Hamilton wins under the night sky of Bahrain

Lewis Hamilton has won the Bahrain Grand Prix; the first ever to be held under floodlights at night marking the ten year anniversary of Formula 1 Racing in Bahrain. It is Hamilton’s second consecutive race win in 2014.

Teammate Nico Rosberg finished in second, marking back to back one-two race finishes for the Mercedes AMG F1 outfit who won their first one-two finish just last weekend in Malaysia. Sergio Perez was third for Force India completing the podium. It is Force India’s first podium finish since 2009 at Spa-Francorchamps.

Nico Rosberg got off to a strong start from pole position as the race got underway, but it was teammate Lewis Hamilton who got the jump off the line, quickly taking the lead from Rosberg into the first corner. Rosberg made an attempt to regain the position from Hamilton going into Turn 4 but Hamilton was faster and Rosberg had no choice but to concede the position.

The bulk of the grid took the first lap without incident aside from contact between the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne and the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado. The collision resulted in a puncture for Vergne who was forced to pit for a tyre change. Vergne would rejoin the race at the back of the pack and over a minute behind his closest rival Max Chilton.

DRS was enabled a lap later, putting Rosberg within the DRS zone to attack Hamilton. Hamilton quickly made the gap over a second between himself and Rosberg though, denying Rosberg the opportunity to activate DRS and attempt to make a pass. Rosberg did however increase the gap between himself and then third placed Felipe Massa whilst also being told by the team to continue to save fuel.

Further down the grid and Fernando Alonso was overtaken for seventh place by the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg. Hulkenberg made the pass look easy and shortly thereafter Alonso reported to the team that his Ferrari was lacking power, allowing Hulkenberg to breeze past.

Seven laps in and Hamilton was already leading by a second and a half ahead of teammate Rosberg and the Mercedes team informed Rosberg that they would change to their ‘alternative strategy’ meaning they would run a longer first stint. Adrian Sutil would be the first person to make a scheduled stop, putting a set of soft tyres on intended to last approximately 17 laps.

In the middle of the pack, Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo held their positions, though struggled to pick up pace allowing them to gain track position on those ahead of them. 11 laps in and Vettel was P10 whilst Ricciardo was P12 chasing McLaren’s Kevin Magnuessen. Lap 11 also marked the point at which Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso was in position to be lapped by the Mercedes dup of Hamilton and Rosberg. Meanwhile, an excellent on track battle for third place was taking place between Massa and Perez. Perez managed to pass Massa into Turn 4 before Massa regained the position battling through turns 5 and 6. Perez made it stick though and held out for P3.

Lap 14 marked the first retirement of the afternoon. Adrian Sutil pulled his Sauber off the track after battling for track position with the Marussia of Jules Bianchi. Initially Bianchi and Sutil bumped tyres before coming into contact with each other going into Turn 1. Bianchi suffered a rear left puncture whilst damage to the front of his car brought Sutil’s race to an end. The incident would be investigated by the FIA Race Stewards and Bianchi would recover back to the pits.

Sebastian Vettel suffered from a DRS failure early in the race, but lapping strongly on lap 15 having not yet pit, the problem looked not to be holding him back. However, just shortly after seventh placed Daniel Ricciardo asked the Red Bull team to move Vettel and in a rare radio message, Red Bull asked Vettel to move aside and allow Riccardo through as Ricciardo was faster.

To start lap 18 an incredible in-team battle started for race lead between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Rosberg made a dive for first going into Turn 1 before Hamilton cut back to immediately re-take the lead. The battle continued a lap later starting again at Turn 1 with Rosberg making another attempt to take the lead. The scrap for first followed through into the turns ahead before Hamilton secured first once more going through Turn 6. Firmly in first place, Hamilton would put on the same lap leaving Rosberg to move into first having not yet stopped.

Rosberg would be instructed to ‘box’ a lap later on lap 21 giving Hamilton the lead once more. Rosberg would put the medium compound tyre on though, showing the difference in strategies between Rosberg and Hamilton as Hamilton took a second stint on the soft tyres. Rosberg would aim to do a long stint on the medium compound.

With everyone having completed their first stops by lap 23, Hamilton was still in the lead with teammate Rosberg just behind in second. The Williams duo of Bottas and Massa sat third and fourth whilst Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was fifth.

Williams were soon to be battling for position with rival team Force India though as Bottas backed up the pack. Massa requested the team ask Bottas to move aside and just 2 seconds covered the four cars of Bottas, Massa, Hulkenberg and Perez. Bottas would pit at the end of lap 25 leaving Massa to defend against the two Force India’s. Hulkenberg then made a move on Massa, before out breaking himself and teammate Sergio Perez moving through. The move also gave Massa some breathing room ahead.

The second round of scheduled stops for the afternoon started at the 30 lap mark, as Fernando Alonso ducked into the pits releasing McLaren’s Jenson Button who was trailing behind. Alonso would rejoin in ninth behind the Force India of Nico Rosberg. Further back in the pack, Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi found himself battling for track position with the Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez for P16, though the different strategies each driver was running would ensure Gutierrez stayed ahead.

Twenty laps remaining and Lewis Hamilton was leading by over 20 seconds ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg whilst the Williams of Bottas and Massa were once again in third and fourth place respectively.

On lap 41 a scary incident happened when the Lotus of Maldonado clipped the side of Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez. The collision sent Gutierrez into a double roll through the air before the car came to a rest slightly off track at Turn 1. Gutierrez was slow to get out of the car, but eventually removed himself and seemed to be ok from afar. The incident called for the first Safety Car of the evening, bunching up the pack and eliminating Hamilton’s 20 second lead of the race. On the same lap Kevin Magnussen retired his McLaren with a gearbox failure leaving 17 cars running.

The race restarted on lap 47 with both Mercedes drivers being instructed by Paddy Lowe to ‘bring both cars back home’. Hamilton got things started by steaming across the start/finish line whilst Rosberg then attacked for the lead. Hamilton would hold the position whilst Hulkenberg pushed Perez for third. Both cars ran wide though managed to hold their positions whilst under attack from now fifth placed Sebastian Vettel. Further down the pack and both Williams moved past the McLaren of Jenson Button pushing Button into ninth. A few laps later and Button was passed by Alonso, moving him further back. Jenson Button retired his car on lap 56 resulting in a double DNF for McLaren.

As the chequered flag fell in Bahrain, Lewis Hamilton would win by over a half second ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg bringing an end to a nail biting final few laps in Bahrain. A fantastic race by the Force India outfit saw Sergio Perez finish third on the podium whilst another fantastic drive from Daniel Ricciardo saw the Aussie cross the line fourth.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg finished fifth whilst a late push from Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel saw the four times World Champion cross the line in sixth. The Williams’ duo of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished seventh and eighth respectively whilst the Ferrari’s of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top ten.

The weekend was another poor result for Lotus F1 team as Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado finished just 12th and 14th whilst Marussia’s Jules Bianchi crossed the finish line in last place.

Nico Rosberg now leads the Drivers’ World Championship by 11 points with a total of 61 ahead of second placed teammate Lewis Hamilton with 50 points. Mercedes AMG F1 lead the Constructors’ World Championship with 111 points.

The Formula 1 calendar resumes two weeks from now on the weekend of April 18 – 20 for the 2014 Formula 1 UBS Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.