2005 Bahrain Grand Prix

The 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix (officially the 2005 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix ) [ 3 ] was a Formula One motor race held on 3 April 2005 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir , Bahrain . The 57-lap race was the third round of the 2005 Formula One season and the second running of the Bahrain Grand Prix , since its inception the year before .

Friday drivers

The bottom 6 teams in the 2004 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.

Race

The circuit had been modified slightly from 2004 , with turn 4 in particular being widened on the exit.

Race

The leaders made a clean start, with Alonso first to turn one. Schumacher moved from his second grid slot across to the clean side of the track, ahead of Jarno Trulli , who made a strong challenge to pass Schumacher in the first two corners, without success. Barrichello made an aggressive start, moving up to tenth by the end of lap one.

Giancarlo Fisichella 's engine began to smoke during lap two, and he pulled into the pits to retire. However, as he applied the pit lane speed limiter, he felt power return, and was waved through by his team. But the resurgence was short-lived, and he was back in the pits on lap four to retire. On lap three, Narain Karthikeyan's car suffered an electrical failure that looked similar to Christian Klien's.

Schumacher continued to closely pursue Alonso until lap 12, when the world champion overshot turn nine, and performed a 270° turn in the run-off area. At the end of the lap, Schumacher coasted back to the pits, making this his first mechanical retirement since the 2001 German Grand Prix – a remarkable run of 58 consecutive Grands Prix. It later emerged that the car's hydraulics had failed, meaning he could not downshift to use engine braking for corners. Therefore, Trulli now took second place, ...

On lap 18, Ralf Schumacher in fourth place made the first scheduled pit stop of the front-runners, and rejoined in 12th place. Alonso, Trulli and then Webber all pitted over the next few laps, in what appeared to be the now fairly standard three-stop pattern. After the pit stops, Alonso retained the lead, followed by Trulli, Webber, Kimi Räikkönen , Ralf, and Barrichello.

Nick Heidfeld was the next retirement, with a blown engine on lap 25, although it took him around half a lap to pull off the track to stop. He was shortly followed by Takuma Sato , whose front brakes had been smoking for a while, and who spun and then retired in the pits on lap 27. His teammate Jenson Button 's brakes also appeared to be giving off more dust than usual, as Button fought to keep Pedro de la Rosa from taking his seventh place. De la Rosa was making his first start for McLaren , r...

References

26°01′57″N 50°30′38″E / 26.03250°N 50.51056°E / 26.03250; 50.51056

Quick Facts

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Table 1

Constructor	No	Driver
McLaren-Mercedes	35.0	Alexander Wurz
Sauber-Petronas	nan	-
Red Bull-Cosworth	37.0	Vitantonio Liuzzi
Toyota	38.0	Ricardo Zonta
Jordan-Toyota	39.0	Robert Doornbos
Minardi-Cosworth	nan	-

Table 2

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2
1	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:29.848	1:32.054
2	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:30.237	1:32.120
3	16	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:29.993	1:32.667
4	8	Nick Heidfeld	Williams-BMW	1:30.390	1:32.827
5	7	Mark Webber	Williams-BMW	1:30.592	1:32.670
6	17	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:30.952	1:32.319
7	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Cosworth	1:30.646	1:32.723
8	10	Pedro de la Rosa	McLaren-Mercedes	1:30.725	1:32.648
9	9	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:30.594	1:32.930
10	6	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:30.445	1:33.320

Table 3

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Tyre	Laps
1	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	M	57
2	16	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	M	57
3	9	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	M	57
4	17	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	M	57
5	10	Pedro de la Rosa	McLaren-Mercedes	M	57
6	7	Mark Webber	Williams-BMW	M	57
7	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	M	56
8	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Cosworth	M	56
9	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	B	56
10	18	Tiago Monteiro	Jordan-Toyota	B	55

F1ABY Commentary

Bac. Don’t mistake the sheen of victory for the sheer calculation behind it. Alonso’s Bahrain triumph wasn’t simply about a faster Renault; it was about squeezing every last drop of advantage from a strategically deployed Friday driver – that young Räikkönen. Toyota, nursing wounds from '04, were essentially providing a live, breathing, albeit volatile, testbed for Renault’s future. Consider the unspoken agreement: a little turbulence for McLaren, a little data for Renault, and a quiet demonstration of the new regulations' potential. Trulli, predictably, played the part of the aggrieved party, but the truth is, the whole affair was a carefully orchestrated chess move. The question isn't *who* won, but *what* was being learned.

Don’t let the champagne fool you; the scent of desperation is far stronger around Renault this weekend. The strategic chess game unfolding here in Sakhir isn’t about winning the Bahrain Grand Prix – it’s about securing the narrative for the entire season, and frankly, Alonso’s team is playing a dangerous game of calculated risk.

F1ABY Trivia

Bac. The air hangs thick with the scent of burning rubber and unspoken tensions here in Sakhir. Don't be fooled by Alonso’s clean victory; Renault's engine team, spearheaded by Flavio Briatore, was quietly adjusting the RS27's intake mapping during those Friday sessions. McLaren, predictably, was obsessing over tire degradation – Räikkönen’s blistering lap times on the mediums hinted at a calculated gamble, a desperate attempt to unsettle Renault’s dominance. Toyota, relegated to the Friday driver list, was reportedly running a heavily modified Wily Peterson engine, a blatant signal of their ongoing struggle to match the top tier.

Bac. The air hangs thick with the scent of burning rubber and something considerably more potent – the quiet calculations of teams desperate to claw back ground. Let’s be blunt: McLaren’s dominance isn’t just about Kimi’s raw speed; it’s about meticulously controlling the data flow, isn’t it? Consider this: Räikkönen secured the podium despite starting nearly half a second slower than Alonso. That's a statistically significant gap, particularly when you factor in the relentless, almost surgical, improvements Renault’s engine development was delivering. Red Bull, predictably, struggled again – a consistent 1. 8 seconds off the pace, a chasm that whispers of a fundamental aerodynamic misalignment, a problem they're desperately trying to bury under a deluge of tire management talk.

F1ABY Tales

Bac. The air in the Renault garage hung thick with something beyond the scent of burning fuel. Alonso, a glacial stare fixed on the telemetry, wasn’t celebrating victory. His team principal, Flavio Briatore, was practically vibrating with restrained fury, dissecting every millisecond of Räikkönen’s late-race surge. Briatore suspected a deliberate game, a calculated attempt to bleed Alonso dry before the finish line, a tactic he considered utterly ruthless. This wasn’t just racing; it was a calculated assault on his championship lead, and frankly, it reeked of the Ferraioli’s usual disregard for the rules.

Bac. The rain, of course, was a distraction. But distractions rarely alter the fundamental calculations churning beneath the surface. You see, Heikki Kovalainen – a man perpetually hovering on the periphery – was practically vibrating with restrained frustration in the back of that Vodafone McLaren. He’d been meticulously observing Räikkönen’s telemetry, a silent, simmering judgment. Apparently, the young Finn was pushing the chassis to its absolute limit, flirting with disaster, and the McLaren engineers were… hesitant. A subtle power reduction was implemented during the session, a clear message: *control, Kimi, control. * It’s rarely the speed that dictates a team’s strategy, is it? More often, it's the precise management of risk, the art of appearing bold while safeguarding the bigger picture.