Kimi Räikkönen & Sebastian Vettel

Kimi Räikkönen & Sebastian Vettel

sunnuntai 21. huhtikuuta 2013

Bahrain GP: Identical podium as last year!

This has been an acceptional GP weekend for me as I didn´t have a chance to write a blog post on yesterday´s qualifying session. Yesterday I went to a spa here in Finland to take part in an event with lots of different water activities. I went to an aquazumba class and I also attended a hydroboxing class which was very tough but a lot of fun! After the hydroboxing class I drove to my parents´  house to watch the qualifying. I missed Q1 but saw the rest of the action! After the quali I drove back to the spa and enjoyed the warm pools and cool Strawberry Dream -named drinks with my sister and we stayed the night at the hotel.

I got back home before the race started! Nico Rosberg was the surprising pole-sitter and Sebastian in his Red Bull completed the front row. The second row consisted of the Ferrari duo Alonso and Massa. The Force India drivers started from the third row so they had had an excellent qualifying result. Against all odds Kimi´s qualifying hadn´t turned out to be a success and the Iceman was left in P9 but started from P8 due to Hamilton´s penalty (gear-box change).

When the lights went out Rosberg took a very aggressive start and kept his lead. Alonso managed to get past Vettel in turn 1 but soon after that Sebastian took his position back from the Ferrari driver. Sebastian was right behind Rosberg trying to find an opprtunity to overtake the German. On lap 3 the Red Bull ace was able to make his move when DRS was enabled. Right after that the Bahrain GP turned out to be Sebastian´s race completely!

Technical problems hit Alonso right when the race had started. Alonso had an issue with his DRS as the rear wing was stuck open and the Spaniard had to pit on lap 8 so that the rear wing was shutted manually. He had to return to the pits only a lap later when the rear wing opened again so that meant Alonso lost his chances to fight for the victory! As Alonso was out of the victory hunt I knew there was no one to challenge Sebastian under the desert sun!

The Bahrain GP didn´t lack entertaining battle for positions. Sebastian in the lead was out of his rivals´ reach but battle for other positions was extremely thrilling. Around the half point of the race the McLaren duo had an intense wheel-to-wheel battle against each other when fighting for the 5th place. Perez made aggressive manoeuvres trying to overtake his team-mate Button and there were even some pieces going off from the Mexican´s front wing but luckily there was no serious damage done. Only a moment later their wheels touched when Perez squeezed in side by side with his team-mate... But Button fought back and the Briton kept his young team-mate behind him. That´s what I call racing!

Once again the race was about strategy. Sebastian´s race pace was so absolutely dominant that the German won the race with his 3-stop strategy. Kimi on the other hand was able to look after his tyres as well as expected and the Iceman took astonishing second place with his two-stop strategy! Absolutely phenomenal work considering that the Finn started to the race from P8! Kimi´s team-mate Grosjean (starting from P11) was finally able to pull out a successful race and in spite of making three pit stops he was able to make it on the podium! So it was an identical podium as last year at Sakhir! It was an absolutely heart-warming moment to see the two of my heroes on the podium joking and smiling :) Di Resta in his Force India (with a two-stop strategy as well) almost made it on the podium as the Briton finished the race in P4. A podium place was within his grasp but Grosjean with a fresh set of option tyres was significantly faster on the closing laps and Di Resta had no chance to defend his position. Hamilton finished 5th and Perez 6th. Webber drove to the chequered flag in P7 after losing two positions on the closing laps. Alonso made it in P8 after a difficult race. Rosberg´s race was a total catastrophy. He lost positions one by one and finally finished the race in highly disappointing 9th place!

The identical podium brought back all the memories from last year´s race which I watched at the MTV3 studio in Helsinki where I got a chance to meet the Finnish Formula 1 commentator Oskari Saari and the former Finnish F1 driver Mika Salo. That was an absolutely awesome experience! But back to reality... With another 3-week break ahead of us it´s superb Sebastian who is leading the championship battle after round 4. Sebastian has now a 10-point gap over his closest opponent Kimi Räikkönen. This season is going to be soooo awesome! At times Sebastian´s pace is so dominant that I can´t help wondering where it comes from. And when there´s Iceman on the track there´s always magic in the air. There´s something utterly unique about the quiet guy who has just achieved his 21st consecutive points finish!

There´ll be two torturingly long weeks to wait before the F1 circus moves to Europe. But Sebastian and Kimi, you make it soooo worth waiting for! You guys are more awesome than any words can tell!

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