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
Marlboro. 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 3 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.” Source - Ferrari Media |
