Daily Update Formula1 News

Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock claimed Toyota's first ever Formula 1 front row sweep as the Japanese manufacturer dominated Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying.
The result was Toyota's first pole since the 2005 Japanese GP, and came after increasingly impressive progress from the team in the opening rounds of the season.
Trulli and Glock held first and second after the early runs of Q3, and although Jenson Button (Brawn) and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) briefly pushed them down the order - fleetingly making it an all-British front row - the Toyota duo moved back to the top with their final runs.

Pole ultimately went to Trulli by 0.3 seconds, with his team-mate Glock enjoying the same margin back to third-placed Sebastian Vettel, whose excellent qualifying form for Red Bull continued.
Championship leader Button had to settle for fourth, ahead of Hamilton and Rubens Barrichello in the second Brawn.
Fernando Alonso claimed seventh for Renault, with the Ferraris in eighth and 10th - Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen split by Williams's Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton's progress actually knocked his McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen outside the Q3 cut-off, leaving him 11th, alongside Kazuki Nakajima, who was closer to Williams team-mate Rosberg than at recent races but still not quick enough for the top ten.
The BMWs will share row seven after another disappointing performance, while Renault's Nelson Piquet finally reached Q2 for the first time in 2009, only for his error at the final corner to leave him 15th.
Last week's third-place qualifier and second place finisher Mark Webber is set to start from the back row of the grid in Bahrain - but through no fault of his own.
The Red Bull was on course to easily make the Q2 cut when Webber was impeded by Adrian Sutil's at the entry to the final corner, leaving the Australian in the bottom quarter of the grid along with the Force Indias and Toro Rossos.
Sutil managed a season-best 16th, although this will be in jeopardy if the stewards opt to issue any penalties over the Webber incident.

Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:32.779 1:32.671 1:33.431
2. Glock Toyota (B) 1:33.165 1:32.613 1:33.712
3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:32.680 1:32.474 1:34.015
4. Button Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:32.978 1:32.842 1:34.044
5. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:32.851 1:32.877 1:34.196
6. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:33.116 1:32.842 1:34.239
7. Alonso Renault (B) 1:33.627 1:32.860 1:34.578
8. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:33.297 1:33.014 1:34.818
9. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:33.672 1:33.166 1:35.134
10. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:33.117 1:32.827 1:35.380
11. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:33.479 1:33.242
12. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:33.221 1:33.348
13. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:33.495 1:33.487
14. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:33.377 1:33.562
15. Piquet Renault (B) 1:33.608 1:33.941
16. Sutil Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:33.722
17. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:33.753
18. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:33.910
19. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:34.038
20. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:34.159
[AS]
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The final practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix provided a mix of emotions for Timo Glock, who set the fastest time of the weekend so far and then promptly stopped out on track with a technical problem.
The German's final flier on super-softs, a 1m32.605s, was enough to topple Lewis Hamilton's best up until that point by more than 0.3 seconds.
But on the following lap, with five minutes of the hour long session left to go, Glock's car appeared to suffer some kind of electrical fault and he was forced to coast to the side of the backstraight.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa improved to second fastest in the last minutes of the session, eclipsing this year's free practice star Nico Rosberg in the process.

Hamilton, who was fastest for much of the session, eventually tumbled down to fourth, while Kimi Raikkonen - who set the early pace - was fifth.
Nelson Piquet, who appears to be having a stronger weekend than of late, was sixth quickest ahead of BMW's Robert Kubica and Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima. Jarno Trulli didn't seem to go for a low-fuel run and ended up ninth, while Nick Heidfeld completed the top ten.
There were few incidents in the session, Heikki Kovalainen, who ended the session 12th behind Sebastian Vettel, had a throttle sensor problem early on.
Sebastien Bourdais also found himself pit-bound for much of the second half of the hour and ended practice in last place.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Glock Toyota (B) 1:32.605 16
2. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:32.728 + 0.123 20
3. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:32.906 + 0.301 18
4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:32.975 + 0.370 16
5. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:32.986 + 0.381 18
6. Piquet Renault (B) 1:33.176 + 0.571 19
7. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:33.195 + 0.590 13
8. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:33.302 + 0.697 17
9. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:33.397 + 0.792 19
10. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:33.415 + 0.810 14
11. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:33.443 + 0.838 16
12. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:33.478 + 0.873 12
13. Alonso Renault (B) 1:33.482 + 0.877 13
14. Sutil Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:33.534 + 0.929 17
15. Button Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) 1:33.586 + 0.981 17
16. Barrichello Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) 1:33.686 + 1.081 17
17. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:33.720 + 1.115 15
18. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:33.726 + 1.121 14
19. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:33.962 + 1.357 15
20. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:34.990 + 2.385 7
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Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello gave Brawn GP a stunning debut one-two in the dramatic season-opening Australian Grand Prix, which finished behind the safety car after Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica tangled while fighting for second.
Button controlled the race from the outset, while Barrichello had to recover from a poor start and two collisions - only gaining second thanks to the late crash.
Tail-end starters Jarno Trulli (Toyota), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and Timo Glock (Toyota) also benefited from the incident to emerge in surprise third, fourth and fifth places.
Trulli's podium is in dispute, however, with McLaren suggesting that the Italian re-passed Hamilton under safety car conditions after sliding off the road during the caution.
While Button surged off the line into a clear lead at the start, his team-mate Barrichello got away extremely slowly after triggering the anti-stall system, and was in the lower reaches of the top ten by the first corner.

In his eagerness to recover the lost ground, Barrichello managed to tangle with both Mark Webber's Red Bull and Nick Heidfeld's BMW, leaving the latter with a puncture and causing Webber to spin into Kovalainen - who Barrichello felt had initially triggered the incident by tapping him from behind.
While Webber sustained a broken wing, Kovalainen was eliminated and Fernando Alonso had to drive across the grass in avoidance, Barrichello escaped with a slightly mangled wing and was able to continue in seventh. He would later remove another chunk of his wing on Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari while trying to fight back.
Button quickly established a four-second lead, but Red Bull driver Vettel was able to stabilise the gap at that level. They soon enjoyed a huge margin over the rest of the field, for the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Raikkonen had used their KERS boost to charge into third and fifth at the start, split by Kubica's BMW.
These three drivers had all opted to run short first stints on the soft tyres, and as the rubber faded, they began losing up to 5s per lap to the top two. By the time they had all pitted on lap 12, new third-place man Rosberg was half a minute adrift of Button and Vettel. The Williams would lose further ground with a left front wheel problem at its first pitstop.
Button and Vettel lost their advantage when the safety car was called on lap 19 - Williams's Kazuki Nakajima having crashed on the exit of Turn 4 while running a strong fourth on a long first stint strategy.
The safety car initially picked up Vettel rather than Button, leading to an extended delay while the pack was ordered. As the pitstops unfolded, Massa had moved back up to third, but he did not get close enough to Button and Vettel at the restart to use his KERS, and soon fell back to the midfield because his short first stint on softs forced him to make a very early final pitstop before the pack had strung out again following the safety car.
Button built his lead over Vettel back up to 5s in the next stint, only to lose it all with a slow final stop - rejoining just 1.5s ahead of the Red Bull, and with Kubica only 5s behind in third and unlike the leaders now on the medium compound tyres.
Kubica rapidly closed in on the leaders and attacked Vettel on the outside into Turn 3 with three laps to go. Neither was willing to give way, and they became entangled in the corner before both crashing on the next straight as their battered suspension gave way.
That gave Button and Barrichello a Brawn one-two after all - a staggering result for a team only rescued a month ago.
Trulli, Hamilton and Glock therefore appeared in the top five, ahead of Alonso and Rosberg, the latter losing more time when Nelson Piquet spun across his bows at the mid-race restart, and then when his soft tyres faded at the end.
Sebastien Buemi drove a highly impressive race on his debut to complete the scorers for Toro Rosso.
Ferrari's race fell apart in the closing stages. Massa slowed and retired, while Raikkonen spun into the wall and broke his front wing, before also parking in the garage with three laps to go.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Australian Grand Prix
Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia;
58 laps; 307.574km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Button Brawn GP (B) 1h34:15.784
2. Barrichello Brawn GP (B) + 0.807
3. Trulli Toyota (B) + 1.604
4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 2.914
5. Glock Toyota (B) + 4.435
6. Alonso Renault (B) + 4.879
7. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 5.722
8. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 6.004
9. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 6.298
10. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) + 6.335
11. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 7.085
12. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) + 7.374
13. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 1 lap
14. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) + 2 laps
15. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) + 3 laps
16. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) + 3 laps

Fastest lap: Rosberg, 1:27.706

Not classified/retirements:

Driver Team On lap
Massa Ferrari (B) 46
Piquet Renault (B) 25
Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 18
Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1


World Championship standings, round 1:

Drivers: Constructors:
1. Button 10 1. Brawn GP 18
2. Barrichello 8 2. Toyota 10
3. Trulli 6 3. McLaren-Mercedes 5
4. Hamilton 5 4. Renault 3
5. Glock 4 5. Williams-Toyota 2
6. Alonso 3 6. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1
7. Rosberg 2
8. Buemi 1

All timing unofficial
ref [AS]

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For nearly 80 years, the Monaco Grand Prix has challenged drivers to tame the tight and twisty streets of a race track which winds its way through the second smallest nation on earth. At just two square kilometres, and with the highest national population density in Europe, Monaco is unique on the Formula One calendar. That 350km/h race cars still do battle on its treacherous turns in the 21st century is testament to the enduring fascination of the Monaco Grand Prix.
For most in Formula One racing, Monaco is in equal parts a trial and a joy; with the tight confines challenging everyone in the paddock, but the history, glamour and unrivalled atmosphere stoking the flames of passion in all motorsport enthusiasts.
Richard Cregan, Toyota team manager, sums it up: "Monaco is one of the great races of the year. It is an icon in terms of Formula One and a driver on a flying lap in Monaco, I believe, earns his salary for the year right there. But you also have the great atmosphere of being in Monaco; the glitz and the glamour combined with Formula One racing. You have an enthusiasm, a passion that you probably don't get at too many circuits in Formula One."
Jarno Trulli has a passion for racing and some incredible memories of Monaco's legendary streets, having won his first Grand Prix in 2004 with a superb performance from pole position. Of course, that kind of result will always give happy memories but regardless, for Trulli, Monaco is always a special place.
"My race win here was the perfect Monaco souvenir," he says. "I have a lot of fun at Monaco, it is a very different Grand Prix and I find it very exciting. There is more risk there and you need a good feeling with the car to succeed. It is difficult to explain why this race track is so special. The guard rail is very close and it seems very fast; it is a great challenge and you need total concentration. It is just a great circuit."

With unforgiving walls just centimetres away, drivers are given no margin for error, which makes Monaco one of the most mentally demanding races of the year. In terms of the cars, it may be tempting, logical even, to assume the slowest race on the calendar is the least demanding, but that could not be further from the truth. Monaco is not only a unique challenge for a driver; it places very special demands on a Formula One car as well.
With so many slow-speed corners, drivers spend almost the entire 3.34 km lap working their way through the gears, adding up to nearly 4,000 gear changes over a race distance, and that is just one element of Monaco's mechanical menace, as Toyota’s chief race and test engineer, Dieter Gass, explains.
"It is a circuit which is mechanically very demanding because there are a lot of gear changes due to the fact you are always working in the lower part of the ratios," he says. "So there is a lot of work for the gearbox - between every corner the driver is shifting up and down.
"This track is very demanding for the brakes as well because of the low average speed and the lack of long straights where you would cool down your brakes. Consequently the average temperature of the brakes is very, very high and this means you have to be very carefully about your brake cooling."
Engine cooling, too, can be a major issue. While the rich and famous sip ice-cold cocktails, with a cool sea breeze wafting over their luxurious balconies in the May sunshine, a Formula One car gasps for air around the chokingly tight streets.
At other circuits, long straights represent welcome relief for an engine, with relatively cooler air blasting past the radiators at 350km/h to trim temperatures, but Monaco has a distinct shortage of straights. Luckily, that also means high downforce, rather than high top speed, is the order of the day, so there is more leeway than normal for aerodynamics to be tweaked to help out.

"The aerodynamic package will be our maximum downforce package," says Toyota’s head of aerodynamics, Mark Gillan. "We are not so concerned about drag so you will see appendages going on the car which wouldn't normally be on for reasons of efficiency and you will see different cooling options on the car as well to try to get maximum cooling. You also tend to try as much front aero balance, with big front wings, so really the car is trimmed for maximum downforce."
For all Monaco's technical challenge, its appeal is more basic; just to be so close to the action, surrounded by the fastest racing cars on earth, is an intoxicating experience, even for Formula One regulars.
"There is no run-off so the cars are very close to the walls and close to the public and that is probably what makes it so special for us," says Pascal Vasselon, Toyota’s senior general chassis manager. "It is the only place where you really feel, hear and smell the speed of the cars. For me every Monaco Grand Prix is really special - it is where I really feel what I am doing."
ref[formula1.com]
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The first time is always special, especially your first Grand Prix as a team owner. For Force India’s maiden race, Dr Vijay Mallya’s only wish was to avoid the back row of the grid. With that mission accomplished, the Australian weekend was a winner before the race had even begun.

And while that race could have gone better, there were plenty of more experienced teams also left with double DNFs, and Mallya came away feeling quietly confident about the team’s future…

Q: Vijay, Melbourne marked your first race as a team co-owner. Were you satisfied with the team’s performance?
Vijay Mallya: I am both satisfied and excited. Excited because this is the debut of the Force India Formula One Team, and satisfied because I think that we have proved this weekend that we are a much-improved team. Our practice time clearly put us amongst the top 15, although the qualifying timing was disappointing. This resulted also because of a little bad luck, with the yellow flag and making a mistake in choosing the tyres. We have learned from these mistakes, which are normal, but it is very satisfying to get acknowledgement of the progress the team has made, because many people came to me and congratulated me on the early progress that we have achieved.

Q: Over the winter, you were present at many tests where the team’s times looked quite competitive. Has the development of the team met with your approval?
VM: Absolutely. Otherwise, we would not have made such an improvement. It is my job to be with the team, to properly lead and direct the team and show that I am involved with them, which is very important for motivation and encouragement. As you can see around us the team is energised and excited, and therefore the people are making their best effort. We invested a lot of money in the right direction, for what I call quick wins of low hanging fruits. First we had to identify what would bring us quick results, and on that we did a very good job, we dedicated sufficient budget to these results. We were able to address those specific issues, so we saw immediate improvement in performance. We have some more aerodynamic improvements to do in Malaysia, which hopefully will further improve performance. Once we are well into the European season, there will be one major step of improvement also. So in the second half of the season we should be truly very competitive, and definitely make it into the top of Q2.

Q: You said that you didn’t expect your drivers to end up on the back row of the grid, and they didn’t - but beating a team that hadn’t tested since December and two rookies, who were unfamiliar with the track, cannot possibly satisfy your ambitions…
VM: If you see the sector time of Giancarlo’s (Fisichella) qualifying lap, he did his personal best time ever in Sector 1 and 2, and in Sector 3 he lost out immediately because of Adrian’s (Sutil) spin and the yellow flag. If there had not been so many interruptions we clearly would have been in Q2. If we could have achieved this, I truly believe that we could have made it up to position 13 or 14. So this was a good start for the first race and we have achieved what we had hoped for.

Q: You’ve long been sponsor in Formula One, but have never had much influence on a team’s development. Now you have every opportunity to mould a team to your liking. What is the most difficult challenge?
VM: There are two challenges. Number one is, as a leader of the team, I am ultimately responsible for the performance of the team. So this is a big level of responsibility that I have to take. You cannot just blame the drivers, engineers or anybody. At the end of the day, the leader has to take the responsibility. Let me give you an example. Yesterday I had a big decision - to change the gearbox. We are probably one of the few teams that do not have a seamless gearbox, so once we introduce the seamless one, we will be even more competitive. So the decision was to buy the seamless gearbox from another team or develop it ourselves. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. We have now decided to do it ourselves, which I hope was the right decision, and I have to accept the responsibility of that decision.

The second challenge is to find sponsors. It is easy to sit on the other side of the fence, but when you are sitting on this side of it, you have to convince a sponsor to sponsor the team. With the performance during the tests in the winter, we were able to demonstrate that we are certainly moving forward. Also the achievements here in Melbourne will further underline this. We have already got top quality sponsors on board, and all of them expect me to deliver all of the benefits to them, as they know I have been a sponsor before. But still all of this is fun and part of the business which I am enjoying as I love challenges.

Q: Your diverse, global business interests demand a lot of your time, but you are very much hands on at Force India too. Has there ever been a moment of doubt over your commitment to Formula One racing?
VM: No. I knew it from the very beginning, as I have been involved in F1 for so many years. I was prepared for this, even before we bought the team.

Q: You do a lot to make Formula One popular in India, but how is Indians’ support for their ‘own’ team growing? What about in terms of sponsorship…
VM: People in India are very excited, and F1 is certainly growing in popularity. Especially young people love the competitiveness and the glamour of F1. Force India already has a lot of fans and they add to it, but it is not only Force India. Formula One itself has a lot of momentum in India, and it will be very interesting to go back and see how many people have watched this race. This is not only good for us, but also for all other teams and their sponsors, as we have a rapidly growing following. Sponsorship of Formula One is expensive, and you have to write big cheques. So the challenge is to increase the team’s performance to raise the team’s exposure, so the sponsors realise the marketing value of this platform. We hope that even more Indian sponsors will follow the ones we already have.
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