Bahrain GP Winners & Losers - Planet F1 Sunday 6th April 2008 Felipe put one in the eye of his Italian critics while Fernando's glove-waving antics at Timo Glock make him the Naomi Campbell of F1. And guess who messed up... Star of the Race Felipe Massa, Ferrari, Winner Massa answered his critics, particularly the strongly critical Italian media, the best way possible - with a virtually flawless win. But in many respects, the job he did on Sunday was not as spectacular as the job he had done on Saturday, outqualifying Kimi Raikkonen by a significant margin. Massa's advantage over the World Champion on Saturday had been so great that everybody assumed they were on completely different fuel strategies. On Sunday whenever Raikkonen stepped up the pace, Massa responded. It's game on from here. Overtaking move of the Race Lap 4, Kimi Raikkonen on Robert Kubica Raikkonen was in determined mood in Bahrain and though many dived up the inside at Turn 1 to make a pass, it was only Raikkonen who made the outside line succeed. WINNERS Ferrari Even though they let the pole slip through their fingers, from the moment Kimi Raikkonen stole past BMW's Robert Kubica they looked in control of the Bahrain GP. Given how quick the race track was becoming by the end - with fifth place man Heikki Kovalainen putting in the fastest lap on Lap 49 - it's clear they could have gone a lot quicker. Right now it looks as though any challenge is going to come from BMW-Sauber not McLaren. No wonder Mario Theissen was smiling the whole weekend. Robert Kubica, BMW, Third Podiums are becoming a regular occurrence for the man who lost one stone in weight over winter. That's an incredible amount to lose for a man of his frame and shows how driven he is. The only pity was that he couldn't transfer that drive into speed away from the grid at Sakhir and what could have been quite a difficult first corner for Felipe Massa proved to be simple. He didn't put up too much of a fight when Kimi Raikkonen came past him either, but perhaps when he computes that he has a real Championship chance, he'll get more aggressive. The pole that was his for the taking in Australia has now come his way - expect more. Nick Heidfeld, BMW, Fourth Heidfeld was back in his familiar finishing position. He made short work of Jarno Trulli early in the race which allowed him to get on terms with Heikki Kovalainen, but the BMW driver looked capable of getting past the Finn even if he wasn't gifted a place. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, Fifth F1 drivers need instant reactions and Kovalainen exercised lightning reactions to get past Lewis Hamilton on the grid. In fact the pass was so quick it almost looked like a pre-arranged move. As a result Heikki was able to re-pass Kimi Raikkonen going through Turns 2 and 3. Had he managed to keep his fellow Finn at bay during the opening few laps then it could have been quite a different result for the front four. As it was, Raikkonen steamed past again. Kovalainen is rapidly establishing a reputation as a safe pair of hands. Jarno Trulli, Toyota, Sixth Jarno got a blinding start and unlike the majority of last season he didn't start one of his slow fades from the front. He was an annoying red and white shape in Kovalainen's mirrors till the final pit-stops unwound. Mark Webber, Red Bull, Seventh Webbo brought his car home in the points which will be a relief for the Red Bull team. Once he got past Nico Rosberg in the pit-stops that was job done for the afternoon. Nico Rosberg, Williams-Toyota, Eighth The height of ambition for Nico Rosberg was to beat the works Toyota of Jarno Trulli this afternoon and unluckily for Nico, Jarno got a most un-Trulli-like start to the race. A good one. From then on, he lost touch, slipping back behind Mark Webber in the pit-stops. It will be a great relief that the team's nose-dive of form in Sepang has been reversed. Jenson Button, Honda, DNF He may not have finished the race, but Jenson was running 8th on the opening lap before he got a puncture courtesy of Alonso. His race (and his front wing) fell apart after David Coulthard decided to change line in the braking zone for Turn 8 and the cars tried to mesh, but qualifying 9th was a result in itself. LOSERS Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, A long way back Lewis's problem wasn't really Fernando Alonso indulging in some slow jinking games. He'd already blown it big time. 11th place going into the first corner (from the clean side of the grid) is rubbish in anybody's book. He was so far back that Jarno Trulli's 6th place was probably the best he could have done. He was very lucky not to get launched over Alonso's car and the fact that he could put a tyre mark on Alonso's rear wing is an indication of the severity of the clash and the difference in speeds of the two cars. Race Stewards They must have had a very good lunch in Bahrain and dozed through the race. Why they didn't investigate the Alonso/Hamilton incident or the Button/Coulthard incident is beyond us. Their lack of consciousness can be the only explanation. For Alonso/Hamilton how many races do we see wings taken off by contact under braking, and how many by contact under acceleration. The answer ratio is loads to none. Renault maintain that there was nothing untoward but the stewards should have at least checked it out, if only to clear Alonso. What is clear and undeniable is that Alonso jinks right in the incident. With the Button and Coulthard impact they need to look at the Red Bull and Honda telemetry. If the drivers have agreed not to change lines under braking and Coulthard flagrantly changed his line, then they need to take action there as well. Fernando Alonso, Renault, Tenth Renault are striving hard to show that Alonso did nothing wrong in Bahrain but there's something odd going on. If they were the innocent party why aren't they a bit more angry at Lewis Hamilton for modifying their car's rear wing with his front tyres? The problem is there's some 'previous' isn't there. We have seen Alonso exhibiting childish behaviour before now - notably in Hungary in 2006 when he brake-tested Robert Doornbos and 2007 at the Hungaroring when he remained in his pitbox so that Lewis Hamilton couldn't grab pole. In the race today he decided to indulge in some more by waving his gloves at Timo Glock for daring to drive his Toyota on the racing line. Or maybe Pat Symmonds will explain that Fernando had an insect in his glove that he was trying to shake out. Alonso is the Naomi Campbell of F1, the man most in need of anger management therapy. Perhaps it's the lack of progress at Renault that's getting to him. David Coulthard, Red Bull, 18th Another race, another impact. This time with Jenson Button. David Coulthard might have reasoned that 18th place isn't worth fighting for when there's a car that's clearly quicker than him behind (and a mate). As it was, his Red Bull survived the impact. Maybe he was out there testing the strength of new parts. Mark "Get orf me barra you Nazi hookers!" Blundell It's rare that Mark gets upstaged by Steve Rider, but following the latest lurid revelations Steve managed a cracking quote. In the wake of more tales of Max Mosley's five-hour sex tape in the News of the World on Sunday it was obvious that Steve had read the S&M coverage on Pages, 1, 4, 5, 6 & 7: "The Ferraris will take some beating this afternoon," said Steve with a twinkle. Blundell's race coverage was disappointing, but for qualifying we did get the remarkable: "Maybe those waved yellow flags should have been stagnant yellow flags." That's exactly what we were thinking. Andrew Davies
