In the round-up: Bahrain’s Grand Prix organisers criticises F1 teams over the race cancellation.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Our Grand Prix is far bigger than all Britain has to offer, says Bahrain chief (London Evening Standard)

Bahrain Grand Prix chairman Zayed Alzayan: “[The F1 teams] have been very temperamental. I feel disappointed because it cannot go within three months from one end of the spectrum, ‘Oh, you are my favourite destination. We love it here. We feel like we are at home in Bahrain.’ To the other, ‘We don’t want to go to Bahrain.’ Yes, events have happened in between but you can’t be so temperamental.”

Is Formula One for Sale? No, but Maybe (New York Times)

Bernie Ecclestone on where he’d buy back Formula 1 from CVC: “Yes, absolutely. I wouldn?������t buy at the price that I think CVC would sell it. But I would certainly buy at the price that they [News Corp. and Exor] want to pay. And the Ferrari people, the multiples that they thought they would like to pay for the company ?������ I told them that I would buy Ferrari at those multiples.”

Ferrari and Fernando Alonso set to keep new-found pace (BBC)

“The exhaust has been re-positioned, the upper bodywork at the rear extensively re-profiled, there is a new rear wing and floor. In effect, it is a B-spec evolution of the original car. At Silverstone, suddenly the Ferrari could get the hard Pirelli working for the first time and it no longer struggled to get the intermediate tyres quickly up to temperature.”

Trulli pins hopes on steering update (Autosport)

“I said straight away that I cannot really set up the car or judge the car. So if someone asked me what’s going on in the car I always say I don’t know – I’m just trying to drive what I have but I cannot give any feedback to the team. It’s a bit frustrating but that’s the way it is at the moment.”

Webber Awarded Hawthorn Trophy For 2010 Success (Red Bull)

“The honour is presented to the most successful British or Commonwealth F1 driver, and Mark received it in recognition of his stunning performance in the 2010 season.”

Red Bull right to impose team orders on Webber

David Coulthard: “The other issue here is Mark [Webber’s] reaction. He said he ignored the orders and raced to the end but I think he backed off.”

Montezemolo: “Well done, but we keep our feet on the ground” (Ferrari)

“Winning in England, at the home race for the great majority of our opponents is something special, all the more so as it happened on the day of such a significant anniversary. I think that even Pat Fry, for for whom this is the first win since he took on the role of chassis director, managed to feel the difference there is between winning with another team and doing it with Ferrari.”

Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.

Comment of the day

Process of elimination leads Hallard to a Driver of the Weekend choice:

I want to say Webber, for out-qualifying Vettel; and for ignoring Red Bull’s unnecessary team orders and having a go at his team mate towards the end. But he fumbled the start and made it easy for Vettel to start disappearing into the horizon, and Vettel ultimately did get the best of him. I want to say Vettel, for driving an impressive race that he surely would have won if it had not been for the slow pit stop. But he did very little to prove his wheel-to-wheel skills in failing to pass the much slower Hamilton on-track. Also, having confirmation that he gets preferential treatment from the team takes some of the shine away from his performance. I want to say Hamilton, for really out-driving his car in the race, making some great overtakes, defending firmly but fairly from Massa (even Massa agreed), and bringing a decent haul of points in spite of a poor showing from the McLaren team (Really? You thought Hamilton would get stuck in traffic in mixed conditions, so you short-fuelled him? Really?). But he really shouldn?������t have qualified tenth to begin with, even if it was more of a team error than driver error; and he had too many off-track excursions this time out. I guess that leaves me with Alonso. Yes, Red Bull gave him this win on a platter with their pit stop error. And yes, Hamilton really did him a big favour by neutralising the threat from Vettel (although I?������m not convinced Vettel could have been a threat at that point even if he had caught Alonso). But Alonso really did the maximum this weekend, both in qualiying and the race, to put himself in a position to benefit from Red Vull?������s error, and he didn?������t really make any mistakes. Credit where credit?������s due.

Hallard

From the forum

Tell me what you want to know about Codemasters’ F1 2011 in time for the build-up to the game’s release.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Pawelf1, Robert, Voaridase and HoolyF1!

On this day in F1

Nigel Mansell won the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch – but only after a considerable slice of fortune at the expense of another driver.

Mansell’s race looked to be ruined as his driveshaft failed when he pulled away at the start. But behind him a huge crash triggered a red flag and gave him an opportunity to start again in team mate Nelson Piquet’s spare car.

Jacques Laffite was injured in the crash, breaking both his legs. Sadly, he never raced again in Formula 1.

Mansell went on to win the restarted race, passing Piquet on the way. It was the last F1 race at Brands Hatch before the race moved permanently to Silverstone.

Here’s a video of the start of the race:

Image ?�?� Tilke Gmbh