Hamilton triumphs in Bahrain

Lewis Hamilton took his second victory of the season over Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in a thrilling Grand Prix in Bahrain on the 900th Grand Prix weekend.

Thanks once again to www.grahamandleigh.co.uk for their excellent laser cut Bahrain Circuit

Hamilton gained the upper hand of his team mate off the grid as he took the inside line into the first corner to take the lead.

The Williams of Massa had an incredible start pushing him up to 3rd by the first corner. The Force India's also gaining good ground in the early exchanges with Hulkenberg the man on the move.

It was a tough day at the office for the Ferrari as they were powerless to prevent sliding down the order to cars using Mercedes engines.

Rosberg kept Hamilton within reach in the early stages, keeping within 1.5 seconds, and then closed up enough to make a failed attempt for the lead just before the first round of pit stops. The battle between the two Mercedes intensified with Hamilton squeezing Rosberg out after an another attempted overtake into turn 4, prompting Rosberg to radio “tell him that was not nice” to his garage.

Hamilton stopped for fresh soft tyres that lap, and Rosberg chose to continue for a further 2 laps opting for a different strategy, switching to the medium tyre for the middle stint of the race.

Battles were occurring throughout the pack as the Force India's, Williams' Red Bulls and Mclarens all seemed to be on a similar pace. Ricciardo made light work of the lower field to find himself in an battle with his team mate Vettel for the lower point's positions. Vettel seemed to be holding his team-mate up and following radio conversation with the team allowed him through.

It seemed to be a day for team-mate battles as in the first half of the race with both Williams drivers battling it out for the remaining podium position. The Force India's traded places lap after lap with what was shaping up to be a great race for the pair.

There were however early retirements for Sutil, Vergne and Ericsson.

By lap 40 Hamilton had a gap of 9 seconds back to his team-mate, when a dangerous collision between the Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez and Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado forced the safety car to be deployed. The accident was dramatic to say the least as Gutierrez was turning through Turn One, Maldonado, who was coming out of the pits, smashed into the side of the Sauber, sending it into the air and rolling it completely over and back onto its wheels.

The collision gave Maldonado a ten second stop-go penalty with a trip to the stewards following the race.

The safety car seemed to hand the advantage to Rosberg. The lead built up by Hamilton was wiped out instantly and he now had to endure the final 10 laps on the 'slower' medium tyre.

As the field gathered again ready for the race to be restarted on lap 47, Mercedes co-team boss Paddy Lowe got on the radio to both drivers to say “There are 10 laps left, make sure you bring both cars home”.

On the faster soft tyre, Rosberg had the advantage at the restart, but Hamilton was somehow able to hold him off with some incredible defensive driving.

The Red Bulls thrived towards the end of the race gaining places corner by corner. With Ricciardo pulling off a courageous move on his World Champion team mate laying down a great statement which will surely give him great confidence for the rest of the season.

Rosberg appeared determined to win the race and tried several times to pass his team-mate into Turn One and through Turn Four, failing at each attempt.

Both McLarens failed to finish with both Magnussen and Button not making the chequered flag.

The race behind the dominant Mercedes pair was just as thrilling as Perez had the edge on Ricciardo for the final podium position and, four seconds behind them, with Hulkenberg leading home a train of cars including Vettel, Massa, Bottas, Alonso running nose-to-tail all the way down to Raikkonen who came home in 10th.

Somehow Hamilton managed to stabilise a lead of around 0.8 of a second to take a hard fought victory.

Following the race Stewards then gave Maldonado a five-place grid penalty for the next race in China and added three points to his super-licence

Race Result

1) Hamilton
2) Rosberg
3) Perez
4) Ricciardo
5) Hulkenberg
6) Vettel
7) Massa
8) Bottas
9) Alonso
10) Raikkonen
11) Kvyat
12) Grosjean
13) Chilton
14) Maldonado
15) Kobayashi
16) Bianchi

DNF: Button, Magnussen, Gutierrez, Ericsson, Vergne and Sutil.

World Championship standings:

Nico Rosberg (GER) Mercedes 61
Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes 50
Nico Hulkenberg (GER) Force India 28
Fernando Alonso (SPA) Ferrari 26
Jenson Button (GBR) McLaren 23
Sebastian Vettel (GER) Red Bull 23
Kevin Magnussen (DAN) McLaren 20
Valtteri Bottas (FIN) Williams 18
Sergio Perez (MEX) Force India 16
Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) Red Bull 12
Felipe Massa (BRA) Williams 12
Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) Ferrari 7
Jean-Eric Vergne (FRA) Toro Rosso 4
Daniil Kvyat (RUS) Toro Rosso 3

Manufacturers:

Mercedes 111pts
Force India-Mercedes 44
McLaren-Mercedes 43
Red Bull Racing-Renault 35
Ferrari 33
Williams-Mercedes 30
STR-Renault – 7
Lotus-Renault 0; Sauber-Ferrari; Marussia-Ferrari; Caterham-Renault.

The next race is on 20th April The UBS Chinese Grand Prix, keep up to date with all the latest news on Driving for Pleasure