At last! That's how I felt about the new qualifying system. At last we saw action on the track. Don't get me wrong, for a F1 enthusiast like me, the one car qualifying was also interesting, but for most spectators it's surely more exciting to watch a track full of cars. And it was exciting.
First quarter was interupted due to a crash by Kimi Räikkönen. His left rear suspension broke, taking the rear wing with it. Due to the debris on the track the session was temporarly interupted (4min 34 s before the end) At 14:19 Bahrain time the qualifying was continiued and every driver drove out of the pits. Ralf Schumacher was a victim of the traffic, only driving the 17th best time and thus forced to stay in pits for the next sessions (due to the new qualifying regulations).
As expected also the Super Aguris and the Midlands failed to be under the 16 best.

The second session of 15 min was a little less actionfull but also exciting. What showed up in the winter tests proved to be right: Toyota is too slow at the moment, Jarno Trulli only took place 14. Surely a big disappointment for them.

For the last session the resting teams (10 of them) had to put in their race fuel amount (also due to the new regulations). So what did they do? Well they drove as many laps as possible just to burn their fuel, and in the last minustes they took new tyres to get a fast lap. Michael Schumacher took the pole, Felippe Massa the 2nd place. So you can say that Ferrari is back, at least in the qualifying. the world champion Fernando alonse only took 4th place but the times of the top drivers are all very close. Williams, BMW Sauber
and Red Bull were also fast putting all one car in the top ten. For the race Räikkönen is surely gonna have trouble as he has to start from last place. Well
the new system for qualifying proved to be good in terms of excitement .

1. Michael Schumacher (Scuderia Ferrari) 1:31.431
2. Felippe Massa (Scuderia Ferrari) 1:31.478
3. Jenson Button (Honda) 1:31.549
4. Fernando Alonso (Renault F1) 1:31.702
5. Juan Pablo Montoya (McLaren Mercedes) 1:32.164
6. Rubens Barrichello (Honda) 1:32.579
7. Mark Webber (Williams Cosworth) 1:33.006
8. Christian Klien (Red Bull Racing) 1:33.112
9. Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault F1) 1:33.496
10. Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) 1:33.926

11. Jacques Villeneuve (BMW Sauber) 1:32.456
12. Nico Rosberg (Williams Cosworth) 1:32.620
13. David Coulthard (Red Bull Racing) 1:32.850
14. Jarno Trulli (Toyota) 1:33.066
15. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Scuderia Toro Rosso) 1:33.416
16. Scott Speed (Scuderia Toro Rosso) 1:34.606

17. Ralf Schumacher (Toyota) 1:34.702
18. Christian Albers (Midland F1) 1:35.724
19. Tiago Monteiro (Midland F1) 1:35.900
20. Yiji Ide (Super Aguri) 1:37.411
21. Takuma Sato (Super Aguri) 1:38.868
22. Kimi Räikkönen (McLaren Mercedes) no time

go Schumey

I liked it I think - got to see the cars a lot, and got to see some great driving. The TV people weren't very good at watching the right drivers as they finished their laps, or cutting to a storming lap, but they're out of practice...

I think it'll get better a few races in when the teams work out good qualifying strategies.

Well I was excited. There was never a boring minute. BTW: Update on Montoyas problems from yesterday. There was nothing wrong with the engine or engine mapping. They simply put in the wrong gear ratio. (At least that's what Norbert Haug said and he was not pleased with the comments of Montoya)

Why not post into an already opened thread on Bahrain GP? It's not necessary to make a thread on any session.

I liked it, although the last session is kinda crap imo. Just gives people who are actually at the track more car time. Watching them pootle round 5-6 seconds off the pace for 15 minutes to use fuel is NOT my idea of exciting qualifying, but it gives the spectators @ the track more for there money so...

Well Clownpaint, seems you've got a real good point there. it's true that it is non sense to waste fuel in times of such resource shortages.

Quote from LRB_Aly :

Well Clownpaint, seems you've got a real good point there. it's true that it is non sense to waste fuel in times of such resource shortages.

have to agree also.... its seems a bit silly to waste fuel but i guess we are a wastefull society who takes everything for granted.....


i am a fan of Rubino..... ok so hes never really that fast but hes just great.. hope he gets the first honda win instead of Button!!

but deep down a Schumey fan

mad

I think there should be just two threads per race. One pre race containing all the info about pratise and quali and another just for the race. ?

Yes, well I reported on the practice as this is the first race. But in future I will only make two reports: Quali (included in this pre qual news) and race. But what shall I do with the report of this race?

Is this Schuey taking aim at another car?

sorry, couldnt resist that one!

First 15 minutes where the best especially when they all clammered to get out of the pits with alonso not even setting a time yet but ended up fastest of that session (heart in your mouth stuff when your a fan of alonso). As for wasting fuel i'd say the lack of laps they did on friday to save their 7 tire sets for the weekend equals it out in the end (even though they are essectially wasting the fuel on purpose) but even though its nice seeing them on low fuel for qualy having the top 10 running on race fuel and the other 12 on whatever fuel they want will make the stratagies for the race mix things up *crosses fingers*. As for the ferrari's i think montoya got it perfect when he said something like "I expect them to do that pace for about 5 laps before having to pit". alonso vs. button this year i've been predicting.

Schumey looks like sloth from the goonies in that pic tbh

Due to results of the poll I'm posting the race results here.

What a race, a real great start of the 2006 F1 Championship. Exciting 'til the end.

But lets see what happened:

At the beginning Tiago Monteiro had to start from the pits.
The start itself was very good for both Ferraris but Alonso was better. But as Massa blocked him, he couldn't overtake.

Nico Rosberg was involved in a little skirmish and due to this he had to pit in lap1.

What was very nice to see, the 2 Honda drivers fought themselfes, something that you didn't see often in the last years. Normally you see that 2 team mates have something like a non attack agreement.
Also the 2 Red Bull teams (RBR, STR) fought against each other.

On lap 2 Ide got a drive through penalty cause his mechanics didn't leave the starting grid in time.

In lap 7 Alonse had a very lucky moment: Massa oversteered during the braking for turn 1 driftet past Alonso, Alonso was very lucky that Massa didn't run into him.
Due to flatspots on the tyres Massa had to pit the next lap, probably this is a very disapointing race for him.

First pit of Michael Schumacher was on lap 15, Alonso took the lead, Schumacher left the pits as 4th.

3 laps later Alonso had to pit leaving the 1st position to Montoya and exiting after Schumacher.

Bad luck for Fisichella, he had to abandon with hydraulic problems on lap 22.

In lap 30 Räikkönen took his one and only pitstop.
Also in lap 30 Jacques Villeneuves engine blew.

This was a very exciting phase of the race, Alonso chased Schumacher, never letting him take too much gap.
Lap 35: Schumacher 2nd stop, Alonso was retarded by slower cars at that moment. No one knew if he could drive enough time out to stay in front of Schumacher.
19 laps before the end Alonso took his 2nd stop, and it was a very close call, when he left the pitlane he and Schumacher drove into the 1st turn side by side, but alonso could defend his position.

The last laps were very exciting, we saw nice fights, like Rosberg against Coulthard and Rosberg against Klien (very good performance from Rosberg). But also Michael Schumacher tried to get Alonso but eventually Alonso took the win for his team.

Räikkönen, after an impressive drive from last place became 3rd.

Noteworthy is that most cars had no technical problems, there were only 4 abandons.

Toyota had a disapointing performance and they are surely have some work to do on their cars.

Well I think we saw a very good race with many fights on the track and it was never boring.


Results:

1. Fernando Alonso (Renault F1) 1:29:46.206
2. Michael Schumacher (Scuderia Ferrari) + 1.246
3. Kimi Räikkönen (McLaren Mercedes) + 19.360
4. Jenson Button (Honda) + 19.992
5. Juan Pablo Montoya (McLaren Mercedes) + 37.048
6. Mark Webber (Williams Cosworth) + 41.932
7. Nico Rosberg (Williams Cosworth) + 1:03.043
8. Chrisitan Klien (Red Bull Racing) + 1:06.771
9. Felippe Massa (Scuderia Ferrari) + 1:09.907
10. David Coulthard (Red Bull Racing) + 1:15.541
11. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Scuderia Toro Rosso) + 1:25.997
12. Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) + 1 lap
13. Scott Speed (Scuderia Toro Rosso) + 1 lap
14. Ralf Schumacher (Toyota) + 1 lap
15. Rubens Barrichello (Honda) + 1 lap
16. Jarno Trulli (Toyota) + 1 lap
17. Tiago Monteiro (Midland F1) + 2 laps
18. Takuma Sato (Super Aguri) + 4 laps

Abandons:

19. Yiji Ide (Super Aguri) + 20 laps
20. Jacques Villeneuve (BMW Sauber) + 28 laps (engine)
21. Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault F1) + 36 laps (hydraulics)
22. Christian Albers (Midland F1) + 57 laps

I'd like to add something to Massa's case: Probably he wouldn't have lost that much on his pitstop if it hasn't been such a long one due to the problems with the rear tire. Ferraris seemed quite nervous on braking...

Again superb drive from Kimi, without Mclarens errors he would have probably won...

What happened to Montoya? Without errors and problems he lost 2 places to kimi who started from 22nd...?

And Alonso seems to be using some kind of "throttle downshift help" (At one point they showed M Schumacher's and Alonsos pedal working on the screen)

Soo, they shamelessly copied the "throttle blip on downshift"?

Quote from Hyperactive :

And Alonso seems to be using some kind of "throttle downshift help" (At one point they showed M Schumacher's and Alonsos pedal working on the screen)

I noticed that aswell but id say it seems more like schumacher having some help from his semi-auto clutch giving him max engine braking where as alonso seemed to have the clutch in for all the down shifts which is not as effective or maybe the ferrai shift's slower so it was more visable.... Talking of gear's does anyone know if williams was satisfied enough with the seamless shift gearbox's reliability to run it in the race?

As there were no news that Williams would change to the old gear system I assume that they've already used the new one in the race.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

The problem was Montoya was born with less talent than Kimi Raikkonen, which allowed Kimi to catch him and pass him. Montoya is also fatter than Raikkonen and couldn't carry as heavy a fuel load because he had to make room for all the pies.

Statement from the McLaren Mp4-21: My Montoya didn't work well

I must say I was positively surprised by McLaren (except for the qualifying problems) and by Rosberg. Me and dad placed a bet before the race on what lap Kimi's car would break to bits and we both seemed to lose

Great run by Alonso too, he's the champ. It's just a real shame that Kimi's car broke at the qualifying, imagine if he had already been at like 3rd place on the grid at the start..

For once also, McLarens pit tactic worked. They seemed to pull off a bad tactics mostly thru the whole last season.

Woot Alonso FTW! Kimi did a great job :o

NOt checked the whoel forum in a while.

Just to note, in qualy it was the right rear that broke, not the left as said in the first post.
The qualy is alot better than the single lap at least more interesting. Both the single lap and went on for roughly an hour. the new set up seemed shorter, possibly due to more things happening.

The race was great though. Rosberg - wat a suprise from him. i was amazed at his driving, he almost remind me of good ol' schuey when he joined F1. Raikkonens driving was outstanding. last to third. thats means he past all but three cars on the grid (1st 2nd, and whoever was started from pits) thats amazing. If only he had of started a big higher up the grid. ah well, such is racing i suppose.

On a last note - what connections do the drivers have. I didnt notice any lag at all.

Oh sorry you're right was the right rear. (Force Feedback was inverted in my head, just fixed it )

Quote from Greboth :

On a last note - what connections do the drivers have. I didnt notice any lag at all.

And nobody had high-nose setups illepall

But I bet Schumi was using locked rear diff...

The race was good, though it was plain stupid rule to put the last cars in quali to start the last part with full tanks (well, almost). Everyone will drive it slowly because the others may see how fast you are with more fuel load... D'oh. Though the new quali system is so much better all together.