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Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 8:17 pm
by Graham Ross
We may have a close race! (I am hopeful :D )

Looks like McLaren have sorted their car and Mercedes their engines so watch out for a McLaren 1-2 with Montoya in front.
Alonso will be strong but I am not too sure about Honda.

Ferrari is the unknown factor I reckon.

Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 10:07 pm
by Snowy
Graham Ross wrote:We may have a close race! (I am hopeful :D )

Looks like McLaren have sorted their car and Mercedes their engines so watch out for a McLaren 1-2 with Montoya in front.
Alonso will be strong but I am not too sure about Honda.

Ferrari is the unknown factor I reckon.
Oh yee of little faith :shock: Honda will dominate :twisted: I wish :?
Well you gotta ain't ya :?: :wave:

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 9:30 pm
by Julian Mayo
Australians all, let us rejoice............CH10 will broadcast qualifying from Bahrain !........at 2:30 am or thereabouts..... :bang:

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 9:59 pm
by Ed
Greetings from Bahrain everyone :wink:

We somehow managed to get oursleves here. It is just before 3 PM on Thursday and it is sunny but not too hot. The temperature is in the mid 20's.

The place is buzzing and the atmosphere is great. We will try to report back what happened at the end of each day with photos hopefully but we aren't having a great internet connection so if we are a bit late then excuse us :D

The 2006 season is about to start. Here's to a great start to the season.

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 8:45 am
by Snowy
Ed wrote:Greetings from Bahrain everyone :wink:
You lucky devils :twisted: All expences paid 8) sunshine :shock: Pit babes :idea: Is there room for one more you must need a roving :bouncey: illustrator Ed? :wave:

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 10:40 am
by mlittle
Well, with a few hours left before the 2006 F1 season begins, all I can say is...good luck to all the competitors! :burnout: :burnout: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :up:

and.....

GOSPEEDGO!!!

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 11:44 am
by JayVee
The season is about to start. I just can't wait to see the Renaults dominate :D

May the best win :bounce: :bouncey: :bouncec: :bounceg: :bouncest: :soon:

You know who that is of course :D

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 1:29 pm
by Julian Mayo
JayVee wrote:The season is about to start. I just can't wait to see the Renaults dominate :D

May the best win :bounce: :bouncey: :bouncec: :bounceg: :bouncest: :soon:

You know who that is of course :D
Webber :lol:

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 1:45 pm
by sgd
JayVee wrote:The season is about to start. I just can't wait to see the Renaults dominate :D

May the best win :bounce: :bouncey: :bouncec: :bounceg: :bouncest: :soon:

You know who that is of course :D
Montoya 8)

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 1:49 pm
by sgd
Ed wrote:Greetings from Bahrain everyone :wink:

We somehow managed to get oursleves here. It is just before 3 PM on Thursday and it is sunny but not too hot. The temperature is in the mid 20's.

The place is buzzing and the atmosphere is great. We will try to report back what happened at the end of each day with photos hopefully but we aren't having a great internet connection so if we are a bit late then excuse us :D

The 2006 season is about to start. Here's to a great start to the season.
COOOOOL!!!!!!!!!!! 8) 8) 8) :1st: :1st: :coool: :coool: :cheers: :cheers: :up: :up:

Glad for you guys !!!! I envy you!!
we'll be waiting for your LIVE coverage!!! :D

Say hello to the PIT Babes from sgd!!! (they should remember me;)

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 5:10 pm
by Ed
Thanks everyone!

Yes we are a bit lucky to be here but we do a lot of hard work don't we!

Regarding live coverage, we are actually reviewing that for the whole season but for this weekend in particular we will have a report at the end of the day. Sorry.

The Live Coverage page has links to a number of sources that you can get live timing from.

The weather today is expected to be the hottest for all 3 days with the temperature expected to hit 29. Saturday remains 22 and the race is 24 (forecast max)

PS. I think the pit babes are a bit conservative here!

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 5:14 pm
by Ed
Here are a few photos from Thursday

Image
The new Super Aguri team

Image
MP4-21 with the Emirates sponsorship just added. Which sport isn't Emirates in I wonder ??

Image
The MF1 Racing front

Image
And the McLaren front!

Hopefully we'll have some more later today!

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 8:55 pm
by Snowy
who nose!

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:45 pm
by Snowy
Breaking news kimi has just broken down :shock:

Jarno has pulled over too :shock:

Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 1:21 am
by Ed
Anthony Davidson (Honda test driver) set the fastest time on Friday ahead of Michael Schumacher and Alex Wurx (Williams test driver) - Full results.

Earlier in the first session, Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber test driver) set the fastest time ahead of Alex Wurz and Kimi Raikkonen - Full results.

The first session was pretty much dominated by the 3rd car drivers, in fact 10 of the 22 regular drivers didn't set lap times and with the exception of Sato and Ide, none of the others did more than 9 laps.
There weren't any incidents in the morning worth mentioning except that Davidson (Honda's 3rd driver) had a gearbox problem just after 2 laps and lost the entire session.

There was a lot more action in the afternoon session. Davidson managed to top the times with a 1:31.353 which is quicker that the fastest lap from last year. Michael Schumacher set an impressive time late in the session with a 1:31.751 ahead of Wurz in 3rd.

Massa in the second Ferrari was 4th, he flat spotted his tyres as he was struggling with his brakes but after some adjustments he went back out to set a reasonably fast time.

Alonso was 5th but what is interesting is that he set that time on his first flying lap of the day indicating a good initial setup for the car. His time though was 0.8 off Michael's time.

6th was Liuzzi in the Toro Rosso. This is very interesting as even if Liuzzi was on low fuel, that is a good time. If this continues into tomorrow, we'll start hearing some serious noises from the other teams due to Toro Rosso's use of a restricted V10 as well as running last year's Red Bull modified to the 2006 specs.

It is particularly hard to read much into the times today, some of the top drivers did less than 10 laps so being down in 18th or even 24th should be much of a concern at this stage.

A number of driver had problems in the second session. Raikkonen had an electrical problem and stopped on the track. So too did Trulli who had an electronics problem. Kubica had a puncture after having an off and limped back to the pits. There were a few spins but everyone managed to avoid the barriers.

Looks like we'll have an interesting day tomorrow.

Photos to follow a bit later!