tweety bird

Otay..

Bahrain Grand Prix organisers are considering holding a night race next year. With the 2014 grand prix marking 10th anniversary of the inaugural Sakhir Formula 1 event, track chiefs are determined to do something to mark the occasion. Although nothing has been finalised yet, Bahrain Grand Prix chairman Zayed Al Zayani has revealed that several possibilities are being considered - including a night race. "We are looking at many options. A night race could be one of them, but it is not the only one," Zayani told AUTOSPORT. "It is our tenth race, and our tenth anniversary, so we want to do something different. "But different doesn't necessarily mean we will race at night. "There are pros and cons to doing it, and all options are open." AUTOSPORT understands that if plans for a night race are given the green light, then the lighting infrastructure will be made permanent so the facility can utilise it all year around. Bahrain is also pushing for its event to become the first race of 2014 as well, which would fit in well with the desire of teams and tyre supplier Pirelli to hold at least one test in the Middle East before the start of the campaign. Zayani said that no decision had been made yet about where Bahrain would slot into next year's schedule, but he said the venue was prepared for a test and the opening round if required. "We are ready," he said. "We have had a first race before, we have had a third race before, and fourth race before. "But it is premature to say when we will be. We will know probably between July and September or October. "We would love to have the teams here for testing as well. But at the end of the day, that is a decision for them, not us." http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/106989

ah ivan i've missed your commentary.

Lewis Hamilton's left-rear tyre failure during Saturday morning practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix, which led to his five-place grid penalty, was caused by metal debris, according to Pirelli. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/106928

if we're lucky pirelli will tell us what happened.

Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap Laps 1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m33.247s 12 2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m33.348s + 0.101s 15 3. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m33.380s + 0.133s 19 4. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m33.446s + 0.199s 21 5. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m33.455s + 0.208s 19 6. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m33.464s + 0.217s 19 7. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m33.596s + 0.349s 17 8. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m33.700s + 0.453s 15 9. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m33.764s + 0.517s 1910. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1m33.922s + 0.675s 1711. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m33.949s + 0.702s 2012. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m34.117s + 0.870s 1713. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1m34.282s + 1.035s 1814. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m34.577s + 1.330s 1615. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m34.611s + 1.364s 1716. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m34.678s + 1.431s 1617. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m34.833s + 1.586s 1718. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 1m35.816s + 2.569s 1619. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 1m36.731s + 3.484s 1720. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1m36.939s + 3.692s 1621. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1m37.630s + 4.383s 722. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.592s + 6.345s 28 http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/106906

homo brokeded his car...

nando gone for a spin.

p3 starts soon!

Tamara Ecclestone poses for Playboy. http://celebrities.ninemsn.com.au/blog.aspx?blogentryid=1107770&showcomments=true the link is sfw as the issue isn't coming out until next month.

mark webbers 200th start video.

Pirelli will decide next week whether or not any changes are needed to its compounds for this year, but warned its critics that any changes are likely to be minimal. "The reality is we are not going to do something that will suit one team," said Hembery, who says that eight teams have asked Pirelli not to make any changes to the compounds for this season. "We know what is coming up in terms of the season, and we know the results we have seen. It is not what you are seeing here, it is what is to come that we have to worry about. "We have to take that into account otherwise we might be walking into bigger problems and then have eight teams coming to us and going: 'you do need to make a change'. "If we do anything it will be done in the early phase of the season and then we will leave it. It is what it is then; and for better or worse you let everyone get on with it. "You want everything you do done very early on to avoid exactly that accusation that you are influencing something. But whatever we do, we will still be maintaining a much softer tyre range than we had last year." Hembery said the most likely tweaks will be made to the current soft and hard compounds, and only to ensure they have a better operating window. "We might have to move the working range of the compounds down a bit, particularly when we get to cooler races," he said. "It is all minor stuff and it is not maybe in the direction that some would like." Pirelli is also pressing ahead with plans to give teams an extra set of durable tyres for use in first free practice at the Spanish Grand Prix, even though agreement for them only to be available to rookie drivers does not appear to be forthcoming. "At the moment we have proposed it and we intend to provide it [the extra set], but we haven't yet had the feedback from the teams' meetings that they have had," he said. "They are trying to establish who should be able to use those tyres, and that is the current sticking point. We have said we don't want to get involved in that: it is up to them to get consensus." http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/106894

Heikki Kovalainen says Caterham need to improve the back end of their CT03 after driving the "unbalanced" car for the first time in FP1. "I think it's quite different to last year's," Kovalainen said. "Fundamentally it's the same, obviously tyres and set-up has changed. It's quite a different feeling. If I was racing, I would start looking to make changes straight away to get it more how I think it should be. "It's more unbalanced than I experienced last year. It's more difficult to nail a good lap. I think in qualifying, when the tyres are fresh, the car is a bit more average. But to a certain extent it's not a surprise because of the way the car has been modified. "In terms of the differences, there's a direction. But with the tyres that we have now, I'm not convinced it's the right way to go. Maybe we should reconsider the set-up direction." Kovalainen, though, believes Caterham can improve the car but admits it won't be a quick fix. "I think part of it is solvable with set-up, but when we improve the car and bring upgrades, there's one area we really need to improve and that's the back end of the car." http://www.planetf1.com/driver/18227/8652995/Heikki-CT03-is-unbalanced

p2 Times 01 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 1:34.154 31 laps 02 Mark Webber Red Bull 1:34.184 +0.030s 26 laps 03 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:34.282 +0.128 29 laps 04 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:34.310 +0.15628 laps 05 Paul di Resta Force India 1:34.543 + 0.389 35 laps 06 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:34.552s +0.398 34 laps 07 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:34.631 +0.477 33 laps 08 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:34.666 +0.512 37 laps 09 Adrian Sutil Force India 1:34.932 +0.778 33 laps 10 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:34.976 +0.822 29 laps 11 Jenson Button McLaren 1:35.356 +1.202 32 laps 12 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:35.506 +1.352 36 laps 13 Sergio Perez McLaren 1:35.559 +1.435 36 laps 14 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:35.761 +1.607 33 laps 15 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:36.133 +1.979 36 laps 16 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:36.279 +2.125 33 laps 17 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:36.579 +2.425 28 laps 18 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:36.616 +2.462 34 laps 19 Charles Pic Caterham 1:37.061 +2.907 32 laps 20 Max Chilton Marussia 1:37.313 +3.159 33 laps 21 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:37.363s +3.209 29 laps 22 Giedo van der Garde Caterham 1:37.970 +3.816 34 laps http://www.planetf1.com/news/3213/8652814/Kimi-Tops-Friday-s-Running-In-Bahrain

p1 Times 01 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:34.487 11 laps 02 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:34.564 +0.077 19 laps 03 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:34.621 +0.134 22 laps 04 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:34.790 +0.303 20 laps 05 Paul di Resta Force India 1:34.949 +0.462 17 laps 06 Jenson Button McLaren 1:35.069 +0.582 22 laps 07 Mark Webber Red Bull 1:35.101 +0.614 19 laps 08 Adrian Sutil Force India 1:35.119 +0.632 19 laps 09 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 1:35.345 +0.858 17 laps 10 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:35.611 +1.124 14 laps 11 Sergio Perez McLaren 1:35.640 +1.153 23 laps 12 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:35.783 +1.296 16 laps 13 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:35.792 +1.305 16 laps 14 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:36.014 +1.527 19 laps 15 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:36.485 +1.998 20 laps 16 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:36.498 +2.011 17 laps 17 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:36.755 +2.268 20 laps 18 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:37.214 +2.727 21 laps 19 Charles Pic Caterham 1:37.850 +3.363 20 laps 20 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 1:38.401 +3.914 20 laps 21 Max Chilton Marussia 1:39.445 +4.958 12 laps 22 Rodolfo Gonzalez Marussia 1:40.215 +5.728 7 laps http://www.planetf1.com/news/3213/8651878/Massa-Leads-A-Ferrari-1-2-In-Bahrain

sorry. fmp.

Q&A mark webber here. http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews/2013/4/14475.html

williams is a ''big name team''. just not a winning one.

also. http://www.planetf1.com/photo-gallery/3229/8649059/Bahrain-With-Sure-For-Men#photo=0

meh @ vettel & perez.. heikki is back for two friday sessions with caterham. http://www.planetf1.com/driver/18227/8649084/Heikki-I-m-here-to-help-the-team and i'm thinking about importing a caterham.

sad news. this ^.

so many lols there ^.

also interesting.

on the topic of mark webber's starts.