Singapore Track – Love the F1 cars under lights!

Lewis Hamilton – Dominated the race. Doubt Vettel could have touched him even without the problems.

Timo Glock – Such a shock. On minute Toyota are at the back of the pack, then one or two races later they’re front-runners.

Fernando Alonso – Solid. Seemed very cold toward Lewis after the race. Next year should be interesting

Sebastian Vettel – It was nice seeing him push and dreaming there might be a fight for first place in the race, but the reality was the Red Bull cars weren’t up to it and speeding in pits didn’t help.

Jenson Button – Really good drive from the would-be champion! Started the race a bit so-so but then did a string of good laps and outdrove Barrichello.

Rubens Barrichello – Just when you thought the momentum was going Rubens’ way he faltered a bit in this race.

Romain Grosjean – The guy spins off in practice in exactly the same place Nelson Piquet Jr crashed last year to alledgedly help Alonso win the race. Now that’s irony!

Ferrari – Bit weak all round..

The points in text:

• Giancarlo Fisichella – Great performance first time out. So nice to see him live a dream he’s no doubt had since he was a little kid running around in Rome
• Rubens Barrichello – Thank you for keeping the Championship interesting
• Jenson Button – A good result and no-one can take that from him, yet he doesn’t seem to have that spark like say, Hamilton or Alonso..
• Lewis Hamilton – Despite crashing he was by far the only driver worth watching during the race.
• Force India – Both drivers (and the team) should be very proud for what they’re achieving, especially Liuzzi with his qualifying effort and strong running until retiring.
• Reb Bull Racing – Didn’t get much of a mention in the video because they’re letting the championship slip away. I thought their car was supposed to be very good aerodynamically? Perhaps they needed to turn the engine down to preserve them..?

Poor Kimi.. he’s had a rough few weeks with pushing over photographers and now this… Admittedly it looks like it’s the woman who made contact with the girl as she got excited for an autograph from Kimi, but still, not a nice look…

I didn’t realise until after the race, but before the British Grand Prix on Sunday Kimi Raikkonen pushed the well renowned photographer Paul-Henri Cahier to the ground when he got a little too close. According to the Ferrari camp, Paul was standing on Kimi’s equipment. According to Paul’s web site, he never touched Kimi’s equipment nor touched Kimi himself.

To me it looks like his camera lens touched Kimi’s helmet as Kimi bent down. The fact that Kimi takes his helmet off straight away would seem to confirm this (is he checking the helmet isn’t damaged?). In any case I put this down as a “racing incident” (ie. both parties are to blame)

What does everyone else think? In any case, it’s not quite as entertaining as Kimi’s former teammate Juan Pablo Montoya though…

Before we get to the points, a quick video from YouTube (be quick before the FIA take it down ) of the start of the race from the view of various drivers. You can clearly see Hamilton’s wing break up well before he rear-ended Alonso:

Felipe Massa – Well, the guy won the race so we have to put him first on the list of points I guess. He did a great job in qualifying and in the race. Bahrain is certainly a track he likes and when he likes a track he’s very hard to beat. For me, there was nothing spectacular about the performance though – but I think that’s because there were so many other highlights in the race and the points tally still leaves Felipe behind par in the champsionship. Still, full credit to him.

Robert Kubica – Very happy to see the Pole on pole. We saw pole position coming for Robert in the last round, but didn’t expect it so fast! His start was a bit poor but he still drove a brilliant race for BMW. Next box on the list is a race win…

Lewis Hamilton – 3 words – lots of mistakes. Crashing in free practice. Messing up the start. Crashing into Fernando Alonso (possibly crashing into someone earlier to dislodge his front wing?). The final result really was worthy of his race weekend (sorry Lewis fans).

Giancarlo Fisichella – Fisi has impressed so much at Force India. He looks like he’s driving better (more inspired) than he did at Renault and he’s certainly punching above his weight.

Jarno Trulli – Another ex-Renault driver doing fantastic work in an under-performing car. Although Toyota certainly does seem to be making some good progress.

Martin Brundle – I find it amazing that someone who has actually raced in F1 would jump up and down and accuse Fernando Alonso of brake-testing Lewis Hamilton when the fault was clearly with Lewis (or at least clear enough to not jump to conclusions without data). Alonso didn’t slow suddenly, Lewis just misjudged where to put his car. Martin is probably the best commentator I’ve heard, but sometimes he sinks down to James Allen’s level. 

Kimi Raikkonen – 2nd place is normally good in most peoples books, but Kimi didn’t look strong at all in Bahrain. It’s the reverse of his teammate. Felipe Massa performs great in Bahrain whereas Kimi always seems to struggle. Again though, 2nds and 3rds aren’t really bad but you just feel Kimi could perform better here.

Nick Heidfeld – Not so strong in qualifying but always strong in the races. A fantastic result for BMW.

Heikki Kovalainen – One minute this guy seems like he could improve to be a star, then the next minute he seems very average.

Jenson Button vs David Coulthard – Face it Jenson, the accident was completely your fault.

Methinks I better go get my helmet out before trying that…

With such a “warm” conversation is it any wonder Michael Schumacher never drove for McLaren?

Here we have Mika Hakkinen taking wife Erja Hakkinen for a spin in the 2-seater McLaren F1 – in the snow!!

Jacques Villeneuve’s Official MySpace Page