Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Michael Butler

Bahrain Grand Prix: F1 2015 – as it happened

Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP leads during the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP leads during the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix. Photograph: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Summary

So another win for Lewis Hamilton, who looked dominant throughout. But the story of this race was the battle for second, and Raikkonen showed remarkable poise and steel to make up a 19-second deficit and prevent Mercedes taking another one-two. Ferrari are proving to be a force this season, although Vettel will be disappointed that he couldn’t put any pressure on the leaders, after starting the race in second.

Have a read of our race report, if you fancy. Thanks for reading, see you next time. Bye!

Updated

Hamilton celebrates as emerges from his car: and pretends to knock a baseball over the cheering stands. Nice.

Here are the final standings in full from Bahrain:

Here are the standings in the drivers’ championship.

1. Hamilton - 93
2. Rosberg - 66
3. Vettel - 65
4. Raikkonen - 42
5. Massa - 31
6. Bottas - 30

“Sorry about the brakes, it happened at the worst time” the Mercedes team utter to Rosberg. So both Mercs had braking problems by the end!

Ricciardo’s car sends a plume of smoke out the back of his car. He comes to a standstill, but is just able to roll over the finish line! The Red Bull man finishes in sixth.

Updated

LEWIS HAMILTON WINS THE BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX!

That brake fault didn’t matter. Hamilton pumps the air. “Get in there!” shout the Mercedes team over the radio.

Updated

Lap 57: Hamilton has a break-by-wire fault! He should be ok, though as he has a comfortable lead on Raikkonen. “Go easy on the brakes,” warn Hamilton’s team.

Lap 56: Raikkonen passes Rosberg and goes into second! Oh, that’s a terrible mistake from Rosberg, who locked up going into turn one, and who is forced wide off the track. Raikkonen simply flies through, and his greater carrying speed allows him to pull clear! What an error! Mercedes’ team hold their head in their hands.

Updated

Lap 55: Raikkonen is not yet in DRS range, but he’s not far off! Three laps to go! It’s very busy out there on the track, causing all sorts of problems for the Rosberg and Raikkonen.

Kyvat passes Massa. He’s up into ninth.

Updated

Lap 54: Hamilton, meanwhile, is still five seconds ahead in front. He’s cruising. The gap between Rosberg and Raikkonen is just 1.1 second!

Lap 53: The gap is now 2.2 seconds. This is going to go to the wire for second place! Vettel so nearly collides with the back of Bottas as that battle for fourth continues. He was inches from a crash there!

Lap 52: Rosberg is being asked to save his breaks. He sounded visibly shaken the last time we heard him on the radio. The gap to Raikkonen is just 3.4 seconds with five laps remaining!

Lap 51: Raikkonen is 4.5 seconds off Rosberg in second. Can he break the Mercedes one-two.

Perez has passed Massa in turn one. Very clean. Perez now in eighth.

Updated

Lap 50: Raikkonen looks as though he’s running into that traffic that Rosberg encountered a few laps ago. “Come on blue flags, they don’t know how to move these people,” the Finn shouts down the radio.

Lap 49: Vettel, in fifth, and Bottas are battling it out for fourth. Bottas looks as though he might be struggling for brake dust after running wide in turn one.

Updated

Lap 48: “The gap to Kimi is now 8.5 seconds” Rosberg’s team tell their man.

“Just don’t tell me what the gap is!” responds Rosberg. He knows he is being caught in second.

Updated

Lap 47: “Staying at this pace, we should hit Rosberg in five laps,” the Ferrari team tell Raikkonen.

Lap 46: “The leaders are in traffic, let’s make hay,” Raikkonen is told by his team.

Massa moves into the points in eighth.

Lap 45: Rosberg and Hamilton have run into traffic, which is another factor in why they are worried about the Ferrari.

Second-placed Rosberg did have a 19 second lead over Raikkonen in third, now it’s just over 10!

Updated

Lap 44: Maldonado is forced to pit, and the front end of his car is smoking. He’s brakes look shot. He pulls back out on the track, but doesn’t look in a good way.

“We think Kimi is a threat,” Rosberg’s team tell their driver. “He’s on the option tyre and forecast to catch you before the end of the race.”

Updated

Lap 43: Raikkonen has just set the fastest lap of this race.

Updated

Lap 42: Raikkonen is back out in third, comfortably ahead of Bottas and Vettel.

Lap 41: Following that stop, Hamilton has total control of this race, a 19 second lead. Surely it would only take a technical fault for to prevent him winning this race.

Lap 40: Hamilton retakes the lead! He slides down the inside of Raikkonen, who makes his pit, The Finn is going on the soft tyre and will go full throttle for the rest of the race.

Updated

Lap 39: What are Ferrari going to do with Raikkonen? Are they going to put him on the medium tyre or soft tyre?

Lap 38: Raikkonen is still out race leader, with Hamilton 1.2 seconds behind. Meanwhile Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen has had to stop: “the car is not safe” says the TR radio.

Updated

Lap 37: “I think I have some damage on the front wing. Keep an eye on the sensors please.” pleas Vettel. He’s had to pit, and gets a new front wing! Is that going to cost him a podium finish?

Lap 36: Vettel and Rosberg battle it out for third: Vettel running too wide and he runs off the track into the sand. Rosberg overtakes him! Vettel’s tyres will be dirty now, too.

Updated

Lap 35: Nasr overtakes Hulkenburg down the outside through turn four! What a move! Meanwhile Vettel has come out in front of Rosberg after his stop.

Updated

Lap 34: Both Hamilton and Vettel make their stops: they are both on the medium tyres now. “Push hard now, one more lap,” Rosberg’s team tell the Mercedes man.

Lap 33: Hamilton, our race leader, will also pit shortly. Hopefully that will see him through to the end: 24 laps to go. That’s a long old stint on one set of tyres.

Jenson Button meanwhile, is keeping himself busy on Twitter...

Lap 32: Raikkonen has used a little less fuel that any of the top four. He’ll be given the soft tyre when he comes into pit shortly, even though he’s running very nicely on the harder tyre.

Lap 31: Now it’s Nasr that passes Alonso in 12th, who is having a miserable time of it. Toro Rosso’s Sainz’s race is over, rolling off the track, with sparks coming off his front left wheel.

Updated

Lap 30: Alonso struggling here to keep pace with Hulkenberg and Massa. He’s running in dirty air, and he can’t get the neccessary downforce to keep up.

Lap 29: Hulkenberg flies past Alonso into 11th. The Spaniard is helpless there on turn one, and doesn’t have the chance to come back on him. Hulkenberg hangs on through turn four.

Lap 28: Hamilton starting to craft a sizeable lead now.

Lap 27: Mercedes still lead one-two with Vettel tucked in behind. Vettel can’t get close enough to enable the DRS, he’s 3.2 seconds behind.

Lap 26: Ericsson has a nightmare stop, the engineers waste 27.1 seconds trying to mount the front left tyre! Has that ruined his race?

Updated

Lap 25: Nasr makes a great pass on Massa, cutting him up on the inside.

Nasr, Massa and Maldonado all go in for the pit stops together! Maldonado has a lightning quick pit stop and jumps two places! Well done Team Lotus!

Updated

Lap 24:

Lap 23: Here are the current standings:

Lap 22: Raikkonen in fourth, is nine seconds behind Vettel in third, but his lap times are quicker than the top three. He’s gaining on them. Nasr, in 11th, is really pushing his Brazilian compatriot, Massa, who is running very wide. Massa appears to be struggling for grip on those hairpin corners.

Lap 21: There’s under three seconds between the top three: Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel. 1.6 seconds ahead, Hamilton appears to have lost a large portion of his lead, due to a slow stop.

Lap 20: Rosberg’s team tell him: “We’ll still need some fuel saving for breaks, as you get closer to Lewis.”

Lap 19: Bottas in fifth is chasing down Raikkonen. “I think we can get him” say Williams over the radio.

Lap 18: Raikkonen makes his stop, and he’s going on the medium tyres, which means Hamilton will reclaim the lead.

Updated

Lap 17: Rosberg retakes third from Vettel, enabling the DRS down the home straight and coming on the inside of Vettel! He’s tucked just behind in Hamilton now, can he use his DRS on him as well?

Updated

Lap 16: Hamilton makes his stop and Raikkonen is our new race leader. He hasn’t made his stop yet. Rosberg and Vettel are going at it in third and fourth respectively, with Hamilton emerging from the pits in second, just in front.

Updated

Lap 15: Rosberg responds to Vettel’s stop but as he emerges, he’s behind Vettel in fourth. That extra lap for Vettel on those new tyres proved decisive!

Lap 14: Bottas on the radio: “the tyres are dying.” He’ll come into the pits shortly. Vettel makes his pit stop. Alonso also comes in, he’s going onto the hard tyres.

Updated

Lap 13: Maldonado has actually just recorded the fastest lap of any of the drivers, but he’s currently loitering in 15th place.

Lap 12: Rosberg is flying away from Vettel, but he’s actually losing ground on Hamilton.

Lap 11: Hulkenberg, Massa and Nasr all make their stops. Remember this is likely to be a two-stop race. No stops so far from the Mercedes/Ferrari boys.

Lap 10: Hamiton’s lead is 5.3 seconds over his Mercedes teammate. Fourth-placed. Raikkonen is still in touch with his Ferrari teammate, Vettel.

Updated

Lap 9: Rosberg takes second from Vettel. It’s a Mercedes one-two! Vettel managed to hold Rosberg off for a while, but along that big long home straight, Rosberg opened up the DRS, got inside Vettel, and squeezed him up.

Lap 8: Rosberg is right up on Vettel, who nearly spun out. Rosberg is right up behind the German, who blocks him out at turn four. Vettel just locked up!

Updated

Lap 7: Massa overtakes Alonso to claim 13th place. Sparks are flying off the asphalt. Hamilton looks to have pulled away from Vettel.

Lap 6: Rosberg has opened up a two second lead over Raikkonen. Rosberg is driving very smoothly.

Lap 5: Maldonado is under investigation for being out of position on the starting grid. He’ll get a five second penalty. Meanwhile Hamilton runs a little wide on turn four, which allows Vettel to catch up a little bit. He’s about a second behind the Brit.

Updated

Lap 4: Rosberg opens up the DRS and scoots on the inside of Raikkonen on turn one to retake third place. Raikkonen tries to come back at him on turn four but no joy!

Lap 3: Here is the top 10 as it stands.

  1. Hamilton,
  2. Vettel
  3. Raikkonen
  4. Rosberg
  5. Bottas
  6. Ricciardo
  7. Grosjean
  8. Hulkenberg
  9. Ericsson
  10. Sainz

Lap 2: Hamilton has a lead of 1.4 seconds and he’s really going for it, doesn’t look to be scrimping on fuel or saving his tyres. It looks like Maldonado clipped Max Verstappen front wingt here.

Updated

Lap 1: Hamilton holds the lead into the first turn, but As Rosberg tried to go aggressive on Vettel in second, Raikkonen comes from fourth, around the outside and gets into third! Rosberg in fourth.

Updated

Here we go!

Massa is moving, but he will start from the pit lane! That opens it up for Daniel Ricciardo in seventh then.

The cars are out loosening up on their reconnaissance lap, but Felipe Massa hasn’t moved! It looks like he’ll start from the pit lane. Williams think it’s an electrical problem. It’s unsure whether they’re going to have Masssa ready in time for the start!

We’re three minutes away from lights out!

As ever, the start will be so important today. There’s a headwind heading down the first straight, with drivers expected to get above 200mph before dropping to 40mph for the first corner. That’s some heavy breaking in just around 100 metres of track. Hamilton will be looking to block Vettel off on the first corner, but he doesn’t have Rosberg to protect him as he has in other races this season.

Here are the tyres that previous winners have used.

Updated

Remember when this happened last year in Bahrain? Flippin heck.

Updated

Being smack bang in the middle of the desert, the track at Bahrain is notoriously dirty and so tyre management will be very important. The track also has the highest degree of asphalt roughness of any of the tracks this season. Most teams will operate a two-stop race.

BREAKING NEWS

McLaren’s Ron Dennis has just confirmed that Jenson Button will not start today!

There is an electrical glitch with the energy recovery system and that was deemed to be unsafe. Button has had a nightmare week in Bahrain, he was due to start at the back of the grid after suffering electrical problems in both practice sessions on Friday.

Updated

David Coulthard is out walking around the start/finish line, sporting a pair of divine velvet loafers, and has just told us that the tarmac on Bahrain is actually from Shropshire. Fancy that.

Here is how the drivers line up on the grid today:

1. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 32.571s
2. Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 32.982s
3. Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 33.129s
4. Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 33.227s
5. Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams-Mercedes 1m 33.381s
6. Felipe Massa BRZ Williams-Mercedes 1m 33.744s
7. Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-Renault 1m 33.832s
8. Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India-Mercedes 1m 34.450s
9. Carlos Sainz Jr ESP Toro Rosso-Renault 1m 34.462s
10. Romain Grosjean FRA Lotus-Mercedes 1m 34.484s
11. Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes 1m 34.704s
12. Felipe Nasr BRZ Sauber-Ferrari 1m 34.737s
13. Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber-Ferrari 1m 35.034s
14. Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda 1m 35.039s
15. Max Verstappen NED Toro Rosso-Renault 1m 35.103s
16. Pastor Maldonado VEN Lotus-Mercedes 1m 35.677s
17. Daniil Kvyat RUS Red Bull-Renault 1m 35.800s
18. Will Stevens GBR Manor Marussia-Ferrari 1m 38.713s
19. Roberto Merhi ESP Manor Marussia-Ferrari 1m 39.722s

Updated

Preamble

ARE YOU READY FOR THE NIGHT TRAIN? NIGHT TRAIN!

Hello world and welcome to the first night race of the season! It’s always a bit more exciting under the lights, and the track naturally lends itself to overtaking, with long-straights, heavy breaking and tight turns.

Last year’s grand prix in Bahrain was a humdinger: Hamilton and Rosberg ignoring Mercedes’ technical director Paddy Lowe calls to simply bring the two cars home in one piece, and instead going hammer and tongue against each other. It was pure racing – the two drivers racing wheel to wheel, ignoring Mercedes’ technical director Paddy Lowe pleas to simply bring the two cars home in one piece, driving to their respective limits. Both drivers held the lead at various points throughout the race, with Hamilton eventually prevailing. During the race Rosberg had shown his dissent at Hamilton’s aggressive style – “that was not on!” – but as the two got out of their cars in the pit lane at the end, they embraced and started playfighting. How things have changed.

The friction between the two has immeasurably increased of late, and boiled over last week in China, with Rosberg accusing Hamilton of running a selfish race. And yet, this is not the biggest challenge that Mercedes face in Bahrain. What is becoming increasingly apparent is that the prancing horse of Ferrari has once again reared its head, with Sebastian Vettel emerging as a genuine contender for the drivers’ championship. Vettel won three weeks ago in Malaysia, and Hamilton admitting that the German, who starts in second behind Hamilton today, is his biggest rival in Bahrain.

Rosberg, who starts in third today, certainly has a point to prove. He has won in Bahrain but had previously taken the last two pole positions here and also set the fastest lap at this circuit on his Formula One debut.

Hamilton secured his fourth consecutive pole in qualifying, but this is far from a formality. Ferrari have shown good race pace all season, and the 3.36-mile track should suit them. Ferrari’s other driver Kimi Raikkonen, who starts in fourth today, has taken six podiums here – more than any other driver. Things are looking up for Ferrari.

Buckle up!

Lights out: 4pm BST

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Even Fox News hosts struggling to make sense of RFK Jr’s and Kid Rock’s workout video
‘Listen, somebody needs to tell RFK Jr. it’s okay to wear shorts. I mean, bro, don’t be upset about your legs,’ Fox News military analyst Johnny Jones said
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
NC Parents: Miss Too Many School Days and You Could Face Fines
Waking up to a coughing child with a fever triggers an immediate focus on their health. You naturally keep them home to recover and shield their classmates from germs. However, those recovery days accumulate quickly. Soon, a letter arrives in the mail that feels more like a legal threat than…
Budget and the Bees
Budget and the Bees
A new Marvel art book has revealed where Spider-Man: Brand New Day will sit on the MCU timeline — and unveiled some big details about its plot
Spider-Man: Brand New Day's plot synopsis and position on the MCU timeline have leaked online.
TechRadar
TechRadar
I Had No Idea Bleached Eyebrows Could Do So Much, But Kendall Jenner Is Almost Unrecognizable In New Campaign
Making me do a double-take.
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
Is It a Red Flag If Your Partner Never Buys You Surprises?
It all depends on your love language.
We Got This Covered
We Got This Covered
Couple goes to Texas Roadhouse for their gender reveal. Then they enlist their server’s help—people have thoughts: ‘She was more excited than y’all’
Nothing says hitting an intimate family milestone quite like outsourcing your baby’s gender reveal to a Texas Roadhouse server mid-shift. One couple decided steaks and sweet tea were the perfect backdrop for their big moment. The result? The underwhelming reveal, a couple reacting as they’d just been told their table…
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play