| 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Race 3 of 19 in the2005 Formula One World Championship
| |||||
 | |||||
| Race details | |||||
| Date | April 3, 2005 | ||||
| Official name | 2005 Formula 1Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix | ||||
| Location | Bahrain International Circuit,Sakhir,Bahrain | ||||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||||
| Course length | 5.412 km (3.363 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 57 laps, 308.238 km (191.530 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Sunny, 42 °C (108 °F)[1] | ||||
| Attendance | 77,257 (weekend)[2] | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | Renault | ||||
| Time | 3:01.902 (aggregate) | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Pedro de la Rosa | McLaren-Mercedes | |||
| Time | 1:31.447 on lap 43(lap record) | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Renault | ||||
| Second | Toyota | ||||
| Third | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The2005 Bahrain Grand Prix (officially the2005 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix)[3] was aFormula One motor race held on 3 April 2005 at theBahrain International Circuit inSakhir,Bahrain. The 57-lap race was the third round of the2005 Formula One season and the second running of theBahrain Grand Prix, since itsinception the year before.
The race was won by polesitter and championship leaderFernando Alonso for theRenault team.Jarno Trulli finished in second place in aToyota car andKimi Räikkönen completed the podium in third position forMcLaren. Defending World ChampionMichael Schumacher having qualified in second place retired from the race early on driving Ferrari's new F2005 car which made its debut at this race. As a result theF2005 became the first new Ferrari Formula One chassis not to win on its debut since theF300 used in the1998 season.
The bottom 6 teams in the2004 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.
| Constructor | No | Driver |
|---|---|---|
| McLaren-Mercedes | 35 |  Alexander Wurz |
| Sauber-Petronas | - | |
| Red Bull-Cosworth | 37 |  Vitantonio Liuzzi |
| Toyota | 38 |  Ricardo Zonta |
| Jordan-Toyota | 39 |  Robert Doornbos |
| Minardi-Cosworth | - |
The race was only the second Formula One Grand Prix held in theMiddle East, bringing the challenges of high temperatures and dusty conditions. This race also saw the Grand Prix debut ofScuderia Ferrari's new for 2005 car - theF2005. The race debut of the F2005 had originally not been expected to take place until theSpanish Grand Prix in May but following a team test at theMugello Circuit the previous week the F2005's race debut was brought forward to the Bahrain event after what the team deemed an unsatisfactory performance at the first two races of the year inAustralia andMalaysia with theF2004M, despite the fact Barrichello had scored a podium with second place in Melbourne.[4] The race was held the day afterPope John Paul II died, with several teams and drivers offering their respects, most notably Ferrari, who raced with blackened nose cones as a mark of respect. The celebrations on the podium were also muted.
The circuit had been modified slightly from2004, with turn 4 in particular being widened on the exit.
Before the race,McLaren driverJuan Pablo Montoya injured his shoulder. This led to him being replaced byPedro de la Rosa at this race, andAlexander Wurz at the next one inSan Marino, before his return at theSpanish Grand Prix.
First qualifying on Saturday resulted in few surprises– for the first few drivers, the circuit was still somewhat sandy, providing poor grip, while the later runners performed well, withFernando Alonso taking provisional pole with a lap time of 1:29.848.
Final qualifying on Sunday morning again passed without major incident, with Alonso taking pole position, andMichael Schumacher taking second, driving the brand-newF2005 car.Rubens Barrichello, having had gearbox problems on Friday and Saturday, qualified 15th, and elected to change his engine, resulting in him starting from the back of the grid.
Race afternoon brought the highest ever recorded temperatures experienced at a Grand Prix, with air temperature of 42.6 °C (108.7 °F)[5] and track temperatures of 56 °C (133 °F). This surpassed the record temperatures of the1955 Argentine Grand Prix and the1984 Dallas Grand Prix.Christian Klien failed to get away from his seventh position on the grid for the formation lap. His car was pushed into the pits but could not be restarted, and he became the first of eight retirements.
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 ofJarno 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 theworld 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 the2001 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, 2.7 seconds behind Alonso, withMark Webber in third.
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 byTakuma Sato, whose front brakes had been smoking for a while, and who spun and then retired in the pits on lap 27. His teammateJenson Button's brakes also appeared to be giving off more dust than usual, as Button fought to keepPedro de la Rosa from taking his seventh place. De la Rosa was making his first start forMcLaren, replacing the sidelinedJuan Pablo Montoya. De la Rosa finally managed to pass Button on lap 33, outbraking him at turn one.
The following lap, Webber lost control out of turn eight, spun on the entrance to turn nine, and allowed Räikkönen and Ralf Schumacher to pass– on a circuit with very forgiving run-off areas, the spin upset the balance of Webber's car and flat-spotted his tyres.
In the next few laps, before the second pit stops, the closest fight was between Barrichello in sixth, and de la Rosa in seventh. De la Rosa continually pressured the remainingFerrari, but initially he only succeeded in pushing himself too far, running wide at turn one, and allowing Button to close up behind him. Eventually, though, he was able to take sixth place in the final corner.
Alonso put in several fast laps to extend his lead, and pitted on lap 41. The other drivers also pitted without incident, except Button, who stalled hisBAR-Honda. After several attempts at restarting the engine, he almost took his rear jack with him back into the race– only to retire at the end of the pit-lane due to a clutch failure, making this the second race in a row where both BAR drivers had retired. After the second round of pit stops, Alonso still led the race, followed by Trulli, Räikkönen, Ralf Schumacher, Webber, de la Rosa, Barrichello, andFelipe Massa.
In the closing stages, the main fight was between Webber and de la Rosa for fifth place. Webber defended strongly, but de la Rosa eventually overcame him two laps from the end of the race.Jacques Villeneuve retired from ninth place into the pits on the penultimate lap, while Barrichello slipped further and further back, allowing Massa to take seventh place and score points in hisSauber team's 200th Grand Prix, andDavid Coulthard took eighth place on the last lap, making Ferrari scoreless for the first time since the2003 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Alonso won the race by a comfortable 13.4 seconds from Trulli, bringingRenault engines their 100th World Championship Grand Prix win.
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Total | Gap | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:29.848 | 1:32.054 | 3:01.902 | 1 | |
| 2 | 1 |  Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | 1:30.237 | 1:32.120 | 3:02.357 | + 0.455 | 2 |
| 3 | 16 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:29.993 | 1:32.667 | 3:02.660 | + 0.758 | 3 |
| 4 | 8 | Nick Heidfeld | Williams-BMW | 1:30.390 | 1:32.827 | 3:03.217 | + 1.315 | 4 |
| 5 | 7 |  Mark Webber | Williams-BMW | 1:30.592 | 1:32.670 | 3:03.262 | + 1.360 | 5 |
| 6 | 17 | Ralf Schumacher | Toyota | 1:30.952 | 1:32.319 | 3:03.271 | + 1.369 | 6 |
| 7 | 15 | Christian Klien | Red Bull-Cosworth | 1:30.646 | 1:32.723 | 3:03.369 | + 1.467 | 7 |
| 8 | 10 | Pedro de la Rosa | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:30.725 | 1:32.648 | 3:03.373 | + 1.471 | 8 |
| 9 | 9 |  Kimi Räikkönen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:30.594 | 1:32.930 | 3:03.524 | + 1.622 | 9 |
| 10 | 6 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Renault | 1:30.445 | 1:33.320 | 3:03.765 | + 1.863 | 10 |
| 11 | 3 |  Jenson Button | BAR-Honda | 1:30.957 | 1:33.319 | 3:04.348 | + 2.446 | 11 |
| 12 | 12 | Felipe Massa | Sauber-Petronas | 1:30.933 | 1:34.269 | 3:05.202 | + 3.300 | 12 |
| 13 | 4 |  Takuma Sato | BAR-Honda | 1:31.113 | 1:34.450 | 3:05.563 | + 3.661 | 13 |
| 14 | 14 | David Coulthard | Red Bull-Cosworth | 1:31.211 | 1:34.633 | 3:05.844 | + 3.942 | 14 |
| 15 | 2 | Rubens Barrichello | Ferrari | 1:31.826 | 1:35.867 | 3:07.693 | + 5.791 | 201 |
| 16 | 11 |  Jacques Villeneuve | Sauber-Petronas | 1:32.318 | 1:35.665 | 3:07.983 | + 6.081 | 15 |
| 17 | 18 |  Tiago Monteiro | Jordan-Toyota | 1:33.424 | 1:36.004 | 3:09.428 | + 7.526 | 16 |
| 18 | 19 |  Narain Karthikeyan | Jordan-Toyota | 1:33.190 | 1:36.953 | 3:10.143 | + 8.241 | 17 |
| 19 | 21 |  Christijan Albers | Minardi-Cosworth | 1:34.005 | 1:36.417 | 3:10.422 | + 8.520 | 182 |
| 20 | 20 | Patrick Friesacher | Minardi-Cosworth | 1:34.848 | 1:36.413 | 3:11.261 | + 9.359 | 192 |
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Tyre | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | M | 57 | 1:29:18.531 | 1 | 10 |
| 2 | 16 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | M | 57 | +13.409 | 3 | 8 |
| 3 | 9 | Kimi Räikkönen | McLaren-Mercedes | M | 57 | +32.063 | 9 | 6 |
| 4 | 17 | Ralf Schumacher | Toyota | M | 57 | +53.272 | 6 | 5 |
| 5 | 10 | Pedro de la Rosa | McLaren-Mercedes | M | 57 | +1:04.988 | 8 | 4 |
| 6 | 7 | Mark Webber | Williams-BMW | M | 57 | +1:14.701 | 5 | 3 |
| 7 | 12 | Felipe Massa | Sauber-Petronas | M | 56 | +1 lap | 12 | 2 |
| 8 | 14 | David Coulthard | Red Bull-Cosworth | M | 56 | +1 lap | 14 | 1 |
| 9 | 2 | Rubens Barrichello | Ferrari | B | 56 | +1 lap | 20 | |
| 10 | 18 | Tiago Monteiro | Jordan-Toyota | B | 55 | +2 laps | 16 | |
| 11 | 11 | Jacques Villeneuve | Sauber-Petronas | M | 54 | Suspension | 15 | |
| 12 | 20 | Patrick Friesacher | Minardi-Cosworth | B | 54 | +3 laps | 19 | |
| 13 | 21 | Christijan Albers | Minardi-Cosworth | B | 53 | +4 laps | 18 | |
| Ret | 3 | Jenson Button | BAR-Honda | M | 46 | Clutch | 11 | |
| Ret | 4 | Takuma Sato | BAR-Honda | M | 27 | Brakes | 13 | |
| Ret | 8 | Nick Heidfeld | Williams-BMW | M | 25 | Engine | 4 | |
| Ret | 1 | Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | B | 12 | Hydraulics | 2 | |
| Ret | 6 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Renault | M | 4 | Engine | 10 | |
| Ret | 19 | Narain Karthikeyan | Jordan-Toyota | B | 2 | Electrical | 17 | |
| DNS | 15 | Christian Klien | Red Bull-Cosworth | M | 0 | Electrical | 7 | |
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Previous race: 2005 Malaysian Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 2005 season | Next race: 2005 San Marino Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 2004 Bahrain Grand Prix | Bahrain Grand Prix | Next race: 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix |
26°01′57″N50°30′38″E / 26.03250°N 50.51056°E /26.03250; 50.51056
