THE DAVID COULTHARD MUSEUM
Bahrain
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| For the third race in a row a Ferrari started on the top spot on the gird but with Massa this time, not Raikkonen. Hamilton completely out-did Alonso in qualifying for second whilst the champ was forced line up fourth followed by the BMW’s of Nick Hiedfeld and Robert Kubica sitting pretty in fifth and sixth respectively. Once again a McLaren driver got the upper hand on a Ferrari at the start. Massa got away well and led into the first corner but it was Massa’s Finnish team-mate who got a bad start and saw Alonso glide on through into third place. There were no casualties of the first few corners but into turn four it appeared that Scott Speed was nudged by the Spyker of Adrian Sutil, which sent the American in turn to nudge British hope Jenson Button. Sutil managed to struggle back to the pit-lane but the race was over just as it was starting for the Brit who appeared to be struggling all weekend in a car, which is sliding further back to the last few rows of the grid. One man who survived the mayhem was DC who, after the dreadful qualifying problems, had started twenty-first managed to get up to fifteenth by lap two as the safety car was deployed for the first time this season. |
| At the front of the field the order remained the same as lap two commenced with Massa leading Hamilton, Alonso, Raikkonen, the BMW’s, Fisichella and the Red Bull of Webber completing the points. The other man to make a great start was Heikki Kovaleinen in the Renault climbing to ninth from twelfth. However, the man really on the move was ol’ DC. After getting to 15th on the first lap he got to 11th past the two Aguris and the two Williams’ by the time of his first stop. In that first stint Massa could only manage to create a gap of three seconds to Hamilton before his stop. It was Alonso’s McLaren that had dropped of the pace with a deficit of ten seconds to Massa and his tam-mate. DC, Wurz and Ralf Schumacher were the first drivers to stop on lap 18. They were quickly followed by the leaders with both McLarens and Ferrari taking on another set of soft tyres for their second stints. The main change that took place was by Raikkonen who leap-frogged Alonso’s McLaren back into the third place he started in. A poor few out-laps cost Lewis Hamilton as Massa was allowed to build a much more sizeable margin on the Brit. The last driver to pit on lap 27 was Anthony Davidson who had managed to climb to up to sixth position before his stop. However when he exited the pit he rejoined behind the train of Fisichella, Coulthard, Webber, Trulli, Rosberg, Wurz and Kovaleinen. The Brit only slid further and further back form these cars after his stop and ended suffering a similar fate to team-mate Takuma Sato and having his engine blow on lap 53. |
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| After his storming first stint DC continued on storming up the field in the run to his second stop. He took advantage of the fact that Mark Webber was having difficulties with his fuel flap and quite easily went up the inside of the Australian for eighth at the first corner. Three laps after this on lap 31 he pulled off an identical move against Fisichella to take seventh place. This was perhaps David’s most important move as it shows that Red Bull, the customer are now beating the Renault, the supplier on pace, very disconcerting for the French team. It was at this point DC was lapping just as fast as the reigning champ Alonso in the McLaren! However following the pattern of this season the inevitable happened. The Scotsman was once again blighted by bad luck and was forced to retire due to a drive shaft malfunction. A totally un-fitting end to a stunning drive by Coulthard. By lap 41 the front runners had started to make their second pit-stops and by this time Massa had a cushion of about ten seconds to Hamilton before the stop so it would have taken a grave error for Hamilton to have been able to challenge after the stop. It was Alonso’s McLaren that was in trouble though as on his out lap Nick Heidfeld put in an great move round the outside of the Spaniard to take fourth place and one more world championship point. Just after his second stop Webber in the sister Red Bull suffered an unusual spin to see him join DC on the sidelines, leaving Fisichella and Trulli to fight over the last two points positions. Back at the front though Hamilton had a reversal of fortunes as he started to close on Massa at about three quarters of a second a lap. Even though in the final few laps he did indeed keep gaining and gaining it wasn’t enough and Massa crossed line only two seconds ahead of the Brit followed by Raikkonen, Hiedfeld, Alonso, Kubica, Fisichella and Trulli. |
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| This race left the championship looking very interesting at the top with Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and after only three races Lewis Hamilton all tied at the top with 22 points. There’s no doubt in my mind that Lewis is going to win a race this year and it will probably in the first half of the season. In my opinion if Lewis’s first three races were the races of any other driver we would have said he was quite unlucky. Sato holding him in Melbourne costing him second, a difficult final stint in Malaysia prevented him from challenging Alonso and here in Bahrain a tricky middle stint also kept him from victory. In fact, I see no reason why Lewis can’t (speed wise) actually win the championship this year. Just watch this space…. |
