2005 Bahrain Grand Prix

Infobox Grand Prix race report
Type = F1
Country = Bahrain
Grand Prix = Bahrain
Date = April 3
Year = 2005

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Official name = Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix
Race_No = 3
Season_No = 19
Location = Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain
Course = Permanent racing facility
Course_mi = 3.37
Course_km = 5.42
Distance_laps = 57
Distance_mi = 191.530
Distance_km = 308.238
Weather = Sunny, hot
Pole_Driver = Fernando Alonso
Pole_Team = Renault
Pole_Time = 3:01.902 (aggregate)
Pole_Country = Spain
Fast_Driver = Pedro de la Rosa
Fast_Team = McLaren-Mercedes
Fast_Time = 1:31.447
Fast_L

Fast_Country = Spain
First_Driver = Fernando Alonso
First_Team = Renault
First_Country = Spain
Second_Driver = Jarno Trulli
Second_Team = Toyota
Second_Country= Italy
Third_Driver = Kimi Räikkönen
Third_Team = McLaren-Mercedes
Third_Country = Finland

The 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix was a Formula One race held from April 1 to April 3 2005 at Bahrain International Circuit.__FORCETOC__

Summary

The 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix was only the second Formula One grand prix held in the Middle East, bringing the challenges of high temperatures and dusty conditions. The race was held the day after Pope John Paul II died, with several teams and drivers offering their respects.

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

First qualifying on Saturday resulted in few surprisesndash for the first few drivers, the circuit was still somewhat sandy, providing poor grip, while the later runners performed well, with Fernando 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, and Michael Schumacher taking second. 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 some of the highest ever temperatures experienced at a grand prix, with air temperature of 40°C, (104°F) and track temperatures of 56°C (about 132°F). This ties the record temperatures of the 1955 Argentine Grand Prix and the 1984 United States 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 of Jarno Trulli, who made a strong challenge to pass Schumacher in the first two corners, without success. Barrichello makes 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.

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. Following this, Schumacher coasted back to the pits, making this his first technical retirement since the 2001 German Grand Prixndash a remarkable run of 59 consecutive grands prix. It later arose that his hydraulics had failed, meaning he could not downshift to use engine braking for corners. Trulli now took second place, 2.7 seconds behind Alonso, with Mark 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 shook out, Alonso retained the lead, followed by Trulli, Webber, Kimi Räikkönen, Ralf, and Barrichello.

Nick Heidfeld was the next retirement, with a seriously smoking 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 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 passndash on a circuit with very forgiving run-off areas, Webber's race was not compromised.

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 remaining Ferrari, 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, until Button, who stalled his BAR-Honda; after several attempts at restarting the engine, he almost took his rear jack with him back into the racendash only to retire at the end of the pit-lane, 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, and Felipe Massa.

In the closing stages, the main fight was between Webber and de la Rosa for fifth place. Webber was forced to perform some strong defending, 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 David Coulthard eighth place on the last lap, leaving Ferrari point-lessndash for the first time in nearly two years.

Alonso won the race by a comfortable 13.4 seconds from Trulli, bringing Renault engines their 100th World Championship Grand Prix win.

Classification

Notes

* The race was the hottest-ever F1 grand prix to that point, with air temperatures of 42°C and track temperatures of up to 56°C.
* Juan Pablo Montoya had a tennis shoulder injury and would miss this race and the next one. For this race, he was replaced by Pedro de la Rosa.
* Pedro de la Rosa's first race with McLaren.
* As the field set off on the final parade lap Christian Klien was left behind with an electrical problem and never took the race start.
* This was Renault's 100th grand prix win.
* For most drivers, the engines used in this race would also be used in San Marino, as required by the new 2005 regulations.
* The celebrations on the podium were muted, due to the death of Pope John Paul II the previous evening. Ferrari raced with blackened nose cones as a mark of respect.
* This was Michael Schumacher's first mechanical retirement since the 2001 German Grand Prix.F1 race report
Name_of_race = Bahrain Grand Prix
Year_of_race = 2005
Previous_race_in_season = 2005 Malaysian Grand Prix
Next_race_in_season = 2005 San Marino Grand Prix
Previous_year's_race = 2004 Bahrain Grand Prix
Next_year's_race = 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix