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The times of the 1st free practice session :
1: Lewis Hamilton : MCLAREN : 1:33.572 laps 11 2: Sebastian Vettel : RED BULL : 1:33.877 +00.305 laps 21 3: Paul Di Resta : FORCE INDIA : 1:34.150 +00.578 laps 26 4: Nico Rosberg : MERCEDES : 1:34.249 +00.677 laps 23 5: Jenson Button MCLAREN : 1:34.277 +00.705 laps 14 6: Nico Hulkenberg : FORCE INDIA : 1:34.344 +00.772 laps 26 7: Michael Schumacher : MERCEDES : 1:34.483 +00.911 laps 17 8: Mark Webber : RED BULL : 1:34.552 +00.980 laps 22 9: Kimi Raikkonen : LOTUS : 1:34.609 +01.037 laps 18 10: Romain Grosjean : LOTUS : 1:34.847 +01.275 laps 20 11: Sergio Perez : SAUBER : 1:35.024 +01.452 laps 22 12: Pastor Maldonado : WILLIAMS : 1:35.268 +01.696 laps 25 13: Fernando Alonso : FERRARI : 1:35.436 +01.864 laps 21 14: Valtteri Bottas : WILLIAMS : 1:35.497 +01.925 laps 24 15: Felipe Massa : FERRARI : 1:35.719 +02.147 laps 19 16: Kamui Kobayashi : SAUBER : 1:35.929 +02.357 laps 24 17: Jean-Eric Vergne : TORO ROSSO : 1:36.195 +02.623 laps 20 18: Heikki Kovalainen : CATERHAM : 1:36.330 +02.758 laps 11 19: Vitaly Petrov : CATERHAM : 1:36.484 +02.912 laps 18 20: Daniel Ricciardo : TORO ROSSO : 1:36.591 +03.019 laps 20 21: Charles Pic: MARUSSIA : 1:37.467 +03.895 laps 18 22: Timo Glock : MARUSSIA : 1:38.006 +04.434 laps 18 23: Pedro De La Rosa : HRT : 1:38.877 +05.305 laps 19 24: Narain Karthikeyan : HRT : 1:39.996 +06.424 laps 23 Comment of the 1st session : Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in the opening free practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix ahead of world champion Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull and Paul di Resta's Force India. In a fairly uneventful 90 minutes of running, the McLaren driver set a time of 1m33.572s in the middle of the session and remained unchallenged thereafter. As expected, the teams were greeted with warm track temperatures - 27 degrees C and rising – but just as predictable was the surface layer of sand on the asphalt that prompted one team to dismissively say the morning's runs as nothing more than 'dust surveys'. It led to a slow start to the morning. Nico Hulkenberg was the first driver to set a time, a 1m35.544s lap, 20 minutes in. Dicing with his Force India team-mate di Resta, who also moved to the top during this period, the German then improved that to a 1m34.859s. Other early runners were Romain Grosjean and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi, who like Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen before him, ran too hot into the tightening Turn 10 left-hander and ran over the sand-coloured painted run-off. There would be several more cases of this through the field. By one third's distance Grosjean's Lotus, complete with a new front wing for this race, had moved to the top of the times with a 1m34.847s. The Frenchman looked fairly wild though as he explored the limits of the track. Not long after that, Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen set a new benchmark, the Finn lowering the target to a 1m34.609s on the revised-back-to-its-original Sakhir layout.Just before half distance the Red Bulls emerged from the pits for their first runs on the Pirelli medium primes and immediately Vettel went fastest with a 1m34.311s – the German now using the newer exhaust layout that Mark Webber chose to run in Shanghai. But if his first lap was impressive, he followed it up with a much faster 1m33.877s, setting three purple sector times as he did so. His team-mate on the hand could only manage third fastest, having locked up on his early quick lap. The two Mercedes were also out at the same time for their early runs on the prime tyres, but neither Nico Rosberg nor Michael Schumacher could match that Vettel time at this stage and went second and third quickest, while Jenson Button in the McLaren, went fourth. Just before the hour mark world championship leader Hamilton moved to the top with a 1m33.572s – three tenths up on Vettel - as Rosberg and Button also improved to third and fourth, ahead of Schumacher. Things settled down for a while after that as teams continued working through their programmes on the prime sets they'd hand back after the morning session was over. During this period di Resta's KERS went intermittent and he was forced to switch it off, running wide at the final corner not long after that. Despite the track being less dusty, to the surprise of the teams, few of them seemed keen to chase times massively. But in the last 10 minutes of the session both the Force Indias made the surprising decision to make an early switch to the option tyre, which explained why di Resta jumped up to third late on and Hulkenberg ended up sixth. Neither Ferrari made it into the top ten after a low profile session that ended with Fernando Alonso 13th and Felipe Massa 15th - split by Valtteri Bottas's Williams. Kind Regards Shaky-Schumi |
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News Round Up :
Bahrain Grand Prix boss expects no problems at all for Formula 1 : Bahrain's grand prix boss is totally confident that Formula 1 will not experience any problems at the event this weekend, despite fears in recent weeks about trouble from protestors. F1 personnel began arriving in Bahrain on Monday ahead of its return to the calendar. And race chief Zayed Alzayani said in an exclusive interview that any concerns the teams have will be eased as soon as people see the situation on the ground. "Some are still sceptical but I think seeing is believing and when they come down and see how things are they will feel different," he explained. "I just talked to [Red Bull team boss] Christian Horner and he has a team [of people] there already, and things are normal. They went out for dinner last night and everything is okay. Bernie [Ecclestone] said everything is fine. Christian Horner: “It’s going to be a fascinating championship…” Christian Horner says that Red Bull learned a lot in China by fielding its cars with two different exhaust configurations. Sebastian Vettel ran the older spec, with which he felt more comfortable, while Mark Webber had the newer version. The latter obviously proved more effective in qualifying, then in the race matters were confused by Vettel making a bad start and running two stops while Webber was on three. In the end the Aussie snuck ahead as his team mate’s tyres went past their best. “There were some characteristics about the upgraded car which weren’t particularly suited to Seb’s style of driving, which is to carry a lot of speed into the corner,” said Horner after the race. “The decision to come here [with two specs] was very much Adrian and a technical decision, because we want to make sure we get a direction and a clear comparison. “We’ve had that, it’s been a really useful exercise this weekend. The drivers were happy to go the routes that they did. Now we’ve got an awful lot of information from three days of running to settle on a direction moving forward. “Ideally you want the characteristics from both solutions, so that’s now the challenge.” Horner said that there was no firm verdict yet on what specs it would field in Bahrain this weekend Domenicali expecting quick reaction to Ferrari's slow start to 2012 Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali says he expects a quick reaction from the Italian squad on the back of the disappointing form shown at the start of the season.Although Fernando Alonso arrived in last weekend's Chinese Grand Prix as championship leader following his win in Malaysia, the team struggled for pace in Shanghai, with the Spaniard finishing in ninth position and team-mate Felipe Massa down in 13th. Ferrari is expecting another difficult weekend in Bahrain as the circuit will highlight the problems the car has at the moment. Domenicali made it clear he is not happy with the current situation, and expects his technical team to react quickly to make the car stronger. "It's clear I'm absolutely not happy with the way it was born, that's a fact," said Domenicali, "because it's easy to manage things with a quick car. "So I expect to see a quick reaction on this aspect from our technicians, because we need to give our drivers a car that is a lot more competitive." The team boss insisted he is staying calm about the situation despite the team being nearly a second off the pace. F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone unsure of 2013 Grand Prix of America race Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has cast doubt on whether the new Grand Prix of America in New Jersey will take place in 2013 as planned. The event on public roads alongside the Hudson River overlooking New York City had been expected to join the calendar in June next year. But Ecclestone told that there was some doubt about whether the track would be ready in time. "Maybe the New York race will be 2013," he said. "It's a when - 2013 or 2014." It is the first time any doubts have been expressed about the much-anticipated event, which is the second new Formula 1 race scheduled to take place in the USA in the next 14 months. The first is the United States Grand Prix, which is scheduled to take place on a new track being built in Austin, Texas, as the penultimate race of this season on 18 November. Texan circuit bosses insist the race will go ahead, but there have been continuing reports in the US of legal problems and doubts that the track will be ready in time. The Texas race has had a troubled development. The initial promoter fell out with the track's bosses and had his contract ripped up by Ecclestone. The race was only included on this year's calendar after the new promoter agreed to pay the sanctioning fee at the 11th hour before Ecclestone submitted a final calendar to governing body the FIA in December last year. Recently, there have been reports in the US of delays in building the track as well as ongoing issues surrounding the management of the track and event. Bosses have continued to insist that the race will take place as planned. Ecclestone also said that a proposed deal that would see the French Grand Prix return to the calendar and alternate year-to-year with the Belgian event at Spa-Francorchamps was a real possibility. The arrangement is expected to start in 2013, with the French race at the Paul Ricard track near Marseille rather than at Magny-Cours near Nevers, which last hosted the race in 2008. Ecclestone said: "We don't want any more races. They're quite close and they're French-speaking. Spa have agreed; apparently they're going to do it in Ricard." Ecclestone is the former promoter of the Belgian Grand Prix and his family trust owns the Paul Ricard track, which has been used for occasional F1 testing in recent years. The French event remains in some doubt, however. It depends on raising the required funding and although the current government, which is facing an imminent general election, has made it clear it supports the race, it has said it will not provide any state funding. And if President Nicolas Sarkozy's party loses the election, it is not clear whether the new government would back the race, and if they did whether they would be happy for it to take place at Paul Ricard rather than Magny-Cours, which has long links with their party. Ross Brawn says it's too early to predict repeat wins for Mercedes Ross Brawn thinks it is too early to say whether Mercedes can deliver more victories this season, despite the nature of Nico Rosberg's dominant performance in the Chinese Grand Prix. Rosberg was in a class of his own in Shanghai, as he finished well clear of his opposition for his maiden Formula 1 win. But despite the performance, Mercedes team principal Brawn thinks the uncertainty caused by tyre characteristics this year means he has to be cautious about his outfit's chances going forward.When asked if he felt the Mercedes W03 had the speed to produce a series of wins in 2012, Brawn said: "It is so difficult to judge because of the sensitivity of the tyres. Did everyone else get it wrong and we got it right? Or did everyone get it right and this is a fair measure of where we are? I don't know. "The fact that we have been close in qualifying in the first two races gives me encouragement, but it was just a perfect race for us here and I expect it wasn't for others. We have to turn as many races as we can into perfect races." Mercedes-Benz motorsport boss Norbert Haug added that the team would maintain a realistic approach to the remainder of the season, as he was not sure just how good its car was. Fernando Alonso predicts damage limitation for Ferrari at Bahrain Grand Prix Fernando Alonso says there is no reason to expect anything but another weekend of damage limitation for Ferrari at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The Spaniard lost his Formula 1 points lead in China last weekend, when he could only finish ninth as Ferrari's lack of pace proved insurmountable in dry conditions - preventing a repeat of Alonso's surprise Sepang win. In his diary column for Ferrari's website, Alonso warned the team's supporters to expect more of the same at Sakhir, both due to the nature of the track and the lack of time to make progress between the back-to-back races. "I am well aware that in Sakhir, we can expect another difficult weekend, which is only natural, partly because of the track characteristics and also because the car is the same one we had in Shanghai," Alonso wrote. "Both the Scuderia and I have a good record in Bahrain: the team has four victories here and I've got three, the last of which was also my debut race for the Prancing Horse. But the past counts for nothing in this sport and this weekend will be all about damage limitation for us." Alonso, who is now third in the championship, eight points behind leader Lewis Hamilton, remains unwilling to rule Ferrari out of title contention, but admits it needs to find a significant step forward in pace with some urgency if it is to stand a chance. Hamilton and Button to sit out F1's mid-season Mugello test McLaren's racing drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button will not participate in next month's test at Mugello, the team has announced. Test drivers Olivier Turvey and Gary Paffett will be in action at the Italian track instead. Britons Turvey and Paffett last drove F1 machinery during last year's young driver test at Abu Dhabi. The Mugello session, the only in-season test that allows any driver to take part in it, will take place on 1-3 May. Ben Agathangelou joins Ferrari's aerodynamic department Ferrari has boosted its aerodynamic department with the signing of Ben Agathangelou, who has worked for a number of teams including McLaren, Benetton and Red Bull Racing in his career. Agathangelou originally left F1 at the end of 2007, when he departed Red Bull Racing - having been there since the Jaguar days, but he returned to the sport in 2010 when he joined the Hispania team. Most recently he has worked with Marussia. Ferrari has been looking at bolstering its technical structure under the leadership of Pat Fry, and has been recruiting in areas where it feels it can be improved. At the Chinese Grand Prix, Fry said that the team was leaving no stone unturned in looking at areas it can improve. "The biggest performance differentiator is aerodynamics. We've got some issues there that we're trying to resolve," he said. "We're actually trying to review and revise our methodologies through the whole process and that carries on into the design office for trying to get weight out of various parts, make other bits more durable. "So there's work going on absolutely everywhere within the company, on the basic fundamental methodology as well as just trying to upgrade the car." Single DRS zone for Bahrain Grand Prix Drivers will be allowed to use DRS once per lap around the Bahrain International Circuit during this weekend’s Grand Prix. DRS may be activated on the pit straight, 270m after the exit of the final corner. The detection point is on the entry to the last turn on the track. Kind Regards Shaky-Schumi |
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8° GP Bahrain Grand Prix – Sakhir circuit (first edition 2004)
After a year's absence unfortunately returns the Grand Prix of Bahrain. This is another track designed by Hermann Tilke and for me is one of the worst circuit of the championship. There are long straights followed by tight corners. This circuit does not host a large number of events during the year, and so sand and dust are often a problem. High temperatures are a challenge for engines and brake cooling, After the negative experience of 2010, this year, the Grand Prix will be held back on the original configuration. The track will be shorter and the number of the curves will drop from 23 to 15. We return to the original layout, used between 2004 and 2009; therefore the timing references for the pole position would be those of 2009 (less o more), but three years ago there were different rules in Q3(Each car had enough fuel on board to do the first stint of the race; thankfully this rule has been removed from 2010). The only good thing about the last one edition(2010) was the victory of Alonso and Massa's second place. This year, only one podium for Red Bull in the first three races. But above all, last week, Rosberg has used the tyres in the best way with those temperatures. If the silver arrows have definitively solved their tyres problems (overheated or on the contrary did not get them warm enough) the W03 will be fast on several track. For me, will be decisive the coming two Grand Prix. In Bahrain the temperatures are high, and Barcelona is a circuit very demanding for tires. If Schumacher and Rosberg will be competitive on both circuits, anything could happen. At this moment seems that Mercedes and Sauber prefer the colder temperatures, while for Red Bull, Lotus and McLaren are better higher temperatures. Soft (option, yellow) and medium(prime, white) will be the tyres used in Bahrain. A single drag reduction zone for this Grand Prix, on the main straight. Brake demand: high – tyre wear: medium – grip level: low/medium Podium 2010: Fernando Alonso – Felipe Massa – Lewis Hamilton– fastest lap on race: Fernando Alonso – pole position : Vettel Podium 2009: Jenson Button – Sebastian Vettel – Jarno Trulli – fastest lap on race: Jarno Trulli – pole position : Jarno Trulli Bahrain GP: victories for current pilots: Alonso(3) Massa(2) Schumacher and Button (1). Raikkonen, Hamilton and Vettel : best finish 2°place at Sakhir circuit. Never on podium Webber. Bahrain GP: pole position for current pilots: Schumacher(2) Vettel, Alonso and Massa(1) Raikkonen, Hamilton, Button, and Webber: never in pole position here |
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piggy wrote:to be in bahrain at any costs ?? The idea is good, but only change the avatar! |
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to be in bahrain at any costs ??
it doesn't look a good idea to me. what do you think about it guys ? |
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standings after three races
1 Lewis Hamilton British McLaren-Mercedes 45 2 Jenson Button British McLaren-Mercedes 43 3 Fernando Alonso Spanish Ferrari 37 4 Mark Webber Australian Red Bull Racing-Renault 36 5 Sebastian Vettel German Red Bull Racing-Renault 28 6 Nico Rosberg German Mercedes 25 7 Sergio Perez Mexican Sauber-Ferrari 22 8 Kimi Räikkönen Finnish Lotus-Renault 16 9 Bruno Senna Brazilian Williams-Renault 14 10 Kamui Kobayashi Japanese Sauber-Ferrari 9 11 Romain Grosjean French Lotus-Renault 8 12 Paul di Resta British Force India-Mercedes 7 13 Jean-Eric Vergne French STR-Ferrari 4 14 Pastor Maldonado Venezuelan Williams-Renault 4 15 Daniel Ricciardo Australian STR-Ferrari 2 16 Nico Hulkenberg German Force India-Mercedes 2 17 Michael Schumacher German Mercedes 1 18 Felipe Massa Brazilian Ferrari 0 19 Timo Glock German Marussia-Cosworth 0 20 Charles Pic French Marussia-Cosworth 0 21 Vitaly Petrov Russian Caterham-Renault 0 22 Heikki Kovalainen Finnish Caterham-Renault 0 23 Pedro de la Rosa Spanish HRT-Cosworth 0 24 Narain Karthikeyan Indian HRT-Cosworth 0 |
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Anthony Davidson 18th April 1979
[hidden link - please register] Happy Birthday to your 33rd anniversary 
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I can't vote last weekend due to a system crash.
 Connection now back. 
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17/04/1954 happy birthday to riccardo patrese former italian f1 driver
[hidden link - please register] |
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Paul di Resta 16th April 1986
[hidden link - please register] Happy Birthday to your 26th anniversary
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[hidden link - please register]
Bahrain GP 20-22 April 2012 Friday April 20 • Free Practice 1 10:00 to 11:30 • Free Practice 2 14:00 to 15:30 Saturday, April 21 • Free Practice 3 11:00 to 12:00 • Qualifications 14:00 Sunday, April 22 • Race 15:00 [hidden image - please register] |
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Oh no Schumi.
Damm Mechanic! 
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2 car Mersedes were not on the pen of a number of since 1955! Miss this chance!
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