2010 Bahrain Grand Prix grid

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F1 has its largest grid in 15 years for the Bahrain Grand Prix. The last race with as many as 24 cars on the grid was the 1995 Pacific Grand Prix.

Here are the times from all three parts of qualifying in full:

Pos.#DriverCarQ1

Q2

Q3
15Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’55.0291’53.8831’54.101
27Felipe MassaFerrari1’55.3131’54.3311’54.242
38Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’54.6121’54.1721’54.608
42Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’55.3411’54.7071’55.217
54Nico RosbergMercedes1’55.4631’54.6821’55.241
66Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’55.2981’54.3181’55.284
73Michael SchumacherMercedes1’55.5931’55.1051’55.524
81Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’55.7151’55.1681’55.672
911Robert KubicaRenault1’55.5111’54.9631’55.885
1014Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’55.2131’54.9961’56.309
119Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’55.9691’55.330
1215Vitantonio LiuzziForce India-Mercedes1’55.6281’55.653
1310Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth1’56.3751’55.857
1422Pedro de la RosaSauber-Ferrari1’56.4281’56.237
1516Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’56.1891’56.265
1623Kamui KobyashiSauber-Ferrari1’56.5411’56.270
1712Vitaly PetrovRenault1’56.1671’56.619
1817Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’57.071
1924Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’59.728
2018Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth1’59.852
2119Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth2’00.313
2225Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth2’00.587
2321Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth2’03.240
2420Karun ChandhokHRT-Cosworth2’04.904

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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43 comments on “2010 Bahrain Grand Prix grid”

  1. Karun Chandhok becomes the first person since Bertrand Gachot to occupy 24th place on an F1 grid. :D

    1. I think considering it was his first 7 laps in F1, in a such a new car, He did really well. I am very happy he is there, I thought he wouldn’t be their due to not completing any laps in P3. I am happy for him.

      1. He actually did a pretty good job by not getting depressed. It can be so frustrating being helpless on the sidelines (on ur debut, no less!) ‘cos ur car can’t go through the gears!
        Just 7 laps and he came down to within a second and a half of his teammate, who had a proper day’s running already.
        Would have felt sorry for him if he hadn’t been allowed to run in qualifying.

      2. I agree Mike, I think Chandhok did superbly given the circumstances. From his interviews on the BBC this weekend he also comes across as a thoroughly likeable guy. He’s already one of my favourite drivers.

  2. As I understand it, numbers 1-9 are on the softer compound. Presumably nos. 10 (Sutil) to 24 will start on the harder (medium) compound tires. If this means that nos. 1-9 have to pit early then try to weave through the longer running hard compound tires, we’ll have a fun race.

    1. hope so!

    2. Actually that could be quite interesting…. good point

    3. That’s the gamble Force India and Sutil have taken, hope it works out well.
      He could have qualified much higher if he were on super-softs. But lets hope the longer run on the harder compound pays. And I think Sutil, Barichello, Liuzzi and Hulkenberg will have a good fight on track and it might involve a few of the top 9 too after they rejoin with new tires.

  3. Why did everybody lap slower on the 3rd round? Was it to preserve tyres?

    1. Once in the Q3 cars are in race set up, but for the fuel load. Therefore cars on Q2 are better trimmed for one lap flyers.

      1. thx, I agree with you…cars should have been stiffer in Q3

      2. Vettel still setted the 2nd best time of the whole session on Q3…

      3. The car cannot be changed after the start of Q1, so that is no reason to be slower.

        might be up to
        – temperature and rubber on track?
        – traffic in the last minutes of qualifying
        – mistakes during the lap

        1. Parc Ferme rules do apply to suspension, but there may well have been wing adjustments made.

        2. Its all to preserve tires, the top 10 have to start the race on the same tires they set their quali lap on, so they try and keep as much life in the tires as possible.
          I hate that rule though, its useless and makes Q3 quite boring. Vettel just did one lap and clinched pole. To preserve tires, no one else bothered to fight either.
          Sutil settled for a 10th on the harder compound to carry an advantage to the race, which, if not for the lame rule, could have been swapped for super-softs and a better grid position.

          @BasCB – Rubber on track actually helps lap times due to increased grip.
          And almost all drivers won’t make errors during the lap.
          Traffic could be a cause, but, they plan it out pretty well to avoid it.

  4. just wonderin was sutil the only one from the top ten to set his time the harder rubber

    1. nevermind found out

    2. yes he was…. if he does an efficient 1 stopper then it would get very interesting..

      i’m sure the top 9 guys will pit around lap 14 or so…

      1. Most seem to think about a third of the way through the race on the soft tyre, and about two thirds or more of the way on the harder tyre. But mostly it depends on how the drivers manage their tyres.

        1. It seems that the option tyres will wear very quickly, I think by a third they will be pretty close to useless, On the other hand the softs aren’t looking to much better, they are also dropping off quickly, so I think we might see some go for 2 stops, due to that.

  5. If the cars are 2 secs per lap slower on the primes, and the option lasts 10 laps they may be targeting just one stop… but the track conditions will tell if the softer compound can take the pounding of the first laps and then last without blistering nor graining, even if they make it to the lap 10 but they’re not as fast as expected they can ruin their race.

    To me the Mercedes are the only ones capable of upsetting The Ferraris and RB’s. I think Sutil will make it third.

    1. Judging by the times, I’d guess the difference from Prime to option is just over 1 second/lap.

      Comparing Sutil to Vettel, Vettel was 1.1 seconds faster in Q2 when both were on the same tires, and Vettel was 2.2 second faster when he was on Option while Sutil was on Prime.

      I think it all depends on how long the drivers can make their Prime tires last. If the driver can get 38-40 laps, they can make it on one stop.

      1. I think there are only 49 laps and more tire wear will come when the cars are heavy. On the other hand, one stop and starting on primes means the closing stint is on the soft tires, and how long can they last, even with a lighter car? There will be more rubber down at the end which slows tire wear. So maybe 20-25 laps on primes and the rest on soft = a 1 stop strategy?

        1. well said scalextric
          1. starting with
          soft compound
          with heavy fuel on board
          high temperature
          and less rubber on the track
          later having the hard compound with less fuel(if possible getting behind any of the new team after the 1st pit stop is even worse )……. will produce a bad time for the top 9

          2.on the other hand fro the grid position 10 to 14…. its advantageous
          starting with hard compound
          and using the soft while the fuel is less and the track has more rubber….

          so to be simple it is like when you use the soft compound!!!!

          1. the only way the top 9 could escape is to hope for the safety car in the first lap itself……. i m not sure as hw it ll benefit them.. if they go into the pit stop say as early as lap2 or 3 then i suppose that they should join the tail… am i correct

  6. If Sutil doesn’t wreak havoc in the first laps by tangling with Schumacher, Bariccello and Button, we ar in for a great race.

    I am looking forward to him getting the better of some of those cars when their super soft tyres go off after some 6 laps.

    1. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see some drivers on the super softs wrecking their tyres in the first lap of the race, since trying to either overtake or prevent being overtaken will take a lot out of those tyres with that much fuel onboard.

      We saw Vettel in Monaco do some real damage to his tyres by doing just that very thing!

  7. Let us just hope, there will be some nice overtaking after making mistakes with the high fuel loads in the midfield bringing drivers off their optimal lines.

    Otherwise they will start introducing the 2 mandatory pit stops!

  8. Would be good to see a tyre compound column (for the top 10) on these grid tables for future races, not that I would ever question your fine work!

    Men to watch are Webber and Sutil I think. Can’t wait.

  9. Does anyone know… are teams (like HRT) allowed to half fill their tanks for either testing purposes or to show false pace?

    1. You mean they will run with a very lean mix (going it slow, so to say?) and run to the end, or deliberately have a car stop the race early (hopefully in the pits)?

      I suppose you can do this, who would know anyhow. But they will probably try to run the car normally to get as much distance on the cars as they can.
      As Chandhok said “we are at least 5000 testing miles behind all the others”.

    2. Even with low fuel, they would go app. 5-6 seconds faster than with a full tank. But that is still over 5 seconds slower than the rest of the cars (so they would run maybe 1 second faster than Lotus/Virgin at best)

  10. I was abit dubious about the new loop after turn 4, but having watched qualifying today I have to say I think its quite cool. Looks like a real challenge for the drivers.

    Can’t wait for the race tomorrow!

    1. The bump on turn six, with the onboard cams you could see what it did to there heads, my god that can’t be fun.

    2. Yeah, it may not add much in terms of on-track action, but the drivers really have to fight the cars through that section. I believe there should be room on the calendar for tracks that are challenging, even if they don’t necessarily provide overtaking-fests. The fact that the drivers don’t like it shows that it must be difficult to get right!

  11. There’s gonna be a first-lap crash, in Turn 1 and Turn 6!

    Seriously, the top-9 starters could easily ruin their race by locking up once in the first 5 laps.

  12. Think it’s very decent of HRT to start from the pitlane. I’ve already declared my support for them out of the new teams but I’m impressed how mature they all seem to be regarding this weekend.

  13. Ferrari have said Massa and Alonso will both change engines but will not drop down the order as there is no penalty. Grid the same so far apart from according to Lee Mc HRT will start from pitlane

    1. So are we actually seeing the return of “qualification engines” this year?

      Use several engines for training and maybe qualification and another set of engines for the races?

      Maybe the sand and the heat really makes a big difference and they want to inspect the engines before further use.

      1. Good question. I just know that there were some issues with Massa’s so it was more a forced change just to be sure.
        Penalities only come if they go over 8 engines now I think. So I’m not sure it would stretch to “qualification engines”

  14. hrt cosworth arny the greatest are they

  15. is there any other f1 websites like this because this is pure ace 10 oot of 10??
    do you remember the brawn car last year does the mercedes gp have the same base and every thing like that??????

  16. theviewingfoot
    14th March 2010, 14:37

    think the teams are going to learn a lot about from this race which could well mean better racing next time round… these new changes aren’t going to improve the show over night

Comments are closed.