Formula 1 General Chat & Discussion

Maldonado gets China grid penalty for Gutierrez crash

Lotus's Pastor Maldonado has been handed a five-place grid penalty for the next round in China and given three penalty points on his Super Licence for causing the crash which sent Esteban Gutierrez rolling out of Sunday's 2014 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.

Maldonado ran into the side of the Sauber at Turn 1 on lap 41 of the 57-lap race, moments after rejoining the track from the pit lane. The contact resulted in the Mexican’s car being tipped into a spectacular roll.

Gutierrez was able to climb from his cockpit, while Maldonado continued with damage, but a lengthy safety car was needed to recover the stricken Sauber and clear the debris.

Stewards quickly decided Maldonado had been responsible for the collision, handing the Venezuelan an immediate 10-second stop-go penalty, as well as the aforementioned grid drop and penalty points.

Marussia’s Jules Bianchi was also deemed to have caused a collision during the race following an early clash with Gutierrez’s Sauber team mate Adrian Sutil, which led to the German retiring with damage.

Bianchi was given two penalty points, in addition to the drive-through penalty he served during the race. The Frenchman now has four penalty points on his Super Licence - 12 points lead to an automatic one-race ban

Maldonado got five-place grid penalty in chinese GP and 3 penalty points.

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Result of a nice race ( thanks to the safety car part ! ) of the Bahrain GP :

1. L. Hamilton - Mercedes - 1:39:42.743
2. N. Rosberg - Mercedes +1.085
3. S. Perez - Force India +24.067 +22.982
4. D. Ricciardo - Red Bull +24.489 +0.422
5. N. Hulkenberg - Force India +28.654 +4.165
6. S. Vettel - Red Bull +29.879 +1.225
7. F. Massa - Williams +31.265 +1.386
8. V. Bottas - Williams +31.876 +0.611
9. F. Alonso - Ferrari +32.595 +0.719
10. K. Raikkonen - Ferrari +33.462 +0.867
11. D. Kvyat - Toro Rosso +41.342 +7.880
12. R. Grosjean - Lotus +43.143 +1.801
13. M. Chilton - Marussia +59.909 +16.766
14. P. Maldonado - Lotus +1:02.803 +2.894
15. K. Kobayashi - Caterham +1:27.900 +25.097
16. J. Bianchi - Marussia +1 lap
Did Not Finish :
17. J. Button - McLaren +2 laps
18. K. Magnussen - McLaren +17 laps
19. E. Gutiérrez - Sauber +18 laps
20. M. Ericsson - Caterham +24 laps
21. J. Vergne - Toro Rosso +39 laps
22. A. Sutil - Sauber +40 laps

Fastest Lap : Nico Rosberg - 1:37.020
Pitstop Sergio Perez : 2 ( lap 16 - 34 )
Bat. 2 Teams : Sebastian Vettel > Fernando Alonso
Grid Pos. Nico Hulkenberg : 5th place

Hamilton beats Rosberg in a night time thriller :
Lewis Hamilton beat Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Nico Rosberg to win a breathless Bahrain Grand Prix by just one second.
A late-race safety car, deployed after Pastor Maldonado's Lotus tipped Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber into a roll at Turn 1, turned the 57-lap race into a 10-lap sprint under floodlights in the desert. Both drivers had gone wheel-to-wheel in the early stages, as Hamilton outdragged poleman Rosberg at the start and the German attempted to come back at his British team-mate, so they were warned to keep it clean by Mercedes boss Paddy Lowe. They just about managed it as they scrapped mightily for the win. Rosberg had the advantage of softer tyres for the showdown and had several stabs at passing Hamilton using DRS into the Michael Schumacher corner. But he could not make either stick, and Hamilton prevailed on his medium tyres after some epic side-by-side racing through the esses. Behind, Force India recorded its first podium since Spa 2009 as Sergio Perez just held off the quicker Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo. The Red Bulls also had the advantage of soft tyres for the final sprint and Ricciardo got the better of his world champion team-mate Sebastian Vettel and Nico Hulkenberg's Force India to finish fourth. Vettel, who complained of a lack of power from his Renault engine, could not find his own way past Hulkenberg (on ageing mediums) so had to spend the final two laps fending off Williams pair Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas for sixth. Williams gambled on a three-stop strategy where most of the other frontrunners went for two, and the safety car undid its hopes of a better result. The Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top 10, after Jenson Button joined McLaren team-mate Kevin Magnussen in retirement, after plummeting down the top order following the re-start.

Kind Regards
Shaky - Schumi

Sutil handed five-place grid penalty


Adrian Sutil has been given a five-place grid penalty and received two penalty points on his Super Licence after the FIA deemed the Sauber driver to have held up Lotus’s Romain Grosjean in an “unsafe manner” during qualifying in Bahrain.

Sutil had qualified 18th, and will therefore start the third race of the season from the back of the grid.

The German impeded Grosjean between Turns 13 and 14 in the final minutes of Q1, forcing the Frenchman off the track. Despite the incident Grosjean was just able to squeeze through into Q2, and will line up 16th for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Sutil’s demotion means that Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi is promoted to 18th, with Marussia’s Jules Bianchi now sharing the tenth row with the second Caterham of Marcus Ericsson. Marussia's Max Chilton, meanwhile, will start from 21st, alongside Sutil.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo also drops 10 places as part of his penalty for an unsafe release at the last round in Malaysia. He thus starts 13th.


schubert

A lot of surprises, Rosberg, Ricciardo and Raikkonen better than Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso. Red Bull is in crisis but we know that in the second part of the season they are always very competitive.

Qualifying result :

1. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes GP - 1:33.185
2. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes GP - 1:33.464 +0.279
3. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing - 1:34.051 +0.866
4. Valtteri Bottas - Williams - 1:34.247 +1.062
5. Sergio Perez - Force India - 1:34.346 +1.161
6. Kimi Räikkönen - Ferrari - 1:34.368 +1.183
7. Jenson Button - McLaren - 1:34.387 +1.202
8. Felipe Massa - Williams - 1:34.511 +1.326
9. Kevin Magnussen - McLaren - 1:34.712 +1.527
10. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 1:34.992 +1.807
Q2
11. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull Racing - 1:34.985 +1.800
12. Nico Hulkenberg - Force India - 1:35.116 +1.931
13. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso - 1:35.145 +1.960
14. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso - 1:35.286 +2.101
15. Esteban Gutierrez - Sauber - 1:35.891 +2.706
16. Romain Grosjean - Lotus - 1:35.907 +2.722
Q1
17. Pastor Maldonado - Lotus - 1:36.663 +3.478
18. Adrian Sutil - Sauber - 1:36.840 +3.655
19. Kamui Kobayashi - Caterham - 1:37.085 +3.900
20. Jules Bianchi - Marussia F1 Team - 1:37.310 +4.125
21. Marcus Ericsson - Caterham - 1:37.875 +4.690
22. Max Chilton - Marussia F1 Team - 1:37.913 +4.728

Qualifying Time :1:33.185
Pole Position : Nico Rosberg
Team Bat. : Daniil Kvyat > Jean-Eric Vergne
Grid Position Sebastian Vettel : 11th place


Rosberg beats Hamilton to pole as Mercedes dominates :
After playing second fiddle to Lewis Hamilton in all three practice sessions, Nico Rosberg trumped his Mercedes teammate against the odds in qualifying to take pole position for the tenth Bahrain Grand Prix. The two Silver Arrows sparkled as they powered around the 5,000 lamps which floodlit the venue, with Rosberg going fastest in his first run in Q3 with a best lap time of 1:33.185 which was 0.279 better than Hamilton. The two, immersed in their own private war almost oblivious to the others, decided to have another go but to no avail as both aborted when they realised that they would not go any faster. No one else was in their zone on the night.
An anti-climatic ending, but nevertheless very much an unexpected result which only serves to fuel the the rivalry between Rosberg and Hamilton which is starting to look like the headline story of the season and a juicy one at that. Rosberg summed up his evening at Sakhir, ”It has just worked well through the weekend, finding my way, making progress and getting through some issues. The challenge this weekend is that free practice were in such hot conditions, and you have to guess, sort of, for the cold conditions [for qualifying]. It worked out well. I felt comfortable and got my laps together. I’m very happy. I have good memories of this track, winning the GP2 championship and starting my first race in F1. I enjoy coming here and again today, it’s suited me.” Hamilton said, ”I am not disappointed, congratulations to Nico and he has done a great job this weekend, he is improving and picking up the pace. I locked up in the last lap but generally I am happy for the team.” It was a bittersweet session for Red Bull, although more bitter than sweet for the world champions, as once again Daniel Ricciardo showed pretty remarkable pace in the Red Bull during qualifying. Setting the third best time, but alas he will drop down ten places due to the penalty for the pitstop shenanigans in Malaysia.
Ricciardo spoke afterwards, “Really pleased with the performance. At moment it’s the best anyone else can do behind the two guys alongside me. Still got ground to make up, but I’m pleased with how well qualifying went tonight. It’s been tricky with the temperature dropping a lot for the evening sessions – as you saw in P3 we were a long way off and we turned it around this evening – it’s nice to close the gap.” “Tomorrow of course I don’t stay at the front from here, so there’s work to do. We’ve got top guys in the office back there to get me back up there. It’s close between two and three stops and a bit of room to get back from there,” concluded the Australian. It was even worse for teammate Sebastian Vettel who failed to make it beyond Q2, ending that segment of the session 0.393 down on Ricciardo. The world champion has now failed twice, out of three tries, to make it into Q3 so far this season. He said over the team radio, ”The downshifts were really bad.” And reflected later, ”They [Mercedes] are out of reach – this track suits them here. Hopefully we can do a good job at the moment and rescue some points this weekend. Things are going on in the background which haven’t helped and we haven’t done many laps here. You can have days where it’s quite tight to get into Q3.”

Kind Regards
Shaky - Schumi

Result of the 2nd practice session of the GP of Bahrain :

1. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes GP - 1:34.325
2. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes GP - 1:34.690 +0.365
3. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 1:35.360 +1.035
4. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing - 1:35.433 +1.108
5. Felipe Massa - Williams - 1:35.442 +1.117
6. Jenson Button - McLaren - 1:35.528 +1.203
7. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull Racing - 1:35.606 +1.281
8. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso - 1:35.640 +1.315
9. Kevin Magnussen - McLaren - 1:35.662 +1.337
10. Sergio Perez - Force India - 1:35.802 +1.477
11. Valtteri Bottas - Williams - 1:35.920 +1.595
12. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso - 1:35.972 +1.647
13. Nico Hulkenberg - Force India - 1:35.998 +1.673
14. Kimi Räikkönen - Ferrari - 1:36.366 +2.041
15. Adrian Sutil - Sauber - 1:36.962 +2.637
16. Esteban Gutierrez - Sauber - 1:36.975 +2.650
17. Pastor Maldonado - Lotus - 1:37.259 +2.934
18. Romain Grosjean - Lotus - 1:37.599 +3.274
19. Jules Bianchi - Marussia F1 Team - 1:37.800 +3.475
20. Max Chilton - Marussia F1 Team - 1:38.247 +3.922
21. Kamui Kobayashi - Caterham - 1:38.257 +3.932
22. Marcus Ericsson - Caterham - 1:39.136 +4.811

Hamilton's run continues under lights :
Lewis Hamilton's run of form continued in Bahrain on Friday night when the Mercedes driver claimed the first P1 under the lights.
This season, to mark the 10th running of the Bahrain Grand Prix, the race has become a night event with hundreds of spotlights shinning down on the desert track. Hamilton led the way under lights as the British driver posted a 1:34.325 on the soft Pirelli tyres. It was yet another P1 for the 2008 World Champion, the winner of the last race in Malaysia. Continuing the Brackley team's domination, Nico Rosberg brought his W05 across the line with the second fastest time, 0.365s down on his team-mate.
Fernando Alonso was the closest challenger to the Merc duo as he posted a 1:35.360. That, though, put the Ferrari driver a full second behind Hamilton while Daniel Ricciardo was fourth for Red Bull Racing ahead of Felipe Massa, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel. And although the Mercedes drivers had a notable advantage, it was close behind them as from Alonso in third to Kimi Raikkonen in 14th there was just a second separating the runners. Meanwhile there were again issues for Lotus as Pastor Maldonado damaged his E22 when he flew over a kerb while Romain Grosjean suffered a misfire. They did, however, each complete more than 20 laps. Two other drivers, Max Chilton and Marcus Ericsson, didn't see the end of the 90-minute session as car problems meant they stopped out on track while Adrian Sutil had an electrical problem that cost him track time.

Kind Regards
Shaky - Schumi

Result of the 1st practice session of the GP of Bahrain :

1. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes GP - 1:37.502
2. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes GP - 1:37.733 +0.231
3. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 1:37.953 +0.451
4. Nico Hulkenberg - Force India - 1:38.122 +0.620
5. Jenson Button - McLaren - 1:38.636 +1.134
6. Kimi Räikkönen - Ferrari - 1:38.783 +1.281
7. Kevin Magnussen - McLaren - 1:38.949 +1.447
8. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso - 1:39.056 +1.554
9. Sergio Perez - Force India - 1:39.102 +1.600
10. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull Racing - 1:39.389 +1.887
11. Felipe Massa - Williams - 1:39.533 +2.031
12. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso - 1:39.862 +2.360
13. Felipe Nasr - Williams - 1:40.078 +2.576
14. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing - 1:40.406 +2.904
15. Adrian Sutil - Sauber - 1:40.652 +3.150
16. Pastor Maldonado - Lotus - 1:40.793 +3.291
17. Jules Bianchi - Marussia F1 Team - 1:40.889 +3.387
18. Giedo van der Garde - Sauber - 1:40.913 +3.411
19. Romain Grosjean - Lotus - 1:41.036 +3.534
20. Max Chilton - Marussia F1 Team - 1:41.794 +4.292
21. Robin Frijns - Caterham - 1:42.417 +4.915
22. Marcus Ericsson - Caterham - 1:42.711 +5.209

Hamilton tops as Mercedes flex their muscles again :
Five days ago Lewis Hamilton celebrated on the top step of the Sepang podium after winning the Malaysian Grand Prix, and on the opening day of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend the Mercedes driver topped the time sheets at the end of Free Practice 1 with his teammate Nico Rosberg next best. Hamilton’s best time of 1:37.502 was 0.231 faster than Rosberg, and almost a half second up on Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari. There was a Keystone Cops moment at when they sent Alonso out with a Pirelli soft tyre on the front left and a medium compound tyre on the front right, when the penny dropped the Spaniard stopped in the pit lane whereupon mechanics retrieved the F14T. A red face moment for the Reds. At one stage during the session Mercedes powered cars hogged the top five positions on the timing screens, with Nico Hulkenberg right in there, and finishing fourth fastest when the 90 minute session was flagged. Hi teammate Sergio Perez was ninth fastest, but over a second down on his teammate. Jenson Button was fifth fastest in the McLaren, albeit over a second down on the top time with tookie teammate Kevin Magnussen seventh fastest. Splitting the McLaren pair was Kimi Raikkonen who set the sixth best time, which was 0.830 of a second adrift of his Ferrari teammate Alonso.
Fastest of the Renault brigade was rookie Daniil Kvyat, who ended the session eighth fastest in the Toro Rosso. Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top ten in the Red Bull, 1.887 slower than Hamilton’s best. Notably down the order was Daniel Ricciardo who was 14th, but a whopping three seconds adrift of the benchmark time. And even further down the order were the Lotus duo with Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean, 16th and 19th respectively, both managing decent mileage but struggling to squeeze pace from the E22. Reserve drivers in action on the day included: Williams’ Felipe Nasr making his free practice debut in place of Valtteri Bottas, and ended 13th fastest; Sauber’s Giedo van der Garde was 18th, in place of Esteban Gutierrez; and Caterham’s highly rated Robin Frijns, in place of Kamui Kobayashi, was 0.3secs faster than teammate Marcus Ericsson who was slowest of all.
It is early days in Bahrain and perhaps a tad too early to be making assumptions, however one can take for granted that Mercedes will be strong this weekend as they set about their business with consumate, with Ferrari appearing to be up for the chase, although Alonso in particular was really thrashing it about, as the Renault posse play catch-up again or perhaps they have yet to unleash their firepower .

Kind Regards
Shaky - Schumi

Great news about Schumi !!!!

he is truly waking up now

GO SCHUMI GOOOO !!!

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The Sakhir circuit will host the Bahrain Grand Prix. This year is the 10th edition. First edition in 2004.
Pirelli has chosen the “White medium” and “Yellow soft” compounds for this weekend

Podium 2011: the GP was cancelled

Podium 2012: Vettel(Red Bull) – 2° Raikkonen and 3° Grosjean. Fastest lap: Vettel
pole position : Vettel 1'32''422

Podium 2013: Vettel(Red Bull) – 2° Raikkonen and 3° Grosjean. Fastest lap: Vettel
pole position : Rosberg 1'32''330

• 2012 and 2013 the same podium for two years in a row

the winners
3 wins: Alonso (2005-2006-2010)
2 wins Vettel (2012-2013) and Massa (2007-2008)
1 win: Button(2009)

Pole Position
2 pole: Vettel(2010-2012)
1 pole: Alonso (2005); Massa(2007) and Rosberg(2013)

Fastest lap
2: Vettel (2012-2013)
1: Alonso (2010); Massa(2007) and Rosberg(2006)

• Pole Position & Fastest lap: the same pilots

Podium(winner+second+third) for current pilots at Sakhir
6 (0 win + 3 second +3 third) Raikkonen
3 (3+0+0) Alonso
3 (2+1+0) Vettel
3 (2+1+0) Massa
2 (1+0+1) Button
2 (0+1+1) Hamilton
2 (0+0+2) Grosjean

One month ago. the Sakhir circuit has hosted the last pre-season testing in Bahrain and Felipe Massa scored the quickest lap time

Felipe Massa Williams1:33.258 (tyre supersoft new)
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes1:33.278 (tyre soft used)
Nico Rosberg Mercedes1:33.484 (tyre supersoft new)
Valtteri Bottas Williams1:33.987 (tyre soft new)
Fernando Alonso Ferrari1:34.280 (tyre supersoft new)

these were the five best times, in the last test before the start of the season
the gap on the flying lap compared to last year might be small
Pole time 2013 (1'32''330)

Latest news about Michael Schumacher from his manager Sabine Kehm : "All I can say is that there are
encouraging signals" she said to "Bild", "we hope they will continue"
"Bild" also wrote that in next days Schumi could leave Grenoble hospital and be transferred to another clinic

2014 FORMULA 1 GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX
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Fri 04 April 2014
Practice 1 13:00 - 14:30
Practice 2 17:00 - 18:30
Sat 05 April 2014
Practice 3 14:00 - 15:00
Qualifying 17:00
Sun 06 April 2014
Race 17:00

drivers standings
1 Nico Rosberg German Mercedes 43
2 Lewis Hamilton British Mercedes 25
3 Fernando Alonso Spanish Ferrari 24
4 Jenson Button British McLaren-Mercedes 23
5 Kevin Magnussen Danish McLaren-Mercedes 20
6 Nico Hulkenberg German Force India-Mercedes 18
7 Sebastian Vettel German Red Bull Racing-Renault 15
8 Valtteri Bottas Finnish Williams-Mercedes 14
9 Kimi Räikkönen Finnish Ferrari 6
10 Felipe Massa Brazilian Williams-Mercedes 6
11 Jean-Eric Vergne French STR-Renault 4
12 Daniil Kvyat Russian STR-Renault 3
13 Sergio Perez Mexican Force India-Mercedes 1
14 Romain Grosjean French Lotus-Renault 0
15 Adrian Sutil German Sauber-Ferrari 0
16 Esteban Gutierrez Mexican Sauber-Ferrari 0
17 Max Chilton British Marussia-Ferrari 0
18 Kamui Kobayashi Japanese Caterham-Renault 0
19 Marcus Ericsson Swedish Caterham-Renault 0
20 Jules Bianchi French Marussia-Ferrari 0
21 Pastor Maldonado Venezuelan Lotus-Renault 0
22 Daniel Ricciardo Australian Red Bull Racing-Renault 0

constructors standings
1 Mercedes 68
2 McLaren-Mercedes 43
3 Ferrari 30
4 Williams-Mercedes 20
5 Force India-Mercedes 19
6 Red Bull Racing-Renault 15
7 STR-Renault 7
8 Sauber-Ferrari 0
9 Lotus-Renault 0
10 Caterham-Renault 0
11 Marussia-Ferrari 0