Britain’s Lewis Hamilton sought solace in damage limitation after watching Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg win the Bahrain Grand Prix to continue his immaculate start to the season.
Advertisement
Williams’ Valtteri Bottas has crashed into Lewis Hamilton at the first corner in the early start of the Bahrain race, damaging Hamilton F1 auto and making the race tough for the former world champion.
He led throughout to win by 10.2 seconds at the Sakhir circuit over Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, with Hamilton recovering from the collision with the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and finishing third.
In Melbourne, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen jumped Rosberg and triple champion team mate Lewis Hamilton at the start and potentially had a winning strategy until the race was stopped and re-started after Fernando Alonso’s big crash.
As for the Championship race, Rosberg leads Hamilton by 50 points to 33, but he insists he’s not thinking about that just yet.
Hamilton made no use of his pole position for the second time in two races and converted the win to a podium finish.
After five laps, Rosberg held a 5 second gap over Massa and a 7s gap over Bottas whose auto seemed to be okay despite the earlier contact with Hamilton.
In a race that at times resembled a demolition derby, with bits of bodywork flying as cars collided, Rosberg seized the lead from the start and enjoyed an easy evening under the floodlights.
“Two separate incidents, but both equally as painful, perhaps this one today more painful”, Hamilton said.
The win was the 16th of the German’s career and the eighth in a row for champions Mercedes.
“We have been working a lot on starts so I am pleased that it worked out so well for me on the dirty side of the grid”.
Ferrari have the pace, but do they have the reliability? We all feel the pain jointly together but I said to the guys there is a long way to go.
Rosberg was third fastest in practise three, his time of 1:32.104 slower than Friday when he did 1:31.001, with Hamilton fourth. “Nonetheless, we still managed to get back up there and got some points”.
“(Mercedes motorsport director) Toto (Wolff) gave me my 2013 Monaco winner’s trophy because it was very special for me and that’s it. I don’t have any others, now I do.
Asked whether he was concerned about having to make up ground to Rosberg, just as he did on his way to the title in 2014, he said: “Don’t worry about it – I’m not”. Haas’ Romain Grosjean finished fifth followed by Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat.
The next round of the championship is the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai on April 17.
Advertisement
Stoffel Vandoorne made Bahrain a debut race to remember as he bought his Honda powered McLaren home in tenth to claim the first points of the season for the rapidly improving British team.
