Posted on 4th April 2016
At the Bahrain GP yesterday, Nico Rosberg won his second race of the season, his fifth consecutive win in the sport and also his sixteenth career victory ahead of Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen and his team mate Lewis Hamilton.
Before the race could even begin, Sebastian Vettel was out of the Grand Prix on the formation lap due to his Ferrari engine letting go which is a shame for him after a great performance in Qualifying on Saturday.
At the start of the race, Nico Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas got great starts off the line as Kimi Raikkonen had a dreadful start. As they headed into the first corner, Bottas touches Hamilton and Hamilton sustains damage to his car and loses places as a result.
Further down the grid, positions were changing left, right and centre but a good move from Manor rookie Rio Haryanto saw him pass Felipe Nasr for eighteenth place. Lap 2 sees Nico Rosberg leading the race from Felipe Massa by 1.6 seconds. As we head into Turn 1, Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz Jr are battling for eleventh and twelfth places and both drivers touch, with bits of carbon fibre going everywhere.
This then left Perez with front wing damage and Sainz Jr with a right rear puncture on his Toro Rosso and both drivers now needed to pit in order to get the issues on their cars sorted. As we move into the next few corners, we saw both Sauber drivers of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Massa racing together very closely indeed; with Nasr being able to pass his team mate with a good move.
Lap 2 saw Jolyon Palmer officially retiring from the race after pulling into the pitlane at the end of the formation lap with problems with his Renault as Jenson Button finds himself in the points at this stage of the race.
In the opening stages of the race, we saw a battle for third place between Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen. But by Lap 6, Raikkonen was able to pass Ricciardo's Red Bull with a good move going into Turn 4 and will start to come under pressure from Hamilton's Mercedes. The next lap sees Raikkonen passing Bottas with a brilliant move using DRS into Turn 1.
By Lap 7, the stewards announced that they are looking into the first lap incident between Bottas and Hamilton as Jenson Button officially retires from the race with problems with his Honda engine. The next lap saw Hamilton passing Bottas into Turn 1 with a brilliant move to move up to third at this stage of the race. Two laps later saw Bottas gaining a drive through penalty as a result of the incident between himself and Hamilton on the first lap of the race.
Lap 11 saw Esteban Gutierrez officially retiring from the race due to a suspected technical problem on the Haas car as Nico Hulkenberg and Max Verstappen very nearly collided with each other on the track but both managed not to hit each other.
In the first half of the race, we saw a lot of battles up and down the grid. We saw a great battle for tenth place between Marcus Ericsson, Felipe Massa and Daniel Ricciardo, a battle for thirteenth place between Max Verstappen, Nico Hulkenberg and Stoffel Vandoorne which Vandoorne wins on Lap 11 after Hulkenberg has to back out due to avoiding Verstappen and is now in fifteenth place.
But not even two laps later, Vandoorne is able to get past Hulkenberg's team mate and in a great battle, Vandoorne gains the place and is now starting to move up the grid as a result of it. But we also see a battle between Ricciardo, Massa and Perez with Massa in the space of two corners losing places as Ricciardo and Raikkonen are able to pass him for track position. Towards the end of the lap, Raikkonen is then past Ricciardo and is now in fourth place.
At the end of Lap 13, Rosberg pits from the lead of the race to change his tyres and rejoins the race back in front ahead of Kvyat. Lap 14 saw Raikkonen yet again making a brilliant move into Turn 1 to get past Ricciardo for second place at this stage of the race.
We also saw a battle between the two Red Bull drivers and also the battle for tenth between Perez, Bottas and Hulkenberg building up on the track. At the start of Lap 15, Ricciardo passes Kvyat for position as Hamilton passes Massa for position as all the drivers headed into Turn 1. The next lap saw Massa trying to pass Ricciardo for position heading into Turn 1, but Ricciardo did his best to defend but Massa had more power and was able to get by.
By Lap 17 Rosberg was still leading the Bahrain GP ahead of Raikkonen by over 10 seconds as Hamilton passes Ricciardo for third place as we go into Turn 1. Our attention is then turned to the battle between Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean on Lap 17; with Grosjean pushing his Haas car ever nearer to the Williams of Massa and is able to pass Massa through Turn 10 with better traction.
In the latter stages of the first half of the race, we saw a battle for tenth place between Ericsson, Nasr, Wehrlein and Kvyat taking place on the track, Massa and Verstappen battling for sixth place; to which Verstappen is able to pass Massa on Lap 20 into Turn 1. We also saw Nasr, Wehrlein and Magnussen battling for twelfth place and Ricciardo and Grosjean battling for fourth place to which Grosjean gets on Lap 24 of the race.
We now see on the track Kvyat and Bottas are now battling for ninth place, with Bottas catching Ricciardo very quickly indeed as Rosberg still leads the race ahead of Raikkonen by 14.9 seconds. By Lap 27, Bottas is now ahead of Ricciardo.
In the second half of the race, we saw battles between Perez and Wehrlein for twelfth place, Kvyat and Ricciardo battling for sixth place (with Ricciardo winning the battle!), Bottas, Grosjean and Verstappen (which Grosjean is able to pass Bottas and Verstappen passing Bottas on Lap 29) and Massa and Kvyat for fifth place.
Lap 31 saw Carlos Sainz Jr officially retire from the race after being a lap down on the leaders. The next lap saw Felipe Nasr via team radio state that his car “is terrible and very difficult to drive.” Meanwhile, Grosjean is quickly catching Kvyat for fifth place and makes the move stick on Lap 33.
There was a battle between Vandoorne and Massa for ninth place on the track by Lap 34; with the Belgian driver starting to come under pressure from the more experienced Brazilian driver. However, both drivers soon start to close up to Bottas and the battle for eighth place is on.
As the Williams and McLaren-Honda battle continues, we have the two Force India's battling each other and Ericsson for eleventh place; with Hulkenberg quickly gaining on his team mate. But both Force India drivers on Lap 36 go wheel to wheel with each other while trying to keep Ericsson behind them and it is Hulkenberg who is ahead of the two of them with a great move and Ericsson then passes Perez who is struggling on the soft tyres at this stage of the race.
As positions swapped and changed throughout the field, Rosberg by Lap 38 still lead the race ahead of Raikkonen by 8.9 seconds. Meanwhile on the track, Bottas is being caught by Wehrlein for twelfth place. Lap 40 sees Kvyat passing Vandoorne for eighth place as Ericsson struggles to keep Wehrlein behind him for eleventh place.
In the closing stages of the race, Rosberg still lead the race ahead of Raikkonen and Hamilton. Further down the grid, battles were continuing down the field, especially for twelfth position between Nasr and Magnussen (which Magnussen won on Lap 45). Vandoorne the next lap passes Ericsson for tenth place.
Massa then loses another place as Grosjean is able to pass his Williams quite cleanly going into Turn 1 on Lap 47. The battle for seventh between Verstappen and Bottas got our attention in the final few laps of the race as did the battle between Ericsson and Magnussen. Lap 51 saw Bottas losing another place as Kvyat passes him for eighth place.
Hulkenberg and Wehrlein towards the end of the race where battling each other for thirteenth place and Wehrlein is able to pass Hulkenberg on Lap 52 into Turn 1 and is having yet another great race. Now Wehrlein is on a mission to pass Ericsson for twelfth place and looks very likely to win this battle too.
On the final lap, Kvyat is finally able to pass Massa for seventh place on the track as Rosberg still leads Raikkonen by 6.5 seconds. But it was Nico Rosberg who took his sixteenth of his career at the Bahrain GP with ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in second place who was 10.2 seconds behind him and ahead of Lewis Hamilton in third place who was 30.1 seconds behind Rosberg.
Kimi Raikkonen finished the race in fourth place ahead of Romain Grosjean in a brilliant fifth place, Max Verstappen in a credible sixth place, Daniil Kvyat in seventh place and Felipe Massa in eighth place.
Valtteri Bottas finished the race in ninth place ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne who picked up the final point in tenth on his debut which is a fantastic achievement. Vandoorne is the first Belgian driver to pick up a point in the sport since Thierry Boutsen in the 1992 Australian GP.
Kevin Magnussen ended the race in eleventh place ahead of Marcus Ericsson in twelfth place, Pascal Wehrlein in a brilliant thirteenth place, Felipe Nasr in fourteenth place and Nico Hulkenberg in fifteenth place.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Sergio Perez ended the race in sixteenth place ahead of Rio Haryanto in seventeenth place. Carlos Sainz Jr, Esteban Gutierrez, Jenson Button, Jolyon Palmer did not finish the race and Sebastian Vettel did not start the race.
The classification of the Bahrain GP is as follows:-
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.33:34.696
2. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 10.282s
3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 30.148s
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 1.02.494s
5. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 1.18.299s
6. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1.20.929s
7. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull Renault, 1 lap
8. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1lap
9. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1lap
10. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren-Honda, 1lap
11. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1lap
12. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1lap
13. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 1.lap
14. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.lap
15. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1 lap
16. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.lap
17. Rio Haryanto, MRT Racing, 1 lap
18. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, Not Classified
19. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, Not Classified**
20. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, Not Classified
21. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, Not Classified
22. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, DNS
Nico Rosberg leads the Drivers' Championship with 50 points, Hamilton is second with 33 points, Ricciardo is third with 24 points, Raikkonen is fourth with 18 points, Grosjean is fifth with 18 points, Vettel is sixth with 15 points, Massa is seventh with 14 points, Verstappen is eighth with 9 points, Hulkenberg is ninth with 6 points and Kvyat is tenth with 6 points.
Mercedes lead the Constructors Championship with 82 points, Ferrari is second with 33 points, Red Bull are third with 30 points, Williams are fourth with 20 points, Haas are fifth with 18 points, Toro Rosso are sixth with 11 points, Force India are seventh with 6 points and McLaren are eighth with 1 point.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
