Hi guys,

I'm really sorry, I know this website is beyond out of date!! This is just an update to say that I do still support Fernando but the problem is I really don't have much spare time to spend on this website anymore. I'm possibly going to try and update it soon or make some new wallpapers or something, but we will see…

Thanks for visiting.

Fernando Alonso believes he and Ferrari missed an opportunity after a "strange" Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying session on Saturday.

The double world champion will start ninth after his Ferrari developed an engine problem through the second and third segments of qualifying.

Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen set the sixth fastest time, but Alonso was unable to capitalise on misfortune for Sebastian Vettel and Nico Hulkenberg, who surprisingly dropped out of the running in Q2.

"It was a strange qualifying to see Hulkenberg out of Q3, Vettel also, I think we had a chance in Q3 because some top people were missing," Alonso said.

"On the other hand tomorrow they will be very strong. They have a lot of new tyres to use in the race, so they will be a threat - Vettel, Hulkenberg, [Daniel] Ricciardo.

"It is going to be a tough race [so] we need a good start, we need a good strategy and if the pace is good enough we can still take some points - that is probably the goal this weekend."

Alonso also expressed concern about the starting potential of the F14 T, after weak getaways in Australia and Malaysia.

"We didn't perform good starts in Australia and Malaysia," he added. "There is room to improve there.

"We've been testing some new things this weekend and we are in a little bit [of a] better position.

"I trust and I have confidence that tomorrow we can do a good start, a good first lap, and hopefully that will put us in a position to go with the leaders.

"It is going to be a difficult race, no doubt. I don't think that we expected before coming here to have a nice race."

"We will see what we can do tomorrow. Taking some points will be welcome in a difficult weekend."

Nico Rosberg claimed his first pole position of the 2014 Formula 1 season, leading a Mercedes front row lockout.

Lewis Hamilton had set the pace throughout practice and headed into the session as favourite for pole position, but after being outpaced by Rosberg on their first runs in Q3 had a big lockup on his second lap at Turn 1 and ran wide, preventing him from mounting a challenge for pole.

Rosberg aborted his final run having been informed Hamilton made a mistake, earning the fifth pole position of his F1 career.

Daniel Ricciardo was one of the few drivers to improve on his second run in Q3, jumping to third on the grid. However, the Australian has to take a 10-place grid drop due to his unsafe release from the pits during the Malaysian GP.

The Red Bull driver's lap relegated Valtteri Bottas to fourth, the Finn proving that the Williams team's pace during pre-season testing here was no fluke with a place on the second row.

Force India driver Sergio Perez has been strong all weekend and was fifth fastest, only a tenth slower than Bottas.

He shaded Kimi Raikkonen, who had only one run in Q3 because he had only one set of fresh rubber remaining, by 22 thousandths of a second.

McLaren pairing Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen ended up seventh and eight, split by the second Williams of Felipe Massa, with both making late improvements as they also had only one set of new softs for the session.

Fernando Alonso was slowest in Q3 after a disappointing final lap, ending up six tenths slower than team-mate Raikkonen.

World champion Sebastian Vettel failed to make Q3 for the second time in three races.

Red Bull opted to complete just one run in Q2 and Vettel complained about downshift problems after missing the cut by six-hundredths of a second.

Nico Hulkenberg, who has struggled to match Force India team-mate Perez all weekend, also failed to hook up a good enough lap to make Q3 after running wide onto the kerb at Turn 11, ending up 12th ahead of the Toro Rossos of Daniil Kvyat and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez shaded Lotus driver Romain Grosjean for 15th place by just 17 thousandths of a second.

Pastor Maldonado was the fastest driver to fall in Q1 in 17th place. He was pipped by Grosjean, who set a time just nine thousandths of a second faster than his team-mate in the dying moments of the first part of qualifying.

Grosjean was impeded by Adrian Sutil's Sauber late in the session, an incident which will be investigated by the stewards tonight.

The German was also knocked out in Q1, while Caterham continued its recent upward curve in terms of performance, with Kamui Kobayashi 19th fastest, lapping within a quarter of a second of Sutil, and Marcus Ericsson 21st.

Jules Bianchi split the two Caterhams, with Max Chilton slowest.

Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m33.185s
2. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m33.464s +0.279s
3. Daniel Ricciardo*** Red Bull-Renault 1m34.051s +0.866s
4. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m34.247s +1.062s
5. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m34.346s +1.161s
6. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m34.368s +1.183s
7. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m34.387s +1.202s
8. Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m34.511s +1.326s
9. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1m34.712s +1.527s
10. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m34.992s +1.807s
Q2 cut-off time: 1m34.925s Gap **
11. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m34.985s +1.277s
12. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m35.116s +1.408s
13. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 1m35.145s +1.437s
14. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 1m35.286s +1.578s
15. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m35.891s +2.183s
16. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m35.908s +2.200s
Q1 cut-off time: 1m36.654s Gap *
17. Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1m36.663s +1.789s
18. Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1m36.840s +1.966s
19. Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1m37.085s +2.211s
20. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1m37.310s +2.436s
21. Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1m37.875s +3.001s
22. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1m37.913s +3.039s
* Gap to quickest in Q1
** Gap to quickest in Q2

*** Has to serve 10-place grid penalty

Lewis Hamilton continued Mercedes' domination as he set the fastest time in final practice for Formula 1's Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Briton, who was fastest in both Friday sessions at the Sakhir circuit, headed his team-mate Nico Rosberg by 0.115 seconds.

They finished ahead of Sergio Perez, who was half a second adrift of Hamilton's best lap, but the pace of the Force India indicates that it is looking good for a strong qualifying performance later on Saturday.

Valtteri Bottas was fourth fastest in his Williams ahead of his team-mate Felipe Massa.

Like Friday, Williams chose to save mileage by sitting out much of the practice period. But when both they first appeared on the medium compound tyre they were the second fastest runners behind the Mercedes pair at the mid-way stage of the hour.

Sebastian Vettel sat out the final 20 minutes of the session after he spun his Red Bull off the track. The world champion seemingly lost control of his car on the exit of Turn 2 and looped his car around into the gravel trap. He had only completed eight laps when he spun off.

Jenson Button was sixth fastest in his McLaren, just ahead of Fernando Alonso's Ferrari and the other Force India of Nico Hulkenberg.

Hamilton was the first of the frontrunners to head the timesheets, putting in a 1m37.340s lap halfway through the session on the medium compound tyre.

A few minutes later his team-mate beat him by less than a tenth of a second. At that stage they were quicker than Jenson Button's McLaren by over a second.

A number of drivers were caught out at the end of the back straight and ran wide entering Turn 11 - including the Mercedes runners - thanks to the gusty tail wind at the Sakhir circuit.

There was further problems for Caterham's Marcus Ericsson, who complained that his Renault was not delivering full power in the opening minutes of the hour.

Qualifying takes place under floodlights at 6pm local time.

Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap Laps
1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m35.324s 12
2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m35.439s +0.115s 12
3. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m35.868s +0.544s 10
4. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m36.116s +0.792s 10
5. Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m36.364s +1.040s 8
6. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m36.394s +1.070s 8
7. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m36.454s +1.130s 12
8. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m36.455s +1.131s 11
9. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 1m36.680s +1.356s 16
10. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m36.772s +1.448s 13
11. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1m36.822s +1.498s 8
12. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 1m37.030s +1.706s 11
13. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m37.119s +1.795s 11
14. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m37.325s +2.001s 18
15. Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1m38.089s +2.765s 24
16. Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1m38.400s +3.076s 17
17. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1m38.736s +3.412s 15
18. Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1m38.880s +3.556s 21
19. Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1m38.971s +3.647s 18
20. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m39.208s +3.884s 17
21. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m39.225s +3.901s 8
22. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1m39.597s +4.273s 14

Mercedes continued to set the outright pace in Formula 1 as Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets at the end of the second practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Hamilton was 0.365 seconds faster than his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Held in warm, dry conditions - five degrees cooler than this afternoon's first practice - this was the first ever Formula 1 practice session in Bahrain to be held under floodlights.

Third quickest was Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari, significantly more than a second slower than Hamilton, pointing to the continued superiority of the Mercedes team.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was fourth fastest ahead of the Williams of Felipe Massa, who had a nervy moment as he was seemingly baulked by Esteban Gutierrez on the back straight a few moments before the session ended.

In sixth place was Jenson Button's McLaren, one position ahead of world champion Sebastian Vettel.

This second session of the day was all about the Mercedes pair. Rosberg was the first of the two silver machines to switch onto the soft tyre and his first run on the new rubber was two seconds faster than his pace on the medium tyres.

Soon afterwards Hamilton upped the ante and his first run on the soft tyre was immediately 0.365 seconds faster than his team-mate.

It was another eventual period for Lotus as first Romain Grosjean complained of a misfire with his Renault, while his team-mate Pastor Maldonado enjoyed a spectacular moment as he got all four wheels airborne after hitting the kerbs at Turn 4.

Briton Max Chilton retired from the session with 35 minutes remaining after he suffered a high-speed spin at Turn 4. He complained on his team radio that he lost drive then the rear axle locked and pitched his Marussia into a spin.

A few minutes later Adrian Sutil climbed out of the cockpit of his Sauber at Turn 6 following a problem with his car. Another retiree was Marcus Ericsson, who stopped his Caterham at the side of the track just five minutes from the flag.

Early on there was a dramatic moment as Sergio Perez narrowly avoided a slow-moving Rosberg as they headed towards the final corner.

The German initially moved to his right to get out of the Force India driver's way, and Perez had to take action to avoid hitting the Mercedes. The stewards said they would look at the incident after the session.


Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m34.325s 28
2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m34.690s +0.365 31
3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m35.360s +1.035 28
4. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m35.433s +1.108 28
5. Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m35.442s +1.117 13
6. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m35.528s +1.203 21
7. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m35.606s +1.281 29
8. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 1m35.640s +1.315 31
9. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1m35.662s +1.337 22
10. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m35.802s +1.477 40
11. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m35.920s +1.595 9
12. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 1m35.972s +1.647 32
13. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m35.998s +1.673 18
14. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m36.366s +2.041 32
15. Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1m36.962s +2.637 13
16. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m36.975s +2.650 35
17. Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1m37.259s +2.934 24
18. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m37.599s +3.274 23
19. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1m37.800s +3.475 15
20. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1m38.247s +3.922 10
21. Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1m38.257s +3.932 33
22. Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1m39.136s +4.811 30

Lewis Hamilton continued the Mercedes team's dominance of the 2014 Formula 1 season by topping first practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Malaysian GP winner was fastest during the opening half-hour of the 90-minute session, during which drivers are permitted to use their extra set of medium-compound Pirellis, lapping 0.113s faster than team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Both Mercedes waited until the final 20 minutes of the session to head out on their second set of mediums, by which time Ferrari's Fernando Alonso had taken top spot after setting a time four tenths of a second faster than Hamilton's first run despite a brief lock-up at Turn 10.

Hamilton then set the fastest time of the session in all three sectors to reclaim top spot, the second time he has been quickest during FP1 in three 2014 races.

Rosberg retained second place, although he was around a tenth slower than Hamilton had been on the first runs, ending up 0.231s off the pace.

Alonso ended the session third fastest, four-and-a-half tenths slower than Hamilton and 0.169s ahead of Nico Hulkenberg as the Ferrari and Force India drivers continued the battle that has raged throughout the season so far.

The German looked to have the potential to outpace the Ferrari after lapping a quarter-of-a-second faster than Alonso in sector one but lost time over the rest of the lap.

Alonso endured an abortive start to his running on his second set of rubber, Ferrari inadvertently sending him out of the garage with one soft tyre and three mediums. He stopped in the pitlane and was dragged back to the garage to replace the soft.

Jenson Button's McLaren was fifth fastest, just ahead of the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, who had a big lock-up at Turn 1 and ran off the track while on his long-run on his second set of mediums.

The second McLaren of Kevin Magnussen was seventh fastest, ahead of Daniil Kvyat's Scuderia Toro Rosso, the 19-year-old Russian ended up 1.5s off the fastest time.

World champion Sebastian Vettel was only 10th fastest behind the second Force India of Sergio Perez, 1.887s slower than Hamilton, with team-mate Daniel Ricciardo a second slower in 14th.

Felipe Massa was the quickest Williams, setting the 11th fastest time after completing only one installation lap on his first set of tyres.

Three reserve drivers made their first appearances of the season during the session, with Felipe Nasr, driving Valtteri Bottas's Williams, the quickest of them in 13th place.

Sauber's Giedo van der Garde, who took over Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber, was 18th fastest, with Caterham's Robin Frijns 21st quickest in Kamui Kobayashi's car.


Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m37.502s 14
2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m37.733s +0.231s 13
3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m37.953s +0.451s 17
4. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m38.122s +0.620s 10
5. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.636s +1.134s 16
6. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m38.783s +1.281s 12
7. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.949s +1.447s 15
8. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 1m39.056s +1.554s 24
9. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m39.102s +1.600s 21
10. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m39.389s +1.887s 16
11. Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m39.533s +2.031s 11
12. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 1m39.862s +2.360s 26
13. Felipe Nasr Williams-Mercedes 1m40.078s +2.576s 14
14. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m40.406s +2.904s 19
15. Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1m40.652s +3.150s 20
16. Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1m40.793s +3.291s 31
17. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1m40.$89s +3.387s 20
18. Giedo van der Garde Sauber-Ferrari 1m40.913s +3.411s 20
19. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m41.036s +3.534s 24
20. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1m41.794s +4.292s 20
21. Robin Frijns Caterham-Renault 1m42.417s +4.915s 35
22. Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1m42.711s +5.209s 21

Fernando Alonso sees no reason to doubt that Ferrari will get itself firmly in the hunt for the Formula 1 world championship.

Although neither he nor Kimi Raikkonen have finished on the podium so far this season, Alonso believes that the rate of improvement by teams will be so rapid this season that Ferrari can close down early pacesetter Mercedes.

When asked ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix about whether he really believed Ferrari would be in the title fight by the end of the season, Alonso said: "It could be extremely sad if I say no, because it is the third race of the championship.

"So definitely yes I still think we can do a good job. It is a very young car. All the things we find in the wind tunnel or the power area are not steps we used to see in the last years, when it was half a tenth each time.

"Now you see a couple of tenths in any step. So there is very good room to improve in all areas, to become more competitive.

"But at the same time, it is the same for everybody so we just need to be a little cleverer than the other teams and find this little extra.

"Unfortunately we start with a deficit so we need to close this gap, but the potential is there and there is no question that we think that in Abu Dhabi we will be in the fight. That's for sure."

Although it is clear there is a speed gap between Ferrari and Mercedes, Alonso said it was hard to work out if it was aero or engine performance that was making the difference.

"It is difficult to split the area they [Mercedes] are stronger," he said. "We all know the power unit is very efficient and it is quite strong, because we see other cars are very competitive with the Mercedes engine.

"But the McLaren finished 84 seconds behind in Malaysia, so the Mercedes is obviously also good. It is not only the engine.

"So we just need to improve the package. We need to improve in all areas.

"Red Bull, for example, after a tough winter and some difficulties they managed to change the situation and become competitive very quickly.

"We will try to do better. There is a long way to go and we are ready to fight."

Fernando Alonso says his biggest complaint about the new Formula 1 is that the cars are too slow.

Ahead of meetings this weekend between senior F1 representatives to discuss the spectacle delivered by the new regulations, Alonso said on Thursday that he was not too upset about the challenge of the racing.

He was, however, unhappy that much of the thrill of driving F1 machinery had been taken away because lap times had plummeted so much in the races.

"It is still exciting because at the end of the day you are competing against the others," he said.

"That is the DNA of the driver, the competition. If we drive go-karts, we enjoy so much and we are driving at 50km/h with very hard tyres and sliding everywhere and we keep enjoying that race.

"So it is not a problem of excitement. It is just that the cars are too slow.

"The fastest lap in Malaysia was 1m34.8s with Vettel some years ago (his pole time in 2011), and Hamilton did a 1m43.0s [fastest race lap last weekend], so that's nine seconds.

"And behind the wheel, when you drive nine seconds slower, you don't enjoy as much as driving the fast car.

"As far as it is the same for everybody, and you compete against the others, you keep enjoying.

"But for drivers like me or Kimi [Raikkonen] or Jenson [Button] who drove another F1, it is not better or worse, but you will miss some of those cars."

RULE TWEAKS WILL NOT HELP

Although there is talk that tweaks to the sporting regulations may be enough to spice up the racing, Alonso is not convinced that such changes will help matters.

"If they allowed some more fuel in the cars that are fast, they will be even faster," he said. "And the cars that are slow will be a little bit less slow.

"It's not that we will see the Marussia or the Caterham winning the race. We need to try to do a better show, but we need to think in which way. We need to give a little bit more time also to the races because we only had two.

"There is a long way to go. There will be some exciting races. There will be some boring races, like in football.

"Some matches you see 0-0 and it's a terrible match and then the next week you see 5-4 and you enjoy so much the game.


"We are all waiting for this exciting race that everyone hopefully enjoys, and we see this weekend if we can put something better."

NO CONSENSUS AMONG DRIVERS

Although some drivers believe the racing is boring, not all of them agree.

World championship leader Nico Rosberg does not think that the racing this year is any different from how it has been in the past.

"It's all very, very similar," he said. "Tyres I thought they were going to be rock solid, but no, we're still doing three stops. The cars are heavier at the end of the race but lighter at the start.

"We're a lot slower; I prefer going faster but that's the way it is. The Malaysia race was unbelievable, the track was so bad from all the rain, we were just so slow.

"Fuel saving is the same as all the other years. It's no different."

Fernando Alonso expects Ferrari to remain off the pace of the Formula 1 frontrunners during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

The Spaniard finished fourth in each of the first two races of the new season, but criticised his Ferrari's lack of competitiveness both times.

He says the Scuderia is working hard to close the deficit to pacesetters Mercedes and Red Bull, but reckons the short gap between last weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix and the forthcoming race at Sakhir will make it difficult for Ferrari to make inroads.

"For Bahrain I don't think it will change too much the picture from here," Alonso said.

"Obviously, in a few days we are on track, so the cars will be more or less similar.

"Track characteristics are a little bit different. With long straights probably we will see a car with very good top speed will be competitive.

"It's going to be tough again, but somehow we manage always to be in the top five, which at the moment with the performance we have is giving us some good points."

Although Alonso finished roughly 35 seconds behind the winning Mercedes for the second consecutive race, the double world champion said Ferrari had closed the gap to the frontrunners in Malaysia.

"We were a little bit faster than we saw in Melbourne," he added.

"It's true we finished 35s behind Rosberg in Melbourne, but there we had a safety car.

"Without that safety car maybe we were one minute behind Mercedes. Now we are 35s, which is still not good and we need to do better.

"In Bahrain, unfortunately I see not much to do in terms of magic changes, because it's only five days, but no one in the team is giving up.

"We know what we need to do, we have the potential, we have the talented people, [and] we have the resources."

Fernando Alonso says he knows which areas Ferrari needs to improve its 2014 Formula 1 car in order to close the gap to the frontrunners.

Alonso finished a distant fourth in last weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix and later labeled his race a "nightmare" as he struggled for grip.

The double world champion identified driveability off the corners and engine performance as two key areas Ferrari needs to work on to catch Red Bull and Mercedes.

"Traction was not good enough," said Alonso of his car's performance in Malaysia. "Out of the corners we were losing ground.

"We compare our traction with probably the best traction car out there, which is the Red Bull, so maybe it was more or less expected this deficit.

"With the top speed it's not secret we are not comparable with the Mercedes.

"They've been fastest in Australia, fastest in the [Bahrain] test, fastest here. I think we have some work to do.

"Obviously for Bahrain, there is not much to do because in a few days we are in the car again, but for China and Spain I think it's very clear what we need to bring to the car and we will do."

Alonso has spent the first two races of the season fighting with Nico Hulkenberg's Force India, rather than battling at the front, but the Spaniard still feels Ferrari has the potential to lift itself to the level he expects in order to fight for the championship.

"Obviously it's not the ideal position to start the championship, [but] the team is doing a massive effort to catch up and improve the situation," Alonso added.

"Personally I would like to fight for victories, but as long as you are in front of your team-mate normally you are doing something extra that the people expect.

"We will improve, that's for sure. We've only done two races. We are analysing deeply the areas we need to.

"They seem clear to us and we will put a lot of effort to improve the car and run as soon as possible at the level of Mercedes and Red Bull. The hope is still perfectly there."