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Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton once again proved that he is the king of the desert on Sunday as he stormed to victory for the second year in succession in front of a record crowd at the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen took advantage of brake problems affecting the winner’s Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to sneak his fourth second place at Sakhir on the penultimate lap and deny Mercedes another one-two finish under the floodlights.
Fan fever was in full flow as an estimated 90,000 spectators attended the Bahrain International Circuit over the weekend, with 32,000 of those on race day, smashing the previous record set in 2013 by more than a thousand.
The brilliant Briton’s flying pole-to-flag victory at the desert track was his third win in four races this season and 36th of his career.
The 30-year-old increased his lead over Rosberg in the standings to 27 points, with the driver now having 93 points to the German’s 66 as the championship heads back to Catalunya and the Spanish Grand Prix to signal the start of the European swing in three weeks’ time.
“I am gunning for it,” Hamilton told triple world champion Jackie Stewart, conducting the podium interviews, when reminded that he could also be a three-times champion by the end of the season.
“The Ferraris gave us a real good run for our money, and out there it was really difficult to look after the tyres in these conditions,” he added after spraying the fizzy rose water which annually substitutes for the traditional bubbly in the kingdom’s podium celebrations.
He did so with less reckless abandon than in China last weekend, when photographs of him aiming a jet of fizz in the face of a hostess triggered a controversy and accusations of sexist bullying.
“Fortunately I was able to keep the car together, keep the tyres as healthy as possible and got it through ... I think we showed that Mercedes are still the best,” said Hamilton.
Unlike last year, when he beat Rosberg from second place on the grid in a sensational wheel-to-wheel battle, Hamilton was untroubled by the German who finished third after fighting the Ferraris.
Rosberg was holding second place until the penultimate lap when he lost his brakes, went wide and gave Raikkonen the chance to speed past on his fresher soft tyres and pull away to the chequered flag.
Rosberg, despite his late problems, actually had his best race of the season from a performance perspective, with a series of aggressive overtaking manoeuvres in a prolonged struggle with the two Ferraris.
Despite losing a position to Raikkonen at the start, he regained the place four laps later and overtook the surprisingly off-colour Sebastian Vettel twice, the second of which came after Vettel uncharacteristically went wide at the final corner and incurred front wing damage, requiring him to change his nose cone in the pits.
Rosberg said: “I enjoyed overtaking the red car, I liked that a lot. I couldn’t catch Lewis as we were on pretty similar strategies as he pulled away and then I lost my brakes and went straight on at the first corner two laps from the end and it cost me second place.”
Raikonnen’s second place was the flying Finn’s first appearance on the podium since 2013, when he was at Lotus, and first for Ferrari since 2009.
He also set the fastest lap, equalling four-times champion Alain Prost’s tally of 41 and joining the Frenchman in second place on the all-time list.
Fellow Finn Valtteri Bottas finished fourth for Williams after holding off a late charge from Vettel in fifth, while Australian Daniel Ricciardo finished a particularly fortuitous sixth for Red Bull. The car’s Renault engine expired in a belch of smoke coming out of the final corner, but had just enough juice to squeeze over the line and come to a stop metres away, ironically, directly in front of his team’s spot on the pit wall.
“All the fireworks went off and the engine felt like it needed to join in,” Red Bull principal Christian Horner commented wryly.
Frenchman Romain Grosjean was seventh for Lotus. Mexican Sergio Perez finished eighth for Force India while Russian Daniil Kvyat was ninth for Red Bull and Brazilian Felipe Massa took the final points-paying position for Williams after an electrical problem left him stranded on the starting grid and had him starting from the pit lane.
McLaren, partly owned by Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, suffered mixed emotions as Britain’s Jenson Button did not start the race at all due to electrical problems in the car’s Honda power unit, but his Spanish team-mate Fernando Alonso finished 11th with by far the best performance of the new partnership’s season and demonstrated decent pace that emphasised that the only way is forward.
Results
1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes 1:35:05.809, 2. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari +00:03.380, 3. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 00:06.033, 4. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams-Mercedes 00:42.957, 5. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Ferrari 00:43.989, 6. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) RedBull - Renault 01:01.751, 7. Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus - Mercedes 01:24.763, 8. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India - Mercedes 1 lap, 9. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) RedBull - Renault 1 lap, 10. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams-Mercedes 1 lap, 11. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren 1 lap, 12. Felipe Nasr (Brazil) Sauber - Ferrari 1 lap, 13. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India - Mercedes 1 lap, 14. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) Sauber - Ferrari 1 lap, 15. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Lotus - Mercedes 1 lap, 16. Will Stevens (Britain) Marussia - Ferrari 2 laps, 17. Roberto Merhi (Spain) Marussia - Ferrari 3 laps, r. Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Toro Rosso - Renault 23 laps, r. Carlos Sainz Jr (Spain) Toro Rosso - Renault 28 laps, r. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 57 laps.
(rank: r = retired, nc = not classified)
Fastest Lap: Kimi Raikkonen,1:36.311, lap 42
Standings
Drivers: 1. Hamilton 93 points, 2. Rosberg 66, 3. Vettel 65, 4. Raikkonen 42, 5. Massa 31, 6. Bottas 30, 7. Ricciardo 19, 8. Nasr 14, 9. Grosjean 12, 10. Huelkenberg 6, 11. Verstappen 6, 12. Sainz Jr 6, 13. Perez 5, 14. Ericsson 5, 15. Kvyat 4, 16. Alonso 0, 17. Button 0, 18. Merhi 0, 19. Stevens 0, 20. Maldonado 0.
Constructors: 1. Mercedes 159 points, 2. Ferrari 107, 3. Williams-Mercedes 61, 4. RedBull - Renault 23, 5. Sauber - Ferrari 19, 6. Lotus - Mercedes 12, 7. Toro Rosso - Renault 12, 8. Force India - Mercedes 11, 9. McLaren 0, 10. Marussia - Ferrari 0.
Team-by-team analysis listed in current championship order
MERCEDES (Lewis Hamilton 1, Nico Rosberg 3)
Hamilton won from pole, his third win in four races this season and 36th of his career. Also his second in a row in Bahrain. Rosberg started in third place and ended up there after being passed by Ferrari’s Raikkonen two laps from the end following a brake failure. Hamilton leads Rosberg by 27 points.
FERRARI (Kimi Raikkonen 2, Sebastian Vettel 5)
Vettel started on the front row but made mistakes, one of which damaged the front wing when he went across the gravel and forced an unscheduled pit stop for a replacement. Raikkonen did a different strategy and took his first podium finish since 2013.
WILLIAMS (Valtteri Bottas 4, Felipe Massa 10)
Massa started from the pit lane, after qualifying sixth, due to a sensor issue that prevented the power unit from firing up on the grid. The Brazilian was also hit from behind by Pastor Maldonado as he fought back up the field. Bottas did well to hold off Vettel’s Ferrari in the last 17 laps.
RED BULL (Daniel Ricciardo 6, Daniil Kvyat 9)
Ricciardo’s engine blew metres from the finish. Kvyat battled through from 17th at the start. The team secured their biggest points haul of the season so far but still lost ground to Williams.
SAUBER (Felipe Nasr 12, Marcus Ericsson 14)
No points for the Swiss team. Ericsson might have scored but a long second pit stop due to a mechanical issue with the left front wheel scuppered his chances. Nasr lost positions at the start and power for several laps during the race.
LOTUS (Romain Grosjean 7, Pastor Maldonado 15)
Grosjean started 10th and worked his way up. Maldonado collected a five-second penalty for being out of position on the grid and lost time at the final pit stop when the engine had to be restarted.
TORO ROSSO (Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz retired)
No points for the second race in a row. Sainz collected a five-second penalty for speeding on the way to the grid. He retired after running strongly initially. Verstappen retired in the pit lane with a suspected electrical issue.
FORCE INDIA (Sergio Perez 8, Nico Hulkenberg 13)
Perez’s best result so far this year at a circuit where last season he finished on the podium. Hulkenberg struggled for grip and made one more stop than his two-stopping team mate.
MCLAREN (Fernando Alonso 11, Jenson Button did not start)
Button’s car suffered another electrical fault, after limited running on Friday and no timed lap in qualifying. Alonso narrowly missed out on the team’s first point of the year.
MANOR MARUSSIA (Will Stevens 16, Roberto Merhi 17)
Both cars made it to the finish again.
