First of all, my apologies for a delayed review. This last week and the one before that has been too hectic for me to write a review. Now that I’ve found a bit of space for myself, I’m here with a short review of the Bahrain Grand Prix 2008 which was held on 6th of April 2008. In few words, the race can be described as ecstasy for Ferrari and agony for McLaren. Ferrari were easily the best team out there and the team registered there first 1-2 of the season led by Felipe Massa.
Massa was the faster of the two Ferraris since Friday practice and it was evident throughout the Qualifying sessions and the race itself. Massa missed the pole position to Robert Kubica of BMW, who registered the first pole of his career. A pole on pole is an exciting event indeed. Lewis Hamilton of McLaren managed the third place on grid while the reigning world champion, Kimi Raikkonen lined in 4th for Ferrari. The 5th and 6th positions on the grid were covered by Heikki Kovalainen and Nick Heidfeld respectively.
At the start of the race, Massa was able to leapfrog Kubica while Kimi was able to pass Lewis with ease. Lewis had a disastrous start to the race when he messed it up by pressing some wrong buttons. This made the car to slow down significantly while allowing others to pass him down the straight. He recovered from this error to hit the back of his old team-mate Alonso’s Renault and break the front wing. He was never able to make a comeback for the entire race from then on. Kimi, meanwhile, was able to demonstrate the speed of his Ferrari by overtaking Kubica from the outside of a turn.
From then on, it was all Ferrari with Massa leading. Kimi tried to pressurize his team-mate into an error but every time Kimi stepped it up, Massa was able to respond to it. He never lost the lead to Kimi and was able to soak up every bit of pressure that was delivered by Kimi. The Ferraris were followed to the finish line by BMWs of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld, in that order. Heikki had an exciting race and he managed to pick up the 5th place for his team while Lewis ended the race at 13th place. Kimi now leads the Driver’s Championship from Heidfeld by 5 points while BMW are ahead in Constructor’s Table by a single point.
The next race will take place at Catalunya, Spain on the 27th of April 2008. The complete results from the Bahrain Grand Prix 2008 are as follows -
1 - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 57 - 1:31:06.970
2 - Kimi Räikkönen - Ferrari - 57 - +3.3 secs
3 - Robert Kubica - BMW - 57 - +4.9 secs
4 - Nick Heidfeld - BMW - 57 - +8.4 secs
5 - Heikki Kovalainen - McLaren-Mercedes - 57 - +26.7 secs
6 - Jarno Trulli - Toyota - 57 - +41.3 secs
7 - Mark Webber - Red Bull-Renault - 57 - +45.4 secs
8 - Nico Rosberg - Williams-Toyota - 57 - +55.8 secs
9 - Timo Glock - Toyota - 57 - +69.5 secs
10 - Fernando Alonso - Renault - 57 - +77.1 secs
11 - Rubens Barrichello - Honda - 57 - +77.8 secs
12 - Giancarlo Fisichella - Force India-Ferrari - 56 - +1 Lap
13 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren-Mercedes - 56 - +1 Lap
14 - Kazuki Nakajima - Williams-Toyota - 56 - +1 Lap
15 - Sebastien Bourdais - STR-Ferrari - 56 - +1 Lap
16 - Anthony Davidson - Super Aguri-Honda - 56 - +1 Lap
17 - Takuma Sato - Super Aguri-Honda - 56 - +1 Lap
18 - David Coulthard - Red Bull-Renault - 56 - +1 Lap
19 - Adrian Sutil - Force India-Ferrari - 55 - +2 Laps
Ret - Nelsinho Piquet - Renault - 40 - Gearbox
Ret - Jenson Button - Honda - 19 - Accident damage
Ret - Sebastian Vettel - STR-Ferrari - 0 - Accident damage
