Formula One News — April 2007

Formula 1 viewers around the world may have noticed that the Ferraris racing in Bahrain featured Marlboro branding, despite the fact that tobacco advertising was supposed to have disappeared from the sport at the end of 2006, as part of an agreement known as the "International Tobacco Products Marketing Standards", signed by Philip Morris (Marlboro's parent), British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco on September 11 2001.

Bahrain GP - Sunday Photos

Bahrain GP - Sunday Press Conference

Bahrain GP - Sunday Team Quotes

Bahrain GP - Race Results

It has been a while since Super Nova Racing ruled the roost in GP2, the celebrated team's last win having come at the end of 2005 but David Sears's team, which won Formula 3000 championships with Vincenzo Sospiri (1995), Ricardo Zonta (1997), Juan Pablo Montoya (1998) and Sebastian Bourdais (2002) is winning again thanks to Luca Filippi's dominant race in Bahrain on Saturday.

Felipe Massa took pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix despite difficult conditions with wind and sand making the track very treacherous. But despite the good news for the Brazilian, the F1 spotlight remained firmly fixed on young Lewis Hamilton, who qualified on the front row of the grid for the the first time in his three-race career.

Bahrain GP - Saturday Photos

Bahrain GP - Saturday Press Conference

Bahrain GP - Saturday Team Quotes

Bahrain GP - Qualifying Results

Tobacco advertising disappeared from Formula 1 at the end of last year, or so they said. The tobacco companies signed up to the International Tobacco Marketing Standards agreement, signed in New York City on September 11, 2001, which created a common code of advertising and sponsorship standards which included an agreement to end sports sponsorships on December 1, 2006.

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the Saturday morning session in Bahrain, beating Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen by just 0.006secs to set up the possibility that Hamilton could win his first pole position in the qualifying session this afternoon.

Bahrain GP - Practice 3 Results

German sports car manufacturer RUF Automobile celebrated the opening of its new factory at the Bahrain International Circuit by launching the new RUF CTR3 supercar in front of the F1 world. The factory will be used to build cars for the Middle East and Asia and will operate alongside RUF's traditional home of Pfaffenhausen in Germany. The factory in Bahrain was designed by Hermann Tilke.

David Richards popped up in Bahrain, saying that he was "on holiday" with his family in nearby Kuwait, which is funding his purchase of Aston Martin. Richards says that there the company has decided that there will be no involvement in Formula 1 for at least five years but he does not rule out taking the Aston Martin name back to F1 in the longer-term.

Our Menorca correspondent reports that McLaren will be running a car on the island, off the coast of Spain, on April 25-26. The venue for the test will be the Sant Luis aerodrome which was once the island's main airport until the tourist boom made it necessary to build a replacement nearby.

Kimi Raikkonen gave Ferrari the top spot in the Friday practice session in Bahrain but he had to work for it as Lewis Hamilton got within 0.013s of the Ferrari in his McLaren-Mercedes.

Bahrain GP - Friday Photos

Bahrain GP - Friday Press Conference

Bahrain GP - Friday Team Quotes

Bahrain GP - Practice 2 Results

The dusty precincts of Sakhir, out in what is left of the Bahrain deserts, witnessed the beginning of a Ferrari revival on Friday morning after the Maranello team's drubbing in Malaysia. Kimi Raikkonen set the pace with a lap of 1m33.162s, half a second faster than his team mate Felipe Massa.

Bahrain GP - Practice 1 Results

Bahrain GP - Thursday Press Conference