s
piece on the latest proposed rule changes?
Here’s how they’ll line-up on the grid:
1 Nico Rosberg
2 Lewis Hamilton
3 Valtteri Bottas
4 Sergio Perez
5 Kimi Raikkonen
6 Jenson Button
7 Felipe Massa
8 Kevin Magnussen
9 Fernando Alonso
10 Sebastian Vettel
11 Nico Hulkenberg
12 Daniil Kvyat
13 Daniel Ricciardo
14 Jean-Eric Vergne
15 Esteban Gutierrez
16 Romain Grosjean
17 Pastor Maldonado
18 Adrian Sutil
19 Kamui Kobayashi
20 Jules Bianchi
21 Marcus Ericsson
22 Max Chilton