Bahrain GP Round Up
By Naomi Willemsen
April 15 2007
Toyota leaves Bahrain with two well deserved points after a difficult race for Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher. Ferrari was very strong this weekend and confirmed it with a fantastic win by Felipe Massa.
With Felipe Massa on pole for Ferrari he made a great start keeping McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton behind him. Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen, though, was less happy after Alonso was able to overtake him. Both Toyota’s lost some places during the start; Ralf lost three places to Barrichello, Sato and Liuzzi. Jarno lost one place to Renault’s Kovalainen.
The safety car soon comes up the circuit as Sutil collides with Toro Rosso’s Scott Speed, while Honda driver Jenson Button spins and also ends his race. The safety car period only takes 3 laps and the race is on again. Honda’s Barrichello takes his chance and overtakes Toyota driver Ralf Schumacher. Ralf was now in 19th place, but he was able to get his 18th place back soon.
A nice battle was starting to happen between Jarno Trulli and the two Williams drivers, Wurz and Rosberg. Wurz keeps attacking Jarno but just can’t get passed him. This battle almost turns out into a crash between the two teammates but Rosberg was alert enough to avoid Wurz, although it cost him one place. In front of the pack Räikkönen is gaining speed and tries to come closer to Alonso.
Alonso keeps losing speed which results into a bigger gap between him and the two men, Massa and Hamilton, in front. Both Räikkönen and Heidfeld are coming closer and closer to Alonso. The same time it got a bit cozy behind Kovalainen who was quickly overtaken by Trulli for the 9th position.
Red Bull driver David Coulthard is pushing the Fin as he enters the pits a few laps later together with Alexander Wurz. Coulthard can maintain his position against Wurz. They rejoin the race in 15th and 16th place. Toyota called in Ralf to go for a pit stop as he was still stuck behind Super Aguri driver Takuma Sato. A few laps further Jarno also pits from 7th place. Jarno and Ralf rejoin their races in 9th and 18th respectively.
The top six hasn’t changed a bit as Massa still leads the race followed by Hamilton, Räikkönen, Alonso, Heidfeld and Kubica. Liuzzi, in the meantime, was pushed back in the garage during his pit stop. Fortunately for him there was nothing bad and he could continue his race.
Coulthard is doing very good as he is faster than Trulli and overtakes him and Fisichella for 8th. Also Ralf was finally able to overtake Takuma Sato, he was now in 16th place after Albers pitted. With 28 laps to go Alonso is going so much slower that Nick Heidfeld overtakes him with ease. Not long after that Takuma Sato retires with a blown up engine as Trulli overtakes his fellow Italian Giancarlo Fisichella. He is so fast that he runs away from Fisichella and hunts for Coulthard. David Coulthard has to end his race earlier due to problems with his gearbox from 8th position . It was very unfortunate as he drove an excellent race from the 21th place.
Ralf Schumacher is having difficulties keeping Barrichello behind him and eventually loses the battle from the Honda driver. He falls back to 14th place. Both Red Bull, Super Aguri and Toro Rosso are not having a good race as Mark Webber’s top wing breaks off and retires with technical problems, Liuzzi retires due to problems with the hydraulics and Davidson’s engine blows up. All these retirements means that Jarno gains one place and becomes 7th. Although Fisichella tries to push him into a mistake Jarno excellently holds his position until the end of the race. Trulli’s teammate Schumacher finished in 12th position after he overtakes Barrichello during the Brazilians’ pit stop. McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton is doing a great job and gains almost 0,3 tenths per lap to race leader Felipe Massa. With 3 laps to go it wasn’t possible anymore for Hamilton to come close enough to Massa to overtake him. So Ferrari driver Felipe Massa wins the race with only 2 seconds between him and Hamilton followed by Kimi Räikkönen, Nick Heidfeld, Fernando Alonso, Robert Kubica, Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella.
Toyota can be proud with a 7th place and two points as Bahrain has never been a nice circuit to them. Still there is always room for improvement. Toyota will be testing for the next race in Spain on 13th of May! But first, a three week break!
Bahrain Grand Prix - Race Results
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Tires | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | F. Massa |  |
Ferrari |  |
1:32:27.515 | |
| 2 | L. Hamilton |  |
McLaren | |
+ 2.360 | |
| 3 | K. Räikkönen |  |
Ferrari | |
+ 10.839 | |
| 4 | N. Heidfeld |  |
BMW | |
+ 13.831 | |
| 5 | F. Alonso |  |
McLaren | |
+ 14.426 | |
| 6 | R. Kubica |  |
BMW | |
+ 45.529 | |
| 7 | J. Trulli |  |
Toyota | |
+ 1:21.371 | |
| 8 | G. Fisichella | |
Renault | |
+ 1:21.701 | |
| 9 | H. Kovalainen | |
Renault | |
+ 1:29.411 | |
| 10 | N. Rosberg | |
Williams | |
+ 1:29.916 | |
| 11 | A. Wurz |  |
Williams | |
+ 1 laps | |
| 12 | R. Schumacher | |
Toyota | |
+ 1 laps | |
| 13 | R. Barrichello | |
Honda | |
+ 1 laps | |
| 14 | C. Albers |  |
Spyker F1 | |
+ 2 laps | |
| 15 | A. Sutil | |
Spyker F1 | |
+ 4 laps | |
| Did not finish | ||||||
| 16 | A. Davidson | |
Super Aguri | |
+ 6 laps | |
| 17 | M. Webber |  |
Red Bull | |
+ 16 laps | |
| 18 | D. Coulthard | |
Red Bull | |
+ 21 laps | |
| 19 | T. Sato |  |
Super Aguri | |
+ 23 laps | |
| 20 | V. Liuzzi | |
Scuderia Toro Rosso | |
+ 31 laps | |
| 21 | J. Button | |
Honda | |
+ 57 laps | |
| 22 | S. Speed |  |
Scuderia Toro Rosso | |
+ 57 laps | |