Fernando Alonso leads Ferrari one-two in Bahrain

BBC Sport in Bahrain

Fernando Alonso led Felipe Massa to a stunning Ferrari one-two
after the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel hit trouble at the season-opening Bahrain
Grand Prix.
Alonso trailed the German from the start but swept by as the Red Bull
suffered suspected exhaust problems.
Massa followed the Spaniard past on the next lap and Lewis Hamilton benefited
from Vettel's problem to take third.
Vettel eventually finished fourth, holding off the Mercedes pair of Nico
Rosberg and Michael Schumacher.
On his return after three years in retirement, the seven-time world champion
was in better form in the race than he had been in qualifying.

Coming back to the top of the podium is always special and it's even more special with Ferrari Fernando Alonso

But Schumacher was unable to keep pace with team-mate Rosberg in the early
stages of the race and spent the afternoon holding off the faster McLaren of
Jenson Button.
The reigning champion finished seventh ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber, with
the Force India of Vitantonio Liuzzi and Rubens Barrichello's Williams taking
the final points under the new scoring system in ninth and 10th.
On the evidence of this race, Button faces a tough battle to hold on to his
crown, with McLaren unable to match the pace of the Ferraris and Red Bulls.
Vettel had taken an impressive pole position on Saturday and appeared to have
the race under control as he inched away from Alonso in the early stages of the
race.
But eventually the reliability troubles that had blighted the team's
pre-season preparation, and their practice running here on Friday, bit them
again.



Vettel frustrated by mechanical failure

Vettel said: "It's a pity, but what can you do?
"Overall it's a positive. We were one of the quickest, we had very good
control of the race and were on top of the strategy.
"Everything was running smoothly. Luckily we could continue and finish fourth
but we should have won, really.
"It seemed to kind of recover at the end but it wasn't great and it cost us a
lot. The points are still important."
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted: "It's very annoying, we
really had the race comfortably under control there.
"It's frustrating, we are not sure whether it was an exhaust failure or an
electrical issue that caused the power loss, the problem was slightly
intermittent, so we need to get the car back to understand it.
Alonso passed Massa, who started one place ahead of him in second, around the
outside of Turn One at the start, but he could not initially keep pace with the
Red Bull.
Vettel built up a lead of 5.5 seconds over the Ferrari before his sole pit
stop on lap 15, a lap before the double world champion.
By lap 18, Alonso had the lead down to 3.5secs and, although he edged closer,
by lap 28 Vettel's advantage was still 2.4secs.
Two laps later, though, Alonso was just 1.1secs behind. The Spaniard lost a
second on the next lap as his car struggled in the turbulence behind the Red
Bull, but the prospects of a thrilling battle for the lead were dashed on lap 33
when Vettel's car suddenly started to sound rough and Alonso swept by on the
penultimate straight on lap 34.



Bahrain win 'special' for
Alonso

Alonso said: "I had some pace in the pocket at that time of the race but I
was just concentrating to manage the tyres.
"I was waiting for the time to attack, maybe for the last 10 laps, but
suddenly Vettel had a car problem and we had the chance to overtake him a little
earlier than expected.
"He was very quick, especially on the soft tyres and I could not follow him,
but on the hard tyres we were better. It's difficult to know (what would have
happened if Vettel had not had his problem)."
Massa followed Alonso through at the start of the next lap and the Ferraris
controlled the race from then on.
The two men appeared closely matched before Vettel's exhaust trouble,
although Alonso always seemed to have Massa under control, extending the gap
again whenever the Brazilian closed in a little.
As the race ran to a conclusion Alonso built a lead of more than 14 seconds,
as Massa was instructed to save fuel.

ANDREW BENSON ON TWITTER Incredibly impressive performance by Alonso and Ferrari - shame the battle between him and Vettel was cut short

It was nevertheless a formidable performance by the man many are tipping to
win a third world title this season.
"It's a special day for me," said Alonso. "Coming back to the top of the
podium is always special and it's even more special with Ferrari, with all the
history behind the team and the expectations a driver has driving for Ferrari.

"There is no better way to start the relationship. I am in the best team in
the world.
"We did nothing today, only won the first grand prix, but it is a good start.
I'm very optimistic for the rest of the season."
Massa said: "I didn't have a good start and I lost an important position in
the first corner.
"The race was perfect for me, the car was perfect. I was able to catch
Fernando easily after the stops.
"Then I started to have temperature problems and we were worried about the
fuel consumption, so I started to save fuel and there was nothing to do any
more. I was lucky that Vettel had his problem."
Hamilton and McLaren had been off the pace in qualifying but appeared much
more competitive in the race.
He spent the first stint trapped behind Rosberg but, once past him at the pit
stops, the Englishman was able to keep pace with the Ferraris - if not close the
11-second gap.



Massa wants improvements to Ferrari car (UK only)

Nevertheless, it was an encouraging performance from McLaren after they had
been more than a second adrift of Vettel and Massa in qualifying.
"I had quite a good race," said Hamilton. "But I lost a bit of ground at Turn
Four and Rosberg got past me.
"I was held up behind him for the first half of the race - I was much faster
but it's very difficult to follow here while trying to look after your tyres.

"If I was ahead of him I may have been able to follow the train Ferrari were
creating. It's more than we expected this weekend and we need to continue to
push to keep up with Ferrari."
Button, stuck behind Schumacher for much of the race, was unable to show his
true pace.
"I caught up with Schumacher but I couldn't do anything behind him," Button
told BBC Sport.

606: DEBATE Alonso didn't really do much to win this race Red_5

"I didn't have enough pace in the middle section to stay with him and have a
go at him in the last section.
"The tyres seemed to be holding pretty well - they were better than I
thought. It's a good first race, I'm reasonably happy with that."
Schumacher matched Rosberg's pace after their pit stops but he remains a long
way from the imperious form he showed as he racked up a record 91 victories in
his first stint from 1991-2006.
Lotus won the battle of the new teams by virtue of lasting the race, which
the cars of Virgin and Hispania did not.
The Virgin of Timo Glock was leading that private race but it retired with
gearbox trouble and left Heikki Kovalainen to lead home team-mate Jarno Trulli
at the back of the field.
Bahrain Grand Prix

RaceLast updated: 14 Mar 2010 14:18 UK
PositionCountryDriverRace Time

1	spain	F Alonso	1:39:20.396
2	brazil	F Massa	1:39:36.495
3	great britain	L Hamilton	1:39:43.578
4	germany	S Vettel	1:39:59.195
5	germany	N Rosberg	1:40:00.609
6	germany	M Schumacher	1:40:04.559
7	great britain	J Button	1:40:05.676
8	australia	M Webber	1:40:06.756
9	italy	V Liuzzi	1:40:13.404
10	brazil	R Barrichello	1:40:22.885

(from BBC)

Bernie and Jean have managed to undo all the improvements of the last few years to create the most tedious and dull sporting event.

I won't be in a hurry to wear out my TV on this dross again.

A pointless procession, the only excitement was Vettel havng a cracked exhaust.
I wish the teams had carried out their threat to start another series last year.
We coud have had the best drivers racing the best possible machines, which was what F1 was supposed to be until Bernie and Max started fiddling.