The 2004 Bahrain Grand Prix (officially known as the 2004 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race that took place on 4 April 2004 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain. It was the third round of the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship.
It was the first Formula One race to be held in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Middle East. The 57-lap race was won by Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher ahead of his teammate Rubens Barrichello and with Jenson Button completing the podium for the BAR team.
Background Championship standings before the race With two wins in two races, both starting from pole position, Michael Schumacher was the early favourite for the championship. The German had gathered 20 points, ahead of Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello (13) and Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya (12). In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari was leading with 33 points, almost double that of Williams (17), with Renault in third position (14).
Weather The sessions on Friday and Saturday were run under clear skies and high temperatures. Early on Sunday morning, a desert storm hit the circuit, which first brought rain and then sand. With the circuit now even more slippery than the new asphalt already had been the days before, and with the rain having brought the air temperature down, the Bridgestone runners, among which most notably Ferrari, were expected to have the upper hand.
Practice Four free practice sessions were held for the event. On Friday, the first session was topped by the Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. The second session saw Barrichello on top, one thousands of a second ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya, with Schumacher in fourth.
On Saturday, Jenson Button topped the third session in his BAR-Honda, ahead of Montoya and Schumacher. The Brit repeated this feat in the fourth session, with both Williamses, Ralf Schumacher ahead of Montoya, completing the top three.
Friday drivers The bottom 6 teams in the 2003 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.
Constructor Nat Driver BAR-Honda 35 Anthony Davidson Sauber-Petronas - Jaguar-Cosworth 37 Björn Wirdheim Toyota 38 Ricardo Zonta Jordan-Ford 39 Timo Glock Minardi-Cosworth 40 Bas Leinders
Qualifying Qualifying on Saturday consisted of two sessions. In the first session, drivers went out one by one in the order in which they classified at the previous race. Each driver was allowed to set one lap time. The result determined the running order in the second session: the fastest driver in the first session was allowed to go last in the second session, which usually provided the benefit of a cleaner track. In the second session, drivers were again allowed to set one lap time, which determined the order on the grid for the race on Sunday, with the fastest driver scoring pole position.
Pos No Driver ConstructorQ1 Time Q2 Time Gap Grid 1 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari1:30.751 1:30.139 — 1 2 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari1:31.283 1:30.530 +0.391 2 3 3 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW1:30.247 1:30.581 +0.442 3 4 4 Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW1:29.968 1:30.633 +0.494 4 5 10 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda1:31.135 1:30.827 +0.688 5 6 9 Jenson Button BAR-Honda1:31.131 1:30.856 +0.717 6 7 7 Jarno Trulli Renault1:31.103 1:30.971 +0.832 7 8 17 Olivier Panis Toyota1:31.001 1:31.686 +1.547 8 9 16 Cristiano da Matta Toyota1:31.329 1:31.717 +1.578 9 10 5 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes1:31.364 1:31.719 +1.580 10 11 11 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas1:31.203 1:31.731 +1.592 11 12 15 Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth1:31.868 1:32.332 +2.193 12 13 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas1:32.152 1:32.536 +2.397 13 14 14 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth1:31.945 1:32.625 +2.486 14 15 18 Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford1:32.640 1:33.506 +3.367 18 16 19 Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford1:33.598 1:34.105 +3.966 15 17 8 Fernando Alonso Renault1:31.040 1:34.130 +3.991 16 18 20 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth1:34.879 1:34.584 +4.445 17 19 21 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth1:35.632 1:35.787 +5.648 20 20 6 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes1:30.353 No time 19 Notes – After multiple engine issues during practice, McLaren decided to save the Mercedes engine and abort Räikkönen's effort in the second qualifying session. – Nick Heidfeld, Zsolt Baumgartner and Kimi Räikkönen received a 10-place grid penalty for engine changes.
Race Race report At the start, Rubens Barrichello was slightly faster off the line than Michael Schumacher, but the German turned aggressively into the first corner to retain his position. Juan Pablo Montoya stayed in third place, while Takuma Sato passed Ralf Schumacher for fourth. A couple of laps later, Ralf Schumacher dived down the inside at the first corner, but Sato stayed side-by-side. When Schumacher turned in for the next corner, his rear wheel touched his rival's front wheel and he was sent into a spin. Ralf was issued a warning for leaving too little racing room for his competitor. On lap eight, Kimi Räikkönen suffered his third retirement in three races when his Mercedes engine exploded.
At the end of that lap, leader Michael Schumacher opened the first round of pit stops. He rejoined in sixth but regained the lead when others pitted. Teammate Rubens Barrichello stalled his engine when leaving his pit box. He rejoined over 14 seconds behind Schumacher but still retained second place over Juan Pablo Montoya. Renault's Jarno Trulli had climbed up to fourth, while his teammate Fernando Alonso, who had started down in sixteenth, incurred damage on lap 1 and had to make an unscheduled pit stop, was now pressuring Mark Webber for eighth place. When the Australian overshot the first corner, Alonso went through on the inside, the Spaniard on his way to a sixth place in the end. Ralf Schumacher had another coming-together, this time with Giancarlo Fisichella, sending the Italian spinning.
The order at the front remained unchanged through the second and third round of pit stops, but on lap 47, Montoya slowed down due to a problem with his gearbox. Jenson Button in the BAR had overtaken Trulli and could now pass Montoya to score his second consecutive podium. Montoya's Williams slowed further and the Colombian dropped down to thirteenth place at the finish. Schumacher and Barrichello merely had to complete the race to score another dominant 1-2 finish.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 57 1:28:34.875 1 10 2 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 57 +1.367 2 8 3 9 Jenson Button BAR-Honda 57 +26.687 6 6 4 7 Jarno Trulli Renault 57 +32.214 7 5 5 10 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 57 +52.460 5 4 6 8 Fernando Alonso Renault 57 +53.156 16 3 7 4 Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 57 +58.155 4 2 8 14 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 56 +1 Lap 14 1 9 17 Olivier Panis Toyota 56 +1 Lap 8 10 16 Cristiano da Matta Toyota 56 +1 Lap 9 11 11 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas 56 +1 Lap 11 12 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 56 +1 Lap 13 13 3 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 56 Gearbox 3 14 15 Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth 56 +1 Lap 12 15 18 Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford 56 +1 Lap 18 16 19 Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford 55 +2 Laps 15 17 20 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth 52 +5 Laps PL 5 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 50 Pneumatics 10 21 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth 44 Engine 20 6 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 7 Engine 19 Notes – Gianmaria Bruni started the race from the pitlane.
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings +/– Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 30 2 Rubens Barrichello 21 1 3 Jenson Button 15 1 4 Juan Pablo Montoya 12 5 Fernando Alonso 11Source:
Constructors' Championship standings +/– Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 51 1 2 Renault 22 1 3 Williams-BMW 19 4 BAR-Honda 19 5 McLaren-Mercedes 4Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References
External links News on 2004 Bahrain GP