Tag: bahrain grand prix

Hamilton only just edges out Sebastian Vettel in Bahrain GP third practice

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton posted the fast time for the third and final practice session ahead of this weekend’s Bahrain GP. Hamilton’s time of 1:34.599 was only just 0.069s faster than Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel.

The day time session though, will not be entirely indicative of what will happen during qualifying and the Bahrain GP race – both of which will take place under the floodlights of the Sakhir International Circuit.

Nico Rosberg finished third fastest and Kimi Raikkonen posted the fourth best time to see Mercedes and Ferrari heading up the top of the timesheets.

The Williams drivers, who were struggling with the tailwinds on the circuit during the session, finished fifth and sixth fastest with Valterri Bottas edging out his team mate Felipe Massa.

Almost a second back, Pastor Maldonado finished in seventh place for his Lotus team with Daniel Ricciardo the only Red Bull driver in the top 10 after his team mate, Daniil Kvyat spun out at Turn 4 and beached his Red Bull in the gravel trap bringing out a brief Red Flag period. The Red Bull mechanics got him back out with 5 minutes of the session remaining and he recovered to finish in 12th place.

Nico Hulkenberg placed his Force India in ninth position and Sauber rookie Felipe Nasr continued to impress, rounding out the Top 10.

Jenson Button somehow managed to post the 11th fastest time for McLaren despite complaining throughout the session about a lack of grip and traction around the circuit.

Marcus Ericsson finished ahead of Max Verstappen who posted the 14th fastest time ahead of Sergio Perez. Alonso managed to bring his McLaren home with the 16th fastest time – beating only Sainz Jr, Romain Grosjean and the two Manor F1 drivers, Will Stevens and Roberto Mehri.

With the Ferrari drivers clearly playing amongst the Mercedes crowd and the gap between Hamilton and Vettel so super close, the scene is set for a very interesting qualifying session under the floodlights. Mercedes still seem to be on top of things, but Ferrari are breathing fire down their necks!

Join us for live chat and commentary on Twitter @F1_Madness throughout the race weekend.

Lewis Hamilton Bahrain GP FP3 Photo Credit: Mercedes AMG F1

Your full timesheet is below:

April 18, 2015
Raikkonen Reprimanded for Pit Lane Incident; Hamilton off the Hook

Kimi Raikkonen has been reprimanded by the Formula One race stewards for driving in a “potentially dangerous manner” in the pit lane during the second practice session ahead of this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

Both Raikkonen and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton crossed the white line indicating two lanes in the pits, and cut behind a Sauber leaving the garage. This was after a brief red flag period during the practice session.

The FIA Stewards, including Mika Salo, decided that Raikkonen had driven in an unsafe manner stating that, “The driver of car 7 drove in a potentially dangerous manner when leaving the pitlane”.

The action was found to be in contravention of Article 30.13 of the sporting regulations. The rule states that “at no time may a car be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person.”

This is Raikkonen’s first reprimand of the 2015 F1 season. Drivers who receive three reprimands will be handed a five place grid penalty.

Interestingly, there has been no word yet on any action against Lewis Hamilton. He was announced as being investigated alongside Raikkonen for the incident,

Following the session, Lewis spoke to reporters saying, “I don’t really know too much about it. The rule is that you do your starts on the left and allow people to pass on the right. I saw Kimi was kind of blocked because there was a car coming out of the garage so Kimi went around him and I followed. I just went to the right. As far as I am aware, it was legal.”

April 17, 2015
F1 2015 Bahrain GP Drivers Press Conference Part 2

Part 2 of the F1 2015 Bahrain GP Drivers Press Conference held on Thursday before this weekend’s Bahrain GP. Drivers attending the Bahrain GP drivers press conference were: Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo, Pastor Maldonado, Max Verstappen, Will Stevens and Sergio Perez.

April 16, 2015
F1 2015 Bahrain GP Drivers Press Conference Part 1

Part 1 of the F1 2015 Bahrain GP Drivers Press Conference held on Thursday before this weekend’s Bahrain GP. Drivers attending the Bahrain GP drivers press conference were: Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo, Pastor Maldonado, Max Verstappen, Will Stevens and Sergio Perez.

April 16, 2015
Weather Forecast for the 2015 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix

Round 4 of the Formula 1 World Championship brings us to the Bahrain International Circuit in the Gulf state of Bahrain.

The circuit has a good blend of high to medium speed corners, heavy braking zones and long straights to test just about every aspect of a F1 car’s handling characteristics. Teams will need to find the balance between optimum down force and straight line speed. The tyres play an important part in the race as the rough asphalt at the circuit accelerates thermal degradation.

Pirelli have brought the yellow soft(option) tyre and the white medium(prime) tyre to the circuit for the weekend. This is the same tyre that was nominated last season the only difference this season is that the tyres have a different construction with a slightly altered compound.

Because the track is surrounded by desert, the is a large amount of sand that is blown onto the circuit which results in reduced grip levels at the beggining of a session. As the session progresses the sand gets cleaned away and the track rubbers down. Picking the right time to go out in qualifying will be crucial. Drivers will want to hit that sweet spot during the track evolution cycle during qualifying.

During the day the temperatures are high, which means the tyres degrade quicker, but this is not representative of the race. We’ll get a true sense of pace during FP2 when track temperatures have dropped slightly.

With the race taking place in the desert, the weather outlook is sunny and hot throughout the weekend during the day with temperatures hovering in the high twenties and lower thirties. The one thing that may put a damper on things is the wind. There is a sandstorm forecast for Saturday’s qualifying session with a northerly wind remaining steady at around 40km/h forecast throughout the day. Evening temperatures are much cooler with ambient temperatures dropping to the mid twenties in the evening. This should help with tyre degredation.

Below is a snapshot of this weekend’s weather and a live forecast that updates throughout the day. Be sure to check in before each session to get the latest weather conditions.

April 15, 2015
Video: Bahrain GP Memories: 2014 Bahrain GP Highlights

Relive all the action from the 2014 Bahrain GP – a thrilling race filled with all the action that any Formula One Grand Prix should have! The Bahrain GP race edit will have you waiting anxiously for Sunday’s upcoming 2015 Bahrain GP!

April 14, 2015
Video: Brembo Brake Facts Round 04 – Bahrain Grand Prix

The hardest braking point on the Bahrain International Circuit is approaching turn 1. After the long straight, the driver has to decelerate by 267 km/h over just 158 metres. 2211 kilowatts of power are released in the process. The driver is subjected to 5.2 g, while having to push with 155 kg down onto the brake.

April 13, 2015
Pirelli Announces Tyre Choices for First Four Grands Prix

Formula 1 tyre provider Pirelli has announced the tyre nominations for the Australian, Malaysian, Chinese, and Bahrain Grands Prix.

For the Australian Grand Prix Pirelli will bring in the white medium and yellow soft compound tyres.

In Malaysia, the Orange Hard and White Medium compound tyres will be used. Pirelli nominated these the two hardest compounds available for the high abrasiveness of the asphalt at the Sepang Circuit and also because of the high temperatures.

The P Zero White medium and P Zero Yellow soft tyres are nominated for China. Those are the tyres best suited for the high degradation experienced by the tyres on the Shanghai circuit.

For Bahrain, a circuit that is tough on the rear tyres, Pirelli have nominated the White Medium and Yellow soft compound tyres. The Bahrain Grand Prix is the first day-into-night race on the calendar. This leads to falling ambient and track temperatures as the race goes on. The tyres chosen would provide the ideal balance between the rear mechanical grip needed whilst coping with the falling track temperatures.

The above tyre choices are identical to the first 4 races of last season. The only difference is that the rear tyres have a different construction which allows for temperatures to be distributed more evenly.

Photo by courtesy PIRELLI

March 4, 2015
Korean GP officially dropped from 2015 F1 Calendar

The 2015 F1 Calendar has been reduced to 20 races from the proposed 21, following the official removal of the Korean Grand Prix.

The race featured on the first official calendar published at the end of last year, but was still subject to confirmation by the FIA and was apparently added without the knowledge of the Korean GP organisers.

The Korean GP was scheduled to take place just one week before the Spanish GP in Barcelona but there was little doubt that it would be removed.

In December 2014, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone said that the Korean GP was on the race calendar for legal reasons.

“[The organisers] would rather it not happen,” Ecclestone said last month. “We have a contract with Korea, we have to put it on the calendar. If we had not done they could have sued us. We let them off for a year on the understanding they would be back.”

The removal of the Korean GP sees the return of a three-week break between the Bahrain Grand Prix (April 19) and the Spanish Grand Prix (May 10).

Here is the updated 2015 F1 Calendar:

Australian GP – Albert Park, March 15
Malaysian GP – Sepang, March 29
Chinese GP – Shanghai, April 12
Bahrain GP – Sakhir, April 19
Spanish GP – Barcelona, May 10
Monaco GP – Monte Carlo, May 24
Canadian GP – Montreal, June 7
Austrian GP – Spielberg, June 21
British GP – Silverstone, July 5
German GP – Nurburgring, July 19
Hungarian GP – Hungaroring, July 26
Belgian GP – Spa-Francorchamps, August 23
Italian GP – Monza, September 6
Singapore GP – Marina Bay, September 20
Japanese GP – Suzuka, September 27
Russian GP – Sochi, October 11
US GP – Austin – October 25
Mexican GP – Mexico City, November 1
Brazilian GP – Interlagos, November 15
Abu Dhabi GP – Yas Marina, November 29

Korean GP Photo Credit: Caterham F1 Team

January 7, 2015
Q & A: Lotus’ Nick Chester says the E22 has “great potential”

Lotus’s Nick Chester talks about the E22’s potential, the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix, qualifying, and car development.

Q: Where does the E22 stand heading to China?
Nick Chester: The E22 has tremendous potential even if we are only gradually unlocking it. in the Bahrain grand Prix we  were closer to Mercedes, Williams and McLaren than we have been previously. Our race-pace gap to the Williams and McLaren is now half a second and it was over a second in Sepang, so we’ve made a decent incremental improvement. although we were still not quick enough in Bahrain, we actually don’t need to find much more performance before we can be regularly in the points, which when you consider where we started from, is encouraging. We are about level with Toro Rosso for pace at the moment. Were it not for the safety car incident in Bahrain, Pastor would have been fighting for our first point. That’s not where we want to be, but we’re on the edge of the points during what are still very early days for the E22.

Q: We seem to struggle in qualifying at present?
Nick Chester: Our qualifying pace hasn’t been on the same level to our race pace. We made quite a bit of progress during Bahrain, getting quicker during each session. in Q2 a further 1.2 seconds would have put us fourth, rather than 16th. We know we are still at a very early stage with the E22 – more so than our rivals – and there are clear areas where we know the performance can be extracted.

Q: Just how much more is there to come from the car?
Nick Chester: I think we’ve got a lot more to learn about the E22 than the other teams. We learn something every time the car takes to the track, with every lap. We’ve also got some aerodynamic developments that should be interesting to evaluate for China, when we are hoping for a bit more out of the power unit as well, both reliability and pace wise.

Q: Why was track time so limited at the Bahrain test?
Nick Chester: It was all power unit issues unfortunately. We’re working very closely with Renault Sport F1 to understand why we have faced so many challenges in this regard. Clearly we all want to put reliability concerns behind us so we can focus on performance and showing our true pace.

Q: How has the relative lack of track time affected the development programme?
Nick Chester: It means you have to prioritise what parts to evaluate, so we’ve had to adapt our programme for China because of this. We’re going to attempt to get as much as we can out of FP1 and FP2 in Shanghai to test new parts, but ultimately we’ve delayed the introduction of some key developments until Barcelona now.

Q: What areas are you focusing on with the new parts?
Nick Chester: We have a lot of aero parts we want to evaluate throughout the E22, including an evolution to our nose. Expect to see some bodywork upgrades in China and then a bigger upgrade in Barcelona.

Q: What is the outlook for China?
Nick Chester: It should be better than Bahrain. Bahrain was an obvious power circuit, as you could see from the way the cars lined up on the grid. China’s got a long back straight, however there are more slow and medium speed corners than Bahrain, so that gives us the chance to try and get closer to the front.

Q: Where will the biggest performance gains come from with the E22?
Nick Chester: There are quite a few areas. Partly because of how immature the car is we haven’t managed to evaluate all the performance capabilities we want to yet. The big areas i would say are braking, aero and the power unit.

Q: Pastor was attempting to try a different tyre strategy in Bahrain. Has the E22 inherited the gentle tyre-wear characteristics of its predecessors?
Nick Chester: It’s possibly a bit early in the season to say, but it did look like Pastor was going to be quite good on his tyres in Bahrain. The 2014 generation of Pirelli is certainly different from last year’s, but there are always strategy gains to be made from prolonging the tyre performance longer than our rivals.

Source: Lotus F1 Team

April 14, 2014