THE BIG PICTURE: Brawn may have won again, but Toyota proved to be fast, just like Red Bull proved to be fast the last two races. McLaren is showing signs of improvement, and Williams should be back in the fold. And Renault, at least Alonso's Renault, has had shining moments. This truly is developing into one heck of a season.

EVENT: Wouldn't you think people living in Bahrain would be okay with attending an outdoor sporting event in searing heat? Must not be such a hotbed of fanatical F1 fans after all...

RACE: The first race with "normal" conditions and no safety car this year. Yet, despite what in the past would turn into an uncompetitive affair with huge disparities between teams, we ended up with 13 cars on the lead lap, and all the rest of the finishers (that would be everyone except for Nakajima) were no more than one lap down.

TRACK: Could there be any more of a boring, nondescript track in the world not including airport circuits? Heck, include airport circuits.

START: Bumper cars.

BUTTON: Hey, Jenson won without following a safety car! Some of his passes to put to rest he's not worthy of this type of ride.

BRAWN GP: Not the fastest cars this weekend, but still won thanks to proper strategy. These guys are becoming more and more like the Ross Brawn led Ferrari teams.

VETTEL: Perhaps the best driver/car combination right now. Sebastian is very much a prime title contender.

TRULLI: Must be wondering what happened.

GLOCK: Also must be wondering what happened.

TOYOTA: Missed opportunity.

HAMILTON: Looked like the Lewis we've come to expect.

MCLAREN: Starting to edge back towards the front?

BARRICHELLO: Brawn won't be getting rid of Rubens after his four-race contract expired for one simple reason -- he may not be as fast anymore nor as fast as his teammate, but he knows how to develop the car. Bringing in a rookie to fulfill that role would be sheer folly.

RAIKKONEN: Stop the (Italian) presses. Ferrari led a lap!

ALONSO: We wouldn't count Fernando out of the title fight either. He doesn't need as much of an improvement in his car as mere mortals do.

PIQUET: A decent weekend. But will it matter?

BOURDAIS: Also a decent weekend and in race conditions, beat his teammate and turned a faster lap by over a second. But, will it matter?

WEBBER: Considering Mark started last, he made the most of the situation.

MASSA: Still looking for points.

FERRARI: Despite finally scoring some points, still out to lunch.

BMW SAUBER: The season is quickly unraveling right in front of their eyes.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Sun.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 3rd -- The lowest Sebastian Vettel has qualified this year. Just think if he didn't mess up his first two races...

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: This is the worst start of the season for Fernando Alonso (only five points) in his career since his rookie season with Minardi in 2001.

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Niki Lauda once again displaying his "class," "In those days [early 2000s], Ross [Brawn], because he is English, was the ideal bridge between the Italians, with their spaghetti culture, and Schumacher, with his German efficiency. Now the Italians are running it all. Does it work? It could be chaos. That's the problem."

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: The FIA agreeing with Williams' CEO Adam Parr on what everyone knew for years, "Ferrari acknowledged that multiple vertical transitions had been used by many teams in the past, including Ferrari itself, and argued that all such prior uses (including its own) had constituted a technical violation of the (technical regulations) which had been tolerated."

SCHEDULE: Back to Europe, and more importantly, a chance for all the teams to make some major improvements to their cars. No more band aid fixes. Spain should prove very interesting for that reason.

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