Lewis Hamilton endured one of the most disappointing afternoons of his short
Formula One career yesterday when a mistake at the start of the Bahrain
Grand Prix and a crash with Fernando Alonso condemned him to his worst race
finish.
Hamilton crossed the line in thirteenth position after what he called a
“disastrous” race. “I am really disappointed and feel like I let the team
down today as I am always the first to blame myself,” a disconsolate
Hamilton, who left the circuit immediately after the race, said.
The 23-year-old Briton finished a world away from his championship rivals in
the bright red Ferraris, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, who ended a
thrilling battle in first and second place respectively. Hamilton was also
beaten for the second grand prix in a row by his McLaren Mercedes team-mate,
Heikki Kovalainen, who was fifth.
The one-two for the Scuderia enabled Raikkonen to vault to the top of the
drivers’ championship, displacing Hamilton, who is equal third, while Massa
re-established his credentials as a championship contender. Perhaps more
significant, however, was the performance of the BMW Saubers of Robert
Kubica and Nick Heidfeld.
Although Kubica started from pole position for the first time and was
immediately overtaken by Massa after a slow getaway, his third-place finish
just ahead of his team-mate underlined that the German cars have arrived.
Indeed, BMW have moved to the head of the constructors’ championship for the
first time.
The talk in the paddock is that this season is beginning to look like a
three-way battle, with the BMWs showing enough pace to beat the McLarens,
though they still lack the outright speed to match the Ferrari race pace.
But with a new aerodynamic package coming for the Spanish Grand Prix in
Barcelona in three weeks’ time, the team are getting ever closer to their
first grand prix win.
Hamilton started his rookie season last year in astonishing form as he and
McLaren produced one error-free performance after another. This year,
elevated to de facto team leader in the wake of Alonso’s departure, the
pressure seems to be getting to him. He started superbly with victory in
Australia, but he and the team have since suffered gremlins more typical of
the calamitous end to last season than the beginning.
In Malaysia, Hamilton was penalised in qualifying and delayed by a tyre-change
snarl-up in the pits. This weekend he looked rattled in the car and
strangely subdued out of it. On Friday he had a crash in practice and,
having qualified in third place in a rebuilt chassis, faltered again when he
selected the wrong engine setting and his car went into “anti-stall” as he
sat on the grid.
Having dropped from third to ninth by the end of the first lap, Hamilton found
himself running behind the slower Renault of Alonso, his bitter rival. As
the pair accelerated out of turn three, Hamilton closed on Alonso’s back
axle and rode up on his right rear tyre, demolishing Hamilton’s front wing
and ruining his race.
The view of some former drivers — Mark Blundell, for example — was that Alonso
had deliberately and momentarily “lifted off” the accelerator, leaving
Hamilton nowhere to go. But if it did happen, it was very subtle. Alonso
denied he had done any such thing, as did Pat Symonds, the Renault director
of engineering, who printed off the relevant telemetry data after the race
to show that Alonso had done nothing unusual.
Hamilton did not make any accusations, describing it as a racing incident. “I
was behind him and I moved to the right and he moved to the right and that
was it — a racing incident, I guess,” he said.
“The whole weekend has not been ideal, starting with the accident on Friday,
but I will keep my chin up and bounce back at the next race. I have had such
a good run in Formula One until now and it was almost inevitable that at
some point things would go wrong. However, there is a long way to go in the
championship and I intend to win it.”
While Hamilton had a weekend to forget, Massa had one that he has been
dreaming about since he spun out of the Malaysian Grand Prix, a week after
failing to finish in Melbourne. The Brazilian has had to put up with a
typical Formula One whispering campaign along the lines that he had been
“found out” in the post-traction control era, but he silenced his critics
yesterday with a flawless performance.
Having outqualified his team-mate he surprised paddock sceptics by running
longer than the Finn in both his first two stints. In the middle part of the
race he and Raikkonen, who was chasing him, exchanged fastest laps in an
exhibition of open racing between Ferrari drivers unimaginable in the days
of Michael Schumacher. But Massa was never threatened and deserved every
drop of the champagne with which he was drenched at the finish.
“Sensational,” he said as he celebrated his second successive grand prix win
in Bahrain and his sixth career victory. “Finally after a start to the
championship under dark clouds, I can see the sunshine again.
“Clearly I always had in mind what happened in Malaysia and so I tried to pay
attention all the time to ensure I brought the car home. It is nice to be
back in the winner’s position here in Sakhir, a track I’ve always liked.”
The other three British drivers in the race fared little better than Hamilton.
Anthony Davidson did his best in the hopelessly uncompetitive Super Aguri to
finish sixteenth, while David Coulthard, who was eighteenth, had another
coming together at a corner. In Australia he clashed with Massa; this time
it was his countryman, Jenson Button, in the Honda who looked ambitious
trying to squeeze past the Scottish veteran on the inside at turn eight. The
resultant impact damaged Coulthard’s car and ended Button’s race.
Results from Manama and how they stand
(57 laps): 1, F Massa (Br, Ferrari) 1hr 31min 6.970sec; 2, K
Raikkonen (Fin, Ferrari) at 3.339sec; 3, R Kubica (Pol, BMW
Sauber) 4.998; 4, N Heidfeld (Ger, BMW Sauber) 8.409; 5, H
Kovalainen (Fin, McLaren Mercedes) 26.789; 6, J Trulli (It,
Toyota) 41.314; 7, M Webber (Aus, Red Bull Renault) 45.473; 8, N
Rosberg (Ger, Williams Toyota) 55.889; 9, T Glock (Ger, Toyota)
1min 9.500sec; 10, F Alonso (Sp, Renault) 1:17.181; 11, R
Barrichello (Br, Honda) 1:17.862; 12, G Fisichella (It, Force
India Ferrari); 13, L Hamilton (GB, McLaren Mercedes); 14, K
Nakajima (Japan, Williams Toyota); 15, S Bourdais (Fr, Scuderia
Toro Rosso Ferrari); 16, A Davidson (GB, Super Aguri Honda); 17, T
Sato (Japan, Super Aguri Honda); 18, D Coulthard (GB, Red Bull
Renault) all 1 lap behind; 19, A Sutil (Ger, Force India Ferrari) 2
laps. Retired: 20, N Piquet Jr (Br, Renault) 40 laps completed; 21,
J Button (GB, Honda) 19 laps; 22, S Vettel (Ger, Scuderia Toro
Rosso Ferrari) no laps.
Qualifying positions
1, Kubica 1min 33.096sec; 2, Massa 1:33.123; 3, Hamilton 1:33.292; 4,
Raikkonen 1:33.418; 5, Kovalainen 1:33.488; 6, Heidfeld 1:33.737; 7, Trulli
1:33.994; 8, Rosberg 1:34.015; 9, Button 1:35.057; 10, Alonso 1:35.115. Eliminated
after second session: 11, Webber 1:32.371; 12, Barrichello 1:32.508; 13,
Glock 1:32.528; 14, Piquet Jr 1:32.790; 15, Bourdais 1:32.915; 16, Nakajima
1:32.943. Eliminated after first session: 17, Coulthard 1:33.433; 18,
Fisichella 1:33.501; 19, Vettel 1:33.562; 20, Sutil 1:33.845; 21, Davidson
1:34.410; 22, Sato 1:35.725.
Championship positions
Drivers
1, Raikkonen 19pts
2, Heidfeld 16
3, Hamilton 14
= Kubica 14
= Kovalainen 14
6, Massa 10
7, Trulli 8
8, Rosberg 7
9, Alonso 6
10, Webber 4
11, Nakajima 3
12, Bourdais 2
Constructors
1, BMW Sauber 30
2, Ferrari 29
3, McLaren Mercedes 28
4, Williams Toyota 10
5, Toyota 8
6, Renault 6
7, Red Bull Renault 4
8, Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari 2
Grands prix to come
April 27: Spanish GP (Barcelona).
May 11: Turkish GP (Istanbul).
May 25: Monaco GP (Monte Carlo).
June 8: Canadian GP (Montreal).
June 22: French GP (Magny-Cours).
July 6: British GP (Silverstone).
July 20: German GP (Hockenheim).
August 3: Hungarian GP (Budapest).
August 24: European GP (Valencia).
September 7: Belgian GP (Spa-Francorchamps).
September 14: Italian GP (Monza).
September 28: Singapore GP (Singapore).
October 12: Japanese GP (Fuji).
October 19: Chinese GP (Shanghai).
November 2: Brazilian GP (Interlagos).
