In desert thriller Hamilton holds off charging Raikkonen for 4th straight win; Rosberg has late off under fire from Kimi, settles for 3rd

Pictures courtesy GrandPrix247.com

In a thrilling battle between Mercedes and hard charging Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton was able to come home for the win in Bahrain even as his breaks began to fail, his fourth straight victory to start the season and an astounding 10th Grand Prix win from the last 11 races. The laps ran out before Kimi Raikkonen’s onrushing Ferrari could catch Hamilton’s Silver Arrow and the Finnish former champ had to settle for 2nd, albeit his first podium since returning to the Scuderia last year. The Iceman had an excellent race and once again it seemed that the strategists on the pit wall for Ferrari somewhat outsmarted Mercedes. Ferrari split their tire strategy between Sebastian Vettel and Raikkonen, and Kimi was able to do a long, very effective middle stint on the harder medium tires. That enabled him to finish on the softer, faster options and take the fight to the two Mercedes in front who were, like Vettel, both on the harder compound. When Rosberg had brake woes of his own while being hounded by the Iceman on the penultimate lap and went skidding off track, Raikkonen was able to pounce. He wrested 2nd place from the German contender and brought joy to the hearts of all of those who love the famed Prancing Horse of Maranello even if he didn’t have the time to really have a go at Hamilton for the win.

Kimi’s teammate Sebastian Vettel had a bit of a ragged race and struggled to keep his SF15-T securely under him throughout. In the end the German former 4-time World Champion was forced to make an extra pit stop for a new front wing after damaging his original by running wide through gravel and the rumble strips while dicing with a fired up Rosberg. That consigned Vettel to battling it out with Williams’ Valtteri Bottas for the rest of his run and he was unable to pass the talented Finnish up-and-comer. Bottas held on for an excellent 4th for his and Williams’ best placing of the year and Vettel had to settle for what must have seemed a disappointing P5 after making the podium in the first three Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo drove a solid race to boost struggling team Red Bull’s morale and grab a solid 6th place. But characteristic of their season, even that strong points run was not without some bad news, as Ricciardo’s engine expired in rather spectacular fashion while taking the checkered flag. However, the Aussie ace’s teammate Danil Kvyat was able to fight back from gremlins in Qualifying to take an impressive P9 after starting a lowly P17 and make it a decent points-paying weekend for once-dominant Red Bull. Romain Grosjean had another strong drive and appears to have really come to grips with this year’s Mercedes-powered Lotus: the Frenchman took P7 and if both cars can ever finish a race — Pastor Maldonado had yet another retirement for mechanical reasons — Lotus could well contend for a Top 5 position in the Constructors’ Championship and the big, life-sustaining money that comes with it. They were also aided when both Sauber and Torro Rosso finsihed outside the points, with both Torro Rossos retiring early due to ominous mechanical failures.

Rounding out the Top 10, Sergio Perez drove a very good race for Force India, coming through from P11 on the starting grid to take 8th. The Williams of Felipe Massa salvaged the last point with a frantic 10th place after being forced to start from the pits when the car would not turn over for the reconnaissance lap. McLaren showed continued improvement and race pace, but only one car could start: Fernando Alonso finished just outside the points in 11th but Jenson Button’s MP4-30 could not go when it continued to suffer from terminal ERS problems that plagued the unlucky English former Champion all weekend. Still, things are looking better for McLaren and, much to my surprise, I think we can look for them to actually score points in the next Grand Prix in Spain. Such has been the remarkable improvement of the Honda-powered chassis since that dismal opening weekend in Australia.

Top 10 finishers in Bahrain here:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race weekend is May 8-10 in Barcelona, as F1 enters the meat of the season and returns to Europe. The cars should sport many small improvements so it will be interesting to see who has dialed it in right and who hasn’t. Hopefully Ferrari can continue to make impressive strides and keep Mercedes honest. It’s now clear that either Vettel or Raikkonen can handle Rosberg when push comes to shove. But trying to get by Hamilton is another matter entirely.