2010 BAHRAIN GP: RACE IN HI RESOLUTION IMAGES

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2010 BAHRAIN GP: POST RACE QUOTES

FERNANDO ALONSO, FERRARI, 1-ST PLACE:
"A very special day for me. Coming back the top of the podium is always special but even more special with Ferrari. We have history behind the team and all the expectations a driver has when he drives for Ferrari. There is no better way to start the relationship. This is the best team in the world, we worked hard all winter, the guys did a very good job in winter testing.

"We have done nothing so far, we only won the first race but to be first and second is the result that the guys in Maranello deserve because they have been working day and night to give us this fantastic car. This first victory is dedicated to all the people in Italy, the mechanics here and president di Montezemolo. This result is very, very positive."

"I always say the same thing, the first three or four races of the championship are not crucial for anything, you just need some solid points for the team, to get used to the regulations, the tyres, the races themselves. There are now more points but this first part is not the crucial part of the championship. It is nice to be here, but this is down to the fantastic car we have. I think the key to be world champion will be the battle during the season, we had a good base but we need to keep working. Now it is time to push."

FELIPE MASSA, FERRARI, 2-ND PLACE:
"First of all I think it is fantastic to be here, so thanks a lot that everything is great. Being here with a competitive car and going through the whole race with good pace, so thanks to God I am fine and thanks to everybody who was supporting me in a difficult time. The race was really good and fantastic for us. For sure I didn't have a good start, I lost an important position to Fernando at the first corner. After that the race was perfect for me on the soft and with the hard."

"I caught Fernando in a good way, then I started to have a problem in terms of temperature in the car and it made a lot of fuel consumption so I started to save fuel in the last 25-30 laps. There was nothing to do any more. We were lucky with the problems for Vettel to get past him and get some points and lucky that Hamilton was not so fast at the end."

LEWIS HAMILTON, McLAREN, 3-RD PLACE:
"I had quite a good race, unfortunately I lost a bit of ground, locked up into Turn 4 and went wide, got in a bad position and Rosberg got past me. I was then much faster but it's difficult to follow here and look after the tyres. If I was ahead of him maybe I would have been able to follow the train Ferari guys were creating. It is a strong result for me and the team. It was more than we expected. We need to continue to push to keep up with these guys. Refueling ban definitely didn't make the racing more exciting in terms of overtaking. I wasn't able to follow in the first third of the circuit. There wasn't enough grip from the tyres to hold with him. But it is an interesting season ahead of us. Everyone is learning how to use tyres more, try to understand the tyres, conserve the fuel load, when to attack and not to attack. I hope we can do a good job in showing the fans what we are doing."

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2010 BAHRAIN GP: ALONSO WINNER, FERRARI 1-2 WIN

The Bahrain Grand Prix
Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
1.  Alonso        Ferrari                    1h39:20.396
2.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    16.099
3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +    23.182
4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +    38.713
5.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    40.263
6.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    44.180
7.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    45.260
8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    46.308
9.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes       +    53.089
10. Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +  1:02.400
11. Kubica        Renault                    +  1:09.093
12. Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +  1:22.958
13. Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:32.656
14. Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
15. Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth             +     1 lap
16. Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +    3 laps
17. Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth             +    3 laps

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:58.287

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
De la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari               30
Senna         HRT-Cosworth                 18
Glock         Virgin-Cosworth              17
Petrov        Renault                      14
Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               12
Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth              3
Chandhok      HRT-Cosworth                 2

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2010 BAHRAIN GP: POST QUALIFYING QUOTES

Sebastian Vetel, Red Bull:
"A big surprise!. In winter testing no one really knew where he was. It was clear there were four teams were pretty strong, but close to each other. To be honest yesterday was a tough day for us, we had not as much running as we hoped for. Another long night, especially mechanics with not much sleep and a lot of long faces, but they were keen this morning to keep pushing.

"I knew we had a great car, but obviously first of all we had to get it together. Qualifying went pretty smoothly. I am very, very happy to be on pole, the boys didn't get much sleep in the last month, a lot of testing in a short amount of time and to come here, where everybody shows how strong they are, and come out on top is a nice feeling. I think we all don't know what is going to be happen tomorrow yet, it could be very exciting, it could be very boring. That is what I hope for! We want a calm race, all of us here would like to be where we start, it is a difficult situation to be in. The first part of the race will be crucial but there is no secret that you need to take care of tyres. All of us don't know what to expect tomorrow."

Felipe Massa, Ferrari:
"First of all, congratulations to Sebastian who did a great job for first race of the season. It is nice to be back racing and competitive in the right direction. I feel happy to be back after such a difficult time. I was watching races on TV but it's more exciting to be in the car. I am in a good direction, testing, driving go-karts, so it's great to be back for racing.

"If you look what happened to us, it is a good start for us. I feel very positive to start in second and third, it feels great. For sure Red Bull and some teams are strong, so the race will be difficult but I am happy here to be fighting for top. I think we did a good job yesterday to prepare for a long distance. We used both tyres and swapped tyres on the long runs. I think we are in the right direction so let's see how we are going to be in the race tomorrow. There are many things that will happen in the race, let's wait and see but I am really optimistic."

Fernando Alonso, Ferrari:
"I am very happy obviously. At is the first race, there are many things to answer in the first race with a long winter with a big difference in fuel loads, in all the tests and yesterday in practice, you never know what the competitors are running. We were excited about the first qualifying of the season, so now to have both drivers in the top three means we have a very competitive car. We thought so, but you need to confirm and it has been great, a great day and I think it is some kind of nice feeling to realise that we are in the fight because you never know until qualifying."

"You never now how you will start the new championship with a big change in the regulations this, and for me also changing teams. For me everything has been great and it is a very good start. Now we were in equal conditions, qualifying with no fuel showed the potential of the cars, so it showed we have a good car. It is very important to start scoring points from the first race. I don't know what the strategy will be, you need to be flexible, clever enough to understand the race, understand the situation, make pitstops wherever is necessary. This will not be determined or planned, we will be very flexible."

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2010 BAHRAIN GP: VETTEL ON POLE POSITION

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Bahrain GP.

German driver Sebastian Vettel claimed the first pole position of the 2010 season for his Red Bull Racing team, as he beat the Ferrari`s to the top spot in Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying.

Pos  Driver         Team                   Q1        Q2        Q3   
1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:55.029  1:53.883  1:54.101
2.  Massa          Ferrari                1:55.313  1:54.331  1:54.242
3.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:54.612  1:54.172  1:54.608
4.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:55.341  1:54.707  1:55.217
5.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:55.463  1:54.682  1:55.241
6.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:55.298  1:54.318  1:55.284
7.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:55.593  1:55.105  1:55.524
8.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:55.715  1:55.168  1:55.672
9.  Kubica         Renault                1:55.511  1:54.963  1:55.885
10. Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:55.213  1:54.996  1:56.309
11. Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:55.969  1:55.330
12. Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:55.628  1:55.653
13. Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:56.375  1:55.857
14. de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari         1:56.428  1:56.237
15. Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:56.189  1:56.265
16. Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:56.541  1:56.270
17. Petrov         Renault                1:56.167  1:56.619
18. Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:57.071
19. Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:59.728
20. Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:59.852
21. Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         2:00.313
22. di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        2:00.587
23. Senna          HRT-Cosworth           2:03.240
24. Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth           2:04.904

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2010 BAHREIN GP: ALONSO FASTEST IN FP3

Ferrari showed it`s strengh in final practice

Fernando Alonsoon his qualifying simulation run set the fastest time of the weekend at the end of the 3-rd free practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Hamilton have troubles and didn`t make qualifying simulaton run. Chandok didn`t recorded any time, so hi will miss Qualifying session which starts in 15 min.

Pos  Driver         Team                     Time               Laps
1.  Alonso         Ferrari                  1:54.099            14
2.  Rosberg        Mercedes                 1:54.368  + 0.269   13
3.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault         1:54.500  + 0.401   15
4.  Schumacher     Mercedes                 1:54.533  + 0.434   13
5.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault         1:54.646  + 0.547   16
6.  Massa          Ferrari                  1:54.739  + 0.640   14
7.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes         1:55.000  + 0.901   14
8.  Kubica         Renault                  1:55.331  + 1.232   15
9.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes     1:55.432  + 1.333   11
10. Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth        1:55.461  + 1.362   13
11. Sutil          Force India-Mercedes     1:55.521  + 1.422   13
12. Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes         1:55.860  + 1.761    8
13. de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari           1:56.063  + 1.964   14
14. Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth        1:56.259  + 2.160   15
15. Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari       1:56.295  + 2.196   17
16. Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari       1:56.504  + 2.405   16
17. Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari           1:56.530  + 2.431   13
18. Petrov         Renault                  1:56.811  + 2.712   16
19. Glock          Virgin-Cosworth          1:59.173  + 5.074   10
20. Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth           1:59.789  + 5.690   15
21. Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth           2:01.259  + 7.160    5
22. Senna          HRT-Cosworth             2:04.001  + 9.902   11
23. di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth                               2
24. Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth

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ALONSO: WINNER OF BAHREIN QUALIFYING? IT`S IMPOSSIBLE TO PREDICT.

Fernando Alonso surprized looking FP times

Fernando Alonso:
"I think it's still a complete unknown for everybody who will be on Pole here in Shakir. For sure the four big teams, any of them can be quick tomorrow, can be on pole. I'm sure there will be some surprises like Force India that it seems very quick in these type of circuits, and some negative surprises with some people that are not so quick. In our expectations we still hope to be in strong form in qualy and hopefully get a good position for the race."

"We tried to do some tyre work to try to understand the two types of tyres. It was the first day we ran the car in hot conditions so there were some things to evaluate and to make sure the car is running okay for Sunday. So a normal Friday to make sure we are well prepared for qualifying. More or less I think we are in a position to attack now 100 per cent. We are confident with the car. We need to make some changes overnight to improve the grip a bit. But it was a very normal Friday, with nothing wrong."

Hamilton have similar opinion:
"I honestly have absolutely no clue. My car feels ok, but I don't know what everyone else is doing. Some people might be heavier, some might be lighter. We might be seriously slow or we might be seriously quick, we just won't know until we go into qualifying tomorrow. On the track for us it's very hot, so the degradation of both compounds of the tyres is very high. On the lighter to heavier fuel loads the car feels pretty similar, but it's difficult to know where everyone is at the minute.

"I think that it's something you can handle. You have to change your driving style and approach to each lap. It's difficult to know what laptime to target when you do a long run on a heavier fuel load. You don't know how hard you can go and be able to push more later on. If you push less at the beginning, does that mean you can push more at the end? It's difficult to know and we're still trying to understand it."

Mercedes Duo
Nico Rosberg:
"We improved the car over the course of the day but it didn't feel great initially with the new track, lower downforce and the conditions were very sandy this morning. So we had a few balance issues to work on but it came together very well this afternoon. There are areas where we can still improve but we have a good comparison with the tyre compounds and on the long runs. Overall we learnt a great deal today so it's a positive start to the weekend."

Michael Schumacher:
"We worked very well this afternoon after having a few issues with the balance this morning. The car felt much better in the second session although I am still a little rusty on one lap runs and need to get back into the routine. On the long runs, the car felt good and once you get into the rhythm, it feels very natural. I'm happy with our work today and feeling ready for the weekend."

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2010 BAHREIN GP: MERCEDES GP FASTEST IN FP2

Nico Rosberg led the way on second free practice at Sakhir. Mercedes cars were first and third with Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, while McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button surrounded them in second and fourth. Problematic afternoon for Ferrari and Red Bull. Lotus beat Virgin.

Pos  Driver         Team                    Time              Laps
1.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:55.409            23
2.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:55.854  + 0.445   22
3.  Schumacher     Mercedes                1:55.903  + 0.494   23
4.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:56.076  + 0.667   28
5.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:56.459  + 1.050   18
6.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:56.501  + 1.092   26
7.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:56.555  + 1.146   30
8.  Petrov         Renault                 1:56.750  + 1.341   26
9.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:57.140  + 1.731   25
10. de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari          1:57.255  + 1.846   24
11. Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:57.352  + 1.943   27
12. Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1:57.361  + 1.952   29
13. Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:57.452  + 2.043   21
14. Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:57.833  + 2.424   29
15. Kubica         Renault                 1:58.155  + 2.746   29
16. Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:59.799  + 4.390   31
17. Webber         Red Bull-Renault        2:00.444  + 5.035   12
18. Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          2:00.873  + 5.464   23
19. Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth          2:00.990  + 5.581   14
20. Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         2:02.037  + 6.628    3
21. di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth         2:02.188  + 6.779   21
22. Senna          HRT-Cosworth            2:06.968  + 11.559  17
23. Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari                           1
24. Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth

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2010 BAHREIN GP: SUTIL FASTEST IN FP1

Adrian Sutil set the fastest time in the first free practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix for Force India. The German was faster then double world champion and pre-season favourite Fernando Alonso with 1m56.583s lap. The Ferrari driver's, second faster driver today, was 0.183s slower then Sutil. Another surprize of the day was Robert Kubica being third fastest for Renault. Polish was 0.458s back from Sutil, and less than three tenths faster than Felipe Massa's second Ferrari. First free pratcice show us that new team are extremly slow. Other times are:

Pos  Driver         Team                   Time              Laps
1.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:56.583            18
2.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:56.766  + 0.183   18
3.  Kubica         Renault                1:57.041  + 0.458   19
4.  Massa          Ferrari                1:57.055  + 0.472   19
5.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:57.068  + 0.485   19
6.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:57.163  + 0.580   19
7.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:57.194  + 0.611   19
8.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:57.199  + 0.616   15
9.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:57.255  + 0.672   17
10. Schumacher     Mercedes               1:57.662  + 1.079   16
11. Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:57.722  + 1.139   18
12. Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:57.894  + 1.311   20
13. Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:57.943  + 1.360   17
14. Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:58.399  + 1.816   13
15. Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:58.782  + 2.199   11
16. Petrov         Renault                1:58.880  + 2.297   13
17. de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari         2:00.250  + 3.667   18
18. Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         2:01.388  + 4.805   11
19. Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        2:03.680  + 7.097    8
20. Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         2:03.848  + 7.265   21
21. Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         2:03.970  + 7.387   15
22. di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth                             2
23. Senna          HRT-Cosworth                                3
24. Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth

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ALONSO: RED BULL IS FAVORIT TEAM FOR BAHREIN

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Fernando Alonso is not ready to bet, but in his opinion the team favored to win the first race in Bahrain is Red Bull.

"I think that Red Bull was a bit faster at the last test session in Barcelona and Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber are very strong, but Bahrain is so unusual and is hard to bet on a winner."

Beyond the result this weekend, the 28 year old Ferrari driver provides a tight battle for the title.


"There will be four or five drivers fighting. I'd like to know what will happen", he smiled. "In this sport is not everything as calculating two plus two. Winning a World Championship is not easy thing and would not be a disappointment not to get it, although we will work hard not to disappoint our fans." concluded Alonso.

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FINALY PRESENTED HRT CAR

HRT Formula 1 team presented its 2010 car designed by Italian racing car constructor Dallara. Launch took place in the city of Murcia, Spain. With no testing allowed before the start of the season, HRT's car is likely to run for the first time during Friday free practice in Bahrain. Spanish team announced Karun Chandhok as second driver. (2010 full driver list)

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PICTURE OF THE DAY

Presentation of new safety car

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FIA Formula One World Championship - Entry List

Note: The USF1 Team have indicated that they will not be in a position to participate in 2010.

The USF1 Team have indicated that they will not be in a position to participate in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship. Having considered the various options, the FIA confirms that it is not possible for a replacement team to be entered for the Championship at this late stage. In the coming days the FIA will announce details of a new selection process to identify candidates to fill any vacancies existing at the start of the 2011 season.

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