Race report
Summary
So, after a race that started with high drama, Nico Rosberg kept his cool to lead, and win, from the first corner. Save for the Williams drivers, everybody in the top ten has a reason to be cheerful.
Raikkonen was competitive throughout the race after Sebastien Vettel’s car gave out in the formation lap, Hamilton did well just to finish, and elsewhere, it was a very good day for Red Bull and several F1 up-and-comers, with Romain Grosjean, Max Verstappen and Stoffel Vandoorne all among the points.
It’s Nico Rosberg at the top of the podium, defying Bernie Ecclestone’s rather glib prediction. It’s his fifth consecutive Grand Prix win, and he is the man to beat in Formula One. Thanks for joining me. Bye!
Final classification
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Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
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Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
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Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
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Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull)
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Romain Grosjean (Haas)
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Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso)
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Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull)
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Felipe Massa (Williams)
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Valtteri Bottas (Williams)
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Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren)
Nico Rosberg wins the Bahrain Grand Prix!
Rosberg follows his win in Melbourne with victory in the season’s second race. The German led from the first corner, taking advantage of Lewis Hamilton’s collision with Valtteri Bottas and cruising to victory. Kimi Raikkonen is second, Hamilton third.
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Lap 56: Rosberg is holding steady at eight seconds ahead of Raikkonen, and barring disaster, is going to be two from two. Hamilton could be in for his toughest challenge yet from his Mercedes team-mate. It’s been a rough day for Williams, who have both been lapped by Rosberg – and now Kvyat passes Massa!
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Lap 55: The race is over, by and large, but not for Pascal Wehrlein, who is chasing Ericsson for 12th. Stoffel Vandoorne, meanwhile, looks set to pick up a point for McLaren in 10th. Perhaps they should hire him...
Lap 54: Outside the top three, Danny Ricciardo is fourth, followed by Romain Grosjean and Max Verstappen. All three drivers will be delighted if it finishes that way.
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Lap 53: Raikkonen is six seconds behind Rosberg; the win will surely elude him today, but this has been a competitive drive. Hamilton, his car certainly not running at 100%, will be happy(ish) to hold on in third.
Lap 52: We’re treated to the rare sight of a Manor overtaking another car, with Wehrlein leaving Hülkenburg for dust. Their car is much improved this year. Wehrlein is 13th; further up the grid, Verstappen overtakes Massa and into sixth.
Lap 51: Bottas, who has driven a tough, scrappy race today, locks wheels with Kvyat in a battle for eighth. The Russian wins the tussle, and looks set to pick up points after starting in 15th place.
Lap 50: Uncompromising Scandi drama in a race for 11th, with Denmark’s Kevin Magnussen challenging Sweden’s Marcus Ericsson; the Sauber driver keeps Magnussen out, as both drivers hope to snatch a point.
Lap 49: Raikkonen has made the podium seven times in Bahrain, without ever winning the race. “Remember last year”, his team tell him. Both Mercedes suffered late-stage problems last season, allowing Raikkonen to finish... second.
Lap 48: Under ten laps to go, and Rosberg has stretched his lead to 6.6 seconds over Raikkonen. Hamilton has around seven seconds to catch up on the Ferrari; the podium is looking well set.
Lap 47: Ten laps to go, and Verstappen pits. Is there another set of super softs? There are – a used set – but the teenager will have a shot at fourth.
Lap 46: Massa, mired on medium tyres, offers little resistance to Grosjean, who uses DRS and fresh tyres to power past the Williams on a long straight. “Awesome!” hoots the team radio.
Lap 45: Grosjean, whose race had been faultless until that lengthy pit stop, is chasing down Kvyat – but the Red Bull man pits before he’s overtaken, and Grosjean has Felipe Massa next in his sights. It’s been, to different degrees, a good day for the new teams.
Lap 44: “Don’t tell me every lap. Tell me every four laps” Rosberg asks his team to keep him informed of the gap to Raikkonen... but not too informed. Here’s how it stands, with Max Verstappen and Daniil Kvyat likely to pit again:
- Rosberg
- Raikkonen
- Hamilton
- Verstappen
- Ricciardo
- Massa
- Kvyat
- Grosjean
- Bottas
- Ericsson
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Lap 43: Vandoorne and Ricciardo pit. Rosberg, Raikkonen and Hamilton are all on soft option tyres, with Raikkonen five seconds behind Rosberg, and Hamilton fifteen seconds off the Finn.
Lap 41: Grosjean suffers a horrible pit stop, with problems at the rear of the car extending it to 25 seconds. Hamilton’s stop is far more straightforward, but he still has his work very much cut out to catch Raikkonen.
Lap 40: Rosberg pits, which means Hamilton is leading the race for the first time since the first turn. The defending champ will be pitting shortly, however. Rosberg struggles to get past Hülkenberg, allowing Raikkonen to close the gap...
Lap 39: Raikkonen has sped back up to third, and will hope to reel in Hamilton, if not Rosberg, ahead of him. With Grosjean excelling in a Ferrari-powered car, the Finn’s seat might feel hotter than usual, but a podium finish here would certainly help his cause.
Lap 38: The top three are all on super soft tyres, with Raikkonen nine seconds off Rosberg, and Hamilton five seconds behind the Ferrari. The gaps are closing, but perhaps not quickly enough. Raikkonen makes a quick, efficient pit stop, switching to soft tyres until the end of the race.
Lap 37: Magnussen is into the top ten after passing Pérez, who is also overtaken by team-mate Nico Hülkenberg. The German’s move allows Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson to trail in his slipsteam. Pérez, mugged off spectacularly, is down to 13th.
Lap 36: An intriguing moment there, as Bottas, with Vandoorne closing in, darts into the pits at the last minute, confusing the McLaren man enough to allow Massa, sitting in tenth, to scoot past him.
Lap 35: For Renault, a race that started with both cars in the pits and Jolyon Palmer retiring on the first lap is improving, with Kevin Magnussen challenging Pérez and in sight of a top-ten finish.
Lap 34: Here’s how it stands, with most drivers making two stops and 23 laps remaining.
- Rosberg
- Raikkonen
- Hamilton
- Ricciardo
- Kvyat
- Grosjean
- Verstappen
- Bottas
- Vandoorne
- Massa
Lap 33: Sauber’s Felipe Nasr tells his team the car is “terrible to drive”. No great surprise, as he’s down in the high teens. Kvyat, who has only made one stop so far, is holding firm in fifth.
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Lap 32: Carlos Sainz, who has been trundling along at the back since falling behind on account of a puncture, has retired, joining Jolyon Palmer, Jenson Button, Esteban Gutierrez and Sebastian Vettel in the locker room.
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Lap 31: Rosberg pits and has a slight adjustment made to his front wing. It’s another slow, sloppy pit stop – there have been a fair few today. Hamilton, on super softs, sets a new fastest lap – he’s now 3.7 seconds behind Raikkonen...
Lap 30: Massa ran 22 laps on mediums, and the Brazilian pits – and he’ll stick with mediums until the end of the race. Hard to see him storming up the standings from here.
Lap 29: Hamilton is back in the pits, while Massa, struggling for pace on medium tyres, is quickly passed by Ricciardo. Grosjean challenges Kvyat and Verstappen on his return, and ends up sandwiched between the two.
Lap 28: Ricciardo, on fresher tyres than Kvyat, overtakes his colleague with ease. Meanwhile, Grosjean is into the pits, and plumps for another set of super-soft tyres!
Lap 27: Rosberg 15 seconds clear of Raikkonen, who is around eight seconds clear of Hamilton, with Grosjean 24 seconds behind him. Not exactly bunched up at the front, although Red Bull buddies Kvyat and Ricciardo are within a second of each other in a battle for fifth.
Lap 26: Ricciardo labours through his pit stop, and might struggle to get back in range of Grosjean, who is looking to follow up a sixth-placed finish in Melbourne. Rosberg, meanwhile, is 15 seconds clear, and surely on his way to victory.
Lap 25: Ricciardo, into his 18th lap on soft tyres, is overtaken on the inside by Grosjean, who holds his line through a chicane to take fourth! This has been an excellent drive for him so far. Ricciardo, suitably embarrassed, pits for a new set of tyres.
Updated
Lap 24: Manor, perennial back markers last season before an extensive revamp, are having a decent evening, with Pascal Wehrlein in 13th. Kevin Magnussen is frustrated, saying Wehrlein’s car is “like a rock on the straight”.
Lap 23: Horner had hoped that Grosjean, making hay on super soft tyres, would start to experience some degradation. It’s not happening yet, with the Frenchman firmly on Ricciardo’s tail.
Lap 22: Rosberg, who has barely been on camera, is miles ahead of the action behind him, with a 12 second lead. The German was the obvious beneficiary of that chaotic start, and the subsequent tussling behind him.
Lap 21: Channel 4 are chatting to Christian Horner, who confirms that both Ricciardo and Kvyat have suffered some front-wing damage.
Lap 20: After chasing Massa down for the best part of a lap, Verstappen takes his chance to sneak artfully past on the inside of a tight bend. Hamilton isn’t giving up on the win yet – he’s switched to medium tyres in an effort to gain ground on Rosberg.
Lap 18: This is some effort from Grosjean, who manoeuvres past Massa in his Ferrari-powered Haas to take fifth! And now Massa has young upstart Max Verstappen on his tail...
Lap 17: Raikkonen has set a new fastest lap as the Ferrari driver looks to prevent a Mercedes one-two; but he’ll have his work cut out, as Hamilton moves past Ricciardo with little fuss to move into the podium places.
Lap 16: Kvyat going backwards now, and Massa edges past him to climb back into the top five. Further down the field, there’s a tense tussle between Force India stablemates Hülkenberg and Pérez, with the latter hanging on to his top ten place.
Lap 15: Hamilton didn’t change his front wing either during that first pit-stop. Here’s how it stands after fifteen laps:
- Rosberg
- Raikkonen
- Ricciardo
- Hamilton
- Kvyat
- Massa
- Grosjean
- Verstappen
- Vandoorne
- Pérez
Lap 14: Hamilton pits, coming out behind Massa in sixth, with Raikkonen cruising past Daniil Kvyat, up in third but running on his first set of tyres and rapidly losing momentum.
Lap 13: Stoffel Vandoorne, the only McLaren driver still in the running, challenges Sainz around the outside, but the Force India driver keeps him out. Race leader Rosberg is set to pit now; there’s still plenty of debris on the track after an ugly opening stint.
Lap 12: Here’s Sebastian Vettel on that dramatic pre-race retirement. “Just a couple of seconds before I had to stop, I realised I had lost power,” says the Red Bull driver.
When pushed on whether it’s bad news for Ferrari’s season: “Not really... it’s not ideal, but we had good prep in the winter, we had reason to be confident... it came as a surprise.”
Lap 11: Romain Grosjean, a fine driver who has wound up at paddock newcomers Haas, is up in fourth, and on tyres that can keep him in contention for a while. Not such good news for Haas team-mate Esteban Gutierrez, who has retired from the race.
Lap 10: It’s no great surprise – Bottas is handed a drive-through penalty for causing a collision on that first turn. Hamilton’s car is clearly damaged, with the defending champion shedding a hefty chunk of metal onto the track. Word is, he’s OK to continue without running repairs.
Lap 9 of 57: Jenson Button thought long and hard about retirement last year, but instead of sitting poolside in Monaco, sipping a cool beverage, he’s parked up on the hard shoulder, with his race over despite a positive start.
Lap 8 of 57: Hamilton uses Bottas’ slipstream to catapult past the Williams man, exchanging zero pleasantries as he passes him. He’s back up to third, but Rosberg is already over six seconds clear in first.
Lap 7 of 57: Raikkonen overtakes Bottas, who now has his first-turn adversary Hamilton in his rear-view mirror. Mercedes aren’t happy about the Finn’s aggressive early move:
Lap 6 of 57: Ricciardo is struggling out there, with Kimi Raikkonen rolling past him on a straight and into fourth place. The Red Bull man will pit for a tyre change – but there’s no lengthy stoppage to replace the front wing...
Lap 5 of 57: Rosberg has set a fastest lap with a clear track and clean air in front of him. Here’s how the top ten stands:
- Rosberg
- Massa
- Bottas
- Ricciardo
- Raikkonen
- Hamilton
- Grosjean
- Gutiérrez
- Verstappen
- Button
Updated
Lap 4 of 57: Looking at replays of the start, Hamilton was slow out of the traps, Bottas caught him going into the first, right-hand turn and the cars clashed, causing Bottas – and Ricciardo, in close proximity, to lose a front wing each.
Lap 3 of 57: Force India’s Sergio Pérez has had to pit, with his front wing damaged. It’s been, all things considered, a good ten minutes for Nico Rosberg.
Lap 2 of 57: Absolute chaos on the track, with Jolyon Palmer already out of his car, Carlos Sainz suffering an early puncture, and Hamilton telling his team “something’s wrong with my rear” as he battles back up to seventh.
Lights out
Vettel’s spot on the grid is empty, and both Renaults are starting from the pit lane. The rest of the grid are under starter’s orders – but Lewis Hamilton makes contact with Bottas (I think) and plummets down the field! Rosberg leads, Massa second, and Hamilton drops down to ninth...
Updated
Sebastien Vettel is out!
We haven’t even started – the drivers are still on their formation lap – but Vettel’s Ferrari is billowing smoke... and the driver confirms that his engine has failed! That’s the first time since 1996 that the Italian team have lost a car on its way to the grid.
Five minutes until lights out. Is it possible to hear the phrase ‘sexy lap’ without getting this song in your head? I hope not.
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Ones to watch
It won’t be a great surprise if pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton battles it out with Australian GP winner Nico Rosberg for the win – but further down the grid, there could be a few surprises. Danny Ricciardo surprised even himself by qualifying in fifth place, while Romain Grosjean and Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein both exceeded expectations.
Perhaps the biggest story of qualifying, save for Hamilton’s sizzling final ‘sexy lap’, was McLaren back-up Stoffel Vandoorne, who jetted in from Japan at short notice and finished two places ahead of team-mate Jenson Button. Oh, Jenson.
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The drivers are out on the grid, lined up for the Bahraini national anthem. Here it is, if you’d like to join in at home:
Here’s Bernie! On qualifying: “we should get it sorted... it just takes some time for these people, they’re not as fast as us”. On the race, he says “I’m expecting a big surprise, I think Lewis will win!” He’s quite the charmer, isn’t he?
Jackie Stewart, also trackside, has said he “hates” the new qualifying system, and he’s not alone:
I would agree that if a rule change is despised by teams, drivers, fans and former stars, it should probably be binned, post haste. That hasn’t happened yet.
Updated
Today’s Grand Prix is the first of the season that Channel 4 are showing live. Susie Wolff, former Williams test driver, is presenting alongside former F1 drivers Mark Webber and David Coulthard, and Steve Jones, who presumably at least owns a car.
Plenty of technical details and pit-lane promenading so far, with the channel that brought you Sex Box playing it straight. They’ve also got some red-hot reaction from Mr Susie Wolff, who isn’t happy with the stalling on qualifying:
The grid
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Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
- Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
- Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
- Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
- Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull)
- Valtteri Bottas (Williams)
- Felipe Massa (Williams)
- Nico Hülkenberg (Force India)
- Romain Grosjean (Haas)
- Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso)
- Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso)
- Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren)
- Esteban Gutiérrez (Haas)
- Jenson Button (McLaren)
- Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull)
- Pascal Wehrlein (Manor)
- Marcus Ericsson (Sauber)
- Sergio Pérez (Force India)
- Jolyon Palmer (Renault)
- Rio Haryanto (Manor)
- Felipe Nasr (Sauber)
- Kevin Magnussen (Renault)*
*Magnussen starts from the pit lane after being penalised for failing to stop for a mandatory weight check
Preamble
Hello! I’m not going to try and crank up your excitement for this race, because F1’s head honcho, Mr Bernie Ecclestone, has done my job for me:
“I got slaughtered because I said I wouldn’t buy a ticket for a Formula One race. Which is true. Because I know full well before I go to the race who is going to be first, who is going to be second.” Er, carry on...
“What am I going to sit in the bloody grandstand for? With the wife and two kids. Or somebody else’s wife. To see what? Mercedes are so good they qualify first and second and finish the race first and second.”
Well, this is awkward. Bernie, who appears to feel no personal responsibility as the head of F1 for its sorry state, has instead come out swinging at drivers (“you go for dinner with them and they don’t even pay the bill”) and teams (“we shouldn’t ask their opinion”) as rancour brews off the track. Another paddock meeting earlier today has failed to resolve the growing divide over changes made to qualifying.
What we know for sure is that Lewis Hamilton starts on pole at Bahrain, a twinkling desert circuit usually flanked by protestors and palm trees. It doesn’t appear a likely home for F1’s rebirth. That said, Leicester are going to win the league; stranger things have happened. If nothing else, it might be fun to focus on the track for a while.
The race starts at 4pm UK time, 6pm local time.
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