Bahrain would hold the second round of the FIA Formula One World Championship, the twelfth time the Bahrain International Circuit has hosted the championship. After the ups and downs of the first round, there were many drivers trying to prove themselves after the last race. The question was: 'Could Ferrari beat Mercedes?'. PracticeFree Practice 1 began at 14:00 and the daylight. The track was cooler then normal meaning that the data the teams would collect could related to the race due to similar track temperatures. Carrying on from his race victory in Australia, Nice Rosberg set the pace with a 1:32.294, just over half a second in front of him team mate Lewis Hamilton. Kimi Raikkonen who ranks this circuit as one of his favourite and was quoted during the build up to the weekend saying that he could have won last years race. He would be hoping for another repeat performance. The rest of the grid was some two seconds slower then Rosberg with Australian Daniel Ricciardo heading the rest of the field. After a good solid fourth place last time out he seemed to be on track for another good finish. Further down the field Pascal Wehrlein impressed with a 1:36.371 which was good enough for 1th and some one and a half seconds in front of his team mate. Now the big talking point of the whole weekend had been that Fernando Alonso would not be racing in Bahrain having failed a medical test. It was announced that he had a cracked rib and so McLaren reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne took his place and finished a respectable 18th. Second Practice was the first under the floodlights and the cars looked sensational. It was a very similar affair with Rosberg and Hamilton snatching the top two positions Rosberg on a 1:31.001 and Hamilton on a 1:31.242. A surprise third position was for Brit Jenson Button in his McLaren-Honda. He some 1.280s slower then Nico Rosberg but still a massive improvement for the Woking team. Max Verstappen showed his pace off with a solid fourth place just in front of the two Ferrari drivers - Raikkonen leading Vettel. It was a better session for new boy Vandoorne he finished 11th only 0.7s behind his far more experienced team mate. Haas were looking a little disappointing as neither driver managed to break into the top 10 along with the two Force India's. The final practice occured on Saturday afternoon at 15:00 in similar conditions to the first practice. It was a change at the top however with Sebastian Vettel leading Kimi Raikkonen separated by just 0.040s. It should be noted however that Vettel's time of a 1:31.683 was over half a second slower then what Rosberg had achieved in second practice. It seems like Mercedes with either trying a different setup or had fuelled their cars heavily. Roman Grosjean showed the performance of the Haas in a solid sixth place with his team mate not far behind in eighth. The two McLaren drivers were 12th and 13th some way off the pace they had demonstrated the day before. It seemed like this was not going to be a weekend for Force India with both drivers finishing near the bottom of the order in 18th and 19th. Qualifying So it was all to play for Q1 and so began the first session. First to get eliminated was Sauber's Felipe Nasr on a 1:34.388 with Rio Haryanto next up to leave the session. Both Lotus' then departed, a disappointing end as they had shown pace in the first race two weeks ago and a shock exit from Sergio Perez. The star of the show had to be Manor's Pascal Wehrlein he managed to out-qualify them all for 16th place on the grid with a 1:32.806, a great time by the German and is certainly cementing his future in Formula 1. Expect him to be snatched up by a big team in a year or two. With Q2 under way it was Red Bull's Daniil Kyvat who was first to go. The Russian has certainly been outshone by his team mate so far and he will be hoping to make his way into the top ten during the race. Fourteenth was Jenson Button despite looking strong in FP2. It also meant he was out-qualified by his rookie team mate, Stoffel Vandoorne who was 12th and Gutierrez 13th. First of the Toro Rosso's was Carlos Sainz in 11th, some 0.046 behind his team mate Max Verstappen. Haas' Roman Grosjean finished 9th, another impressive performance from the Frenchman. Now to the final part - Q3. Nico Hulkenberg was first out followed by the two Williams' drivers Massa followed by Bottas. Daniel Riccardo, showing up his team mate was 5th then the two Ferrari's of Raikkonen and Vettel. This as usual left the two Mercedes but it was Lewis who finished on top with an incredible lap of 1:29.493, a new record and the first time a V6 hybrid has broken a lap record. His team mate Rosberg was some 0.077 shy of this. There was however some panic after qualifying when Hamilton was called to the stewards after he was found to have reversed in the pitlane. Luckily for Lewis fans, he kept his pole and was given a reprimand. Race DayOn to race day and since Hamiltons little scare after qualifying nothing had changed. Kevin Magnussen would start from the pit lane after failing to stop for a mandatory weight check. And with that it was time for the parade lap and for two drivers it was the only lap they would start. Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari decided now was the right time to fail and four time World Champion pulled off before even reaching the end of the lap. A disaster for Ferrari who hadn't failed to make it to the grid from a parade lap since 1996. Renaults Jolyon Palmer also had issues and pitted at the end of the warm up lap. With the cars now lined up and ready to go, the green flag is waved and the lights come on; 1...2...3...4...5...Go! It was a great start by Nico Rosberg. Hamilton doesn't have a great start but not quite as bad as Kimi Raikkonen. Bottas from the third row has a good start too, probably down to that Vettel sized gap he had in front of him. As we enter the first corner, Bottas and Hamilton collide causing the Mercedes driver to lose several places and damages his barge board. Bottas seemingly gets away with no damage but is later given a drive through penalty by the race stewards. Nico Rosberg pulls away from the rest of the field with Raikkonen taking up second, a position he'd hold for the entire race. A number of cars collided on the first lap including Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz who seemed to have been hit by Sergio Perez. Sainz subsequently pitted with a rear puncture and lost a lot of time coming out last and stayed there until he retired the car. Hamilton began working his way past cars - his damaged car not seeming to effect him. Jenson Button not long after with an engine issue. The former world champion was later quoted saying that he could have finished firth or sixth. Ricciardo was in a solid fourth place and Roman Grosjean was working his way up the field to seventh with his team mate just behind him. Both Williams were strong in the first stint with Massa and Bottas in third and fourth but slowly dropped down the standings. After the first round of pit stops it was Hamilton he came out best having taking third place and seemingly seemed on an aggressive strategy to attempt to take second off the flying Finn. Manor Racing's rookie driver, Pascal Wehrlein was the driver to watch as he battled on the fringes of the top 10 with the Sauber's and Force India's carrying on his promising start to Formula One. Another promising start was for McLaren reserve driver, Stoffel Vandoorne who was residing in the top ten and showing good pace despite this being his first ever Grand Prix. Most teams did a 3 stop race with the top teams running Soft-Soft-Medium-Medium or Soft-Soft-Soft-Medium depending on how aggresive they were being. Most of results stayed the same, though it was Frenchman Roman Grosjean who climbed the positions late in the race to finish a stunning fifth and also the Driver of the day award again. Results
Join us in two weeks time for the Chinese Grand Prix from Shanghai.
Photo source: topgear.com
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