Lewis Hamilton will drop five places on the grid for the 2013 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix following a gearbox change, Mercedes have confirmed.
The 2008 world champion suffered an apparent left-rear tyre delamination at the end of final practice on Saturday morning and following an inspection of his F1 W04, the team opted to replace the gearbox before qualifying.
Hamilton becomes the third driver who will drop places following qualifying in Sakhir. Mark Webber was given a three-place grid penalty for tangling with Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne at the previous race in China, while Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez received a five-place penalty in Shanghai for causing a collision with Force India’s Adrian Sutil.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso beat Red bull’s Sebastian Vettel in final practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Spaniard was 0.101 seconds quicker than the world champion, who did not complete a flying lap on the faster of the two tyre options.
Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber was third fastest, 0.133secs behind Alonso, ahead of Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was fifth as 0.5secs separated the top nine.
Hamilton toured back to the pits at the end of the session with a failure, which left the rear tyre at an angle of 45 degrees.
It appeared initially as if the tyre may have failed.
Lotus’s Romain Grosjean was sixth, ahead of the Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta, Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was 11th ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button.
Alonso set the pace despite a spin earlier in the session. He lost control as he put the power down on the exit of Turn Two but was able to rejoin despite the car ending up in the gravel.
Vettel completed two-thirds of his flying lap on the softer ‘medium’ tyre before being held up by one of the Caterhams, at which the German demonstrated his exasperation by waving his hand out of the cockpit.
Vettel had been was just over 0.1secs slower than Alonso on his ‘medium’ run before hitting the traffic. The ‘medium’ will be the qualifying tyre.
BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson said: “I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Red Bull on pole, but it will be close with Alonso and Raikkonen.”
The session, and the weekend’s race, is taking place against the backdrop of continuing civil unrest in the Gulf state.
There were demonstrations against the ruling family attended by 10s of thousands of people on Friday night.
But the race is being held under heavy security and, unlike last year, no F1 personnel have encountered any trouble unless they have gone out to the areas where the demonstrations and occasional riots are taking place.
Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen headed the Red Bulls and Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari in second practice at the Bahrain GP.
The Finn was 0.03 seconds clear of Red Bull’s Mark Webber at the head of a tightly packed field, with the second Red Bull of world champion Sebastian Vettel third.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was fourth, just 0.156secs behind Raikkonen and ahead of Force India’s Paul di Resta.
The Scot edged Alonso’s team-mate Felipe Massa into sixth place.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was 10th fastest, two places and 0.31secs behind team-mate Nico Rosberg, with McLaren’s Jenson Button in 11th.
The race simulations runs later in the session suggested Ferrari and Lotus may be the strongest teams on Sunday, with the Red Bulls their main competition.
Raikkonen was marginally faster than Massa, who was a similar distance ahead of Vettel when comparing their equivalent race-simulation runs on ‘medium’ tyres at the same time.
Alonso’s pace on the ‘hard’ and ‘medium’ tyres on his race-simulation runs was extremely impressive, but he ran the tyres at different times from his rivals when the circuit would be in a different condition, so it is harder to draw conclusions.
This week, we kick off with another of Pirelli’s preview videos. Hopefully this should go some way to preventing the confusion experienced by many fans during the Chinese race.
Pirelli have ditched the soft tyre in favour of their medium compound, but with the heat and wear on the rears in Bahrain, it’s yet to be seen whether it’ll make much difference.
Audi Quattros won the unlimited class of the famous Colorado hillclimb six years in a row in the ’80s, in the hands of John Buffum, Michèle Mouton, Bobby Unser and Walter Röhrl.
As an aside, Unsers have won at Pikes Peak over three generations with Bobby taking a record 13 wins on the mountain. His 1986 win in the Quattro came three years after nephew Al Jr won the open wheel class.
DTM at the Nürburgring, 1993
Twenty years ago, Class 1 regulations made their debut in the DTM, and Alfa were the first to produce a car specifically to suit them. This video shows a great fight over two races between Alfa and Mercedes at the Nordschleife. Great cars, great drivers, great track.
David Purley at Oulton Park
The next driver to feature in our Racing Lives comic strip is David Purley, so as a warm up for that, here’s a documentary about him from 1975. John Noakes joins the LEC team in the lead-up to a race at Oulton Park in the European Formula 5000 Championship, a series that brought Purley a lot of success.
It’s a great insight into the man and the way a small racing team operated in those days – and Noakes gets stuck in as well.
To view more videos, click here.
Motor Sport Magazine – The original motor racing magazine
Felipe Massa led Fernando Alonso in a Ferrari one-two in first practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Massa edged Alonso by just 0.077secs as Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was third ahead of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.
Force India’s Paul di Resta was fifth from McLaren’s Jenson Button and Red Bull’s Mark Webber.
Di Resta’s team-mate Adrian Sutil was eighth ahead of Lotus drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was 13th.
During the session, governing body the FIA issued a joint statement with the sport’s commercial arm Formula 1 Management (FOM) to say that they believed the race “should go ahead” despite ongoing civil unrest in the Gulf state.
The practice session suggested competition would be close at the front – Rosberg was just 0.134secs behind Massa and 0.169secs ahead of Vettel.
Button’s team-mate Sergio Perez, under pressure to match the Englishman, was 11th fastest, 0.571secs behind.
Lewis Hamilton will drop five places on the grid for the 2013 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix following a gearbox change, Mercedes have confirmed. 
