FORMULA ONE BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX: JUSTIN HYNESon better news for McLaren – at least on the track – yesterday amid fresh fears that Britain may lose the Grand Prix at Donington

AFTER THE dramas of the first three rounds of the Formula One season, beset by storms both climatic and political, it was reasonable to assume that as the great diffuser debate died down and unpredictable weather gave way to just a one per cent chance of rain in Bahrain, things would settle down in the paddock, with attention once again moving back to what happens on the track.

That was an assumption too far. This is Formula One, where the political sideshows carry just as much currency as the main event and yesterday at the Middle Eastern circuit the action swung from track to paddock with pendulum-like regularity.

In the morning the news was all about a return to some kind of racing form for Lewis Hamilton and McLaren. The defending champion went quickest in the morning session.

McLaren have brought a further tweak of a hastily built “double deck diffuser” to the Middle East and in a quiet session Hamilton took his revamped car to the top of the timesheets, ahead of the twin BMWs of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica, though the late charge up the times by both was primarily due to testing the weekend’s supersoft tyres while Hamilton concentrated on the medium-spec Bridgestones.

Any pleasure at the slight improvement in performance for McLaren, though, was short-lived as attention swung back to the team’s upcoming hearing in front of the World Motorsport Council at which, in five days’ time, the team will learn what sanctions may be imposed against it over its misleading race stewards at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

In Bahrain, it emerged team boss Martin Whitmarsh has written to the governing body, apparently to accept that the team was in breach of the sport’s rules relating to fraudulent conduct or acts prejudicial to the sport.

Whitmarsh, however, would not be drawn on the contents of the letter, saying only, “We are co-operating with the FIA. I have written to Max (Mosley, FIA president), but before the 29th I can’t say anything more.”

The letter is being seen, like the pre-Chinese GP retirement of former team boss Ron Dennis from all F1 activities, as an attempt to appease the FIA and to sway opinion towards leniency at a meeting which could see the team being banned from a number of races or possibly being excluded from this year’s championship altogether.

While McLaren were busy attempting to extricate themselves from legal wrangling at one end of the paddock, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was being asked to comment on law suits affecting the sport elsewhere, as it emerged that the British Grand Prix could once more be threatened, as the redevelopment of the Donington circuit set to take over the race from next year has become mired in legal action, the track’s owner pursuing developers Donington Ventures for alleged non-payment of €2.7 million in unpaid rents. The news brought a typically forthright response from Ecclestone.

“I’ve been saying it for a long time – we (the British) just don’t make the effort,” he said. “If Donington can’t put on the British Grand Prix then that’s it. We will be leaving Britain.

“There is no question of us going back to Silverstone. They have had enough chances and have not delivered what they promised.”

The threat is not empty. With Abu Dhabi joining the circus as the last race of the 2009 season, Korea slotting into the 2010 calendar and India due for inclusion the following year, slots on a schedule the F1 supremos would like to keep to between 17 and 19 races are becoming harder to secure. And with the manufacturer-controlled teams keen to return to their key North American market, the days of the British GP could be numbered.

All of which meant little to the 20 drivers attempting to set up their cars for a weekend’s racing. In a more frantic afternoon session, normal 2009 order was restored as Hamilton was pushed back towards midfield by the pacesetters from the opening rounds.

Williams’ Nico Rosberg, headed the afternoon session, the seventh time from 11 such sessions he has run quickest this season, the German edging out Renault’s Fernando Alonso, though the Spaniard’s quick time was, like the BMWs in the morning, achieved running with low fuel and on the supersoft tyres.

Rosberg and Alonso were backed up by a now recognisable posse of double diffuser-equipped runners, with third-place Jarno Trulli of Toyota being followed by the Chinese GP-dominating Red Bull Racing pairing of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. Championship leader Jenson Button finished sixth, three tenths adrift of Rosberg’s pacesetting time of 1:33.339.

Afterwards Rosberg said he believed the pecking order of the opening rounds in Australia and Malaysia, where, aside from Red Bull, the diffuser-equipped teams dominated, would be restored in the more predictable conditions in Bahrain.

“Shanghai you have to neglect completely,” said Rosberg.

“In Shanghai everything was completely messed up. It wasn’t important how quick your car was, it was important how well your car made the tyres work.

“(Toro Rosso’s Sebastien) Buemi was top 10 in Shanghai but that’s not going to happen again here, so we just need to completely forget about Shanghai and I think things are going to turn back to where it was in Malaysia here, with Brawn being the quickest and Toyota, then us and Red Bull.”

“You can only ever compare your performance to other race weekends so, relatively, I think we are looking okay,” the Williams driver added.

“The team has brought some new parts to Bahrain, and they seem to be working well. I am really convinced that we will be able to do something positive at this race, and to get the points that the car is worth.”