Another good race imo. Great to see Kimi back on the podium once more.

Ferrari/Alonso did well to keep the car in the top 10 today.

Wondering what penalty, if any, will attach itself to Rosbergs race.

Now we have a 3 week wait for the next GP Although I'm sure they will televise the testing at Mugello in May. (I think it's at Mugello).

I'll update the Fantasy F1 asap.

That's the first time I've enjoyed a race on that circuit - in the past it has produced deathly dull races. They really seem to have finally got the rules just right in F1 regarding tyres and DRS and achieved a delicate balance between letting a good driver show and not making overtaking too easy.

A great crop of drivers this year - and Raikonnen showed he's still got it in him.

Quite apart from the technical issue with his wheelnuts I thought McLaren once again let Hamilton down on strategy - whether that was his call or not - to bring him in a lap later than Button for his first stop even though he was ahead and his tyres were shot.

Rosberg was way over-aggressive and lucky Hamilton and Alonso are so experienced that they both avoided a stratospheric collision with him on separate occasions - I hope success hasn't gone to his head.

Watched the bbc highlights. Great race - great to see Kimi and Lotus on the podium...

Fantasy F1 scores after the Bahrain GP

1. ChrashTestDummies....................2122
2. Emonso Sucks..............................2001
3. Saintly Speeders...........................1943
4. Pooh's Warriors ............................1873
5. SAMCRO.......................................1866
6. Cangaroo.......................................182 2
7. Poisonous Monkey's......................1797
8. Team Pro.......................................1726
9. Insomniac Annonymous................1678
10. Mirfield Minicabs............................1625
11. Wild Thangz...................................1592

Only one change this week. SAMCRO takes 5th place from Cangaroo.

Old scores:

1. ChrashTestDummies....................1650
2. Emonso Sucks..............................1623
3. Saintly Speeders...........................1547
4. Pooh's Warriors ............................1484
5. Cangaroo.......................................145 2
6. SAMCRO.......................................1407
7. Poisonous Monkey's......................1289
8. Team Pro.......................................1251
9. Insomniac Annonymous................1223
10. Mirfield Minicabs............................1190
11. Wild Thangz...................................1145

Am I the only one to notice that Mark Webber has come in fourth in every race this season, so far? I haven't read anything about this laudable consistency anywhere in the media.

With the podium positions being juggled freely about, he has risen to third in the Driver's Championship standings. At this rate, he could become the first World Champion not to win a single podium all year ...

Another bit of "news" here. It seems like Mark Webber will be going to Ferrari next year for at least a 1 year contract to replace Massa until Perez is deemed skilled enough to join them.

http://www.planetf1.com/driver/18227...Perez-stop-gap-

I hate these long breaks from F1. Nice to be back within a few days of the race.

Here is the Spanish GP timetable:

All times are local (Spain is GMT +2)

Thursday 10 May
15:00: FIA press conference

Friday 11 May
10:00 - 11:30: First free practice
14:00 - 15:30: Second free practice
18:30: FIA press conference

Saturday 12 May
11:00 - 12:00: Third free practice
14:00 - 15:00: Qualifying
15h00: FIA post qualifying press conference

Sunday 13 May
14:00 - 16:00: Spanish GP
16:00: FIA post race press conference

Spanish GP Info
No of Laps: 66
Race Distance: 307.104 km
Lap Record: 1:21.670 - K Raikkonen (2008)
2010 Winner: S Vettel (Red Bull)

And the bets are on ...

1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. M. Webber / Red Bull
5. ?

Says it all really

Update. Hammy is now last, Maldonado is now on Pole.

Qualifying Results:

Times
01 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:22.285 0.578 14 laps
02 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:22.302 0.595 15 laps
03 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:22.424 0.717 14 laps
04 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 1:22.487 0.780 13 laps
05 Sergio Perez Sauber 1:22.533 0.826 14 laps
06 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:23.005 1.298 17 laps
07 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 14 laps
08 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 15 laps
09 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 14 laps
10 Jenson Button McLaren 1:22.944 0.060 13 laps
11 Mark Webber Red Bull 1:22.977 0.093 8 laps
12 Paul di Resta Force India 1:23.125 0.241 14 laps
13 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:23.177 0.293 13 laps
14 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:23.265 0.381 11 laps
15 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:23.442 0.558 11 laps
16 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:23.444 0.560 12 laps
17 Bruno Senna Williams 1:24.981 2.398 8 laps
18 Vitaly Petrov Caterham 1:25.277 2.694 8 laps
19 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 1:25.507 2.924 8 laps
20 Charles Pic Marussia 1:26.582 3.999 8 laps
21 Timo Glock Marussia 1:27.032 4.449 8 laps
22 Pedro de la Rosa HRT 1:27.555 4.972 6 laps
23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT 1:31.122 8.539 4 laps
24 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:21.707 17 laps

Was Hammy told to slow down and stop to conserve fuel or was it an actual problem at the end of Quali.
He'll be pissed if McLaren are messing about.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/18047760

Well I didn't expect that to happen.

Hammy stripped of pole (thanks McLaren) and sent to the back for being underweight during Q3.

"Although McLaren pleaded that the shortage had been caused by a fuel-rig fault and had not influenced the result of qualifying, with Hamilton heading the field by over half a second, the stewards have declared that the team were responsible for the error."

"As the amount of fuel put into the car is under complete control of the Competitor the Stewards cannot accept this as a case of force majeure," they ruled. As a result, Hamilton has been excluded from qualifying and demoted to the back of the grid while Williams' Pastor Maldonado is promoted to pole

http://www.planetf1.com/news/3213/77...or-Rule-Breach

Looks like he took a risk and it didn't work since the competitor has control over the decision. Looks like they tried to outsmart the pack by being light on fuel explaining the extra speed.

Took a risk and now he is paying the price, nice result

McLaren say it was a fault with the fueling rig.

Penalty seems a bit harsh. Especially as it was the teams F'up not his.

Why not:

1/ Add 0.5 secs to this time, which would be enough for around 10 laps of fuel
2/ Discount his fastest time
3/ Disocunt his Q3 and put him 10th

He complete not just one but two timed laps in Q3. No other driver did this. Some did not even do 1 !!!!

Agreed. it seems harsh to penalise him for theteam feck up. But they didnt come out with their hands held up, instead they made up this and that.
Sorry Hammy, but McLaren stiffed you again

Fantasy F1 scores before the Spanish GP

1. ChrashTestDummies....................2122
2. Emonso Sucks..............................2001
3. Saintly Speeders...........................1943
4. Pooh's Warriors ............................1873
5. SAMCRO.......................................1866
6. Cangaroo.......................................182 2
7. Poisonous Monkey's......................1797
8. Team Pro.......................................1726
9. Insomniac Annonymous................1678
10. Mirfield Minicabs............................1625
11. Wild Thangz...................................1592

Scores after the Spanish GP:

1. SAMCRO.......................................2902
2. Saintly Speeders............................2493
3. Emonso Sucks...............................2465
4. Mirfield Minicabs............................2445
5. Chrash TesdtDummies..................2420
6. Cangaroo.......................................238 8
7. Poohs Warriors..............................2289
8. Team Pro.......................................2264
9. Poisonous Monkey's......................2166
10. Wild Thangz...................................2072
11. Imsomniac Anonymous..................2000

Lot's of changes to this weeks scores. All hail our new leader SAMCRO

Also, SAMCRO is now 18th in the full Fantasy F1 league. Well done.

All times are local (Monaco is GMT +2)

Wednesday 22 May
15:00: FIA press conference

Thursday 24 May
10:00 - 11:30: First free practice
14:00 - 15:30: Second free practice
18:30: FIA press conference

Saturday 26 May
11:00 - 12:00: Third free practice
14:00 - 15:00: Qualifying
15h00: FIA post qualifying press conference

Sunday 27 May
14:00 - 16:00: Monaco GP
16:00: FIA post race press conference

Monaco GP Info
No of Laps: 78
Race Distance: 260.520 km
Lap Record: 1:14.439 - M Schumacher (2004)
2011 Winner: S Vettel (Red Bull

cant wait for weekend for another race. I think Lotus wins this one. They are the only team that is consistent right now.

Hope it will be a good weekend. All broadcast on the BBC in Glorius HD. Will be wathicng the FP sessions too.

Would be interesting if Lotus or Sauber won that would be 6 different cars in 6 races.

However I'd like McLaren to have a clean weekend and Lewis to get it but I have a strange feeling that won't happen. He could get pole but then something will go wrong.

These tyres make it a lottery.

so who can see lewis leaving mclaren at the end of the season? they do seem to be making a hell of a lot of 'mistakes' with him and his car

I don't get this tyre lottery talk at all, before we had re-fueling drivers managed to make a set of boots last the whole race, so had to manage them, they should really spice things up again and ban quick release wheels so a tyre change takes at least 30 seconds, get back to the old days, you only come in if you have a puncture etc