MOTORSPORT: Renault gets three cheers in F1

French manufacturer's engine may not be the most powerful in grand prix racing but it's a clear winner, sweeping the podium in Bahrain.

‘Impeccable’ Vettel on course for fourth world title

Tyre wear has been a big factor in the first four Formula One races of the year but ultimately the Bahrain Grand Prix was about engines.

Renault-powered cars finished first, second and third.

While Sebastian Vettel preserved his Pirelli tyres best after charging into the lead – and clean air – within two laps from third on the grid, the young triple world champion went out of his way on the podium to highlight the success of Renault’s RS27 engine.

The Lotus cars of Kimi Raikkonen and Frenchman Romain Grosjean followed Vettel’s Red Bull across the finish line, the same finishing as last year there, but with the gaps almost 10 seconds in each case this time.

“The first three cars on Renault engines ... the guys back in Viry in France are pushing very, very hard and sometimes get criticised for not having the strongest engine, but in the end we stand up here,” Vettel said.

“Three Renault-powered cars, so merci beaucoup, well done to them and looking forward to the next races [in Europe, starting in Barcelona on May 12].”

Renault’s Thierry Salvi said that “delivering the right engine settings for these (sweltering Bahrain) conditions and fuel consumption rate while maintaining stability is a careful balance but everything seemed to work well”.

Renault-powered cars now have won three of the GPs this season, starting with Raikkonen’s success in Melbourne.

Vettel’s 28th GP win took him one past another triple world champion, Scotland’s Sir Jack Stewart, while it was Renault’s 154th victory in F1 and its 36th together for Red Bull.

Australia’s Mark Webber has contributed nine of those with Red Bull-Renault, but in Bahrain at the weekend he finished only seventh, losing places to Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes and Mexican Sergio Perez’s McLaren-Mercedes on the last lap – and copping a reprimand for contact with Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes two-thirds of the way through the race.

“The start of the race went okay [from seventh on the grid] – I made up a place straight away and was looking okay during the opening stint,” Webber said. “But my race started to unravel during my second stint. I passed a lot of cars early on in that stint and climbed from 14th to second in the space of 13 laps, but my tyres couldn’t stand the pace and I was forced to pit early.

“That lengthened my third and fourth stints, which made me very vulnerable in the closing laps. It was a very tough day for the tyres. This track is hard on the rear tyres anyway, and the hotter conditions [about 45 degrees Centigrade] made it even tougher – which was rough for me because I was starting in the pack [after a three-place penalty from the Chinese GP] and capable of lapping quickly on new tyres.

“I paid the price in the second stint because my tyres ‘fell off a cliff’ and I was forced to pit earlier than planned. Just prior to that I thought I could finish on the podium. It wasn’t to be, although I had a good dice with Lewis. It was hard and fair racing.

“In the end I had no rear tyres left and had to let him go and then Perez passed me as well.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner commended Webber on “fighting fantastically well” and “racing very hard”, but Horner said Vettel’s drive had been “absolutely impeccable”.

“He executed two brilliant overtakes, one on Fernando (Alonso’s Ferrari) and the other on Nico Rosberg,” he said. “After that he dominated the race until the finish and managed his tyres brilliantly.”

Vettel – with two wins this season, including that controversial one after ignoring team orders to beat Webber in Malaysia – now heads the championship by 10 points from the phenomenally consistent Raikkonen.

Hamilton is third and Alonso fourth, but 30 points behind Vettel now after his drag reduction system (wide-open rear wing) jammed open and forced an extra pit stop in Bahrain, relegating him to eighth in the race.

Webber is fifth in the championship, another 15 points behind Alonso – so 45 behind Vettel already.

Bahrain officially was his 200th GP – the tally discounting the 2002 Spanish GP where Minardi withdrew because of unsafe aerodynamics – and the seventh place his 100th in which he has scored world championship points.

Fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo’s Toro Rosso-Ferrari lacked downforce in Bahrain and he finished only 16th after his seventh in China the previous week.

“I got a reasonable start, better than some of the guys around me, and I got ahead of Grosjean,” Ricciardo said. “Then at some point I locked up the wheels and lost a position or two. All afternoon we just struggled with speed – in the first stint tyre warm-up was a problem and I was losing a lot of time on braking.

“We never really recovered, even though we tried to make a few changes to the balance of the car at the pit stops.

“We must look into what exactly was wrong with the car as we were really limited in terms of downforce.”

The Force-India Mercedes cars were hugely competitive in Bahrain, both starting high on the grid, and British driver Paul Di Resta’s fourth-place finish in one of them equalled his career-best result.

At McLaren – also powered by Mercedes – 2009 world champion Jenson Button felt that Perez’s new-found aggression after a gee-up from team management was out of order. Button called Perez’s wheel-banging antics “dirty and dangerous” – and the Mexican later agreed he had been over the top.

Formula One World Championship driver standings after four of 19 rounds – 1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 77 points; 2. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Lotus-Renault) 67; 3. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) 50; 4. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 47; 5. Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 32; 6. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 30; 7. Romain Grosjean (France, Lotus-Renault) 26; 8. Paul Di Resta (GB, Force India-Mercedes) 20; 9. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 14; 10. Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 13; 11. Sergio Perez (Mexico, McLaren-Mercedes) 10; 12. Adrian Sutil (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 6; 13. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 6; 14. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany, Sauber-Ferrari) 5; 15. Jean-Eric Vergne (France, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 1.

F1 Constructors’ Championship standings – 1. Red Bull-Renault 109 points; 2. Lotus-Renault 93; 3. Ferrari 77; 4. Mercedes 64; 5. Force India-Mercedes 26; 6. McLaren-Mercedes 23; 7. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 7; 8. Sauber-Ferrari 5.

History made in US but no joy for Aussies

It was a miserable weekend for Australians Will Power and Marcos Ambrose in America as Japanese ex-F1 racer Takuma Sato scored his first IndyCar win and Matt Kenseth triumped in the NASCAR race at Kansas Speedway.

Honda-powered cars filled the podium positions in the Indy race and Sato’s victory – the first in the top rung of American open-wheeler racing – was a fillip for his team owner, the legendary A.J. Foyt, who was home in Texas awaiting surgery for sciatica.

Power’s race on the famed streets of Long Beach in California was wrecked after he collided with French rookie Tristan Vautier in the pit lane. Vautier had pulled out of his pit as Power came in. The contact damaged Vautier's wing while Power escaped major damage but his car stalled as he tried to pull away after his stop.

Vautier copped his second penalty of the race while Power was classified only 15th and is winless after three rounds of the championship.

Power’s Penske teammate Helio Castroneves, who finished ninth at Long Beach, has an eight-point lead in the series over Sato ahead of the May 5 race on the street circuit in Sao Paulo, Brazil – and then the Indianapolis 500 in late May

New Zealander Scott Dixon is third in the series, Marco Andretti fourth, reigning champion Ryan-Hunter Reay sixth and Power eighth.

Sato’s victory was the first for Foyt’s team in more than a decade, and its first on a road or street course since Foyt’s on October 1, 1978 – at Silverstone in Britain!

Kenseth’s NASCAR victory in a Toyota was his second in eight rounds this season and the 26th of his career.

It was the third straight race with the new “Generation Six” stock cars that the winner had started on pole position.

The last time that happened in NASCAR’s Cup racing was 1985.

Australian Ambrose finished 19th in his Ford and is 19th in the championship – 118 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson, who was third at Kansas and whose 331 points is 37 more than fellow Chevrolet driver Kasey Kahne, second at Kansas, and 38 ahead of defending champion Brad Keselowski.

No date has been set yet for the Penske NASCAR team’s appeal against the 24-point penalties on Keselowski and Joey Logana over rear suspension irregularities found in their Fords in Texas a week ago.

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MOTORSPORT: Renault gets three cheers in F1

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