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For the BMW
WilliamsF1 team the Bahrain Grand Prix would be remembered as a race where a
good result got away from the team due to reliability problems and a costly
mistake by one of their drivers. Nick would retire his FW27 with an engine
failure while Mark would spin out of third place to finish the race in
sixth.
 In
remembrance of the death of Pope John Paul II Ferrari would run their cars
with black nose cones, while Jarno Trulli had the letters JPII on his
helmet. As for the second Ferrari of Barrichello he would start from the
back of the grid after an engine change. The 57 lap race would be run under
very hot conditions with temperatures in the forty degrees mark..
Klein would stall his car as the field went away on the parade lap seeing
him start from the pit lane. The cars would line up on the grid with Alonso
in pole. As the lights go out Alonso would lead with Michael slotting into
second and Trulli looking to attack the Ferrari. Webber is right behind the
Toyota. Kimi has moved from ninth to seventh. There was a collision between
the Minardi of Albers and Coulthard, both were able to continue but Albers
would pit.
De la Rosa would attack Button for ninth, taking the position form the
Briton. Lap
2 and Rubens would move into eighth. Fisichella's Renault would start
smoking, while team-mate Alonso would set a fastest lap, 1m:33.954. Klein
would retire in the pit lane his car failing to get going. Jordan's
Karthikeyan was also in trouble, running very slowly on the circuit to
eventually stop.
 Alonso
would set another fastest lap, 1m:33.559. Lap five and now it was Michael
who was pushing hard with a fastest lap of 1m:33.134. Fisichella would pit
to retire with his engine problem. Mark and Nick were in third and fourth
with Mark 5.3 seconds behind Trulli. At the front Alonso was leading by 0.8
seconds. Michael would set another fastest lap, 1m:32.932 on lap five. Ralf
and Kimi were in a close battle for sixth, Kimi just one second behind the
Toyota. The order after
six laps was Alonso, M. Schumacher, Trulli, Webber,
Heidfeld, R. Schumacher, Raikkonen, Sato, de la Rosa, Barrichello, Button,
Massa, Villeneuve, Coulthard, Monteiro, Freisacher and Albers. Alonso and
Michael would trade fastest laps in their fight at the front. Mark would
drop back from Trulli with Nick 2.9 seconds further back on lap seven.
On lap nine Ralf would pass Nick for fifth after the WilliamsF1 driver made
a
mistake. Kimi would also be looking to push Nick down the order. Ralf would
quickly pull out a three second lead over Nick. It looked like he was having
braking problems with his car. At the front Michael was just 0.6 behind
Alonso as they started lap eleven. But Michael would spin his car at Turns 9
and 10. he would continue but it looked like the Ferrari was in trouble as
he would let Webber past.
Michael would pit on lap twelve and would go straight into his garage to
retire with a mechanical failure. He would look at the rear of his car
possibly indicating a gearbox problem. It was later found to be a hydraulic
failure. Alonso was 2.7 seconds ahead of Trulli with Mark in third. Nick was
still ahead of Kimi in fifth. The top eight was Alonso, Trulli, Webber,
Ralf, Heidfeld, Raikkonen, Sato and de la Rosa. Another fastest lap for
Alonso on lap fourteen, a 1m:32.418, seeing him extend his lead to Trulli to
be 3.2 seconds. Mark was 11.3 seconds behind the Toyota. Sato, de la Rosa
and Barrichello were all running very close together. Lap seventeen and Mark
would set his best lap time so far, a 1m:33.245, with forty laps to go.
 Alonso sets another fastest lap, a 1m:31.994, while Ralf would pit from
fourth. On
lap twenty one Alonso would pit from the lead seeing Trulli out in front.
Sato was
under pressure from de la Rosa, but Pedro would outbreak himself allowing
Rubens and Jenson past. Lap twenty two and both Trulli and Webber would pit.
Nick would continue to fight off Kimi for second. Alonso was back in the
lead.
Lap twenty three and Massa would pit from ninth. The following lap and Nick
would stop, joined by de la Rosa. Neither BAR had made their first pit stop.
But as they started lap twenty five both Kimi and Jenson would come in. Sato
and Barrichello would make their first stops the following lap. Villeneuve
would also come in.
But
for the BMW WilliamsF1 team things would take a turn for the worse as Nick's
engine would start to smoke seeing him eventually pull off the circuit to
retire. Alonso was now leading Trulli by 5 seconds, with Mark 20.3 seconds
behind Trulli. Coulthard would be the last driver to pit. Sato would spin
his car seeing him return to his pit to retire with what appeared to be
brake problems. team-mate Button was in seventh with de la Rosa right
behind.
The retirements to this point were Sato, Heidfeld, Michael Schumacher,
Fisichella, Karthikeyan and Klien. Alonso was looking very comfortable at
the front. At the start of lap thirty two the race was fairly stable with
the only fight been between Button and de la Rosa. At Turn one Pedro was
able to pull off a passing move on Jenson allowing him to pull out a quick
lead over the BAR.
With Kimi now just 1.0 seconds behind the FW27 Mark would spin allowing Kimi
and Ralf to pass. Mark was now in fifth. Mark completely lost the rear of
the car and was only saved by the fact that the circuit has wide tarmac run
off areas. Mark was 2.3 seconds behind Ralf. Lap thirty four and Pedro was
right with Rubens challenging the Ferrari for sixth.
Lap thirty seven would see Kimi spin off the track but was able to return
keeping his position such was his lead. Alonso would set another fastest
lap, a 1m:31.840, to make sure that his followers knew he meant business
with twenty laps of the race remaining. de la Rosa was just 0.3 behind
Rubens. Alonso goes fastest again, a 1m:31.713. Trulli was now thirteen
seconds behind the Renault.
 Alonso
would pit while de la Rosa would finally pass Rubens for sixth. Ralf, Jarno,
and Mark would all make their second stops. Kimi was next in while his
team-mate de la Rosa would set a new fastest lap with a 1m:31.447 on lap
forty three. Button would pass Rubens, while Pedro would pit from third
place. Jenson would come in to pit but he would stall his car. He would have
trouble getting it started but would eventually move off from his pit only
to stop at the end of the pitlane.
De la Rosa would be right behind mark looking for a way past the FW27. He
would even try going around the outside of the FW27 in the first corner.
Massa would pass Rubens for seventh, while Villeneuve was in ninth. So with
five laps remaining it looked very much like Alonso would score his second
race win this season. Alonso would lap Rubens on lap fifty four. Things are
not good for the Ferrari team. Villeneuve was challenging Rubens.
Mark was still fighting off the McLaren of de la Rosa, which was just 0.4
seconds
behind. In his attempt to catch Rubens Jacques would go off the circuit but
was able to continue. For mark Webber his fight with de la Rosa would end
when the McLaren was able to get past seeing Mark drop to sixth. Kimi was in
third, so it would be a good result for McLaren, but a very poor one for the
BMW WilliamsF1 team.
With just two laps left to run Villeneuve would pit, after he had been
passed by Coulthard. David would close right up onto the rears of
Barrichello's Ferrari as Alonso would start his final lap. The Renault would
cross the line to take victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix with Trulli second
and Raikkonen third. It was also a good result for Toyota with Ralf coming
home in fourth. Massa and Coulthard finished in seventh and eighth behind
Mark. |
