Another "Lucky" Win For Alonso!

[Jenson_Rules 0]

No Honda are more than a match. Jense fell behind due to traffic and said problem but never fell further than 22 secs behind, and then made up a few secs. The honda is fast and he did have a cluth problem as it took him ages to get away on the formation lap too!

JENS'S HOPES SLIP ALONG WITH CLUTCH

Last Updated: Sunday, 12, March, 2006, 18:03

Jenson Button blamed his poor start on his failure to finish on the podium in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Having started the race as one of the favourites, the British Honda star, saw a potential victory slip through his clutch as he bogged down off the line.

The time this cost him meant that when it came to his pit stops, Jenson was out of track position and held up by slower cars. He eventually finished fourth.

"Had I not had such a bad start then this could have been a great race for us," said Button later.

"The pace of the car was absolutely there but the strategy didn't pan out because I lost places off the start and wasn't where we had planned to be at the pitstops."

Button added that although he missed out in Bahrain, he remained highly optimistic over his chances ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix next weekend.

"We may not have a podium but we have a very competitive car and if you look at the lap times when we weren't in traffic we were genuinely as quick as anyone out there," he said.

"I think we go to Malaysia feeling extremely positive.

"If we can address the clutch issue which caused the problem with the start we will be able to fight even harder with the competition."

Button's team-mate Rubens Barrichello finished the race way off the pace, a lap down in 15th after he lost third gear early on.

[F1 FANatic 1]

Jenson could have challenged for victory today had he not had a Sh#te start and got held up by barriSh#to, and then monty. Since he was heavier on fuel, as was alonso, makes their quali seem better than schumi's as he was light. Honda deffo have a car capable of challenging for both titles, they just needa bit of luck and stop ****ing things up like gearboxs and clutch's

if you need luck to win both titles then you dont have a car that really is up to it. Luck is the last thing you want to spend $200mill on. you either have it or you dont and they dont. simple as that, atleast not yet anyway.

[Jenson_Rules 0]

true. But their car was bulletproof in testing so god knows why its not relaible at the mo? But as i said, Honda is not a team who will stop, they will keep on going till they win and dominate!

[kiko01 0]

Great week-end!!!! That last pit stop was pure gold

Kimi was absolutelly impressive but saying he would have won for sure if he wouldn

[F1drifter 0]

new here but can any one answer a ? for me

is there a mclaren party or bar that fans go to at melborne

any help would be great

cheers

F1drifter

[pumpdoc 2]

Great week-end!!!! That last pit stop was pure gold

Kimi was absolutelly impressive but saying he would have won for sure if he wouldn

[kiko01 0]

Sorry Kiko but we must agree to disagree on this one Kimi carried a heavier fuel load and only changed tires once, thus Kimi had the drive of the race.*bonus* Kimi also had to drive thru the riff-raff on the first few laps to get up to the front, Fernado didn't..........

F1drifter

Of course we disagree I see your reasons but kimi didn

[pumpdoc 2]

Of course we disagree I see your reasons but kimi didn

[kiko01 0]

Kimi did have to get past the japanese bowling pin Sato and his teammate Ide though and that's a feat upon itself

Yeah!!! We agree here

[Buttonfan 0]

I heard and now readin that it was a great race, but i couldnt watch it due to havin to work at my school's annual road race on St. Pats day, cant wait till the replay comes on

[pumpdoc 2]

I heard and now readin that it was a great race, but i couldnt watch it due to havin to work at my school's annual road race on St. Pats day, cant wait till the replay comes on

You missed the replay it was on a 11:30am cst Sunday

[Jem of the Shire 0]

Can't fault Alonso, he drove a brilliant race

[foxtrot023 0]

Can't fault Alonso, he drove a brilliant race

Wait a minute! Jems writing something good about Fernando?

I think this is a sign of the Apocalyses.....

[kiko01 0]

Can't fault Alonso, he drove a brilliant race

Oh God. Now i can rest in peace

[cristiano84 0]

Guys don't get so excited,the red boring washouts are about to come from next race,I'm still very afraid of that

[kiko01 0]

Guys don't get so excited,the red boring washouts are about to come from next race,I'm still very afraid of that

Nah, Bridgestone is not going to be so competitive in the next races (i think)

[nojvnof1 0]

Well I pretty much enjoyed the race (well, apart from JV's engine going bonkers).

A fantastic set of duels between Alonso/Schumi, Button/Montoya, Rosberg/Klein, Villeneuve/Raikkonen. It was a gutsy win for Alonso whilst Michael seems pretty rejuvinated and impressed, and I'll admit surprised me yesterday. However, I was most impressed by two drivers, Raikkonen and Rosberg. I think we all got a look at just how quick the Kimi/McLaren-Mercedes package is, and I think that if they sort out their reliability problems, then he could runaway with this title.

We also saw a stark look at the future, his name is Nico Rosberg. Sure he stuffed up big time at the start punting off Nick, but boy did he make up for it. He passed people left, right and centre and set fastest lap. If not for his little incident he'd have blown Webber away and finished on the podium. This kid will be a champion, and one can only look forward to his GP2 rival, Kovalainen joining the grid. These two are the Kimi and Alonso of their generation (there's a British driver in GP2 atm, Lewis Hamilton, who I think is better than Heikki and Nico and another of the next generation), but that's another story.

As for BMW Sauber, well I think we got a little bit of a reality check. Sure Nick wasn't helped by being hit by Nico, but he wasn't exactly quick after that, but he did a good job passing DC (even if the stewards think otherwise) How they can punish Nick for doing nothing more than racing aggressively (but fairly) and allow some of the incidents of blatant blocking and more dangerous moves go unpunished is beyond me.

As for Jacques, it was a stark contrast from this time last year. This time last year he was way behind his teammate and falling back from the mid pack. Yesterday was a massive improvement. He was keeping with the Red Bulls and once again proved a thorn in Kimi's side. He set a faster fastest race lap than Nick (only just) and held his own. It was a major shame to see the engine go boom (it reminded me of JV's Honda going bonkers in Austria 2002) as he could have snuck in a much deserved (for he and the team) point or two.

Nonetheless, off to Sepang where we really ought to put on a good show, especially for Petronas. Anyways, for those abit depressed at the result, just look at Toyota, and you'll see we did a pretty good job all weekend, even if the end result was a letdown

[cristiano84 0]

Nah, Bridgestone is not going to be so competitive in the next races (i think)

It would be a dream but can you explain why?

[Jem of the Shire 0]

I've always said that Alonso had way too much good fortune in 2005, and inherited some wins rather than earning them. I still stick by that. But if Alonso does win a race and actually beat the opposition, like China last year and Bahrain 06, I can happily admit he did a great job. Alonso drove perfectly all weekend, and deserved the win.

However, its sad to see that yet again Fisichella gets the faulty Renault. I also wasnt impressed by Alonso waving his hands around at backmarkers, who does he think he is?

To those who thought Button's racecraft wasnt good enough - you've been proved wrong. He executed some sublime passing moves.

To those who thought Barrichello was going to walk all over Button - what have u got to say for yourself. Rubens had a problem after about lap 10 but up til then he was no match for Buttons pace.

Nice to see Schumi back in the fight, he also drove brilliantly all weekend.

I'm confused about McLaren though - Montoya seemed to not have the pace of the leaders, but Kimi started last and ended up ahead of JPM!! Whatever people say about JPM, he IS one of the best drivers in f1 so he must have had some kind of issue.

And Nico Rosberg - he drove like he's been driving in f1 for years!! Some great overtaking.

To Senna, and Ben - hope now you can realise you were talking dog-crap when you were going on about Aguri being a joke. Considering their lack of testing, they have done an amazing job to be on the grid and have a car finish the race. They didnt endanger peoples lives like you kept predicting.

Can't wait til Malaysia when hopefully my boy JB should challenge for the win. In Bahrain the start was terrible and was held up by mclarens way too often!

[hobbit 0]

I have to say it was a great start to the new season. Ithink it is much better with the v8s. Was really impressed with how alonso drove. And was brilliant when he came out the pits to take micheal. I was very disappointed with montoya he should have done much better. Kimi was my driver of the day. I know most of you will disagree with me but he came from last to 3rd.

[Wez 0]

Great race!

It will be a really good season!

GO RENAULT!!!!

GO ALONSO!!!!

Damn right Ecap!!!!

Superb drive from Fernando!

[Wez 0]

Great week-end!!!! That last pit stop was pure gold

Kimi was absolutelly impressive but saying he would have won for sure if he wouldn

[narain fan 0]

Can't fault Alonso, he drove a brilliant race

after the stunning performance from him....i would have been surprised if u would have continued to spew venom.

[hobbit 0]

I agree Kiko,

No doubt Kimi drove a great race but there are some points that need to be made about his race:

-Starting from the back of the grid in a quick car you have the advantage that you dont have qualifying fuel & can have a 1 stop load.

-The truth is that one stops possibly make drivers look quicker than they are since they are passing Aguris & Midlands at the back of the grid whereas they would be a sitting duck against the front runners.

Look, Kimi had so much fuel he couldn't even hassel JV in the first third of the race.

-As we saw at the end of the race on track pace he was no quicker than Button!

Kimi drove an excellant race. He could not get passed JV as he had a full tank. And at the end of the race he had no reason to go quicker than button so might aswell save the engine a bit for the next race

[kiko01 0]

I agree Kiko,

No doubt Kimi drove a great race but there are some points that need to be made about his race:

-Starting from the back of the grid in a quick car you have the advantage that you dont have qualifying fuel & can have a 1 stop load.

-The truth is that one stops possibly make drivers look quicker than they are since they are passing Aguris & Midlands at the back of the grid whereas they would be a sitting duck against the front runners.

Look, Kimi had so much fuel he couldn't even hassel JV in the first third of the race.

-As we saw at the end of the race on track pace he was no quicker than Button!

I agree with you but i have to say that (even when driving a 1 stop strategy make the things a bit easier when starting from the last spot) Kimi was aboslutelly amazing. The guy is a real fighter, it doesn