F1 Drivers Championship 2012 after Bahrain

Sebastian Vettel is now leading the F1 2012 Championship after Bahrain Grand Prix.

There is not much difference between the top 5 drivers, so that championship is wide open.
Michael Schumacher who has been in the first two rows in qualifying in Australia, Malaysia and China has only 2 points to his name after Bahrain. It again reinforces the fact that the proof of the pudding is in eating ie. finishing the race in points scoring positions in F1.

The interesting thing is at the bottom of the table. Timo Glock and Charles Pic of Marussia are 19th and 20th at the moment due to their higher finish. Marussia finished in 14th and 15th position in Australia where as the best place finish of Caterham was 16th and 18th in Malaysia. So Marussia is now in the 10th position. If non of them last three teams ie. Marussia, Caterham or HRT finish in the points and if Caterham and HRT doesn't finish above 14th position, then Marussia will get the 10th position. That is vital because only the top 10 teams get money for the championship. That is many millions of dollars for the 10th placed team and it makes a huge difference to them.

Position	Driver	Team	Points
1	Sebastian Vettel	Redbull	53
2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	49
3	Mark Webber	Redbull	43
4	Jenson Button	McLaren	43
5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	43
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	35
7	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	34
8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	23
9	Sergio Perez	Sauber	22
10	Paul di Resta	Force India	15
11	Bruno Senna	Williams	14
12	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	9
13	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR	4
14	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	4
15	Daniel Ricciardo	STR	2
16	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	2
17	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	2
18	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	2
19	Timo Glock	Marussia	0
20	Charles Pic	Marussia	0
21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	0
22	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	0
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	0
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	0

Bahrain Qualy: Vettel back in Pole: Schumacher goes out in Q1

Baharin is hosting the Formula 1 Grand Prix in 2012 despite massive protests and violence. On Saturday in qualifying, Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull finally scored the first pole of the season. The biggest casualty in the qualifying was Michael Schumacher failing to qualify for the Q2. He was helplessly watching from the pits when  the timings kept on tumbling and Heikki Kovalainen of Caterham bettered his timing to score the 17th position.

Mercedes who were the pre race favourites to score the pole could not do so. Apart from Michael's surprising exit in the Q1, which the team tweeted as "a technical problem prevented Michael running again in Q1..more info later", Nico Rosberg too could not go beyond the 5th place in Q3. Lewis Hamilton separated the two red bulls and Jenson Button scored 4th.

Narain Karthikeyan, the lone Indian in fray, came 24th and was outqualified by his team mate Pedro de La Rosa.

Timings:
1. Sebastian Vettel Redbull 1:32.422
2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:32.520
3. Mark Webber Redbull 1:32.637
4. Jenson Button McLaren 1:32.711
5. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:32.821
6. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:32.912
7. Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:33.008
8. Sergio Perez Sauber 1:33.394
9. Fernando Alonso Ferrari
10. Paul di Resta Force India
11. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 1:33.789
12, Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1:33.806
13. Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:33.807
14. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:33.912
15. Bruno Senna Williams 1:34.017
16. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 1:36.832
17. Pastor Maldonado Williams
18. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:34.865
19. Jean Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:35.014
20. Vitaly Petrov Caterham 1:35.823
21. Charles Pic Marussia 1:37.683
22. Pedro de La Rosa HRT 1:37.883
23. Timo Glock Marussia 1:37.905
24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT 1:38.314