2010 F1RWRS Bahrain Grand Prix

The 2010 F1RWRS Bahrain Grand Prix was the sixth race of the 2010 F1RWRS season held at Sakhir. David Koczo won the race, becoming the first man to win two consecutive F1RWRS races as well as win from pole.

Race Report

Frank Zimmer had a three point lead in the championship coming to the desert of Bahrain, with Dan BH and Gary Cameron fighting for second place, BH having a one-point advantage. In qualifying, the JLDs of Daniel Melrose and Dave Simpson were the dominant force, with David Koczo, who had won the preceding race, barely taking pole position, with Zimmer 5th and Cameron 7th. However, the first races had shown that qualifying didn't matter much come race day.

Melrose took the lead from the start, with Koczo just behind. Simpson followed in third with Simon Redman fourth, having done a brilliant start. Melrose quickly started to pull away, while Simpson took second place on lap 3. David Koczo responded by pitting on the next lap, hoping to jump everyone as he had done at Adelaide. Redman then found more speed, moving up to second place, passing Simpson.

Redman then took the lead as Luca Pacchiarini went for his pit stop at the same point as Kay Lon, who was also hoping for a good result thanks to strategy. The race was quickly getting boring compared to other races that season, as Melrose was pulling further and further away. Meanwhile, Koczo was already up to sixteenth, with Pacchiarini, Darren Older Jr and Lon behind him, but the early pitters were quickly gaining ground.

Towards lap 12, Melrose and Simpson quickly began losing speed, leaving Redman in the lead, although he started to slow down quickly as well. Melrose was the only one of the three to pit, however. Meanwhile, Sammy Jones and Gary Cameron came in for their stop, Jones in the hunt for points and Cameron looking for a podium. Amid these stops, Phoenix McAllister led the race.

At the halfway point, Douglas Mann went for his stop, and the West Cliff crew was blindingly quick, getting him out ahead of Kay Lon and behind Cameron, whose race was turning out very well indeed. A bit later, Frank Zimmer finally went for his pit stop while BH, who had pitted earlier on, was now seventh and looking good for a top 5 finish. After McAllister's drop in pace at the same moment, James Davies used the bit of pace he had found to take the lead, while Simpson and Redman were now down to 8th and 9th.

Redman and Simpson finally came in to pit on lap 23, the last drivers to pit and definitely the drivers to get the worst of it, coming out in 14th and 15th position, while Koczo was now in the lead after his brilliant strategy call, closely followed by a quicker Luca Pacchiarini on tyres that were two laps younger. Gary Cameron was now fourth behing Douglas Mann, but the Manx driver was having suspension problems and was quickly demoted to fourth place. Dan BH was fifth ahead of a quick Daniel Melrose who had just passed Kay Lon.

The order would not change and David Koczo won his second consecutive race and became the first man to win a race from pole. This did a whole world of good for his championship challenge, as his two consecutive wins put him in a tied second place, one point behind Gary Cameron, whose third place added to his already impressive total. Despite his championship lead, Cameron was yet tot win a race, but two third places, two fourth place and a fifth were enough as his rivals were too inconsistent. Dan BH, who was second coming to Bahrain, took fifth position and was also now tied for second place in the championship with 35 points, the third driver tied for second being former leader Frank Zimmer who limited the damage once it became obvious he was on the wrong strategy, with a cool drive to 8th.

Next would be probably one of the most difficult races of the calendar, the Belgian Grand Prix, Thomas De Bock's home race. However, De Bock's performances weren't really encouraging.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	15	David Koczo	Prospec	1:18.99	+-.--
2	12	Daniel Melrose	JLD-Porsche	1:19.07	+0.08
3	13	Dave Simpson	JLD-Porsche	1:19.26	+0.27
4	2	Douglas Mann	West Cliff-Chevrolet	1:19.31	+0.32
5	5	Frank Zimmer	Rosenforth-Jaguar	1:19.50	+0.51
6	20	Luca Pacchiarini	Pacchia-Coswojuddhartlambo	1:19.59	+0.60
7	9	Gary Cameron	Calinetic-Ford	1:19.84	+0.85
8	10	Simon Redman	Kahama-Ford	1:19.96	+0.97
9	8	Phoenix McAllister	Calinetic-Ford	1:20.05	+1.06
10	4	Thomas De Bock	Rosenforth-Jaguar	1:20.15	+1.16
11	16	Dan BH	Bangelia-Alfa Romeo	1:20.38	+1.39
12	3	Sammy Jones	West Cliff-Chevrolet	1:20.41	+1.42
13	11	Kay Lon	Kahama-Ford	1:20.61	+1.62
14	19	James Davies	Bangelia-Alfa Romeo	1:20.82	+1.83
15	7	Hagane Shizuka	KQ-Hyundai	1:20.87	+1.88
16	18	Ashley Watkinson	CR-Ford	1:20.99	+2.00
17	19	Darren Older Jr	CR-Ford	1:21.12	+2.13
18	14	Nathanael Spencer	Prospec	1:21.29	+2.30
19	6	Adam Lewis	KQ-Hyundai	1:21.45	+2.46

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	15	David Koczo	Prospec	30	47:40.04	1	10
2	20	Luca Pacchiarini	Pacchia-Coswojuddhartlambo	30	+1.57	6	9
3	9	Gary Cameron	Calinetic-Ford	30	+8.30	7	8
4	2	Douglas Mann	West Cliff-Chevrolet	30	+12.14	4	7
5	16	Dan BH	Bangelia-Alfa Romeo	30	+13.29	11	6
6	12	Daniel Melrose	JLD-Porsche	30	+13.68	2	5
7	11	Kay Lon	Kahama-Ford	30	+22.65	13	4
8	5	Frank Zimmer	Rosenforth-Jaguar	30	+24.20	5	3
9	3	Sammy Jones	West Cliff-Chevrolet	30	+24.50	12	2
10	18	Ashley Watkinson	CR-Ford	30	+27.26	16	1
11	14	Nathanael Spencer	Prospec	30	+28.50	18
12	17	James Davies	Bangelia-Alfa Romeo	30	+34.68	14
13	4	Thomas De Bock	Rosenforth-Jaguar	30	+36.70	10
14	10	Simon Redman	Kahama-Ford	30	+44.38	8
15	8	Phoenix McAllister	Calinetic-Ford	30	+48.12	9
16	13	Dave Simpson	JLD-Porsche	30	+48.60	3
17	6	Adam Lewis	KQ-Hyundai	30	+1:11.38	19
18	19	Darren Older Jr	CR-Ford	30	+1:16.46	17
19	7	Hagane Shizuka	KQ-Hyundai	30	+1:24.64	15

• Pole: David Koczo: 1:18.99
• Fastest Lap: Daniel Melrose: 1:19.67

Standings after the race

• Bold text indicates who still has a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Gary Cameron	36
2=	David Koczo	35
2=	Dan BH	35
2=	Frank Zimmer	35
5=	Ashley Watkinson	24
5=	Nathanael Spencer	24

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Prospec	59
2	Calinetic-Ford	52
3	Bangelia-Alfa Romeo	46
4	Rosenforth-Jaguar	39
5	West Cliff-Chevrolet	31

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Previous race: 2010 Tasman Grand Prix	Formula 1 Rejects World Race Series Championship 2010 Season	Next race: 2010 Belgian Grand Prix
Previous race: None	Bahrain Grand Prix	Next race: None