Toyota aced the front row of the grid for the Bahrain Grand Prix today with Jarno Trulli taking the pole position from team-mate Timo Glock. Trulli secured the top spot with a best time of 1:33.431s with Glock just under three tenths of second adrift while third placed man Sebastian Vettel just under six tenths off the ultimate pace.

This evening the FIA published the qualifying weights and for the top ten runners they are now locked into that fuel level for the first stint of the 57-lap Grand Prix. As a rule of thumb, 10kg of fuel lasts four to five laps while 10kg of fuel slows the car by roughly 0.3s a lap – depending on the circuit type and length.

Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli have the lightest fuel loads on board with their Toyota TF109’s weighing in at 642kg and 648.5kg respectively while third placed man Vettel has some 16kg fuel on board than Glock and ten more than pole-man Trulli.

Assuming sandstorms do not hit the desert region as feared, the Chinese Grand Prix winner should therefore be in a position to shadow the Toyota duo and wait for them to pit before putting in a string of hot laps as his fuel level burns down to take the lead following his first stop.

This of course is all hypothetical as Vettel could be eliminated at the first turn or make a poor start, but it’s clear that Toyota will be forced to pit first while the likes of Kimi Raikkonen, starting tenth on the grid, will be running a very long first stint.

As ever, we shall see on race day.

Bahrain - Qualifying Weight (kg)
1 . T. Glock - Toyota TF109 - 643.0
2 . J.Trulli - Toyota TF109 - 648.5
3 . R. Barrichello - Brawn Mercedes BGP 001 - 649.0
4 . F. Alonso - Renault R29 - 650.5
5 . G. Fisichella - Force India Mercedes VJM02 - 652.0 *
6 . J. Button - Brawn Mercedes BGP 001 - 652.5
7 . L. Hamilton - McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 - 652.5
8 . M. Webber - Red Bull Renault RB5 - 656.0 *
9 . S. Vettel - Red Bull Renault RB5 - 659.0
10 . F. Massa - Ferrari F60 - 664.5
11 . S. Bourdais - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR4 - 667.5 *
12 . N. Rosberg - Williams Toyota FW31 - 670.5
13 . K. Raikkonen - Ferrari F60 - 671.5
14 . N. Piquet - Renault R29 - 677.6 *
15 . S. Buemi - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR4 - 678.5 *
16 . H. Kovalainen - McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 - 678.5 *
17 . A. Sutil - Force India Mercedes VJM02 - 679.0 *
18 . K. Nakajima - Williams Toyota FW31 - 680.9 *
19 . N. Heidfeld - BMW Sauber F1.09 - 696.3 *
20 . R. Kubica - BMW Sauber F1.09 - 698.6 *

* Declared weight (outside of top ten)

Earl ALEXANDER
© CAPSIS International

 

Ha! I was right! Lewis is moderately heavy, but look at the Ferrari boys - they are running a lot of fuel. Looking at these fuel loads confirms that it is still anyone's race. Very exciting.

I hope I am this fired up at 4:30 am tomorrow morning.

 

Damn Kimi had a lot of fuel going into Q3. My boy Vettel's looking pretty good as well.

 

From the BBC - Homepage

BBC SPORT'S FUEL-ADJUSTED GRID (with projected race first pit stops*)

1 Trulli (lap 13)
2 Vettel (lap 17)
3 Button (lap 15)
4 Glock (lap 11)
5 Hamilton (lap 15)
6 Barrichello (lap 13)
7 Massa (lap 20)
8 Rosberg (lap 21)
9 Alonso (lap 14)
10 Raikkonen (lap 22)

* Calculated on the weight of fuel left in cars after qualifying had finished

 

Some very different fuel strategies.

+tires +diffusers +ferrari blowing up engines out of nowhere... should be a fun race

 

Yup, I know I'm excited!

 

I feel like an idiot switching Webber out for Buemi. I hope he drives better in the morning.