The season opener has been in serious doubt for over a week and Bernie Ecclestone said over the weekend that he would leave the final decision over cancelling or postponing the race in the hands of the Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

The Crown Prince made the announcement today, saying:

“We must focus on immediate issues of national interest and leave the hosting to a later date. After the events of the past week, our nation’s priority is on overcoming tragedy, healing divisions and rediscovering the fabric that draws this country together; reminding the world of the very best that Bahrain is capable of as a nation once again united.”

The announcement was made to a generally relieved Formula 1, several drivers and teams having already expressed their desire to call off the race or to boycott the event if it did get the go ahead.

The 2011 F1 season will now get underway in Australia on March 27th. No decision has been made yet regarding whether the Bahrain round will be re-scheduled for later in the year.

Despite the protests from Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso that the race was not boring and that the rule changes need to be given time to see the difference they make to the sport, remains to be seen, if not perhaps the viewers will take the Spaniards advice and chose a different sport to watch on their television’s in the future!

Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton give their views on this weekends second race of the season in Melbourne, Australia in this exclusive interview.

The duo take time out from their busy training schedule to test drive a V8 Supercar, discuss how they can improve on their performance in Bahrain and their enjoyment of the Melbourne track.

Sebastien Vettel - Red Bull Racing 2010

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel lost his chance of his first win of the season due to a spark plug problem rather than a faulty exhaust.

The German looked certain to take the victory until a loss of power on lap 33, saw the Red Bull being overtaken by the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso and then the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa.  The team initially put the problem down to a cracked exhaust but it has now been confirmed that it was in fact a spark plug failure which was to blame.

The opening round of the 2010 F1 championship saw a mostly uneventful race under the new regulations of ‘no refuelling’.

On his return to the F1 series, Michael Schumacher slammed the new regulations stating that it makes overtaking virtually impossible.  Surely it proves the point that if you have the driver and the car, overtaking is possible anywhere and is not just down to the strategies on pit stops for refuelling!

In the words of Alan Prost, who also drove during a refuelling ban in his career;

“When you start with 160kg you have to think differently, and they are not used to that.

After a few races, I am sure the good drivers, the top drivers, will like it.”

Mark Webber looked as if he were to be the first casualty of the race as his Red Bull was seen providing a huge smoke-screen as the race got underway.  Fortunately it tuned-out to be excess oil in the car and did not cause a serious problem.

Robert Kubica in the Renault and the Force India driver Adrian Sutil made contact and both spun out on the first lap of the race although both  managed to continue and cross the finish line.

The new Lotus team managed to finish their debut race with both drivers crossing the line in fifteenth and seventeenth place while both of the Virgin drivers were forced to retire, along with both of the HRT cars.

The next race takes place on the March 28 in Australia but here are the results for the Bahrain Grand Prix;

POS	DRIVER	NATIONALITY	ENTRANT	LAPS	TIME/RETIRE
1.	Fernando Alonso	Spain	Ferrari	49	1h39m20.396
2.	Felipe Massa	Brazil	Ferrari	49	16.099
3.	Lewis Hamilton	Britain	McLaren-Mercedes	49	23.182
4.	Sebastian Vettel	Germany	Red Bull-Renault	49	38.713
5.	Nico Rosberg	Germany	Mercedes GP	49	40.263
6.	Michael Schumacher	Germany	Mercedes GP	49	44.180
7.	Jenson Button	Britain	McLaren-Mercedes	49	45.260
8.	Mark Webber	Australia	Red Bull-Renault	49	46.308
9.	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Italy	Force India-Mercedes	49	53.089
10.	Rubens Barrichello	Brazil	Williams-Cosworth	49	1m02.400
11.	Robert Kubica	Poland	Renault	49	1m09.093
12.	Adrian Sutil	Germany	Force India-Mercedes	49	1m22.958
13.	Jaime Alguersuari	Spain	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	49	1m32.656
14.	Nico Hulkenberg	Germany	Williams-Cosworth	48	1 Lap
15.	Heikki Kovalainen	Finland	Lotus-Cosworth	47	2 Laps
16.	Sebastien Buemi	Switzerland	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	46	3 Laps
17.	Jarno Trulli	Italy	Lotus-Cosworth	46	3 Laps, Hydralics
R	Pedro de la Rosa	Spain	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	28	Hydralics
R	Bruno Senna	Brazil	HRT-Cosworth	17	Engine
R	Timo Glock	Germany	Virgin-Cosworth	16	Gearbox
R	Vitaly Petrov	Russia	Renault	13	Suspension
R	Kamui Kobayashi	Japan	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	11	Hydralics
R	Lucas di Grassi	Brazil	Virgin-Cosworth	2	Hydralics
R	Karun Chandhok	India	HRT-Cosworth	1	Accident
FASTEST LAP:
	Fernando Alonso	Spain	Ferrari	45	1:58.287

McLaren Mercedes 2010

With only three-days to go until the start of the Formula One 2010 season things are really hotting up, new cars, new faces or old faces in different cars, the excitement is building ready for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The 2009 F1 World Champion Jenson Button will be racing against his new team-mate, 2008 World Champion Lewis Hamilton and the McLaren team boss has already stated that it is inevitable that their will be a falling out between the two before the end of the season.

Here is an exclusive interview with the two World Champions Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, for McLaren Mercedes F1, previewing the upcoming season.

Get behind the wheel as Button and Hamilton give the ‘inside track’ on the Bahrain Grand Prix.

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The Bahrain Grand Prix 2009

The Brawn GP driver Jenson Button, took his third victory of the new season yesterday after dominating the race at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Jarno Trulli for the Toyota team had qualified on pole position ahead of team-mate Timo Glock in the Saturday session, although as was expected, both drivers were running on a very light fuel load.

Glock led the pack on the first lap after jumping ahead of Trulli as the race got underway but Button took full control of the race after the first set of pit stops as the Toyota’s opted for the harder prime tyres seeing them falling back down the field.

Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes McLaren took full advantage of his KERS system on the line to pass both Button and Sebastien Vettel in the Red Bull.  Trulli was briefly passed by Hamilton but the Toyota soon retook the second place as Button re-passed Hamilton on the pit straight to sit behind the two leading Toyota drivers.

On lap 3, the BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica and the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima, both pitted after a coming together on the previous lap left the both needing new front wings.  On the following the lap Felipe Massa in the Ferrari also pitted for a new front wing from ninth place.

By lap 5, Mark Webber in the Red Bull had carved his way through the pack to eleventh place from eighteenth as Vettel closed in on Hamilton for fourth place.

Glock stayed in the lead until his pit stop on lap 11 with his team-mate Trulli pitting two laps later, however, Trulli lost time battling with the Spanish driver Fernando Alonso in the Renault.

Button pitted on lap 15 and rejoined ahead of the two Toyota drivers, while Vettel led the race with a lead of 19 seconds before he himself pitted on lap 20.

Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari briefly took the lead ahead of his pit stop as Reubens Barrichello in the second Brawn GP car passed Glock to take seventh place.  The lead was passed back to Button on lap 22 as Raikkonen came in for his stop ahead of Trulli, Vettel, Hamilton, Rosberg and Barrichello.

Button pitted for the final time on lap 38, followed by Trulli, Hamilton and Alonso, leaving Vettel in the lead once again.  Button rejoined in second place, ten seconds behind Vettel until the Red Bull driver went in for his final pit stop on lap 41.

Nakajima’s race ended on lap 50 after being hit on lap 46 by Kubica, who had clipped the back of the Williams car while trying to make a pass to take eighteenth position.

The Toro Rosso drivers Sabastien Bourdais and Sebastien Buemi finished in thirteenth and seventeenth places respectively.  Buemi suffered from under-steer which was down to the fact that a piece of debris from the BMW had wedged itself under his front wing.

Giancarlo Fisichella finished in fifteenth place while team-mate Adrian Sutil followed in sixteenth for the Force India team.  Sutil, lost three places at the start of the race when he was hit by the Williams of Nakajima while Fisichella confessed to ending the race in some pain after the seat in his car had rubbed against his hip causing bruising.

Here are the results;

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes     (B)  1h31:48.182
 2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +     7.187
 3.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  +     9.170
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    22.096
 5.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes     (B)  +    37.779
 6.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  +    42.057
 7.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +    42.880
 8.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +    52.775
 9.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +    58.198
10.  Piquet        Renault               (B)  +  1:05.149
11.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +  1:07.641
12.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +  1:17.824
13.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +  1:18.805
14.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  +     1 lap
15.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +     1 lap
16.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +     1 lap
17.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +     1 lap
18.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +     1 lap
19.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Trulli, 1:34.556

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)    49

Williams Toyota 2009

Three of the Formula One teams went to the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain this week to test, but are now requesting to prolong the two-week session after bad weather disrupted the running.

Ferrari, BMW Sauber and Toyota, were faced with a closed circuit on Wednesday when a huge sandstorm arrived bringing visibility down to zero and with the medical helicopter unable to fly, testing could not commence.

The teams opted for Bahrain after rain threatened the circuit of Jerez in Spain, but on Tuesday the problems began at Sakhir when fog stopped the session for two hours.

In the morning session on Wednesday the day began bright and sunny but within an hour-and-a-half, the sandstorm began and at 9.30am the medical services were grounded.

Timo Glock managed to complete just fourteen laps for the Toyota team before the session was stopped, Felipe Massa completed seventeen laps for Ferrari and Robert Kubica twenty-two laps for the BMW Sauber team.

On the third day of testing in Bahrain, conditions hadn’t improved and the session was closed before it had really got started.

Kimi Raikkonen was in the Ferrari seat today while Jarno Trulli took over from Glock in the Toyota and Kubica remained at the wheel of the BMW Sauber car.  However, all three drivers were only able to complete an installation lap before the circuit once again closed.

Meanwhile in Spain, the rest of the Formula One teams, minus the Force India Mercedes, were at the Jerez circuit testing, and apart from a rain shower mid-way through the opening day the drivers had a relatively dry session.

The Force India team will not be organising a formal launch for their 2009 car, the VJM02 due to global financial crisis it has been reported, although David Coulthard feels that this is the team that could be the ’shock of the season’:

Sebastien Buemi was the pace setter on day one although he is running the 2008 specification Toro Rosso, which does not feature the newer low downforce of the 2009 cars.

Sebastian Vettel was aboard the newly unveiled RB5 and completed 61 laps before having to return to the pit lane after developing a mechanical problem.  On the third day, Mark Webber took to the track for the first time this season, and although without his crutches, he was visibly limping and confessed to still having a 10 inch titanium rod in his leg following the broken leg he suffered during a cycling training session.

Test driver Nico Hulkenberg, was the Williams Toyota driver on the opening day, only two-tenths slower than Vettel and completing 82 laps for the team.  Kazuki Nakajima took over from Hulkenberg on day two, putting in an impressive 125 laps for the team who were focusing on tyres, and mechanical set-up work.

The McLaren Mercedes was being driven by Heikki Kovalainen who finished ahead of Renault driver Nelson Piquet in the new R29 on the opening day.  Kovalainen continued on day two of testing and was the fastest driver in a 2009 specification car on the track, completing 110 laps over the day.

For Piquet’s second day of testing the team were concentrating on reliability as well as trying out new developments.  On another sunny day at the circuit Fernando Alonso will take to the track and will continue with developing the cars set-up.

Testing is continuing at both venues.

Alonso said “I think we were running too close and for sure maybe he didn’t realise how close we were.  He jumped into my rear wing.  I am sure on the first couple of laps, if you are eighth or ninth, you try to recover places too quickly.  Pat Symonds  (Renault engineering chief) told me now that rumour and he has printed now the data to show everybody.  It is totally rubbish, but what can I do?”

The print-out proves that Alonso had his foot flat on the throttle from the exit and did not touch his brakes.

Hamilton, blamed himself for the incident and never accused Alonso of any ‘dirty tactics’.

Symonds explains “Fernando was coming out of the turn and accelerating down the straight.  He reached fifth gear, at 227km/h, on full throttle, no touching of the brakes or anything like that.  And you can see on the accelerometer the impact.  He got hit from behind.  I think all I can say from our side is that there is no blame attributable to Fernando, which is what some of the speculation might be.  But it does say we are not getting onto the straights very well, we are suffering a bit with traction, engine speed and engine torque.”

Felipe Massa took the chequered flag today at the Bahrain Grand Prix for Ferrari, after dominating the race from the first lap. It’s the first points he’s scored so far this season but it’s his sixth career win in Formula One.
World Champion, Kimi Raikkonen finished on the tail of his Ferrari teammate to take his 50th podium position so far in his career. His second place has also put him at the top of the points chart with 19, 3 points ahead of Nick Heidfeld.

British driver, Lewis Hamilton, had a disastor of a race after messing-up at the start and later, damaging his car badly after running into the back of his old mate Fernando Alonso. He had lost seven places at the start of the race and finally finished in 13th place. Amazingly, Alonso did not appear to have too much rear end damage for a while but, it was soon apparent that he was in trouble with the balance of the car.

Robert Kubica, the pole position man, did not make such a great getaway off the line, but had a very impressive race finally finishing in third place to take his well deserved place on the podium. It is the first time that a BMW Sauber driver has started a grand prix in pole position. His teammate Nick Heidfeld finished in a creditable fourth place and moved the team up the the top spot of the Constructor’s Championship.

Jenson Button and David Coulthard were battling it out until Button tried to dive up the inside of Coulthard spinning both cars of the track. Fortunately both drivers were able to rejoin immediately, Button minus his nose cone. He pitted again and then retired from the race on lap 21. There may be handbags at dawn down in the pits!

Another exciting scrap happened between the Toyota driver, Timo Glock and Fernando Alonso. Alonso was trying to pass Glock who was in ninth place on lap 38 but Timo was having none-of-it and Fernando was seen locking his rear brakes and losing more time as he shook his fist at Glock. I’d love to be a fly on the wall when those to get together!

Here are the results for the Bahrain Grand Prix 2008:

1 Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari one hour 31 minutes 6.970 seconds
2 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari +3.339 secs
3 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber +4.998
4 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber +8.409
5 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes +26.789
6 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota +41.314
7 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault +45.473
8 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota +55.889
9 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota +1:09.500
10 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault +1:17.181
11 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Honda +1:17.862
12 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India-Ferrari one lap behind
13 Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes one lap
14 Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams-Toyota one lap
15 Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari one lap
16 Anthony Davidson (GB) Super Aguri-Honda one lap
17 Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri-Honda one lap
18 David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault one lap
19 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Ferrari two laps
R Nelson Piquet Jr (Brz) Renault 40 laps completed
R Jenson Button (GB) Honda 19 laps
R Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 0 laps

Fastest lap: Kovalainen, 1:33.193, lap 49.

Key: R = retired

Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber on his final lap of the session took the pole position for tomorrow’s Bahrain Grand Prix, with a time of 1:33.096, three hundredths of a second faster than Felipe Massa in the Ferrari.

Massa had been fastest all weekend until then and will be disappointed too not be sitting in the number one spot on the grid but he knows he has the pace to challenge Kubica from the outset.

Lewis Hamilton was in third place in the McLaren Mercedes after his car was badly damaged in a high speed crash yesterday. Apparently, the team had worked through the night until the early hours of this morning repairing the car for the qualifying session today. He was only two-tenths off of Massa’s time but ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.

The second McLaren driver, Heikki Kovalainen was in fifth position just ahead of second BMW Sauber driver, Nick Heidfeld who had struggled for most of the weekend with his car.

The Toyota of Jarno Trulli is up in seventh place followed by Nico Rosberg in the Williams Toyota in a satisfactory eighth, although his teammate Kazuki Nakajima was way down the pack in sixteenth.

Jenson Button made it into ninth place for Honda ahead of Fernando Alonso in the Renault.

The Red Bull team will be disappointed that neither of their drivers made it into the top ten. Mark Webber is in eleventh after just missing out on making it into qualifying three, and David Coulthard could only manage seventeenth position.

Rubens Barrichello finished in twelfth place in the second Honda ahead of Nelson Piquet for Renault and both of the Toro Rosso Ferrari drivers, Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Vettel.

The Force India team have still not yet made it into the second qualifying session much to their frustration. Giancarlo Fisichella made a mistake on his first run and had to abort the lap and was seen finishing in eighteenth place with his teammate, Adrian Sutil further back in twentieth position.

He was lapping today nearly a second faster than his teammate, Kimi Raikkonen and leaving the rest of the drivers trailing behind him.

On his hottest lap his time was 1:31.420, nearly a second faster than he managed last year in Bahrain when he was on pole position.

Heikki Kovalainen was the third fastest man in the leading McLaren ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton who now has a badly damaged car.  On the exit of turn six, towards the end of the session, Hamilton ran wide and managed to get all four wheels on the kerb which span the car around and put him into the barrier on the entry into turn eight.  The car was quite badly damaged on the right hand side and there is a fair amount of work to be done on the car to get it ready for the Saturday qualifying session.

The BMW Sauber driver, Robert Kubica was in fifth place while his not so successful teammate, Nick Heidfeld could only manage seventeenth out of the twenty two runners.

The Williams Toyota drivers, Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima were an impressive sixth and eighth, sandwiching the Red Bull of David Coulthard.

In ninth place was Sebastien Bourdais in the Toro Rosso Ferrari while Sebastian Vettel again struggled for pace and finished down in twentieth.

Nelson Piquet rounded up the top ten in the Renault while Fernando Alonso took on an unnecessary battle with the Force India driver Adrian Sutil for track position.  Baulked by Sutil, Alonso proceeded to out-brake himself and then make contact with the side of Sutil.

Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, the Honda drivers were in eleventh and sixteenth with Mark Webber and the Toyota pair, Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock in between them.

Giancarlo Fisichella for Force India was in eighteenth place with the Super Aguri duo of Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson were at the bottom of the time sheets behind Vettel.