Bahrain GP – Back to the front

Sakhir, 13 March

After enduring a 2009 season well below its usual expectations, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro has returned to a much more acceptable level, getting both F10s onto the front two rows of the grid for tomorrow’s opening round, the Bahrain Grand Prix. In the new qualifying format, with all three sections of the session run on minimum fuel, Felipe Massa posted the second fastest time of the day in Q3, to close the final page of a tough chapter that began with his qualifying accident in Budapest last summer. On his debut for the team, Fernando Alonso finished just behind his team-mate in third place.

Red Bull Racing, probably the strongest team at the end of last season, continue to show good form, as it was Sebastian Vettel who denied Ferrari of an all red front row, in the closing stages of the session. It was certainly an exciting afternoon; the first time in a few years that cars have run throughout all of qualifying on the lightest fuel load possible, thus negating the need to see the list of car weights to estimate who was running what race strategy. It means the fastest driver is the one at the top of the time sheet, However, it is probably a bit too early to regard this first qualifying of the year as a truly accurate reflection of how the teams line up in performance terms.

Behind the two F10s came the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton in fourth place. The third row sees Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes, with Mark Webber outside him in the second Red Bull. The returning Michael Schumacher finds himself seventh for Mercedes, sharing row four with the reigning World Champion, Jenson Button in the McLaren, making it four world champions in the first four rows of the grid. Twenty four cars were in action today, as Karun Chandok’s HRT F1 car was ready in time for this morning’s free practice session, having failed to appear on track yesterday. Inevitably, he is 24th and last on the grid for his F1 debut.

Tomorrow’s curtain-raising Grand Prix promises to be a fascinating race, with so many questions yet unanswered, primarily which team and driver combination does the best job when it comes to deciding when to change tyres. In the past, the need to refuel was the key parameter and usually, staying out on track longer than the car in front, could see the later stopping driver gain the upper hand. However, now the opposite could well be true. There are also several rookie drivers in cars that effectively had their first ever shakedown here in Bahrain. It’s a real recipe for excitement.