Bahrain Grand Prix Friday Practice

Under fire Ferrari driver Felipe Massa emerged from Friday's two practice sessions with his head held high after topping the time sheets twice. It was a fairly devastating display of Ferrari dominance all day long, as Kimi Raikkonen finished second in both sessions too. But in the end that wasn't the big story of the day, as McLaren's Lewis Hamilton crashed heavily in the second session causing extensive damage to his MP4-28.

Hamilton ran too high on the kerbs between turns six and seven and the back end stepped out viciously on him, sending him sliding side-on into the barriers at speed. Thankfully he emerged unscathed from his shunt, but there will be sleepless nights in the McLaren pit tonight as the mechanics have a considerable amount of work to do to get the car ready for qualifying tomorrow. McLaren had shown earlier in the day that they have decent pace in their car but they will be somewhat worried that they couldn't really match Ferrari's pace on the day.

Felipe Massa ended the session almost a full second quicker than his teammate Kimi Raikkonen after a late qualifying simulation run in second practice. None of the other teams could even come close to matching that kind of pace. It is clearly advantage Ferrari going into qualifying tomorrow.

Elsewhere Williams impressed, with both Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima finishing high up on the time sheets in both sessions. They'll be looking to bounce back after a difficult weekend in Malaysia. BMW's Robert Kubica showed that the car has some decent pace, although Nick Heidfeld ended the day strangely off the pace. The star of practice, aside from Massa, was Sebastien Bourdais. He put his Toro Rosso in an impressive ninth place in the second session, and ran consistently well throughout the day.

So far then this weekend the Ferraris appear to be cruising, and their rivals have a huge amount of work to do if they are to stop them running away with this race... Read more!

2008 Bahrain Grand Prix Preview

This weekend sees the Formula One circus move to the Kingdom of Bahrain for the fifth running of the Bahrain Grand Prix. As has all too often been the case over the past season or so, the sport has a cloud of controversy following it wherever it may go. However, I don't think the sport has ever seen one quite like the one that shook the world's motorsport fans last Sunday, the fallout from which looks nowhere near settling. With Max Mosley absent from this Grand Prix for obvious reasons, let's hope that all the talk this weekend is about what goes on on the black stuff rather than one what certain people choose to do (or have done to them!) in seedy London basement apartments. Somehow, I doubt it will be though...

Ferrari go into the race on a high after a very strong showing last time out in Malaysia, spoiled only by Felipe Massa's unforced error and DNF. They should have every right to be confident of a race victory this weekend, especially as they were only one of two teams (Toyota being the other) to have tested at this very circuit over the winter. Both Ferrari and arch-rivals McLaren have tried to play down the significance of this testing session, but the advantage should definitely be there, no matter how small, as Ferrari absolutely obliterated Toyota in that particular winter test.

McLaren will be looking to bounce back after they dropped the ball big time with their needless-penalty hit weekend in Malaysia. That's not a mistake we will ever be seeing again, as the rules for qualification have since been tweaked to avoid that situation, but McLaren will know that their weekend will need to be perfect if they are to keep pace with the Ferraris. One suspects it will also need to be perfect if they are to stay ahead of the BMWs, who have looked extremely strong so far this season.

After the two "fly away" races down under, this will be the first race we will be seeing some of the updated aerodynamic packages for some of the teams. We will see if anyone has made any significant progress back in the windtunnels while the race teams have been jet-setting around the globe. We probably won't be seeing any widespread, major updates until they hit Barcelona next time out, but there will be tweaks aplenty for the more well-heeled teams. It will be interesting to keep an eye on who has made steps forward or not.

The race will be the third hot race in a row for the drivers and teams to contend with, but this time out they will have new foes to contend with in the form of dust and high winds instead of the extreme humidity down under. Due to the very exposed nature of the track wind has often been an issue here, and this weekend the predictions are for it to be especially windy here. This is bad news for the drivers on two fronts: firstly the wind blows dust onto the circuit giving unpredictable traction; secondly it can play havoc with the cars' delicately balanced aerodynamic setups. A strong gust of wind during one of the Sakhir circuit's numerous high-speed, high-downforce corners can easily cause a sudden loss of grip.

The drivers should definitely be earning their wages if the winds are up as high as predicted, and it should keep things exciting to watch...
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Mosley Fighting for his Career After F1's Manufacturers Wade Into Battle

Whilst the media and F1 fans whipped themselves up into a frenzy over the bombshell revelations of Max Mosley's, err, "interesting" private life, everything went eerily quiet within the F1 fraternity for a few days. A mixture of stunned silence and carefully considered reticence pervaded the Grand Prix teams. Stunned silence because nobody knew how the hell they are supposed to react to such outrageous news. Considered reticence because nobody dared speak out in case it all turned out to be false and they risked the wrath of Mosley's formidable team of lawyers if they were to speak out of turn.

Now that it is clear that this is no hoax, and it really was good ol' Max strapped to that torture bench, key people are beginning to pipe up. Firstly Bernie suggested that it perhaps wouldn't be best for Max to be at this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix, is it would bring the wrong kind of media attention to the sporting event. Then shortly after it was revealed by The Times that the decision has been taken out of Max's hands anyway, as the Crown Prince of Bahrain Sheikh Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa has written to Mr Mosley saying that he is not welcome in Bahrain this weekend anyway.

Perhaps seeing that Mosley was on the ropes after that blow from the Crown Prince, four of the biggest teams in F1 have gone in for the kill. Firstly the two big German manufacturers BMW and Mercedes-Benz released a joint statement saying that the consequences of Mosley's "disgraceful" actions, "extend far beyond the motor sport industry." Whilst they may not have said it in so many words, what they are saying is that if Max were to stay in office it would be catastrophic for the image of World Motorsport, and that they would no longer want to be a part of anything that Max is in charge of. Effectively, either he walks or we walk.

Seconds out, Round 2...

In step the Japanese. Both Honda and Toyota released their own separate statements on the matter, with both saying roughly the same sort of thing. The crux of the issue for the manufacturers is that the scandal surrounding Mosley inevitably draws massive negative publicity onto the whole sport and its participants. They are demanding that the FIA "takes action" to stop the rot. The only conceivable action that could alleviate the crisis is, of course, the immediate resignation of Max Mosley.

Whilst some of the sport's biggest teams are yet to step in, notably McLaren, Ferrari and Williams, the fact that it is the actual manufacturers and not the teams that is most damaging to Mosley and the FIA. The big manufacturers tend to be the ones with the most money and the most influence rather than the teams themselves, and BMW, Mercedes, Honda and Toyota are four of the biggest and most influential manufacturers on the planet. The FIA does NOT want to get on the wrong side of them! Perhaps the most significant step in all of this is that those most bitter of arch rivals BMW and Mercedes decided to release a statement together, not separately. If that isn't a signal of intent then I don't know what is.

Now even young hotshots Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton have had something to say about the issue. Whilst being careful not to say too much in direct relation to Mosley, when asked whether they agreed with Honda's statement regarding people carrying out their duties with "integrity and respect," they both talked about the importance of people in the public eye "setting a good example."

Apparently in response to the statements made by the sport's big money teams, the FIA this afternoon released a statement saying that an Extraordinary General Assembly of the FIA Senate has been called, and will take place at the earliest possible date.

The referee is standing above Mosley, beginning his 10-count. Can Mosley drag himself up off the canvas after this? Read more!

Auf Wiedersehen, Max?

FIA supremo Max Mosley has apparently been filmed engaging in a five hour bondage torture session in a private S&M chamber with a group of prostitutes! And this wasn't just your average, run of the mill bondage marathon. Ohhhhhh no. This one involved Nazi death camp roleplay! You simply couldn't make it up!

I'll spare you the full graphic details, you can read for yourself by clicking the link below if you have the stomach for it. But to put it briefly, he plays the role of both torturer and prisoner throughout the debacle, speaking in German through much of it. He was flogged so hard his backside needed medical attention at one point, before taking turns at spanking a series of prostitutes dressed in 'prison camp' uniforms.

Clearly this is appalling to say the least. However, some of you may not know the full context to these revelations. Max Mosley is the son of the notorious Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s and a close personal friend of Adolf Hitler. Oswald Mosley was imprisoned during the war for his extreme views and his close personal ties with the Nazi party (indeed, Hitler and Goebbels were both guests at his wedding to Max's mother Diana Mitford), and his name is still to this day a by-word for extreme Fascism in the UK. Max has fought a constant battle to disassociate himself from his father's legacy, claiming that (quite rightly) a man should never be judged on the actions of his father. In fairness, he has been very successful in this. Up until now that is!

Now, Max Mosley has never been the most popular chap in the world of motorsport, often courting controversy with his single-minded authoritarian approach to ruling the sport. However, he has remained in charge for well over a decade and has many supporters who defend him by comparing his reign to that of his predecessor Jean Balestre, who was the most unpopular figure ever to hold the position. This controversy, though, will make anything else Mosley has faced in his career seem like a storm in a teacup. It is impossible to see him being able to continue in his role after these disclosures. Whether you now view him now as a figure of hate, or one merely of ridicule for his depraved actions, his position is in all probability untenable.

Link to the hideousness. WARNING: there are pictures and even a video, and they are NOT pretty! - News of the World article

An interesting perspective on how this had all come about relates back to the last big controversy that Mosley has had to deal with, the McLaren 'Spygate' scandal. Towards the end of 2007 Max Mosley announced that he was pursuing legal action against prominent F1 reporter Martin Brundle and The Times newspaper after an article by the former F1 ace published in the paper was critical of the way that Mosley handled the affair (see here for more). Mosley was openly furious that Brundle had presented him as being the leader of a witch hunt against the McLaren team. However, scratch the surface a little and we see that The Times newspaper is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International and News Corporation. The News of the World is also part of the News International stable.

Knowing the, ahem, aggressive tactics of News International in the many, many legal actions they have contested over the years, it is not too great a leap of faith to imagine they would have been digging very hard to dish some kind of dirt on Mosley. It is often the best way to avoid such cases ever reaching court and getting messy. Judging by the way things have been filmed it just screams 'set up'. Max Mosley has taken the bait, been lured into the trap, and has given News International the jackpot they have been digging for!

I often feel a little bit of sympathy for the footballers and celebrities that end up getting ensnared by these little tabloid traps, but for some strange reason I'm not the least bit sympathetic! It couldn't have happened to a nicer person! Read more!

Performance Related Pay

It has been reported in various news outlets that if McLaren's Lewis Hamilton wins two consecutive World Championships, Ron Dennis will personally hand over the keys to the one and only McLaren F1 LM prototype that currently has pride of place at the company's Woking headquarters.

There appears to be some conflict as to the terms of the deal he shook on with Dennis. F1 Racing magazine are reporting that he must win the driver's title for the next two years running to claim his new toy, while that bastion of journalistic integrity The Sun are claiming that if McLaren win both drover an constructor titles this year then the keys are his. The former would seem to make more sense to me, as it would hardly be fair for Hamilton to receive the award for the constructor's title given that it winning that title will likely have just as big a contribution from Heikki Kovalainen. Or Felipe Massa, whichever way you choose to look at it...

Only five customer LMs were ever built, all sold pretty much instantly. The sixth car, the McLaren Orange prototype, is the only other car of its type in existence and as such has an estimated value of $4,000,000 US. That's quite some performance bonus! Especially considering he is estimated to be earning something in the region of £10,000,000 per year as a basic salary, and that's before you take into account the bonus pocket money his contract stipulates he will earn for each point, each race victory etc. And then of course there'll be the myriad multi-million dollar sponsorship and endorsement deals...

Yep, he's one lucky, lucky boy alright.
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The Six Million Dollar Driver

In response to Ron Dennis' comments in the press this week about having to "rebuild" Heikki Kovalainen after his Renault experience had left him broken and disillusioned, I have decided to crack out my MS Paint skillz for the world to see. Yes, you guessed it folks, Heikki Kovalainen IS the Six Million Dollar Man! But in all seriousness, it has been a rough couple of days for Renault in the media for a number of reasons...

Whilst public boosting the confidence of his new driver Heikki Kovalainen, Ron Dennis was undoubtedly having a sly dig at the Finn's former employers. He was quoted as saying of Heikki's time at Renault, "It is a story about how this guy lost his motivation and was misguided in how he should go about his physical preparation." In other words, Renault treats its drivers like crap.

That's something that I'm certain Renault will be rather annoyed to have brought out into the public domain. F1 teams pride themselves on being at the cutting edge of every facet of performance, from the cars right down to the sack of bones and organs that pilot them. McLaren in particular like to make a song and dance about how they lead the way. The revelation that Kovalainen came to them demoralised and unfit suggests that Renault are falling someway behind their competitors in driver preparation, and their results on the track make it clear for us all to see that they have fallen behind in terms of car performance.

One man who was all too keen to swap the ultra high-tech surroundings of McLaren for the more parochial surroundings of Renault was of course Fernando Alonso. The fact that their prodigal son had returned to the fold was a massive coup for the French team. However, their star driver has also been having something of a backhanded dig at the Renault team.

He has been openly talking up the prospect of a move to Ferrari after seeing the superb pace of the Scuderia in Malaysia, and the abject performance of Felipe Massa. There could be a seat available in Maranello in the not too distant future, and Alonso is throwing his hat into the ring nice and early. This does not shine too favourably on his current employers as it seems he is giving up on their chances after just two races and wants out, publicly revealing the fact that he has an escape clause in his contract should he want to move somewhere more appealing.

Bad news for Renault, but I'm not sure what Alonso will actually be achieving through this action. We all know he's a fantastic driver, one of the best around. The only question mark currently hangs over his ability to work effectively within a team, or his complete lack of that ability I should say! Publicly stating that you think your new team is incapable of challenging, and that he wants to bail on his contract will only fuel the tabloid characterisation of Alonso as a spoilt brat, who throws his toys out of the pram when he doesn't get his own way.

I'm not convinced Ferrari will be knocking on his door begging him for his services any time soon, especially with such exceptional young talent out their like Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica... Read more!

Malaysian Grand Prix Race Review

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen today hit back in the second race of the season with a crushing display in the tenth running of the Malaysian Grand Prix. It was a great response from the World Champion after an uncharacteristically scrappy race last weekend, and Ferrari showed today that they have pace in abundance. It was something of a role reversal from Melbourne as this time it was McLaren's turn to struggle all weekend long. The weekend wasn't a total loss as they recovered to a third and fifth place for Kovalainen and Hamilton respectively, helped in part by Felipe Massa's apparent ineptitude without traction control, but they were a long way off the pace of the Ferraris and were only really on pace with the BMWs and Toyotas. Robert Kubica put in probably the drive of the day to secure second spot on the podium, and was the only man even vaguely close to the Ferrari's pace throughout the race, showing that BMW are genuinely capable of living with the big boys at the front.

Off the start line pole-sitter Massa and Raikkonen both got away well and were neck and neck on the long run down to the first corner. Massa just managed to squeeze out Kimi and was free to lead from the front for the first stint of the race. Behind them there were surprisingly few real dramas through the first couple of turns. Those tricky corners are notorious for being car breakers as 22 cars go piling in there 3 abreast, but remarkably everyone got through unscathed. Lewis Hamilton was the big winner in the first corner shake up. He took the long route around the outside of 1, then dove past Alonso into 2, and as others dithered he emerged in fifth spot, a gain of four places. BMW's Nick Heidfeld was the big loser as he plummeted from fifth all the way down to tenth, completely ruining his strategy for the race. Replays showed that he came into light contact with Trulli in turn 1.

Sebastien Bourdais couldn't repeat his heroics from last week as he dropped it in turn 4, becoming the first retirement of the race. The other hero-to-zero performance today was Nico Rosberg. He took a remarkable podium last weekend but this time out he put his front wing into a gap that wasn't there and had it taken off by Timo Glock's rear wheel. This ended Glock's race and spoilt what little chance Rosberg had of points.

As the Ferrari's cruised off into the distance the best little battle of the race was shaping up in the midfield. Fernando Alonso was all over the back of David Coulthard's Red Bull with Heidfeld closing rapidly on the pair of them. Alonso had a couple of looks at the back of Coulthard, then decided to make his move on the long back straight down toward turn 15. DC went defensive, forcing Alonso to the outside. Heidfeld could smell blood and he picked up a great tow to get alongside both of them up the inside. They entered the braking zone for the final turn 3-wide, but Heidfeld had the line and took two places in one fell swoop. Coulthard found himself the meat in the sandwich and ended up losing out to Alonso too, as the Renault got better traction out of the final turn.

At the sharp end of the race the McLarens were struggling to make an impact on the race. Hamilton couldn't really get onto the back of Webber and Trulli seemed to be keeping Kovalainen comfortably at bay. Kubica in third was showing decent pace as he went out into third all on his own. He ended up having a pretty uneventful day and we didn't really see much of him on the screens, but the timing screens showed that he was putting in an excellent performance.

With the first pitstops looming Hamilton finally began to get to grips with his McLaren and was all over the back of Webber's Red Bull before the Australian came tearing into the pits at break-neck speed. This freed Hamilton up to set about putting himself into a position to challenge for the final podium spot. The Ferrari's both pitted within a couple of laps of each other, first Massa then Kimi. Kimi clearly made the extra couple of laps count as he emerged from his stop ahead of the young Brazilian and was now in the box seat to take the race victory. Then came one of the big moments of the race as things went horribly wrong for Hamilton in his first stop. There was a mystery problem with his right front wheel, as the wheel cover didn't appear to detach cleanly. Whether it was a problem with the wheel cover itself or the gun we will have to wait and see, but either way his stop lasted almost 20 seconds and undid all of the hard work that he had done in the first stint. Also the right front wheel cover was not fixed properly and was rotating with the wheel instead of remaining stationary. This may have caused Hamilton some troubles with the airflow around the front of the car, and possibly some cooling issues with the front right brake.

Heikki Kovalainen was now the lead McLaren after the stops, with Hamilton again queued up behind Webber with Heidfeld on his tail. McLaren caught their only break of the day thanks to Felipe Massa. Somehow he managed to spin his Ferrari on the exit of turn 8 whilst chasing his teammate. It looked like he may have just given it too much right foot and lost traction, but it is highly unusual to see a loss of traction in such a high speed, high downforce corner. He may have had some kind of failure at the rear of his car to save his blushes, but either way he is leaving the first two races without a single point to his name. Kovalainen was now on for podium spot with Kubica promoted into second, and that is how they ended the race.

Takuma Sato had a excursion across the gravel during this phase in what was a pretty scrappy race for the Japanese, and then the second round of pitstops were upon us. Everyone near the front had clean pitstops this time, with Hamilton and Heidfeld both managing to jump Webber who was unlucky to get caught up behind the recovering Sato on his outlaps. Webber's battle was now with Fernando Alonso's Renault.

At first Hamilton was unable to make any inroads on Trulli's advantage and seemed to be stuck battling with Heidfeld, but slowly but surely the harder tyres came to Hamilton and he set about a last gasp charge to try and rescue another championship point by taking Trulli. He was setting his fastest laps of the race at this point and was catching Trulli hand over fist, but he just ran out of laps with Trulli holding on to beat Lewis by the narrowest of margins. None of this was of much interest to the guys at the front as Raikkonen had his foot off the gas for the majority of the final stint and cruised home for a flawless victory, and arguably the easiest 10 points he will ever have earned. Kubica crossed the line a creditable 20 seconds behind him in P2, with Kovalainen a similar distance behind him in third. Webber held off Alonso for seventh, and Coulthard kept Button at bay for ninth after Button went careering across the grass late on.

So Ferrari have finally converted their winter testing pace into consistent race pace, and that will be a very worrying sight for McLaren, BMW and everyone else on the grid. If they carry on with so much pace then they are going to be hard to catch. It's just fortunate for the others that Felipe Massa appears incapable of finishing a race at the moment as that leaved McLaren still with a healthy lead in both championships. However, they clearly have their work cut out for them before Bahrain, as at this rate they may be battling BMW for best-of-the-rest honours if Ferrari continue to show such dominance.

Provisional Race Result

1. Raikkonen
2. Kubica
3. Kovalainen
4. Trulli
5. Hamilton
6. Heidfeld
7. Webber
8. Alonso
9. Coulthard
10. Button
11. Piquet
12. Fisichella
13. Barrichello
14. Rosberg
15. Davidson
16. Sato
17. Nakajima
Ret Vettel
Ret Massa
Ret Sutil
Ret Glock
Ret Bourdais Read more!