2013 Bahrain Grand Prix

 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix

Racing data
4th of 19 races in the 2013 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	2013 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix
Date:	April 21, 2013
Place:	as-Sachir
Course:	Bahrain International Circuit
Length:	308.238 km in 57 laps of 5.412 km
Pole position
Driver:	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
Time:	1: 32.330 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Time:	1: 36.961 min (lap 55)
Podium
First:	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Second:	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault
Third:	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault

The Bahrain Grand Prix 2013 (officially in 2013 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix ) took place on 21 April at the Bahrain International Circuit in as-Sachir place and was the fourth race of the Formula 1 World Championship in 2013 . Sebastian Vettel ( Red Bull-Renault ) won the race ahead of Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean (both Lotus-Renault ).

Reports

backgrounds

After the Chinese Grand Prix , Sebastian Vettel led the drivers' standings with three points from Kimi Räikkönen and nine points from Fernando Alonso . Red Bull-Renault led the constructors' championship with five points ahead of Ferrari and with 18 points ahead of Lotus-Renault .

At the Bahrain Grand Prix, Pirelli provided the drivers with the tire compounds P Zero Hard (orange) and P Zero Medium (white) as well as Cinturato Intermediates (green) and Cinturato Full Wets (blue) for wet conditions .

With Alonso (three times), Felipe Massa (twice), Jenson Button and Vettel (once each), four former winners competed in this Grand Prix.

Mazen Al Hilli (BRN), Gerd Ennser (GER), Mika Salo (FIN) and Vincenzo Spano (VEN) acted as race commissioners .

In the run-up to the race, there were demonstrations against the implementation of the race. British politicians called for the race to be canceled in a letter to Bernie Ecclestone ; the Bahrain Grand Prix had already been canceled for political reasons in 2011 . The hacking group Anonymous threatened Ecclestone with an attack if the race took place. Last year, the group had hacked the official Formula 1 website www.formula1.com on the weekend of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

training

In the first free practice session, Massa set the fastest lap ahead of Alonso and Nico Rosberg . New parts were tried out on several teams. During this training, Heikki Kovalainen took over the Caterham from Giedo van der Garde and Rodolfo González took over the Marussia from Jules Bianchi . It was González's first outing on a Formula 1 weekend. In the second free practice, Raikkonen was the fastest ahead of Mark Webber and Vettel. In the third free practice session, Alonso took the lead from Vettel and Webber.

Qualifying

In the first section, Alonso set the fastest time ahead of Vettel. Both Williams drivers were measured with an identical lap time of 1: 34.425 minutes. Valtteri Bottas , who had reached the time first, reached 16th place and thus the second qualification unit. Pastor Maldonado, however, was eliminated and had to start from position 17. In addition, the Marussia and Caterham pilots and Esteban Gutiérrez retired. After Bianchi returned to the pits, the fire extinguisher in his Marussia MR02 sprayed extinguishing foam as a result of a defect.

In the second segment, Vettel achieved the best time ahead of Rosberg. Unlike his team-mate Sergio Pérez , Button managed to reach the final section of qualifying with the McLaren MP4-28 . In addition to Pérez, the Toro Rosso pilots as well as Bottas, Nico Hülkenberg and Romain Grosjean were eliminated.

In the third qualifying stage, Rosberg initially drove the best time. Vettel was temporarily faster, but on his second lap, Rosberg improved his lap time and achieved first place. It was the second pole position of his career and also the second for Mercedes in a row. Third place went to Alonso. Button did not complete a lap, so he was in tenth place. This gave him a free choice of tires for the race.

The starting grid differed in details from the result of the qualification training. Lewis Hamilton and Gutiérrez were both relocated five places on the grid due to a gear change or a collision in the previous race in China, while Webber, who had caused a collision with Jean-Éric Vergne in China , had to start three places down.

run

Rosberg kept the lead at the start of the race, while Vettel was overtaken by Alonso. However, Vettel passed Alonso in the first race because he had not used up all of the KERS energy at the start . Paul di Resta was in fourth position behind the leading trio. Adrian Sutil and Vergne were involved in incidents at the start and both pitted after the first lap. Sutil had collided with Massa, both of which damaged the front wing. Unlike Sutil, Massa didn't change his. Vergne collided with van der Garde. In the second lap, Vettel put Rosberg under pressure and one lap later passed him in the lead. Alonso tried to pass Rosberg as well, but Rosberg initially claimed second place. In the sixth lap he lost this to Alonso and was also overtaken by di Resta.

Shortly thereafter, Alonso suffered a defect in the Drag Reduction System (DRS). His rear wing no longer closed, so he used the DRS permanently. He went to the pits for a repair stop, during which the rear wing was closed again. One lap later, Alonso activated the DRS again, which remained open again. Alonso pitted one more time and did not use the DRS for the rest of the race. He had fallen far behind as a result of the repair stops and was disadvantaged in overtaking maneuvers.

Shortly after Alonso's repair stops, the regular pit stops began. Vettel lost the lead for three laps to di Resta. After di Resta pitted, Raikkonen, who had not yet pitted, led a lap. After this lap he was overtaken by Vettel, who kept the lead until the end of the race and controlled the race. Raikkonen pitted a little later. He and di Resta followed a two-stop strategy in contrast to Vettel, who planned three stops.

While Vettel was leading in front of Webber, Rosberg and Button, Vergne gave up the race at the pits. The collision on the first lap damaged his vehicle so badly that it overheated. At Massa, the tread came off the tire shortly afterwards, so that he stopped repairs. In the meantime, Rosberg lost third place to Button and was also overtaken by Grosjean.

Rosberg and Pérez began the second phase of the pit stops on lap 21. After the other stops, Rosberg was initially ahead of the McLaren drivers, but was overtaken by Pérez and Button on lap 25. One lap later, di Resta overtook Grosjean in a duel for second place and Button passed Pérez. In the meantime, Vettel had completed his second pit stop. Grosjean, who made the second stop on lap 27, had at this point completed 18 laps on one set of tires. Shortly afterwards there was another McLaren duel. Pérez drove past Button, who countered. During this maneuver, the two touched twice. In the process, Pérez damaged his front wing and Button complained over the radio that his teammate had hit him in the rear. Pérez admitted after the race that he was too aggressive in this duel.

After Räikkönen had driven past di Resta into second place, he pitted 22 laps before the end of the race and made his second and final stop. He stayed on the harder tire compound. Di Resta followed two laps later using the same strategy. Meanwhile, Massa suffered a puncture for the second time in this race. Both times the defect occurred on the right rear wheel. Raikkonen was way behind several pilots, but quickly overtook Pérez and Hamilton. In the meantime, Vettel had developed a lead of almost 30 seconds over second-placed Grosjean.

In the 43rd lap, the two made their last stops. Vettel stayed in the lead ahead of Raikkonen, di Resta and Webber. Grosjean fell back to fifth place. In the next few laps he passed Webber and finally di Resta. Alonso overtook both McLaren drivers during this phase and Hamilton passed Webber into fifth position. In the final phase, the two fought a duel with several changes of position. Hamilton finally decided for himself. In the final laps, Pérez passed Alonso and Webber onto the place behind Hamilton.

Vettel won the race and drove the fastest race lap. The Lotus pilots Raikkonen and Grosjean took second and third positions. The podium was thus identical to that of the previous year . For the second time in his career, Di Resta finished fourth after the 2012 Singapore Grand Prix , which is his best single result in Formula 1. The top 10 were completed by Hamilton, Pérez, Webber, Alonso, Rosberg and Button. Alonso, Rosberg and Button were each pitted four times, with Rosberg and Button not having completed a repair stop.

Vettel extended his lead in the drivers' world championship. Raikkonen stayed second, Hamilton took third. Red Bull also remained in the lead among the constructors. Lotus took second place from Ferrari, who were now in third place.

Comments from the first three drivers

“It was really fun in the beginning because there were some very close wheel-to-wheel battles. At the start you don't know whether you will be fast or not, because everything is a bit confused, including yourself!
It's important to get to the top, we saw that in the last race. Getting stuck behind someone has an impact on tire wear and today it was important to make sure we were using the tires we saved yesterday in qualifying.
I love to have free space in front of me so I put a lot of pressure on to take the lead and at the pace we were at mid-race it was pretty comfortable today.
Well done by the entire team, everyone here and in the background at the factory, and especially those who worked on the strategy today. This worked exactly as we expected, so you obviously calculated it correctly! "

- Sebastian Vettel

“You're never really happy if you don't win. But I would say that second place is as close as you can get to the missed win. I drove at the maximum and the car had the speed that we lacked in qualifying yesterday. So this was a pretty good result.
We didn't have the speed to challenge Sebastian Vettel today, but we had the speed to get both cars on the podium, so I'm happy for the team. "

- Kimi Raikkonen

“It's great to be on the podium again. This is a fantastic result for the team. It has not been an easy start to the season for me, but we made progress over the weekend and now we're back to where we should be.
I felt a lot more comfortable in the car and today's result is well deserved reward for the hard work we have done. This was a race that was really enjoyable because there were loads of overtaking maneuvers and exciting moments. For this reason, it's really satisfying to get a podium from 11th on the grid.
We already had the consistency, we finished every race on the points, but we have a great result that we are chasing and this is a very good start to this challenge. "

- Romain Grosjean

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Infiniti Red Bull Racing	01	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull RB9	Renault 2.4 V8	P
	02	Mark Webber
Scuderia Ferrari	03	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari F138	Ferrari 2.4 V8	P
	04th	Felipe Massa
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	05	Jenson Button	McLaren MP4-28	Mercedes-Benz 2.4 V8	P
	06th	Sergio Perez
Lotus F1 Team	07th	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus E21	Renault 2.4 V8	P
	08th	Romain Grosjean
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	09	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes F1 W04	Mercedes-Benz 2.4 V8	P
	10	Lewis Hamilton
Sauber F1 Team	11	Nico Hulkenberg	Clean C32	Ferrari 2.4 V8	P
	12	Esteban Gutiérrez
Sahara Force India F1 Team	14th	Paul di Resta	Force India VJM06	Mercedes-Benz 2.4 V8	P
	15th	Adrian Sutil
Williams F1 team	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams FW35	Renault 2.4 V8	P
	17th	Valtteri Bottas
Scuderia Toro Rosso	18th	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso STR8	Ferrari 2.4 V8	P
	19th	Daniel Ricciardo
Caterham F1 team	20th	Charles Pic	Caterham CT03	Renault 2.4 V8	P
	21st	Heikki Kovalainen
		Giedo van der Garde
Marussia F1 Team	22nd	Rodolfo González	Marussia MR02	Cosworth 2.4 V8	P
		Jules Bianchi
	23	Max Chilton

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Kovalainen drove the Caterham with the number 21 in the first free practice. Van der Garde then took over the vehicle for the rest of the race weekend.
2. ↑ ^{a b} González drove the Marussia with the number 22 in the first free practice. Bianchi then took over the vehicle for the rest of the race weekend.

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	begin
01	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1: 33.364	1: 32.867	1: 32.330	01
02	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1: 33.327	1: 32.746	1: 32.584	02
03	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1: 32.878	1: 33.316	1: 32.667	03
04th	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1: 33.498	1: 33.346	1: 32.762	09
05	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1: 33.966	1: 33.098	1: 33.078	07th
06th	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1: 33.780	1: 33.358	1: 33.207	04th
07th	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1: 33.762	1: 33.335	1: 33.235	05
08th	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1: 34.048	1: 33.378	1: 33.246	06th
09	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	1: 33.827	1: 33.146	1: 33.327	08th
10	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 34.071	1: 33.702	no time	10
11	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	1: 33.498	1: 33.762	-	11
12	Sergio Perez	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 34.310	1: 33.914	-	12
13	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1: 34.120	1: 33.974	-	13
14th	Nico Hulkenberg	Clean Ferrari	1: 34.409	1: 33.976	-	14th
15th	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	1: 34.425	1: 34.105	-	15th
16	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1: 34.314	1: 34.284	-	16
17th	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1: 34.425	-	-	17th
18th	Esteban Gutiérrez	Clean Ferrari	1: 34.730	-	-	22nd
19th	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	1: 35.283	-	-	18th
20th	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	1: 36.178	-	-	19th
21st	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	1: 36,304	-	-	20th
22nd	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	1: 36.476	-	-	21st
107 percent time : 1: 39.379 min (based on Q1 best time of 1: 32.878 min)

Remarks

1. ↑ Lewis Hamilton was moved five positions back on the grid due to a gear change made before qualifying.
2. ↑ Mark Webber was moved three positions back on the grid because of a collision with Jean-Éric Vergne in the previous race in China.
3. ↑ Esteban Gutiérrez was moved five positions down on the grid because of a collision with Adrian Sutil in the previous race in China.

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	57	3	1: 36: 00.498	02	1: 36.961 (55th)
02	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	57	2	+ 9.111	08th	1: 38,164 (57.)
03	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	57	3	+ 19.507	11	1: 37.627 (52nd)
04th	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	57	2	+ 21.727	05	1: 38.336 (57.)
05	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	57	3	+ 35.230	09	1: 38.204 (48th)
06th	Sergio Perez	McLaren-Mercedes	57	3	+ 35.998	12	1: 37.913 (41st)
07th	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	57	3	+ 37.244	07th	1: 38,557 (52nd)
08th	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	57	4th	+ 37.574	03	1: 37.204 (41.)
09	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	57	4th	+ 41.126	01	1: 37.588 (48th)
10	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	57	4th	+ 46.631	10	1: 37.743 (49.)
11	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	57	3	+1: 06.450	17th	1: 38.962 (57.)
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Clean Ferrari	57	3	+1: 12.933	14th	1: 38.770 (43rd)
13	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	57	3	+1: 16.719	06th	1: 37.070 (44th)
14th	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	57	3	+1: 21.511	15th	1: 38.192 (57.)
15th	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	57	4th	+1: 26.364	04th	1: 38.839 (42nd)
16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	56	3	+ 1 lap	13	1: 39,579 (51st)
17th	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	56	3	+ 1 lap	18th	1: 39,546 (37.)
18th	Esteban Gutiérrez	Clean Ferrari	56	4th	+ 1 lap	22nd	1: 38.202 (45.)
19th	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	56	4th	+ 1 lap	19th	1: 38.756 (50th)
20th	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	56	4th	+ 1 lap	21st	1: 39.279 (50.)
21st	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	55	5	+ 2 rounds	20th	1: 39,334 (49.)
-	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	16	1	DNF	16	1: 43.107 ( 04.)

World Cup stands after the race

The first ten of the race got 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 77 02  Kimi Raikkonen Lotus Renault 67 03  Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 50 04th  Fernando Alonso Ferrari 47 05  Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 32 06th  Felipe Massa Ferrari 30th 07th  Romain Grosjean Lotus Renault 26th 08th  Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 20th 09  Nico Rosberg Mercedes 14th 10  Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 13 11  Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 10

Item driver constructor Points 12  Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 6th 13  Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 6th 14th  Nico Hulkenberg Clean Ferrari 5 15th  Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1 16  Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 0 17th  Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 0 18th  Esteban Gutiérrez Clean Ferrari 0 19th  Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 0 20th  Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 0 21st  Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 0 22nd  Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 0

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Red Bull-Renault 109 02  Lotus Renault 93 03  Ferrari 77 04th  Mercedes 64 05  Force India-Mercedes 26th 06th  McLaren-Mercedes 23

Item constructor Points 07th  Toro Rosso-Ferrari 7th 08th  Clean Ferrari 5 09  Williams-Renault 0 10  Marussia-Cosworth 0 11  Caterham-Renault 0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mario Fritzsche: "Pirelli: New tire choice for Bahrain no reaction to China". Motorsport-Total.com, April 19, 2013, accessed April 19, 2013 . 
2. ^ Markus Lüttgens: Bahrain: renewed protests against Formula 1 races. Motorsport-Total.com, March 30, 2013, accessed April 19, 2013 . 
3. ↑ Markus Lüttgens & SID: Bahrain: British politicians demand rejection. Motorsport-Total.com, April 17, 2013, accessed April 19, 2013 . 
4. ↑ Bahrain: Anonymous threatens Ecclestone with a hacker attack. Motorsport-Total.com, April 16, 2013, accessed April 19, 2013 . 
5. ^ Roman Wittemeier: "Bahrain start: Ferrari immediately fast". Motorsport-Total.com, April 19, 2013, accessed April 19, 2013 . 
6. ^ "GP Bahrain in Sakhir / 1st free practice". Motorsport-Total.com, April 19, 2013, accessed April 19, 2013 . 
7. ^ Roman Wittemeier: "Bahrain on Friday: Raikkonen has competition on the neck". Motorsport-Total.com, April 19, 2013, accessed April 20, 2013 . 
8. ^ "GP Bahrain in Sakhir / 2nd free practice". Motorsport-Total.com, April 20, 2013, accessed April 20, 2013 . 
9. ↑ ^{a b c d} Roman Wittemeier: "Vettel quite comfortable: Victory in Bahrain". Motorsport-Total.com, April 21, 2013, accessed December 14, 2013 . 
10. ↑ ^{a b} Fabian Hust: "Ferrari with a bad luck magnet: Alonso and Massa victims". Motorsport-Total.com, April 21, 2013, accessed December 14, 2013 . 
11. ↑ ^{a b} Fabian Hust: "Toro Rosso in Bahrain: A Mystery and a Crash". Motorsport-Total.com, April 21, 2013, accessed December 14, 2013 . 
12. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} "GP Bahrain in Sakhir / Race - Chronology". Motorsport-Total.com, April 21, 2013, accessed December 14, 2013 . 
13. ↑ ^{a b c} Anno Hecker: "Vettel lonely and cool in the desert". faz.net, April 21, 2013, accessed December 14, 2013 . 
14. ↑ Fabian Hust: "McLaren: Perez a little too hard on Button". Motorsport-Total.com, April 21, 2013, accessed December 14, 2013 . 
15. ↑ ^{a b} “Bahrain Grand Prix 2013: Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel cruises to victory in the desert”. telegraph.co.uk, April 21, 2013, accessed December 14, 2013 . 
16. ↑ Pete Gill: “2013 Bahrain GP: Sebastian Vettel in a race of his own ahead of 2012 podium repeat”. skysports.com, April 21, 2013, accessed December 14, 2013 . 
17. ↑ Fabian Hust: "Red Bull: Flawless race and victory for Vettel". Motorsport-Total.com, April 21, 2013, accessed December 14, 2013 . 
18. ↑ ^{a b} Fabian Hust: "Lotus and the deja vu of Bahrain". Motorsport-Total.com, April 21, 2013, accessed December 14, 2013 .