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For the first time since 2002, 22 cars will line up for the grid in Bahrain, as the FIA formally accepted the Super Aguri F1 financial insurance proposal. Super Aguri F1 has been literally "passing out contracts like they were tissue paper" in trying to sign a 2nd driver, as Takuma Sato is the obvious first man to be signed on.

The 2nd Driver is more likely to be Anthony Davidson, however Super Aguri F1 have targeted Japanese drivers like Kosuke Matsuura, so we have to wait and see what happens there. 2 to 1 odds on Davidson, in my opinion.

Nigel Mansell told a reporter in a recent interview that he expects, that if BMW was truly behind Jacques Villeneuve 100% this year, that JV might actually surprise people, and be wheel-to-wheel with Michael Schumacher. Whenever Nigel speaks, it's like having to listen to a guy who still has it himself, so he knows too well for his own good. Mansell is 52 years old, to JV's 34. And they call Jacques old!

Testing in Bahrain has old Ferrari's on top, testing aero package. However, Jenson Button leads of the V8s, and 2nd is... Vitantonio Liuzzi for Squadro Toro Rosso? Considering they use V10 Cosworths with restrictor plates, it might worry me that the V10 engine itself is just too powerful for the V8s this year. MS is 3rd of the 2006 cars, at the moment.

Super Aguri will officially post testing times today. They had car shakedown at an airport in the UK near their Arrows chassis facility. Bernie Eccelstone has been assured that Aguri will show up with 2006 aero package cars. In the meantime, Aguri has also moved chassis production for Aguri Fernandez Racing of the Indy Racing League to the Arrows facility.

Max Mosley is pushing for a strict engine rule for 2008 that forces teams not to change engine designs on the 2008 engine until, get this, 2011. Talk about impossible to enforce.

Not much race commentary, seeming that I slept through the first half of the race today. I picked up after Montoya made his first of 2 pitstops, as he was the few last of the front runners to pit.

Second pitstops happened with about 18-22 laps to go, so a few things can be said about these cars: Renault has bad mileage, but their strategies can improve their placing. Ferrari has mediocre mileage, and their pit strategy failed them today, MS blaming his great quali for his fuel bluff. BMW Sauber has insane mileage, although we couldn't prove that because Jacques Villeneuve's engine expired, he would have finished 4th otherwise, had it not blown.

McLaren Mercedes were having an interesting time. They loaded Raikkonen with fuel to the brim, since he was starting last, and went the distance for a one-stop strategy, as Kimi finished 3rd! An impressive showing for the young man.

Honda had problems. Although Jenson Button was quite fast, and could pass cars on track like the Williams cars, Rubens Barrichello lagged in the race with gearbox problems, mainly without 3rd gear (they still run 7 in their box).

On Alonso's last pitstop, he was a full second faster than MS in pit time, and Alonso rejoined just as MS was going by. The Renault and Ferrari driver bonzaied into turn 1, nearly touching, but Alonso had the inside line, thus sticking the pass. That was the race, and all she wrote, as Fernando Alonso takes 10 in Bahrain!

Podium:

1) Fernando Alonso - Renault
2) Michael Schumacher - Scuderia Ferrari
3) Kimi Raikkonen - McLaren-Mercedes

This post will be used for Segment-by-Segment quali analysis and results in Malaysia, a new feature for the Formula 1 sticky! Thanks to the new qualifying standards the FIA has put in place, I get some time to do it.

Segment 1 Results

22. Yuji Ide - Super Aguri-Honda
21. Takuma Sato - Super Aguri-Honda
20. Tiago Monteiro - Midland-Toyota
19. Christijan Albers - Midland-Toyota
18. Tonio Liuzzi - Toro Rosso
17. Scott Speed - Toro Rosso (USA)

Segment 2 Results

16. Felipe Massa - Ferrari **
15. Nick Heidfeld - BMW Sauber
14. Jacques Villeneuve - BMW Sauber
13. Jarno Trulli - Toyota
12. Rubens Barrichello - Honda **
11. David Coulthard - Red Bull-Ferrari **

Final Results

10. Ralf Schumacher - Toyota **
9. Christian Klien - Red Bull-Ferrari
8. Fernando Alonso - Renault
7. Kimi Raikkonen - McLaren-Mercedes
6. Juan Pablo Montoya - McLaren-Mercedes
5. Mark Webber - Williams-Cosworth
4. Michael Schumacher - Ferrari **
3. Nico Rosberg - Williams-Cosworth
2. Jenson Button - Honda

1st and Conditional Polesitter: Giancarlo Fisichella - Renault

News:

- The following drivers have changed engines and will start maximum 10 places back from where they qualify: Felipe Massa, Michael Schumacher, David Coulthard*, Rubens Barrichello.

*: David Coulthard's engine expired after he crossed the finish line in Bahrain. The engine penalty might be taken under protest.

- Ralf Schumacher's car has stopped in the first sector of the track during segment 2. Reason being: His Toyota V8 engine has blown. Odds are they'll replace the engine, but he'll also receive the 10-place penalty. Strangely, he has made the final 10 shootout as well. Can he use a back-up car? Nope, rules say you can't. It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds.

- Halfway through the final session: WILLIAMS FRONT ROW??? COULD THIS BE? Both Williams Cosworth's starting the race tomorrow with low tanks of fuel!

- Very last lap, Giancarlo Fisichella steals the pole away from Jenson Button, and Renault get pole for the Malaysian Grand Prix. Fisi was also the fastest driver in every sector on that lap, which makes some people say: GO FIGURE. A highly impressive 3rd for Nico Rosberg, beating Michael Schumacher by .042 secs. Go back another .004 secs and you'll see Mark Webber. Unofficial.

** Unofficially all of the drivers that get 10-position penalties for engine changes, under the 2 race rule.

Fisichella wins in Malaysia. Alonso 2nd, after some great pit strategy again. Jenson Button 3rd, JP Montoya 4th, Felipe Massa 5th, Michael Schumacher 6th, Jacques Villeneuve 7th and Ralf Schumacher 8th.

- Ferrari may find themselves under investigation, as Speed TV pointed out both their front wing, and rear wing designs may violate FIA regulations, even though the FIA said they appear legal. More on that if anything happens.

- Both Williams-Cosworths blew. One was oil, the other unexplained.

- Kimi Raikkonen failed to complete a lap, after Christian Klien hit the back of him in turn 4.

- Alonso started 7th, and was 3rd after the first corner, an impressive display of acceleration and traction control.

- More news coming soon, developments expected.

Speed couldn't figure out Kimi's problem because they were too busy getting excited over Alonso dominating the standing start. Logically, Raikkonen was in front of Klien on the track, and heading to turn 4, Klien (8th) got hasty and went to the right of Raikkonen. Kimi (7th) was run into at that point, snapping his rear suspension like a twig. A bit later, when SpeedTV was in commercial, ITV UK (or TSN) showed Klien come is with severe front left suspension damage. Martin Brundle commented that he astonished that Klien would do something so stupid. In 6 laps, Red Bull Ferrari fixed the suspension, and under Coulthard's direction (he lost his gearbox due to a hydraulic leak, that left him stuck in 6th gear, right before Klien went back out) to use the rest of the race as "testing".

ITV never clued in on the front wing. They did, however, rant on and on about how Ferrari's REAR wing is illegal, because the top part of the wing flexes. They also discussed that Scuderia Toro Rosso may be sandbagging the first 3 races, so that they can "sneak" a win in somewhere.

No ruling yet on either of those developments.

No! They can't get rid of Monaco! And I really really hope they stay in the US! Now that they've come to the US, it gives me an oppertunity to save up my money so that I can go watch F1. What about Infineon? Or Watkins Glen? Or Leguna Seca? Sebring? Homestead? Daytona? Road America?

Okay, are you sitting down? Good. Are you ready to stand and cheer at any given moment in time, or stand and say "OH NOES" at any given moment in time? Good, we have that settled then.

Here goes nothing.

*deep breath*

Lap 0 - The Formation Lap. The track is cooooold, and everybody is having trouble with tyres warming up. Last corner, Juan Pablo Montoya spins it around, his traction control disengaged, and gets passed by everyone... BUT, Giancarlo Fisichella stalls his Renault from 2nd on the grid! Flagged start, reformation!

Lap 1 (official) - Formation Lap 2. After the dummy start, rules state stalled cars must start from pit lane, automatically last. However, JP can retake his grid position somehow. (This was being protested silently by Honda, but we'll get to that later. It's not important now.) The race gets underway, but it's not a clean starting lap, as a Red Bull or Toro Rosso machine cuts off and connects with Felipe Massa's Ferrari, which steamrolls into the rear wing of Nico Rosberg's Williams. That same lap, Jarno Trulli spins after colliding with David Coulthard's RB Ferrari and stalls his Toyota at turn 6. Safety Car deployed to clean debris at turn 2 exit. We have 3 cars out of the GP already, folks. Not to mention Fisichella, while catching up from starting from pit lane, spinning under safety car conditions.

Rolling Restart 1. Fernando Alonso, for Renault, guns it into turn 1, and takes the lead away from the polesitter Jenson Button, for Honda. Alonso's car is obviously hooked up, and takes off like a rocket on rails around the corners. Button's car appears to not be adjusting to the track at all, but surviving the tight street course. We're only on lap 4 of the new 57, and Christian Klien's car hits a bump in the road before turn 9, and immediately turns left instead of right and smashes into the retaining wall, then into a tire barrier at 220 mph. Klien is okay, but his car disintigrates! Safety Car deployed after several laps, once they realize there's a crapload of damage on the track, not of Klien's car, but of pieces of wall!

Lap 9 - Rolling Restart 2. Only things worth mentioning here are Jacques Villeneuve's BMW is now 10th, after starting 19th from an engine change, and Takuma Sato is 12th from starting 21st! Well played. Also well played by Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren passing Button the same way Alonso did it.

Lap 12 - 'Tonio Liuzzi in a V10 Toro Rosso passes a very slow Michael Schumacher in his Ferrari, which is bizarre, maybe they had a tyre problem with their set. Still investigating that issue. Scott Speed's Toro Rosso V10 watched that pass for 8th, and wanted 9th himself, but MS had none of that.

Lap 18 - First round of pit stops begin. Montoya takes his first. Seems most teams are running a 2 stop strategy, but with great mileage now, thanks to Safety Car periods, you can stretch a 1-stopper.

Lap 21 - During pit stops, Mark Webber, hometown boy for Williams, takes the lead of his Australian Grand Prix. Fans erupt in applause, and the waving of Aussie flags.

Lap 23 - Webber pulls off the road! His engine was good, so he had fuel left, but he can't find ANY gears? Strange. He's out of this race.

Lap 24 - Ralf Schumacher for Toyota takes his drive-through penalty for speeding in pit lane.

Lap 26 - MS finally pits. Suddenly, his car has gained considerable pace, and they light-loaded the fuel, giving him only 17 laps of go-power!

Lap 31 - Pressing hard, MS goes wide at turn 14, but keeps it together, and also goes wide on lap 32 of turn 1. He's really pushing.

Lap 34 - On his 33rd lap, Michael loses it in the final corner, and crushes the outside wall, destroying his car, and littering the front stretch with carbon fibre. Also on his 33rd lap, just as that happened, JV pits! UNBELIEVABLE MOVE by BMW! JV can go the distance with 1 stop! They give him 22 laps, which is barely enough, but make-able, now that... Safety Car has been deployed!

Same lap for everybody now - Just about everybody takes their 2nd stop, so that they can go the distance. Raikkonen lost a front right wing plate, needs a new nose, and as a result, it holds his teammate Montoya up in the line!

Lap 36 - Still under Safety Car, top 3 are Alonso, Nick Heidfeld's Beemer, and then Raikkonen. But the two Midland's are in between Heidfeld and Alonso, making it impossible to catch Alonso in the restart.

Lap 37, Rolling Restart 3 - Alonso's gone. There's a gaggle of cars in traffic, and Montoya can't get around anyone... then he takes a tap from Button! No accident between them.

Lap 38 - Safety Car deployed? Liuzzi, while trying to overtake JV, spun and wrecked his car before turn 3. Everyone else pits for their last stop.

Lap 40 - Top 4 are Alonso, Raikkonen, Ralf Schumacher and JP Montoya. One problem: there's still those pesky Midlands up there in the top 4. Alonso should make an easy getaway again.

Lap 41 - Same start as the last one.

Lap 42 - Former Champ Car driver Tiago Monteiro in one of the Midlands pulls off, retired.

Lap 47 - At the end of Montoya's 46th lap, he does nearly the same thing MS did, but he doesn't hit the wall, instead, his engine just DIES and his McLaren comes to rest beside his own pitbox on the frontstretch. No Safety Car.

Lap 52 - Button is being gunned down by Fisi in the closing laps, while David Coulthard has been told "You MUST PASS Scott for P9!" The best Red Bull battle is about to commence.

Lap 54 - Alonso still leads Raikkonen, by a lot.

Lap 55 - Fisichella is ALL over the back of Button. One mistake here can prove fatal. Kimi is closing in on Alonso by seconds at a time, now down to 7 seconds, but by race end, it could be less than 1 second!

Final Lap - Alonso is coasting now, he knows he has this race won. Battles for 5th and 9th are the best action on track right now, as they're both less than .2 seconds of a gap. Fisi is driving that Renault's wheels off trying to get by Button, and DC can't seem to solve Scott Speed!

Fernando Alonso WINS in Australia! Kimi Raikkonen takes 2nd. Ralf Schumacher with the drive-through penalty loves 3rd, with a glorious fist pump! Toyota out of their rut! Nick Heidfeld takes 4th.

OH NOES! Jenson Button blows his Honda V8 with 2 turns left, and it's ON FIRE! Giancarlo Fisichella takes 5th away from Jenson... BUT WAIT, BUTTON has STOPPED BEFORE THE LINE! JENSON BUTTON WILL NOT SCORE POINTS!

Jacques Villeneuve's 1 stopper from 19th to 6th place! Excellent drive! Rubens Barrichello gets his Honda into 7th, from 16th on the grid, and here comes the two Red Bull cars...

Scott Speed has just OUT DRAGGED David Coulthard for 8th and a point!

AMERICAN SCOTT SPEED HAS SCORED HIS FIRST CAREER F1 POINT IN AUSTRALIA! THE FIRST POINTS FOR THE OLD MINARDI TEAM IN OVER 2 YEARS!

See you in 3 weeks in Imola for the San Marino Grand Prix!