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Andrew points to a tweet by James Allen saying that sandstorms could disrupt the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend.

In February, Ferrari, Toyota and BMW headed to the Sakhir circuit hoping to escape the storms that had washed out winter testing in Europe.  Instead, they found themselves twiddling their thumbs waiting for a different kind of storm to pass.  It wasn’t neccessarily that the track was undrivable in the dusty conditions but visiblity was such that the medical helicopter was grounded and therefore testing was red-flagged until the sandstorm passed.

Let’s hope it is a clear day on Sunday.  We are yet to see a ‘normal’ race this year and, while rain always has the potential to make an interesting race, if sandstorms hit the Sakhir circuit the race would have to be red-flagged until the air cleared.

Bahrain could also face the same problem as Malaysia in that the race starts at 3:00pm local time.  With the sun setting at about 6pm that doesn’t leave much time to delay the race before running out of light.

Once again the established order is upset and and an exciting qualifying session in Shanghai ended with Sebastian Vettel putting in a blinding lap to take pole position for Red Bull. Fernando Alonso also surprised by putting his Renault alongside him on the front row.

But were those times really indicative of race pace or were their cars fueled light?

Well, thanks to the FIA now publishing the weights of all cars after qualifying we can figure it out for ourselves.  Below is a graph showing the actual lap times of the cars compared to their fuel-adjusted lap times.  Only the top ten are shown because any car that doesn’t make it into the third qualifying session may refuel before the race.

We can see from the graph that the two Brawn GP cars are still fastest and Alonso and the two Red Bulls are fueled pretty light, although Vettel isn’t looking too bad.  Jarni Trulli could also be a threat if he gets a good start from the third row.

Sebastian Vettel showed you can still go fast in Formula One without a fancy double-decker diffuser. While car designer Adrian Newey is back at the factory figuring out how to bolt a new back end onto the car, Vettel drove the RB5 to Red Bull’s first pole position in qualifying for Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix.

Team mate Mark Webber also did well and almost looked like he was going to take pole but he will start third behind Fernando Alonso.  The Spaniard’s car was running with an interim diffuser although Renault decided not to use KERS.  In fact out of twenty cars, only three (Heidfeld’s BMW and the two McLarens) will be running a KERS device in the race.

For the first time this season there is no Brawn GP car on the front row with Barrichello starting from fourth and Jenson Button behind him in fifth.

Once Adrian Newey comes up with a new diffuser that fits the RB5 suspension, will Red Bull take over from Brawn GP as the team to beat?

2009 Chinese Grand Prix Qualifying Results

Update: Timo Glock drops five places after a gearbox change.

Image: Getty

McLaren made a return to the top of the time sheet in the first practice session for Sunday’s Chinese Formula One Grand Prix.  Thanks to a new ‘interim’ diffuser that McLaren have bolted onto Lewis Hamilton’s car, the reigning World Champion set the fastest time in first practice with team mate Heikki Kovalainen (running the old diffuser) fourth and the two Brawn GP cars sandwiched in between.

Hamilton couldn’t carry the pace through to the second session, though, where Button finished fastest ahead of Nico Rosberg’s Williams with Barrichello third fastest.  Even without fancy diffusers, the two Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were fourth and fifth.

Here are the times from the first two practice sessions:

First Practice

Second Practice

Image: McLaren

Jenson Button has won his second Grand Prix in a row for Brawn GP in a race that was halted due to rain.  Despite having to replace his front wing because the team left it out overnight in the rain, Jenson’s car once again proved its worth on a new circuit in difficult conditions.  Nico Rosberg got the better of Button off the starting line but Jenson regained the lead a couple of laps before his first pit stop and was still leading on lap 32 when the red flags came out.  The final positions were taken from the leader’s last full lap (31) which meant that  Nick Heidfeld took second place and Timo Glock was third.

Like Australia, the Malaysian Grand Prix had a late starting time of 5pm, to give it a better timeslot on the European TV schedules, but drivers had warned that visibility could be a problem, especially if it rained.  Sure enough, although the race started in dry conditions, the Sepang circuit was hit by a torrential downpour.  I am actually in Singapore at the moment and it seems we got the weather here first.  Around lunchtime we were hit by a thunderstorm of biblical proportions and anyone who was caught in that could tell you that there was no way racing could continue in those conditions. Lewis Hamilton said they were the worst he had ever driven in:

When the rain came down, it was impossible to drive. I was aquaplaning everywhere – these were the most dangerous conditions I’ve ever raced in.

In the end it was all about being on the right tyres at the right time.  Kimi Raikkonen took a gamble on full wets but was a couple of laps too early and destroyed his tyres.  Timo Glock, on the other hand, timed the switch to intermediates just right.

In hindsight it seems like it was a mistake to run the race so late and I suspect it will return to its normal time next year but at least the few laps we had were entertaining.  The Red Bulls were fast and there was a great battle between Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton.  In the end it was a bit of an anticlimax to what was shaping up to be a fantastic race and because it was red flagged on lap 32 only half-points were awarded.

Unfortunately, the politics are not over.  The FIA haven’t ruled out further action against McLaren and Hamilton and BMW at last managed to get their diffuser protest in on time so they can join in the fun at the FIA Court of Appeal on April 14.

2009 Malaysian Grand Prix Race Results