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Germany’s Nico Rosberg romped to his fifth win in a row for Mercedes in Sunday’s incident-packed Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, at the same time ending his team mate Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of a hat-trick under the kingdom’s lights.
The race often resembled a demolition derby, as collisions galore littered the opening stages and led to bits of bodywork and even an errant tyre flying around the track.
Rosberg seized the lead within seconds at the start after a poor launch from Hamilton, and enjoyed a comfortable evening under the floodlights, never threatened in his pursuit of the chequered flag.
“It’s been an awesome weekend. The key was really at the start, I made a great getaway and from then on I was trying to control the pace,” said Rosberg of his first win at the desert track where he made his debut a decade ago.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, whose teammate Sebastian Vettel failed to start after his car’s engine blew in spectacularly smoky fashion on the formation lap, finished 10.2 seconds behind to repeat last year’s second place.
Hamilton finished a distant third and was never in a position to challenge for the lead after a slow start from pole position compounded a tangle with the Williams of Valtteri Bottas at the first corner as the Finn tried to go past on the inside but outbraked himself.
That left the Briton having to battle back from seventh place at the end of lap two with a damaged car, while stewards gave Bottas a drive-through penalty for causing the collision.
Hamilton had also started on pole in Australia two weeks earlier, when both Mercedes drivers were jumped by the Ferraris before eventually finishing one-two.
“Two separate incidents, both painful, although perhaps today even more so,” said Hamilton.
“We still managed to get the car up there and get some points. So, again, it was damage limitation. Congratulations to Nico, it was an easy race for him I would assume but I’m glad it wasn’t more points I lost.”
Rosberg stretched his lead over Hamilton at the top of the standings to 17 points after two races. The win was the 16th of the German’s career, lifting him level in the all-time lists with British great Stirling Moss, and the eighth in a row for champions Mercedes.
Further down the field, all but the top six cars were lapped, with 17 finishers.
Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo was fourth for the second race running, with Frenchman Romain Grosjean performing more heroics for the new United States-owned Haas team by finishing fifth after sixth in Australia.
Dutch teenager Max Verstappen finished sixth for Toro Rosso, with Russian Daniil Kvyat seventh for sister team Red Bull and Felipe Massa eighth for Williams ahead of Bottas.
Belgian rookie Stoffel Vandoorne, standing in for Fernando Alonso at McLaren after the Spaniard was ruled out on medical grounds after his big crash in Melbourne, scored on his debut with 10th place.
The points were McLaren’s first of the season and capped a great weekend for the reigning GP2 champion, who also out-qualified 2009 world champion team mate Jenson Button. The Briton retired on lap seven.
With Vettel and Alonso not starting, that left three of the sport’s five active world champions watching from the sidelines.
Manor rookie Rio Haryanto became the first Indonesian to finish a Formula One race, in 17th and last place, while his team-mate Pascal Wehrlein finished an impressive 13th for the budget outfit.
Team-by-team analysis (listed in current championship order)
MERCEDES (Nico Rosberg 1, Lewis Hamilton 3)
Hamilton started on pole for the second race in a row, Rosberg chalked up his second win of the season and fifth in a row, 16th of his career. Rosberg took the lead at the start, Hamilton and Bottas collided, with the Finn handed a drive-through penalty. Hamilton then fought back from seventh at the end of lap one. Mercedes have now won eight races in a row but their run of seven one-two finishes ended.
FERRARI (Kimi Raikkonen 2, Sebastian Vettel did not start)
Vettel pulled over on the formation lap with a plume of smoke from his engine. He had qualified third. Raikkonen had a poor start but recovered to finish runner-up for the second year in a row and is fourth in the championship. He never got close enough to Rosberg to challenge for the lead.
RED BULL (Daniel Ricciardo 4, Daniil Kvyat 7)
Ricciardo started fifth and finished fourth for the second race in a row. He is third overall. He damaged his front wing at the start in a collision with Bottas. Kvyat started 15th and also suffered front wing damage on lap one.
WILLIAMS (Felipe Massa 8, Valtteri Bottas 9)
Bottas collided with Hamilton into the first corner after a blistering start, damaging his front wing and collecting a drive-through penalty. Massa was second after the first lap but lost pace on the medium compound tyre on a two-stop strategy.
HAAS (Romain Grosjean 5, Esteban Gutierrez retired)
Grosjean followed up sixth in Australia with fifth in Bahrain, after starting in ninth, and is fifth overall – the highest he has ever been. Gutierrez retired in the garage after a problem with a left front brake disc.
TORO ROSSO (Max Verstappen 6, Carlos Sainz retired)
Toro Rosso scored points in Bahrain for the first time. Verstappen scored for the second race in a row. Sainz retired after a first lap collision with Force India’s Perez caused a right rear puncture that damaged the car’s floor.
FORCE INDIA (Nico Hulkenberg 15, Sergio Perez 16)
Both drivers damaged their cars early on in collisions. Perez has yet to score this season.
MCLAREN (Stoffel Vandoorne 10, Jenson Button retired)
Vandoorne scored on his debut, becoming the 62nd rookie to do so since 1950. He had replaced Fernando Alonso after the Spaniard failed a medical on Thursday following his crash in Australia. Button retired with a power unit failure on lap seven. The point was McLaren’s first of the season.
RENAULT (Kevin Magnussen 11, Jolyon Palmer did not start)
Palmer had a hydraulics issue and returned to the garage on the formation lap, where he retired. Magnussen started from the pit lane as penalty for a weighing infringement on Friday.
SAUBER (Marcus Ericsson 12, Felipe Nasr 14)
Still no points for the troubled Swiss team, with Nasr beaten by one of the Manors. Ericsson reported a loss of power on the first lap. Nasr started at the back of the grid.
MANOR RACING (Pascal Wehrlein 13, Rio Haryanto 17)
Manor got both cars to the finish with Wehrlein having an impressive race. Haryanto saw the chequered flag for the first time.
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Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton says he has no concerns about Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg’s five-race winning streak or his own poor starts this season.
The Briton, who has not won a race since clinching his third title in Texas last October, said he felt psychologically stronger than ever despite the setbacks.
“This is a psychological game, for sure,” Hamilton told reporters after finishing third in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix despite starting on pole position for the second race in a row. “It is a battle. I guess with age and experience, I’m in the most solid place I’ve ever been psychologically. There’s very little if anything that can penetrate that ... there’s a long way to go.”
Referencing Muhammad Ali’s ‘Rope a Dope’ tactics in the 1974 ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ heavyweight title fight against George Foreman, Hamilton suggested Rosberg’s early season victories might not count for anything in the end.
“You can’t win them all,” he added. “Not that this is the same, but Muhammad Ali with that Rumble in the Jungle, he got the dude to believe that he was winning and he didn’t. So anything can happen.”
Hamilton is now 17 points behind Rosberg, but 19 races remain in a championship with more rounds than ever.
Belgian debutant Stoffel Vandoorne handed McLaren their first point of the Formula One season in Bahrain on Sunday while the team’s two champion drivers looked on from the sidelines.
McLaren’s official reserve Vandoorne flew in from Japan on Friday, after Spaniard Fernando Alonso failed a medical, and he seized the opportunity with the double world champion remaining at the track to give him advice.
His 10th place, after starting 12th on the grid, made him the 62nd driver since the championship started in 1950 to score in his first race.
Vandoorne had already out-qualified 2009 champion Jenson Button in the other McLaren, with the Briton retiring on lap seven with a power unit failure.
“This result was more or less what I expected,” said last year’s winner of the GP2 support series, who has been tipped as a big star of the future and has been racing in Japan this year to keep up to speed.
“The start was a little bit difficult. There was debris left and right, it was pretty hectic in fact, and there was a lot of fighting throughout that opening lap.
“I’m pleased that I didn’t make any mistakes operationally – I was really focusing on that side of things – and I came away with a point, which was a nice bonus.”
A single point would once have been considered failure by McLaren, partly-owned by Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, the second most successful team in the sport’s history in terms of wins, but they have won nothing since 2012 and last year suffered their worst season.
The signs for 2016 are already better – it took McLaren six races before they scored a point last year as they started a new partnership with Honda – and Button was third fastest in Friday practice.
McLaren racing director Eric Boullier said Vandoorne, who could also drive for McLaren in China on April 17 if Alonso fails to pass a medical before that third race of the season, had put in a ‘flawlessly mature’ performance.
***
After finishing sixth on his debut in Australia with the new US-owned Haas Formula One team, Romain Grosjean went one better in Bahrain on Sunday to continue a ‘crazy’ run of success.
The Frenchman said finishing fifth under the floodlights at the Sakhir circuit was an early birthday present – he turns 30 at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai on April 17 – and further proof of the wisdom of his move from Lotus.
“Some people said it was career suicide. I think they were wrong. Sorry guys,” he grinned as reporters crowded around in the team’s paddock hospitality and mechanics packed up.
“I made that choice because I believed in the project and I’ve seen enough to think that after a few years in Formula One it could be good. Today is the truth.”
Grosjean moved to Ferrari-powered Haas before Renault decided to return as a constructor and take over struggling Lotus. There were some who felt he might have been better off staying with a major manufacturer but Haas have a close partnership with Ferrari, where Kimi Raikkonen’s contract expires at the end of the season.
“I said in winter testing we could score points early in the season. I was thinking that we would be fighting between 10th and 14th,” said Grosjean. “Scoring so many points at the beginning, I don’t think anyone was expecting that.”
Grosjean is now level on points with Raikkonen, and ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel after an engine problem prevented the four-time world champion from starting Sunday’s race.
Thanks to the Frenchman’s points, with Mexican Esteban Gutierrez so far drawing a blank, Haas are fifth in the constructors’ standings. “It was fun to be able to overtake Williams, Toro Rosso, Red Bull and have some good battles,” said Grosjean of the second race of the season.
“It’s an amazing performance for all of us. Sixth in Australia was a bit of luck but fifth today with a normal race, this is quite crazy. It’s a dream debut, I almost have to wake up to realise what it is.”
Grosjean said scoring regular points was now a realistic target and team principal Guenther Steiner agreed. “I don’t think we can go for fifth every time, that’s a little bit high, but I think we will try for points every time,” said Steiner.
