The familiar sight of Sebastian Vettel winning a race made a reappearance following a faultless drive from the reigning world champion in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The German held off the challenge from Lotus to get his title defence back on track with his twenty-second career Grand Prix victory – his first this season – and he now leads the world championship for Red Bull Racing.
The pace of the Lotus was impressive, with both Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean able to match the leading Red Bull on lap times.
To finish in second and third is a great result for Lotus. For Raikkonen, this drive to the runner-up spot has silence his critics that he still has the desire to go racing in Formula One.
While Grosjean should be immensely proud by recording a podium result in only his fourth race since making his Formula One comeback.
Mark Webber took fourth for Red Bull Racing, while pit-stop problems consigned front row starter Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren to eighth. Nico Rosberg completed the top five after an eventual race for Mercedes.
It soon became clear that the Lotus duo had stunning race pace. Although Vettel stormed away from initial pursuers Hamilton and Webber, Grosjean and Raikkonen were making quick progress up the order.
Grosjean had moved into fourth at the start, and then picked off Webber and Hamilton on laps four and seven.
While Raikkonen vaulted from P11 to seventh off the line, had a quick wheel-banging battle with Felipe Massa’s Ferrari, then got up to third by the time the first pit-stops were done – by virtue of a string of passes and a long first stint.
The Iceman then closed on Grosjean, passing his Lotus team-mate on lap 24, just before their second pit-stops, and started hunting down race leader Vettel.
As they approached the final tyre changes, Raikkonen was on Vettel’s rear wing and was able to take several looks at passing the Red Bull.
The tension eased after the final pit-stops, with Vettel able to rebuild a slight gap over the Lotus and held it to the flag.
Mark Webber finished in an unchallenged fourth position, but there was plenty of action behind the Australian.
Rosberg slipped back to ninth on a scrappy opening lap, before recovering to fifth – although he attracted the stewards’ attention along the way after some aggressive defensive moves against Hamilton and Alonso.
The way Rosberg defended his race position by forcing Hamilton way off the track was over the top and against the sport’s governing body code of leaving a car’s width. As for the incident involving Alonso, yes, he made his one move but it was still quite marginal to edge the Ferrari off the track.
Both incidents were investigated after the race and after a few hours, the stewards decided no action was needed.
Paul di Resta did a great job on a unique two-stop strategy for Force India. At one point, he was leading the Grand Prix. To finish in sixth is a fantastic achievement for himself and the team.
Hamilton’s race went awry in the pits, as a wheel nut issue with his left-rear cost him a lot of time at both his first and second pit-stops. The McLaren driver had to settle for eighth chasing di Resta and Alonso to the flag.
In fact, it was a miserable race for McLaren. As Jenson Button spent much of the race on the fringes of the top six before a late pit-stop with a left-rear puncture, and then a mechanical problem that left his sick-sounding car heading for the garage on the penultimate lap.
Alonso had got up to fifth with an assertive start, but did not have the pace to stay there. Felipe Massa was respectably close to his team-mate’s pace on the way to ninth, while Michael Schumacher was able to come through from P22 on the grid to tenth in the Mercedes.
Two stars of qualifying saw their race hopes rapidly dashed. Daniel Ricciardo tumbled down the order on the opening lap with damage on the Toro Rosso’s nose. He was able to recover to finish in P15 though. While Caterham’s Heikki Kovalainen picked up a puncture on lap one but made it to the end in P17.
So despite the political drama off-track dominating the news leading up to the Grand Prix, the racing at the Bahrain International Circuit was trouble free.
Red Bull’s first success of the season, which made Vettel the fourth different winner in four races, puts the champion back on top of the points table too, with 53 to the unhappy Hamilton’s 49. Webber is third with 48, followed by Button and Alonso on 43 apiece, Rosberg on 35 and Raikkonen on 34.
Red Bull also jumped ahead in the constructors’ rankings, with 101 points to McLaren’s 92, while the other big mover was Lotus who jumped up to third with 57 ahead of Ferrari on 45, Mercedes on 37 and Sauber on 31.
Race result at Bahrain, 57 laps:
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h35:10.990
2. Raikkonen Lotus-Renault +3.333
3. Grosjean Lotus-Renault +10.194
4. Webber Red Bull-Renault +38.788
5. Rosberg Mercedes +55.460
6. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes +57.543
7. Alonso Ferrari +57.803
8. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes +58.984
9. Massa Ferrari +1:04.999
10. Schumacher Mercedes +1:11.490
11. Perez Sauber-Ferrari +1:12.702
12. Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes +1:16.539
13. Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1:30.334
14. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari +1:33.723
15. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
16. Petrov Caterham-Renault +1 lap
17. Kovalainen Caterham-Renault +1 lap
18. Button McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
19. Glock Marussia-Cosworth +2 laps
20. De la Rosa HRT-Cosworth +2 laps
21. Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth +2 laps
22. Senna Williams-Renault +3 laps
Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:36.379
Not classified/retirements:
Maldonado Williams-Renault 26 laps
Pic Marussia-Cosworth 25 laps
World Championship standings, round 4:
Drivers:
1. Vettel 53
2. Hamilton 49
3. Webber 48
4. Button 43
5. Alonso 43
6. Rosberg 35
7. Raikkonen 34
8. Grosjean 23
9. Perez 22
10. Di Resta 15
11. Senna 14
12. Kobayashi 9
13. Vergne 4
14. Maldonado 4
15. Hulkenberg 2
16. Schumacher 2
17. Massa 2
18. Ricciardo 2
Constructors:
1. Red Bull-Renault 101
2. McLaren-Mercedes 92
3. Lotus-Renault 57
4. Ferrari 45
5. Mercedes 37
6. Sauber-Ferrari 31
7. Williams-Renault 18
8. Force India-Mercedes 17
9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 6
Next race: Spanish Grand Prix, Barcelona. May 11-13.
Bahrain Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel is still expecting a very tight season. Autosport.com has the story.
Sebastian Vettel does not believe that his victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix makes a change in the balance of power in the 2012 Formula 1 title fight, as the reigning world champion thinks the season will continue to be very unpredictable.
Red Bull had trailed McLaren and often also Mercedes in the opening three rounds, with Vettel unable to secure a pole or victory prior to Bahrain.
But his win at Sakhir – on a day when McLaren could manage no better than Lewis Hamilton’s eighth place – moved Vettel back into the championship lead that he had held for all of 2011.
Despite the Bahrain result looking like a return to ‘business as usual’ for Red Bull, Vettel said he expects the top teams’ form to keep fluctuating – and believes McLaren remains a very serious threat.
“It’s a very tight season, the cars are very close to each other and small things can make a huge difference on a Sunday,” he said.
“I think we started the season saying that the McLaren is the fastest car by quite a bit and we’ve seen that on Sunday it can be a different picture. I think they still have one of the strongest packages.
“But you need to get everything right, you need to have the right tyres, you need to treat them right, you need to find the right set-up through the course of the weekend, so a lot of things to look out for.”
Vettel reckons the decision to run an older exhaust package on his car at the preceding race in China, while team-mate Mark Webber continued with the latest spec, had helped Red Bull got to grips with its 2012 car better ready for Bahrain – though he admitted that he was not expecting this weekend’s upturn in performance.
“I am very happy we made it [to victory] here. We were not quite sure how competitive we would be,” he said.
“I think China was a very good lesson for us to understand the weakness of the car a little bit more by driving with two different packages. Here we focused on the new package and pushing that forward.”
The German added that for now he was content to be pleased at having got back to the top step of the podium, rather than worrying too much about whether Red Bull’s resurgence was permanent.
“I’m just happy for now, I don’t really care what happens in the next race, at least not today,” said Vettel.
“I think we will have a good time now and push harder so that we make sure we are there again next race.”
After finishing in second position in the Bahrain Grand Prix, Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen hopes he can challenge for race wins again. Autosport.com has the details.
Kimi Raikkonen believes that he will be in with a chance to win grands prix again this season after losing out in a close battle to world champion Sebastian Vettel in Bahrain.
Raikkonen, just four races into his comeback with Lotus, scored a fantastic second place at Sakhir having challenged Vettel for the lead during the final stint of the race.
He couldn’t get past the Red Bull and settled for second once the grip from his tyres began to fade away.
The Finn admitted afterwards that he was disappointed to have missed out on a 19th career victory, but said he was sure that he would be able to fight for wins again this year.
“Of course I wanted to win and would have been much happier in myself if I had won but nevertheless the team deserved what they got and hopefully we can put ourselves in this position more often,” he said afterwards.
“We had the car already in the first three races to be up there but we made some small mistakes and it cost us too much.
“Today wasn’t far away. I really should have made it but I didn’t so, like I said hopefully we can put ourselves in this position more often to have a chance. But we have to work hard and improve certain areas of the car and I’m sure we can be up there more often and try to get the win.
Raikkonen admitted that he didn’t make the most of his one realistic opportunity to pass Vettel on lap 36.
“We got one try on Sebastian but I couldn’t use it because I chose the wrong side and then my tyres dropped off and that was it.
“I pretty much knew that was my only chance.”
The 32-year-old also reckons that he could have won the race had he not dropped behind the Ferrari’s at the start and engaged in a wheel-banging battle with Felipe Massa.
“We gave ourselves a chance at least and it’s a bit disappointing that we didn’t manage to do it, but I made a small mistake at the beginning, lost one place to a Ferrari and I had to re-overtake him and that took a little time.
“I could pass the people quite easily but if you look in the end it still look too long and we couldn’t win the race.
“After the last race when we tried hard and then we failed, I think people probably thought we were a bit stupid, but even after yesterday what we did, but it turned out to be right decision.
“I think the team deserves what we achieved now, we have been working hard in the background and I have not been 100 per cent happy with how the weekends had been gone so far, but we finally got some proper results for the team so it is an important step.”
Another battle for second position with his team-mate Romain Grosjean also hindered Raikkonen’s progress in his pursuit of Vettel.
“Yeah, but there are no team orders, we know the rules – I tried to get past as quickly as I can, but it is always easy with two similar cars so,” he said. “It’s always easy afterwards to say we should have done that but in the end we were not fast enough to win so we had to take second.”
In only his fourth race at Lotus, Romain Grosjean was quite surprised to finish on the podium so early in his Formula One comeback. Autosport.com has the details.
Romain Grosjean says he did not expect to achieve his first podium in Formula 1 so quickly after finishing in third in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Lotus driver, who had scored his first points in F1 in last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, completed a sensational day for his team after team-mate Kimi Raikkonen finished in second position.
Although Grosjean lost out to the Finn on track, the Frenchman admitted he was delighted with the result.
“It is great, a great feeling so far,” said Grosjean. “I am very proud of the team, of what we did. We knew we had a good car but I think we were a little bit surprised at the beginning about where we were.
“It turned out to be not too bad in the end and I think our car is very competitive. I think we can be very happy with what we did. The first points is one step and the next step I thought it would take time but we can be happy and have a week off to enjoy.”
Grosjean, the first Frenchman to finish on the podium since Jean Alesi in the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix, said Lotus can be proud of its effort after a strong start to the season.
“I think we are doing some pretty good stuff. The team can be proud of what we did because with the season being so tight, getting the car near the front is hard,” he said.
“We have two cars on the podium. The first podium feels pretty good. We will feel even better when we are back in the plane home and are able to relax and go to factory and work.”
Sauber drivers Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi said their car was simply to slow to get into the points in the Bahrain Grand Prix, and that no amount of strategic variations would have given them a chance to improve on their eventual 11th and 13th positions.
Just a week after Kobayashi started third in China, and two races on from Perez’s near-win in Malaysia, Sauber was at the tail of the top 10 at Sakhir.
Kobayashi could not sustain his intended two-stop strategy and fell to 13th when he had to make an additional tyre change near the end, while Perez was only 11th.
“We knew this circuit would not be an easy one for us and we were just too slow today,” said Perez. “We tried both strategies and split them between the cars but today there was nothing that could have really helped us.
“I had a lot of tyre degradation and due to a problem at the pitstop we lost a place and a point to Michael [Schumacher].”
Kobayashi was dropping down the order even before having to make his extra pitstop.
“The tyres degraded quicker than we hoped and I had to do three stops as well, with the last one seven laps before the end,” he said.
“I can’t see anything that we could have actually done better in today’s race. Our problem was a general lack of speed and we will work hard to fix it.”
Sauber’s head of track engineering Giampaolo Dall’Ara argued that the biggest issue was that the cars did not make good enough starts.
“The key point of the race was on lap one when we lost positions. The start was possibly not so good. That’s something we have to look into,” said Dall’Ara. “From that point on we were unable to recover.”
Source: Autosport.com
Force India’s Paul di Resta has commented that his sixth place finish in the Bahrain Grand Prix underlines the strategy in qualifying. Autosport.com has the story.
Paul di Resta says his sixth place in the Bahrain Grand Prix proves that Force India was absolutely right to sit out Q3 on Saturday.
The Scot reckoned a giant-killing qualifying result might have been possible given his pace at Sakhir, but that it was better to save a set of fresh tyres for the race so he could pull off the two-stop strategy that took him to sixth – equalling his Formula 1 career best.
“We played our cards right in qualifying by saving a set of tyres,” di Resta. “We could’ve gone out there and been a hero in qualifying but today is when it counts and you grab the points.
“It was an amazing job by the whole team in the combination of pitstops and strategy. At one point they said ‘another 10 laps on these tyres’, and I thought they were asking too much, but no.”
Di Resta believes Force India now needs to use his result to ‘kick-start’ its season.
The team was sixth in last year’s constructors’ standings, but has seen late-2011 rival Lotus (formerly Renault) stride forward, and Sauber and Williams’s strong starts to the season push it back to eighth in the order at present.
“We’ll certainly hopefully come to Barcelona in fighting form with the new aero update,” said di Resta.
“We need to kick-start our season. There’s a lot of people around us that have scored some big points, and we need to keep this form.”
He also noted that sitting out the second Friday practice session so the crew could leave the circuit in daylight following an incident with protestors on Wednesday night had not hampered Force India in the end.
“Missing FP2 doesn’t look like it made too much difference for us,” di Resta said.
The sister Force India of Nico Hulkenberg lost ground on lap one and could only finish 12th.
“My race was pretty much over at the start. Already rolling out of the garage going to the grid we had some clutch issues,” he said.
“The clutch didn’t behave as we wanted it to, so that compromised the start totally. I had anti-stall and was pretty much last after the start, so from there a pretty difficult race.
“It’s been a tough weekend, and there’s nothing I can do about these clutch issues. We’ll have to look into it and see what it was. It’s frustrating.”
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was amazed to end Bahrain Grand Prix still within sight of Formula One championship lead. Autosport.com has the details.
Fernando Alonso believes it is a “present” that he is only 10 points away from the lead of the Formula 1 world championship after four races.
The Ferrari driver won the Malaysian Grand Prix but his car has not proved competitive enough to repeat the feat in the other races.
Alonso finished in seventh position in Bahrain on Sunday, nearly a full minute behind race winner Sebastian Vettel.
But the Spaniard reckons that having lost just 10 points to the championship leader was unthinkable given Ferrari’s form at the start of the season.
He insists, however, that Ferrari must react immediately and be stronger when the European season starts.
“After four races, with 100 points to win, being eight or 10 points behind the leader is completely unthinkable,” said Alonso.
“It’s a bit like a present what we’ve had in this first four races. We appreciate it and we take it, but leaving the points aside, what worries the team is the performance of the car, and that we have to improve it right away for Barcelona.”
The two-time champion said he was left with mixed feelings after the Sakhir race, having finished so far from the winner but in front of rivals like McLaren.
“I think we have mixed feelings, because on the one hand we were in front of both the McLarens at the end of the race, which is something we didn’t expect after quali. On the other side we are 57 seconds away from the winner, so this is bigger than any other race in 2012. So we need to look at why we were so far from the podium positions.”
Alonso also said he will accept what the stewards decide on his incident with Nico Rosberg, after the German pushed him off the circuit when fighting for position.
“We’ll have to see what the stewards say. I just tried to overtake and went off track. Here it’s no problem because there’s that extra bit of circuit on the sides, but he did it twice with Lewis [Hamilton] and with me. We’ll see. We really need to look on the TV and whatever they decide will be good.”
This was a difficult race for McLaren with only an eighth place finish for Lewis Hamilton, who started on the front row. As for Jenson Button, the Australian Grand Prix winner was left feeling puzzled why the lack of pace. Autosport.com has the story.
Jenson Button was mystified by the McLaren team’s lack of pace in the Bahrain Grand Prix, having been unable to fight the Red Bulls and Lotus cars for victory.
The Australian Grand Prix winner, who eventually was classified 18th having stopped two laps from the finish having with a differential failure, said he could not understand where the McLaren MP4-27’s inherent pace had gone through the weekend.
“The pace wasn’t there at the beginning,” he said. “We didn’t have a very good balance and we were really struggling with oversteer, so all the way through the race we were taking front end out of the car and going massively forward with the brake bias, so I think we were a long way out with the balance for the race. But the pace wasn’t there anyway.
“With good pitstops we would have been much happier but still we wouldn’t have been anywhere near the front guys and one to one and half seconds [of pace] is something that we don’t really understand where it’s gone.
“It’s very difficult to understand where the pace is and why we don’t have it around here. The last few races, in the race, whether we’ve won it or not we’ve had good race pace, and we don’t have that here.”
Button had looked in a position to secure at least fifth position until he ran into a barrage of problems in the closing stages of the race.
“The last stint was a long stint, I was interested to see what was going to happen with everyone’s times,” he said. “People were pushing at the beginning, I was looking after the tyres and in the last five laps I was pushing pretty hard.
“I caught up with Paul di Resta and Nico Rosberg and as I got them into the DRS zone, I went into the last corner and the front tyre lifted up in the air and I realised I had a puncture so I came in.
“We changed the tyres, so I went out and the car was very noisy, and the reason for the initial problem was an exhaust failure and then a puncture and then a diff failure and that’s why I had to eventually retire.”
Team principal Martin Whitmarsh told Sky Sports that McLaren would investigate why Button and Lewis Hamilton suffered a lack of pace, but indicated that it related to rear tyre grip.
“My view is that we were just too hard on the rear tyres and that really gave a great challenge to both of our drivers,” he said. “Now we know that the tyres have got a very small sweet spot and you have got to be operating within that, if you’re outside of it then you are really giving yourself a big, big challenge.
“With the pace of the car, we’ve been effectively on the front row everywhere, so there is no magic. We didn’t lose 50 points of downforce from yesterday to today. Clearly we are beating the tyres much too hard here, we need to understand that and do a better job at the next race.”
Nico Rosberg described his Bahrain Grand Prix’s fifth place for Mercedes as successful damage limitation, and denied the result was frustrating after he had taken a dominant victory in China just a week earlier.
After qualifying, Rosberg had said he was even more confident about his race pace than he had been going into the Shanghai grand prix, but he ended up losing places on the first lap and only managed to recover to fifth.
The German remained upbeat, pointing out that earlier in the season Mercedes would have been expected to suffer far more in a race so hard on tyres.
“Of course coming off a win last weekend it has been a much more mixed weekend here,” Rosberg admitted. “But all in all it is still 10 points for fifth place in the most difficult conditions for tyres out there.
“We struggled massively at the beginning of the season and you can see we are moving forward and progressing and from that point of view there are a lot of positives to come from today and push on with the development.”
Rosberg thinks Mercedes can still head into the three-week break before the Spanish Grand Prix satisfied with the gains it has made this season.
“[The aim] is just to make the car quicker, that is the main thing, aero wise and mechanical and everything will come together,” he said. “But even today in these very tough conditions we were the third best team.
“That is OK – it is keeping in the right direction and some more teams are in a lot more trouble than us.”
The stewards are investigating two incidents involving Rosberg’s defensive driving, which saw Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso both go off the track while trying to pass him. The pair were critical of Rosberg after the race, but the Mercedes driver was reluctant to comment until he had watched a replay.
“I haven’t seen it myself so I prefer not to say anything,” said Rosberg.
Source: Autosport.com
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa scored his first points of the season after finishing in ninth. Autosport.com has the story.
Felipe Massa’s withered confidence has been boosted by his first points of the season after finishing ninth in the Bahrain Grand Prix, as the Brazilian admitted he is looking forward to the major upgrades Ferrari intends to put on the F12012 before the beginning of the European season.
The team has been disappointed with the overall pace of the 2012 machine, in spite of Fernando Alonso’s unlikely victory in Malaysia last month, and is expected to bring significant changes to the car for the Mugello test at the beginning of May.
Massa, whose own poor performances have been under the spotlight, is hoping that his first points finish and an improved car will help him draw a line under a difficult start to the year.
“It’s a nice result at this time, but we are well aware that it is not Ferrari’s style to be happy with a ninth place,” said Massa. “Having said that, it is a performance that gives me confidence for the rest of the season.
“Clearly we have to improve the performance of the car as soon as possible to be able to fight for worthwhile positions.
“In Barcelona, everyone will bring major updates and we will have had to do have done a better job than the others because we have to make up the ground lost at the start of this championship.”
Team principal Stefano Domenicali added that he believed Ferrari had limited the damage to its championship challenges in the first four races before the upgrades arrive.
“What I can say is that what has been a very tough first run of races for us has now come to an end, although this is just what we had expected,” said the Italian. “We managed to limit the damage, at least as far as the drivers’ championship is concerned.
“Now we must look to the future and make a step up in terms of quality which should allow us to fight for the podium and not just a points finish.
“That’s what I have been asking our engineers for several weeks and by Barcelona, I expect to already see the results of the effort we are expending in every area.”
Domenicali also paid tribute to a Ferrari engineer, Matteo Vignali, who died over the weekend: “Honestly, what happened on the track today is only of secondary importance for us.”
“We are very sad to learn of the death of Matteo Vignali, a young man who worked in the gearbox department, who suffered a heart attack,” he said. “He lost his life at just thirty two years of age, something that leaves us in a state of dismay.”
Nico Rosberg has escaped any sanction for the on-track moments during the Bahrain Grand Prix when he appeared to push Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso off the track.
The stewards of the meeting met with the drivers and their team representatives after the race to look into the details of the clash that took place as Hamilton exited the pits on lap 11 and tried to retake a position.
Rosberg defended hard, moving across to the right on the exit of Turn 3, and Hamilton had to complete his pass off the track before Turn 4.
The situation was repeated when Alonso tried to pass the German on lap 11, although the Spaniard did not manage to overtake.
The stewards looked into the matter and decided that because Rosberg had moved to the right to defend his position in a ‘constant and continuous straight line manner’ and because Hamilton was not alongside Rosberg as he began that move that the German did nothing wrong.
The stewards added: “Had a significant portion of Car 4 (Hamilton) been alongside that of Car 8 (Rosberg) whilst Car 4 still remained within the confines of the track, then the actions of Car 8 may not be considered legitimate.”
Rosberg was cleared for his incident with Alonso for the same reasons.
“I can only say that if, instead of such a wide run-off area there had been a wall, I’m not sure I’d be here now to talk about it,” said Alonso.
After hearing the decision, Alonso wrote on Twitter: “I think you are going to have fun in future races! You can defend position as you want and you can overtake outside the track! Enjoy!”
Source: Autosport.com
Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher commented that the 2012-spec Pirelli tyres didn’t allow the drivers to push their cars to the limit. The tyre manufacturer has responded to the seven-time world champion’s criticism. Autosport.com has the story.
Pirelli says it is surprised at accusations from Michael Schumacher that the current generation of tyres are not allowing drivers to push their cars to the limit.
On the back of a frustrating afternoon in Bahrain, where Schumacher could not make the progress through the field that he had hoped for, the seven-time champion hit out at the way drivers are being forced to look after their tyres.
“The main thing I feel unhappy about is that everyone has to drive well below a driver’s, and in particular, the car limits to maintain the tyres,” he told BBC Radio 5.
“I just question whether the tyres should play such a big importance, or whether they should last a bit longer – and that you can drive at normal racing car speed and not cruise around like we have a safety car.”
Pirelli’s director of motorsport Paul Hembery said he was taken aback by those criticisms, especially because Schumacher had been so happy with the tyres throughout winter testing.
“I’m disappointed to hear those comments from someone of Michael’s experience,” he told AUTOSPORT. “Others were getting on with the job and getting their tyres to work. His comments during winter testing were that he was very happy with the tyres, and now he seems to have changed his tune.”
Schumacher added in his post-race summary that he thinks Pirelli should reconsider its approach to tyres – because the problems of not being able to push to the limit were being experienced by too many people.
“I’m not happy about the situation, lets see what happens in future,” explained the Mercedes driver. “If it would be a one-off car issue, then you could say it’s up on us to deal with it.
“But basically it is everybody with maybe one or two exceptions. And if it is 80 per cent of the field that has this problem, then maybe the tyre supplier should think about that.”
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has promised his drivers there will be a full investigation into its pitstop procedures to ensure that mistakes are ironed out in the future.
Just one week after Jenson Button’s hopes of victory in China were dashed by a slow final pitstop, Lewis Hamilton experienced two pitstop errors that pushed him down the field to a disappointing eighth in Bahrain.
At the first pitstop, the wheel nut pegs did not engage properly with the holes in the rim, while at the second stop the nuts cross-threaded.
With the left rear wheel gun man having been involved in the two troubled pitstops, the team elected to change him for the final stop – but Whitmarsh insisted that he had no hard feelings about what had happened.
“We’ll review lots of things but I don’t think it’s a criticism of him as an individual,” he said. “He’s taken it very badly and it’s our job to support to him at the moment.
“Firstly you have got to say that any guy who volunteers to be a gun man in a team like this is a brave guy, and that’s one of the reasons I have just been speaking to him now, because I know how hard he is being on himself at the moment.
“These guys are all mechanics and they don’t get paid extra for doing it. They put themselves in the firing line and under an enormous amount of pressure, so naturally I’m very protective of them because they deserve my protection.
“They’re brave, they volunteer for it, they try hard and they know the pressure they are under. But we have got to look at the equipment, we have got to look at the process, we have got to look at the approach. So it’s disappointing.”
Lewis Hamilton was frustrated by the pitstop situation – especially because it cost him valuable points at a time when he locked in a tight championship battle.
“I have no idea what went on but I was hoping the second time I came I wouldn’t have that problem,” he said. “I was hoping that it would be a good pit stop but it was exactly the same, if not a little bit longer, than the previous one.
“There was a lot of ground lost today. But we still picked up some points so I have got to be happy with that.
“There should be [an inquest] because we gave away a lot of points today which championships are lost through. So we have to try and make sure we pick up on them for the next race because we can’t afford to lose points like we did today.”
Source: Autosport.com