Would Mercedes still be the team to beat in Week 3 for the newly designated night race at Sakhir circuit? Find out below the fold…
Mercedes cements place as team to beat in 2014 as Rosberg takes Pole, Hamilton second in Bahrain Qualifying
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg after grabbing the Pole in Bahrain (pic from PlanetF1.com)
The Mercedes factory team continues to display impressive dominance in the early stages of 2014, as a Silver Arrow has now been put on Pole in all three races thus far. But under the lights of the newly designated night race in Bahrain, it was German Nico Rosberg besting his English teammate Lewis Hamilton by .3 seconds for his first #1 start of the season. The two Mercedes were nearly a full second faster than their closest pursuer in the windy desert conditions, with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo again showing great promise and coming home 3rd. Unfortunately, though, the young Aussie will have to take a 10 spot grid penalty for unsafe pit release in last week’s Malaysian Grand Prix and so is relegated to starting 13th on Sunday. Ricciardo’s veteran teammate, 4-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel, continued to struggle with the new Red Bull chassis and could not get out of Q2. The humbled German will still start 10th after Ricciardo’s demotion.
The Williams team proved that their confidence at Sakhir, where they have tested extensively, was not misplaced with the fine looking youg Finn Valtteri Bottas qualifying 4th (and starting 3rd) and veteran Brazillian Filipe Massa taking a respectable 8th position (7th). Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari had the day that he needed beating out his fellow superstar teammate Fernado Alonso with a 6th place to the Spaniard’s10th. Sergio Perez had his best day of the new season coming home a very impressive 5th for overachieving Force India when teammate Niko Hulkenberg had an uncharacteristically poor day and found himself trapped in Q2 at 12th position. The two McLaren’s also showed that their terrible 2013 is well in the rearview mirror with veteran and former World Champion Jenson Button snagging 7th ahead of his rookie teammate, Danish phenom Kevin Magnusson’s 9th.
Top 10 Qualifiers below:
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:35.439 | 1:33.708 | 1:33.18 | 12 |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:35.323 | 1:33.872 | 1:33.464 | 12 |
| 3 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:36.220 | 1:34.592 | 1:34.051 | 16 |
| 4 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1:34.934 | 1:34.842 | 1:34.247 | 15 |
| 5 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1:34.998 | 1:34.747 | 1:34.346 | 19 |
| 6 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:35.234 | 1:34.925 | 1:34.368 | 15 |
| 7 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:35.699 | 1:34.714 | 1:34.387 | 17 |
| 8 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1:35.085 | 1:34.842 | 1:34.511 | 14 |
| 9 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:35.288 | 1:34.904 | 1:34.712 | 17 |
| 10 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:35.251 | 1:34.723 | 1:34.992 | 17 |
Complete Qualifying results from Bahrain at Formula1.com.
The Grand Prix of Bahrain will air live tomorrow at 11AM Eastern on NBCSports here in the States.