Lewis Hamilton wins his second 2014 F-1 race in a row as Mercedes dominate Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix in qualifying & race.
Mercedes dominate Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix in qualifying & race, Car 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes wins pole with team mate Car 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes in 2nd place and then finish the race 1 & 2. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes wins the Bahrain Grand Prix for the 1st time & for his 24th series win, he took the lead from outside pole on lap 1 in corner 1, his only competition was his team mate Nico Rosberg Mercedes in 2nd place. Car 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes was also on the podium in 3rd place; which is Force India-Mercedes’ 1st podium since 2009.
4th place Car 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault followed by Car 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes. 6th Place Car 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault was the only one who started the race with the harder compound (mediums) tires where everyone else were on the softer compound. One unexpected turn of events was Sebastian’s team asking him to let his team mate by because he was faster, so far 2014 will not be a cake walk for Red Bull Racing-Renault. 7th place Car 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes followed by 8th place Car 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes,
9th place Car 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari and finishing off in the points Car 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari in 10th place.
The incident that brought out the safety car was when Car 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault came out of the pits in corner 1 as Car 21 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari was entering the corner at the apex. Maldonado’s car managed to catch Gutierrez’s car on the side causing it to roll over, Gutierrez seemed to be ok as exited the car but you heard on the radio “What was that?” For the incident the stewards gave Maldonado a 10-second stop-go penalty & a subsequent five-place grid drop for the next race.
Mercedes chief said to both drivers on the radio “there are 10 laps left to race just to make sure we bring both cars home.”
The restart was exciting under the flood lights at Bahrain as all teams had fuel & tires for the end, so it was a wide open push for the win. One thing that was different in this race, it was a battle of team mates instead of teams for position with all the side by side racing. This must have been extremely intense pressure for Mercedes engineers as both cars were fighting it out in each corner, there were no real team orders with either car going for the win.
This was an exciting race to say the least as both Mercedes finished 1 & 2 and are 1 & 2 in the points with Car 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes having the 11 point lead from winning the 1st race of the season.
2014 F-1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix
Position, Car #, Driver, Team, Laps, Pts
1. Car 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2. Car 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes
3. Car 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes
4. Car 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault
5. Car 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes
6. Car 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault
7. Car 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes
8. Car 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes
9. Car 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari
10. Car 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari
11. Car 26 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault
12. Car 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault
13. Car 4 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari
14. Car 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault
15. Car 10 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault
16. Car 17 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari
17. Car 22 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes – Clutch
Ret. Car 20 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes – Clutch
Ret. Car 21 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari – Accident
Ret. Car 9 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault – Oil leak
Ret. Car 25 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault – Accident damage
Ret. Car 99 Adrian Sutil, Sauber-Ferrari – Accident
Next Race: April 18-20 2014 F-1 UBS CHINESE GRAND PRIX
Download The Results Below.