Glock trumps Trulli at first

Timo Glock managed to beat Toyota team-mate Jarno Trulli off the line at the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Starting from pole and leading an all-Toyota front row of the grid for the first time in the team’s history, veteran Trulli was slow away, allowing the young German to pass on the run down to turn one.

Lewis Hamilton, starting from fifth in his McLaren, was another big winner once the five red lights disappeared to signal the start of the 57-lap race at the Sakhir circuit.

The world champion passed Brawn’s Jenson Button and last Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel before turn one.

Hamilton then attacked Trulli in a bid to gain second place on the opening lap, but the 34-year-old managed to fend off the Briton.

At the start of lap two, Button claimed third from Hamilton as he slipped down the inside of the McLaren at turn one.

The jostling behind the leading five was considerable as drivers traded places.

At the start of lap three, Robert Kubica in his BMW Sauber and the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima were both forced into the pits for new front wings due to damage sustained in the early skirmishes.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who had started from eighth, was another of the casualties due to a front wing problem, while the second BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld also made an early unscheduled stop.

Their problems dropped the quartet to the back of the field, with Massa, Kubica, Nakajima and Heidfeld running in 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th, and seemingly with little hope of points.

On lap eight, running third and within sight of the Toyotas, Button was told to turn down his engine to prevent overheating, with the heat of the day not helping as temperatures hit 36 degrees celsius.

Running with a light fuel load compared to those behind him, it was no suprise when Glock was the first of the leaders to pit at the end of 11.

Surprisingly, despite carrying another three laps’ worth of fuel more than Glock, Trulli pitted a lap later, resulting in a call to Button from the pit wall “to give it everything you’ve got”.