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Sebastian Vettel kicked off his 2010 campaign with a fine pole position for Red Bull Racing, holding off a strong challenge from the Scuderia at the Bahrain International Circuit.

The German needed just one single run at the end of qualifying three to displace the Ferrari of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso at the front of the expanded 24-car field. His time around the extended Bahrain track was one minute, 54.101 seconds, earning his sixth career pole.

As for the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, making his Grand Prix comeback after three years away from the sport, the Mercedes driver could only manage seventh – one position ahead of the current world champion Jenson Button in the McLaren.

Fernando Alonso had held provisional pole early in Q3, as Ferrari opted to go for two qualifying runs in the final part of the session. But Vettel’s impressive lap time in his ‘Luscious Liz’ was 0.9 seconds quicker than the Spaniard’s initial best, and proved unbeatable as the others recorded their best time.

The Ferrari pair improved on their second attempt with Massa edging out his new team-mate by a margin of 0.366 seconds but it wasn’t enough to displace Vettel in the Red Bull RB6.

As for Lewis Hamilton, his first Q3 lap was a shock. He was nearly two seconds off the pace compared to the Ferraris and yet he was still a second down to Sebastian after improving to take fourth spot. Much focus has been on that controversial and yet clever snorkel/rear wing aero device fitted on the MP4-25, but the raw pace is somewhat lacking when compared to the Red Bull and Ferrari.

Even though all attention is on Michael Schumacher, Mercedes GP team-mate Nico Rosberg is setting the better lap times in the other Silver Arrows. In fact, the young German has been consistently out-performing his more experienced colleague in all the sessions leading up to qualifying (as much as 0.5 seconds). The end result means Rosberg in P5 with M. Schumacher in seventh behind Mark Webber’s Red Bull.

What about the current world champion? Well, the new McLaren driver had a scare in Q2 when his first attempt was only the eleventh quickest time (not good enough to make into the top-ten shootout). Jenson improved slightly on his second run and just squeezed in – edging out his old Brawn GP colleague Rubens Barrichello – which eventually became eighth in Q3. Although Rubens will have the last laugh, as the Williams driver will start the Bahrain race with a fresh set of Bridgestone compared to Jenson’s used tyres.

Barrichello takes eleventh, with Force India’s Tonio Liuzzi between the Brazilian and Williams team-mate Nico Hulkenberg – who was the highest qualifying rookie as Renault’s Vitaly Petrov took P17 behind the Saubers (Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi) and Sebastien Buemi in the Toro Rosso.

As for the new teams, it was unlikely to see Lotus, Virgin Racing and Hispania making pass Q1 due to a lack of preparation.

In the defence of Virgin Racing, Timo Glock did a solid job in taking P19, just one place behind the Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari. The Lotus of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen took P20 and P21 respectively with newcomer Lucas di Grassi in P22 for Virgin.

As for the HRT team, Indian driver Karun Chandhon treated the qualifying session as a shakedown test due to hydraulic problems with the new car. With limited mileage, it was not a surprise to see Chandhon running ten seconds off the pace but at least he completed seven laps and was within 1.7 seconds to team-mate Bruno Senna, who had the extra time to drive the car during Friday’s practice sessions. The race will be a different matter as reliability will be a key issue.

Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix is going to be fascinating. Can Vettel translate this pole position into race victory? The race pace seems good though there might be an issue with tyre wear. As for the Ferraris, their performance has been excellent, lapping consistently and the F10 is handling well. Will we see Massa taking the chequered flag or a dream victory for Alonso? What about the Mercedes-powered cars? Can Rosberg and Hamilton spring a surprise? All this plus no refuelling will make the opening race of the 2010 Formula One season that bit more special.

Qualifying results, Bahrain:

1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:54.101
2.  Massa          Ferrari                1:54.242
3.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:54.608
4.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:55.217
5.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:55.241
6.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:55.284
7.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:55.524
8.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:55.672
9.  Kubica         Renault                1:55.885
10.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:56.309
11.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:55.330
12.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:55.653
13.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:55.857
14.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari         1:56.237
15.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:56.265
16.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:56.270
17.  Petrov         Renault                1:56.619
18.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:57.071
19.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:59.728
20.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:59.852
21.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         2:00.313
22.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        2:00.587
23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           2:03.240
24.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth           2:04.904

A new Formula One season is upon us once again and with new drivers joining an expanded grid featuring new teams, this year’s world championship is likely to be the most unpredictable and exciting in the past six decades of the sport.

Entertaining the fans has become the number one priority as outlined by the sport’s governing body (the FIA) and the teams (FOTA) for 2010. With the KERS system dropped due to poor uptake (not to mention added weight), a new approach to racing has been introduced with significant changes to the Formula One rulebook.

Refuelling is now banned for the first time since 1993. This radical move to abolish fuel stops should improve on-track action, encouraging the drivers to overtake one other instead of relying on pit-stop strategies to gain track position. It will be intriguing to see the differences in performance due to the fuel levels. The cars will start off heavy (around 160kg of fuel) but as the race progress, the cars will go faster and faster as the fuel levels goes down. As for pit-stops, expect to see lighting-fast tye changing. The Williams team in particular have been practising and can change all four sets of tyres in three seconds!

A new points system has also been ratified for this season, in response to the increased grid and encouraging the drivers to overtake. Since 2003, points had been awarded to the top eight finishers with ten points for the winner, eight for second, six for third and all the way down to one for eighth place. For 2010 the winner will be awarded 25 points, 18 for second, with third receiving 15, 12 for fourth and then ten, eight, six, four, two, and one for tenth place.

As for qualifying, yet another change has been added to the three-part session due to more cars taking part. Qualifying one and two will see eight drivers eliminated in each with the remaining ten going for pole position in session three. However in qualifying three, the cars will run in low-fuel configuration but the drivers must use the same tyres into the race. This particular rule change will play a significant part in race strategies. Will the drivers conserve their tyres in the top-ten shootout by pacing themselves in order to have better grip at the start of the race but risking the penalty of a low grid position? Or should they just go for glory by claiming the best spots but be handicap at the beginning of the Grand Prix without any decent tyre performance?

Slick tyres supplied by Bridgestone remain but the drivers will now have just eleven sets of tyres over the Grand Prix weekend, down from fourteen in 2009. One set is to be returned before second practice and two before third practice. The top ten qualifiers must start the race on the partially used set with which they set their best lap time in Q3.

Time penalties added to a driver’s elapsed race time have been modified. A drive-through imposed in the last five laps will now incur a penalty of 20 seconds, while ten-second penalty will see 30 seconds added. Previously, both were penalised by an additional 25 seconds. As for serving these penalties during the race, previously the drivers could complete up to three laps before serving a drive-through or ten-second penalty. The rules have now changed to reduce this to just two laps, which minimises any advantage a driver can obtain before taking his punishment.

As for the aesthetics, the larger fuel tank has made the 2010-spec Formula One racing cars into limousines! With the weight of the car increased from 605kg to 620kg. Not to mention a narrower front tyre (from 270mm to 245mm in width – shifting the ideal weight distribution rearwards relative to 2009) has given the overall appearance of these cars a unique look when compared to last season, but at least those ugly wheel-rim covers have been banned! As for the controversial double diffuser, these sophisticated aero devices remain but it might harm the close racing aspect due to the ‘dirty air’ turbulence…

In terms of the drivers and teams taking part this season, it’s great to see the most successful driver of the modern generation – Michael Schumacher – back in Formula One. His neck injury that prevented him in taking part mid-season in 2009 is now gone and despite being the oldest driver on the grid (Schumacher turned 41 last January), his level of fitness and desire is as strong as ever. It will be fascinating to see the seven-time world champion racing against young pretenders with the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel. In fact, it’s fantastic to see four world champions (Schumacher, Alonso, Hamilton and Button) racing on the same piece of race track. As for the teams, four new outfits have join the establishment with the famous Lotus name making a re-appearance alongside Virgin Racing, Campos Meta 1 and USF1 although the latter is facing an uphill struggle in taking part in the very first race due to financial difficulties. Stefan GP could step-in if the American-based squad drops out.

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This is the new T127 from Lotus F1 Racing, now run by Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes. It ends the 16-year gap since the famous Lotus name last raced in the Formula One World Championship.

The classic British Racing Green makes a welcome appearance on the T127 adopting the same colour scheme first used by the legendary outfit way back in the 1950s and 60s.

Tony Fernandes expressed his joy when the new 2010-spec Lotus was officially launched in London and he hopes it can carry on the rich motor sport history as pioneered by the original owner of the team Colin Chapman.

“Words cannot express how I feel today,” said Fernandes. “It is an amazing job to get an F1 licence, have five people in Hingham and turn up today with this car.

“I was thrilled when Clive [Chapman] said that this was just like the beginning of Lotus back in the early days.”

He added: “We know we have a huge burden on our shoulders, standing on the shoulder of giants – [Jim] Clark, [Stirling] Moss, [Graham] Hill, and [Nigel] Mansell. We know we have a tremendous journey in front of us, we are honoured and cherished to be a part of history – we will leave no stone unturned in our efforts and we will do our best to return Lotus to its glory days.”

The T127 performed its first shakedown test earlier this week at Silverstone, with the team making an appearance alongside its rivals at the Jerez circuit next week for further development work.

Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen will be representing Lotus F1 Racing this year, bringing valuable experience to the new outfit.

This is the new RB6 from Red Bull Racing. The Adrian Newey-designed machine appears to be a logical evolution of the 2009 RB5, which became a major threat to Brawn GP in the second half of last season’s world championship.

The RB6 features a more extreme V-nose solution compared to the RB5, with a highly crafted sidepods and the now standard shark-fin engine cover that has appeared on every other rival machinery.

In addition, the car features an intricate front-wing design and has been fully developed around the double-diffuser concept that had to be incorporated onto the RB5 mid-season last year.

Following their six Grands Prix victories in 2009, which powered the team to second place in the constructors’ championship, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber will again be at the wheel of the Adrian Newey-designed challenger.

Webber gave the car its initial run at Jerez shortly after the wraps came off, the team having opted to skip last week’s Valencia session to give them more development and wind tunnel time.

Hopefully this gamble on missing out the first pre-season test will benefit Red Bull Racing with better reliability and performance. The car certainly looks the part with the aggressive aero. Lets see how it goes against the stopwatches.

This is the new Force India challenger for the upcoming Formula One season. The VJM03 is an evolution on last year’s car and the Silverstone-based squad hopes it can reward greater success after capturing its maiden pole position and podium finish in 2009.

Just like the other cars launched by the other teams, the VJM03 features the high nose and the shark-fin engine cover treatment as made typical based on this season’s technical rules.

Design director Mark Smith said the new car is an evolution of last year’s VJM02:

“The VJM03 is definitely an evolution of the VJM02 in terms of the design philosophies we have developed at Force India over the last year. We are very happy with the direction, therefore we have opted to evolve the car rather than significantly revise.

“Obviously one of the major aspects we have had to contend with are regulation changes which have had a considerable impact on some aspects of the design of the car. The removal of refuelling from races increases the amount of fuel needed to be stored in the cars – almost twice the amount we ran in 2009. There is a compromise now: either make the car much longer or wider, or, as we have done, a combination of both. This of course has influenced the mechanical design solutions and also the aerodynamics, specifically with respects to the diffuser and bodywork.

“Even with the ban of double diffusers for 2011, we recognise that we still have to push as much as we possibly can in this area in 2010 as we have targets to meet and the double diffuser is a key development aspect of the car.

“The VJM02 was a relatively low drag car that showed well on the low downforce tracks. As was demonstrated throughout 2009, that was a useful attribute but as we go into 2010 we have tried to maintain a high level of aerodynamic efficiency, but we recognise that our championship position will be enhanced by a general level of performance that is suited to all types of circuits. We have, we believe, quite an efficient car overall.”

Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi will race for Force India this year, with Paul di Resta installed as reserve and test driver.

Virgin Racing are the first of the new Formula One teams to launch their 2010 car, although its original plan to reveal the new VR-01 online was delayed by technical problems.

The VR-01 has been created entirely using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) rather than using the traditional method of a windtunnel.

Designer Nick Wirth believes CFD is the best way for teams to develop Formula One cars under the sport’s new resource restrictions:

“Today is a very proud day for everyone involved with Virgin Racing, however on this occasion, where the car is the star, I want to pay tribute to all the amazing people at Wirth Research who deserve so much of the credit for the VR-01.

“Putting together an F1 team, assembling an engineering group and designing a new car from scratch is an epic task in the timeframe we have been working to.

“I have been fortunate to have worked with the very best designers in F1 and I am well aware of exactly what it takes to be successful in this sport. When you see what the existing teams have achieved using the conventional but proven design approach, it is unsurprising that there is a great deal of scepticism about our all-CFD approach.

“But we are competing in a sport that is undergoing significant change having come face to face with today’s harsh economic realities. Under resource restriction, convention will become too costly and necessity really will be the mother of invention. I have absolute belief in the digital design process and the opportunity to put the all-CFD approach to the test at the highest level – to demonstrate that this could be the way for the future of F1 – is very, very exciting.”

Richard Branson’s ambitions project to set-up a new racing team was officially launched in December, when Lucas di Grassi and Timo Glock were announced as Virgin Racing’s race drivers.

A shakedown of the new car will take place on Thursday and Friday at Silverstone followed by a proper testing session at Jerez, where it will become the first of the new entrants to test alongside the established squads. Let see how the CFD created car will do when compared to the windtunnel designed versions.

From that initial spy shot as revealed by Autosport, the first official day of Formula One testing in Valencia has allow us the unique opportunity to see the latest creation from Williams up close and personal.

Just like the previous 2010 cars, the Williams FW32 features a high nose but with some distinctively narrow struts from which the front wing is suspended. In addition, a second air intake can be seen behind the main one.

Rubens Barrichello and GP2 champion Nico Hulkenburg will carry out the testing duties as Williams set out to improve their seventh place finish last season.

Lets see how fast this new Cosworth-powered car can do when compared to the others in this week’s testing.