Bahrain

The head of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) says the body is endorsing Gianni Infantino for another term as FIFA president.

The AFC has 47 member confederations. Even if all the members do not follow Friday’s direction from Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, those that do could be key to guaranteeing another mandate for Infantino, who leads the governing body of world football and is seeking a fourth term.

The FIFA election is in March. The deadline for candidates to file against Infantino is November 18, and so far, none has filed.

Sheikh Salman, speaking at the AFC’s extraordinary congress in Tokyo on Friday, embraced Infantino with a large hug in front of the membership as he delivered his endorsement.

“We affirm our full commitment to supporting you and your leadership as you seek a new mandate as the FIFA president.” Sheikh Salman said.

“You’ve visited a lot of countries in Asia. I’ve spoken to a lot of members within this continent. I know your feeling, and I think your commitment is clear as well.”

Addressing his remarks to Infantino, Sheikh Salman indicated not every AFC member would go along with the endorsement but most will.

“My feeling is, I’m sure, the feeling of most of my members,” the AFC president said. “And I’ve said that to you.”

A sudden about-face by AFC

This is an abrupt turnaround for Sheikh Salman. Just over two months ago, the AFC joined the football governing bodies of Europe and that of North and Central America in saying Infantino had committed a “fundamental breach of trust”.

Infantino apologised last week in Zurich to FIFA’s 37-member ruling council, which he chairs, for “mistakes” he made in assembling a now-scrapped $4.2bn plan to sell a stake in FIFA events, including the World Cup, to private investors.

Sheikh Salman referenced the differences with Infantino in his speech but glossed over any details.

“Gianni, I want to make it clear: Yes, we had some issues we spoke about in the past,” Sheikh Salman said. “But let’s not relate the two things together. I think the last few days we met in Zurich, you made it clear that there’s a true understanding between us.”

“The past I’m sure is part of our history,” he added, “We’ve all, I’m sure, learned important lessons from it. What matters now is how we move forward together. I think everyone has questions, and I’m sure the answers will be available, whether to us in Asia or the rest of the world. ”

Infantino’s electioneering around the globe

FIFA’s media office has been promoting Infantino’s travels around the world, seeking votes in exchange for millions of more dollars in financial support for small and large football countries.

“Thank you for being here,” Sheikh Salman said to Infantino. “I know you have been everywhere. I don’t know how you can do it. But I’m sure that you set a record for being in almost every country.”

Sheikh Salman then joked that, perhaps, Infantino had a “clone”.

That drew a laugh. But the largest applause came at the end of his brief address when he again repeated his support for Infantino.

“As one Asian family, we are ready to move forward, united in your support, Gianni,” Sheikh Salman added. “I want to make that clear today.”

Infantino accepts AFC’s support

Infantino took the podium after Sheikh Salman and kept his remarks light. But he did acknowledge some errors.

“When you do many things, you do – hopefully, as we did, many good things – you do some mistakes as well,” Infantino said. “The important, however, is, as you said, to learn, to learn always from the experience, from the mistakes, to apologise, to move ahead, to come together, to unite, to build for our future, for your future.”

The largest applause came as he mentioned how, under his leadership, millions more are flowing to FIFA’s patronage network.

“Before I started as FIFA president, each of you – some of you are still [here] and still remember that time – each of you was receiving $1m every four years” Infantino said. “As of the first of January of next year, it will be $25m.”

Drivers faced glitches at the race in Malaysia, where Lewis Hamilton had to stop and restart his car on the track.

Formula One’s governing body has promised a full investigation into a software bug that caused chaos and forced the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia to be aborted, with drivers feeling like they were in battery-powered cars made of Lego.

Ferrari’s seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s four-time champion and eventual race winner Max Verstappen were among several affected by the glitch on a formation lap after torrential rain and a long delay at Malaysia’s steamy Sepang circuit on Sunday.

Verstappen compared the experience to a “Lego race” held at Silverstone before the British Grand Prix while Hamilton, the sport’s most successful driver of all time, had to stop his car on track and restart it in what he said was a career first.

The episode was the latest in a difficult first season for the new era of cars and engines, with drivers at the pinnacle of motorsport unhappy since the opening race with the power units’ increased electrical component and the need for energy management.

FIA said afterwards that “an unprecedented combination of low engine speed, low-grip conditions, wet-weather energy management settings and the Sepang circuit’s sector configuration led to an unintended loss of power for a number of cars”.

“As a result, the FIA technical department removed the energy limit constraint in the affected sectors through an updated software release distributed to all competitors during the race delay caused by heavy rain, enabling teams to make the necessary changes to the power unit before the start of the race.

“This issue had not been detected by the FIA or the teams during testing or during the laps to the grid. The FIA, together with the teams and power unit manufacturers, will undertake a full review of the issue.”

The FIA’s single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis told reporters the lack of preseason testing in wet conditions had played a part in the chaos.

“Some cars went very slowly, almost came to a standstill. There was a bit of a concertina effect between cars, and some cars almost stopped completely,” he said. “That bug prevented the power from being redeployed, and for the cars to start again.

“I think if we had had a bit more testing, we probably would have managed to catch it in time, and not have such a situation.”

Sepang was the first race weekend of the season with wet conditions, although the track dried during the race.

“Sometimes things fall through the net and people learn, and you do a better job next time,” Tombazis said.

Nico Hulkenberg – 7/10

Missing Q2 was disappointing but he responded with a strong recovery on Sunday. Climbed from 15th on the grid to finish just outside the points and comfortably ahead of Audi team-mate Bortoleto after the Brazilian’s penalty.

Lance Stroll – 6.5/10

A much more competitive weekend for Aston Martin generally. Stroll joined Alonso in Q2 and kept himself out of trouble through a chaotic race to finish 12th, even if his team-mate ultimately extracted more from the opportunity.

Franco Colapinto – 7/10

Started 21st due to grid penalties, so 13th represented a very respectable recovery. Kept things clean after his costly mistake last time out and made up plenty of ground in difficult conditions.

Oliver Bearman – 5/10

Another fairly anonymous weekend for Haas. Knocked out in Q1 and although he gained a couple of places during the race, 14th was about all there was to show for it.

Esteban Ocon – 5/10

Frustrated with Haas’ qualifying run plan after going out in Q1 and never really recovered from there. Great start and was fighting well inside the top 10. Ultimately finished behind Bearman and was unable to make the changing conditions work sufficiently to threaten the points.

Pierre Gasly – 5.5/10

Qualifying ninth was an excellent start but Sunday unravelled almost immediately. Nearly lost the car on slicks during the formation procedure and ultimately fell all the way to 16th as Alpine’s gamble failed to pay off.

Carlos Sainz – 6/10

Williams struggled for pace throughout the weekend but 13th represented a good qualifying. His race was then further compromised by contact with Bortoleto, for which the Audi driver was penalised, so 17th doesn’t tell the whole story.

Gabriel Bortoleto – 4.5/10

There was plenty to like about reaching Q3 in the Audi, but the race undid that good work. Contact with Sainz earned him a penalty and left him 18th after starting inside the top 10.

Sergio Perez – 4/10

Qualified last and never looked likely to make meaningful progress even amid all the chaos. Reaching the chequered flag was at least something for Cadillac, but 19th completed another difficult weekend.

George Russell – 8/10

A far better race than his eighth place in qualifying suggested. Made an excellent start, ran inside the top three for virtually the entire afternoon and, even if he couldn’t match Mercedes team-mate Antonelli, was heading for another podium before a power-unit failure stopped him with five laps remaining.

Alex Albon – 4.5/10

Williams lacked pace from the outset and qualifying 20th left him with an enormous amount of work to do. His eventual retirement was caused by a gearbox problem rather than a driving error, but there had been little sign of any kind of meaningful challenge before then.

Valtteri Bottas – 3.5/10

A weekend to forget. Qualified ahead of Cadillac team-mate Perez but admitted his decision to run slicks was a risk before spinning into the gravel on lap nine and triggering the first safety car.

Verstappen, who chose not to do a soft-tyre run because rain was forecast and he wanted to prioritise race preparation, said his day had been a “decent start” and “positive”.

Technical director Pierre Wache added: “We were not very optimistic starting the weekend. The main aspect was to evaluate the package we put in Baku in different type of corners than low speed.

“It looks to be working better than the previous package. Relative performance is difficult to judge but we were surprisingly happy with where we were today.”

Mercedes drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli were only seventh and eighth fastest in terms of headline times as they evaluated a major upgrade on their car, the team’s first since the Canadian Grand Prix in June.

Russell said: “I’m feeling the downforce in some of the corners but with this amount of tyre overheating and degradation that trumps everything. So we just need to get on top of that overnight,. That’s more of a set-up rather than the upgrade itself and go from there.’

Asked whether he could compete for pole position on Saturday, Russell said: “Currently, Verstappen looks very fast and the race pace of the McLaren looked very quick but never say never.”

The Briton trails Antonelli by 66 points in the championship after his victory in Azerbaijan last weekend.

On the race simulation runs, Verstappen also looked like the car to beat, taking stint length and tyre wear into account.

But the top four teams all looked to be in close company after a day evaluating tyre wear in the tropical temperatures and on an abnormally abrasive track, where F1 cars last raced in 2017.

Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly were ninth and 10th.

Three drivers have grid penalties. Hadjar will drop five places from his qualifying position for exceeding the permitted number of engine parts.

And Arvid Lindblad of Racing Bulls and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto will be at the back, the Briton for engine penalties, and the Argentine because of a 10-place engine penalty on top of the five-place penalty he was given for causing a crash at a restart in last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

F1 has returned to this track, regarded as one of the best layouts among the new generation of circuits that came on stream at the end of the last century and into this one, because of the circumstances around this year’s calendar.

The Bahrain and Saudi Arabia races were cancelled at the beginning of the year as a result of the war in the Middle East.

But Bahrain were keen to hold their race and Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa negotiated to hold the race in Malaysia.

A bunch of Bahraini-related activities are being held at the track, while the trophy presented will be the Bahrain Grand Prix trophy and rosewater rather than champagne will be sprayed on the podium.