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Kimi Raikkonen finished
the Bahrain Grand Prix in sixth place,
driving an attacking race to bring home
the first points of the season, (three)
for Scuderia Ferrari. Felipe
Massa finished fourteenth, an early nose
change ruining his race, so an
improvement, albeit a small one in terms
of performance and reliability, as the
first part of this long campaign ends
and the European season begins in Spain
in a fortnight. But three points means the
blank scoreboard now has some numbers on
it. In the past, the move to Europe was
often considered the “real” start of the
championship. With significant
aerodynamic updates due to be fitted to
the F60 when it appears at the Circuit
de Catalunya, this will be the fervent
hope of everyone at Ferrari.
The cooler weather
predicted for race day didn’t arrive, so
in these very high temperatures,
reliability was the main factor on
everyone’s mind as the grid formed up
for this 57 lap race. Felipe Massa was
in eighth place, with team-mate Kimi
Raikkonen right behind him in tenth.
When the lights went
out, Glock overtook pole man Trulli,
Hamilton coming up behind from fifth. On
the second lap, Kimi had moved up four
places to sixth, but he was then passed
by Barrichello. On lap 4, Felipe’s race
was badly compromised as he had to pit
for a replacement nose on his F60. One
lap later the order was Glock, Trulli,
Button, Hamilton, Vettel, Barrichello,
Kimi, Alonso, Rosberg, with Piquet
tenth. As expected the Toyotas pitted
early, and then came the Brawns and
Hamilton between laps 14 and 16, leaving
China race winner Vettel in the lead.
On lap 20, as the first
pit stops panned out, Button had a
comfortable lead from Trulli, who was
holding up Vettel and Hamilton and this
pair was soon joined in the train by
Barrichello. With the run of pit stops,
Kimi was actually leading briefly before
pitting on lap 21, dropping to eighth
while Felipe was stuck in the pack and
pitted on lap 29. On lap 30, Kimi was
back in sixth and chasing Timo Glock for
fifth place. On lap 37, leader Button
pitted again, as did Trulli and
Hamilton, so that Vettel was now leading
Button by 10 seconds. Kimi, running out
of sync with the others in terms of pit
stops, found himself in second place on
lap 41, ten seconds down on the leader,
still Button, until the Ferrari man made
his final stop on lap 44, which saw him
go down the order to seventh, but one
lap later he went back to sixth, where
he stayed to the chequered flag. With
eleven laps remaining, Felipe made his
final tyre change, at least recording a
double finish for the Scuderia with his
fourteenth place. On the podium it was
Button, for the third time in four
races, joined by Vettel and Trulli. The
rest of the points went to Hamilton,
Barrichello, Kimi, Glock and Alonso.
Stefano Domenicali:
“Today we were aiming to get both cars
home in the points and we got it half
right. Unfortunately, Felipe’s race was
compromised when he collided with his
team-mate in the messy moments just
after the start, damaging the front
wing: he dropped to the back of the pack
and not able to do much, apart from
demonstrating a good pace with a heavy
fuel load. Kimi drove a strong race,
putting the finishing touches to a
positive weekend. His sixth place is a
fairly accurate reflection of our
current situation. We were well aware
that we have to work on reliability, and
again today we had a few problems. But
above all, we have to work on the
performance. We have to push really hard
on development of the entire car, not
just concentrating on one admittedly
very important part like the diffuser.
Now we can expect a pretty hot time
going into the start of the European leg
of the season. This will be a key phase
in the championship, although I’m not
implying everything will hinge on
Barcelona. We are Ferrari and we will
never give up until the moment when the
maths says it’s over.”
Felipe Massa: “My race
was decided at the start. I was
sandwiched between Kimi and Rubens and
the front wing got broken after making
contact with my team-mate’s rear wheel.
At first, I didn’t realise what had
really happened and so I came in after
two laps to change the nose. Then, after
a good start with a clear track, I found
myself in traffic and my hopes of
climbing up the order evaporated.
Throughout the race, my telemetry wasn’t
working and so my engineers couldn’t
help me with the management of the car.
The KERS did not work perfectly either,
especially at the start. A shame, as
once again today, we lost an opportunity
to score points. Now I expect to make a
good step forward in performance terms
in Barcelona. One thing’s for sure, we
won’t give up because all of us want to
get back up the order.”
Kimi Raikkonen: “I am
happy to have picked up a few points but
I can’t be that pleased with our
performance level. I’ve been around long
enough not to get very excited about a
sixth place. We are well aware we have
to improve. In theory, the new package
we will have in Barcelona should see us
make a good step forward, but we won’t
know just how big it will be compared to
the others until we are on track in
Spain. Today, we got the most out of the
F60’s current potential, even if I lost
a bit of time in my final pit stop
because of a problem with a part of the
fairing on the left front wheel which
cost me the chance of exiting pit lane
ahead of Barrichello.”
Chris Dyer:
“Unfortunately, Felipe’s race was soon
turned into a climb up the order after
he made contact with Kimi, breaking the
front wing and having to come in
immediately. With so much fuel on board,
the Brazilian’s pace was pretty good,
but he then found himself in traffic and
could not get all the potential out of
the car. Furthermore, he had a telemetry
problem on the car, which meant he was
racing in the dark. Kimi drove a good
race and his sixth place represents what
we could have reasonably expected to do.
Maybe we could have been in the fight
for fifth with Barrichello if we had not
encountered a problem at his final pit
stop because of the fairing on the left
rear wheel. All the same it was
important to get the ball rolling in the
classification, wiping out the zero. We
still have a lot of work to do to
improve, both in terms of reliability
and in being competitive.”
Race Details:
K. Raikkonen: 6th 1:32.30.239 + 42.057, 57
laps, Chassis 276
F. Massa: 14th 1:31.55.017 + 1 giro, 56 Laps,
Chassis 275
Weather: air temperature 38/36 °C, track
temperature 51/49 °C, sunny.
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