Hamilton never troubled in Bahrain

Star of the race

The Bahrain Grand Prix looked spectacular under the lights, with a magnificent fireworks display to greet the winner, if only the race could have been equally spectacular, although there was enough to keep the average viewer interested. A lot of the consensus from the F1 media was that Nico Rosberg had done a lot this race to reassert himself in the title chase and had showed renewed vigour. Does this make him star of the race? No, he was still pretty comprehensively outshone by his team mate Lewis Hamilton. 

Kimi Raikkonen is my personal star, he drove superbly and perhaps with a tweak to the strategy might have been able to challenge for the win, although I find that doubtful. He had plenty of pace, although I feel he was rather mugged by Rosberg into turn one in the early stages after he'd grabbed third ahead of the Mercedes driver at the start.

As he was when he came back from his rally travels a few years ago, he showed relentless consistency of pace and after being out of pit stop sequence with the other leaders he clawed back the gap when he switched to soft tyres 17 laps from the end. 

He took advantage of Rosberg's failing brakes to move into second but even without that I think he might just have sneaked ahead. As Lewis' brakes went the same way, Kimi carved into the lead, another lap and it might have been a brilliant victory. It was a good race for Kimi, his first podium since 2013, his first race finishing ahead of Sebastian Vettel in 2015 and a reminder that there's more than one Ferrari driver who's going to give Mercedes a few headaches this year.

The winner

On any other day I'd have handed the star of the race to Hamilton but a Kimi podium has been a rarity and it was good to see the Ferrari driver get the result he's deserved this season. 

All the talk before the race had been of Ferrari providing a significant threat and even being touted as favourites to win ahead of the Mercedes cars.

However, Hamilton was in a class of one today, as he has been pretty much all the season so far. He scored a stunning pole position, he led the most laps from the start and pretty much cruised to the chequered flag even with the failing brakes I mentioned above.

The only hint of trouble was when Mercedes brought Rosberg into the pits first to cover off Vettel. It meant the duelling Rosberg and Vettel were right behind Lewis when the #44 Mercedes exited the pit lane. But Hamilton remained calm and gently pulled out a gap again. In truth he was never troubled, at the present moment he's got Rosberg firmly under the thumb.


The battles

As I've said a lot has been made of Rosberg's aggressive approach to the race today. To be fair, he sometimes does make a meal of getting past people but other times he's quite decisive. Today it was nearly ultra clumsy as he dived ahead of Kimi, nearly making contact, but the other moves he made on Vettel were fairly clinical DRS assisted moves he made look easy.

It did look awesome though, under the lights the sparks from the cars shone brightly and made these high powered machines appear all the more impressive for it. It's all very well passing Ferrari's but he couldn't get near his team mate even when given the opportunity after the first pit stops. 

Having said all that it was still a decent performance by Nico and although it might have been difficult to hold Kimi off, his late race brake problems certainly cost him a chance of defending from the Ferrari. A third was still a decent reward for his afternoons work.

Behind the top three Valtteri Bottas in the Williams took fourth after holding off Vettel for 20 laps. It was a fight Vettel never got too close to winning. In truth the Ferrari driver should have been several seconds up the road fighting for a podium. After a great qualifying he'd started second, but let Rosberg by too easily three times. He got ahead in each of the stops but couldn't hold the Mercedes back. 

He also had a hat-trick of off the road moments, the final time resulting in front wing damage which meant an extra pit stop that dropped him behind Bottas. It was probably a relief for the Finn who before had run a rather lonely race and might have been on the edge of falling asleep. Vettel later blamed his problems on failing to find a rhythm as the rear end of the car wasn't to his liking.

Other notable fights were the Saubers and Force India's mixing it up with each other and various other cars. Fernando Alonso's McLaren finished 11th after having some nice moments including unlapping himself from Kimi. The Toro Rosso's both retired after being off the pace in the race despite a top 10 grid slot from Carlos Sainz.

Felipe Massa launched a nice charge from the back of the grid after an electrical problem meant he couldn't start from his sixth placed grid slot. His tyres faded on a two stop strategy and he ended up with just tenth place. 

Sergio Perez in the Force India mixed it up nicely too on a two stopper to move ahead of many midfield three stoppers to come home eighth while his team mate Nico Hulkenberg tumbled from eighth to only 13th.  Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat took two points for ninth after starting 17th. Kvyat needs to step up a gear when F1 returns to Europe in three weeks.

Daniel Ricciardo in the lead Red Bull and Romain Grosjean in the Lotus were the last runners not to be lapped as they ran solitary races to finish sixth and seventh respectively. 

Things of note

When will something go right for Pastor Maldonado? He's quite capable of being a quick driver and scoring decent points but he's also brilliant at screwing up his weekends too. As his team mate Grosjean qualified in the top 10 again and scored points for a second consecutive race, Pastor failed to get out of Q2, drove through the pack only for this time to have a disastrous pit stop with smoke pouring from his brakes. 

Even when he's driving well something seems always to upset the number 13 car... But he should be making more of the car, his team are known to be getting a bit fed up with him but what can they do when he brings so much money to them.

McLaren are making progress as Alonso's 11th placed finish shows, but they also know they have a long way to go. Jenson Button completed just 17 laps all weekend and didn't even participate in qualifying or the race. I know the team are suffering problems and it's a building process with Honda but that is unacceptable, they're not Manor Marussia, they're a world championship winning team, they should be doing better.

Renault too need to up their game as Ricciardo crossed the line with smoke billowing from the rear of the car. It means it's pretty certain Ricciardo will have to suffer a penalty for using more units than is allowed. However, Renault promise upgrades, and Red Bull are bringing lots of new bits to the car for Spain, so lets hope to see them up near the top soon. 

Bernie Ecclestone was speaking to the BBC where he admitted he had not much time for Manor, the sport was too expensive but he knew what needed to be done. He also said he'd step away from the sport if that's what meant Audi would enter. It's said VW-Audi board chairman Ferdinand Piech has such disdain for Bernie he won't let any of their brands compete while he is involved in Formula 1. 

Over the weekend he also commented that we might lose the Italian Grand Prix and was again advocating a return to the redundant V8 engines. To me the only sensible thing he said was he'd leave if it meant Audi would enter the sport. Otherwise he again just comes across as out of touch. I don't think he has the power to do what he wants anymore, a lot of that is to do with CVC, the private equity firm Ecclestone himself sold the commercial rights to. He did a lot to build up the sport, but it's in an unfit state now. Time for someone to come in with a giant broom.

The title chase

Is there a title chase? I'm not so sure, at the moment there is definitely a title parade as current world champion Lewis Hamilton demonstrates his brilliance to the world. 

Rosberg may lie second in the points but he is already 27 points behind and hasn't beaten Hamilton all year and not really looked like coming close to it either.

One point further back is Sebastian Vettel who didn't have a great race, but if you were going to pick someone to give Lewis a run for his money, you'd go with the Ferrari driver. Even he though might have to share out the big points on occasion as Kimi Raikkonen continues to rediscover his mojo. 

Ferrari are not far behind, but although Kimi has promised there's more to come, it won't be as if Mercedes are standing still. They do still have an edge despite the Scuderia's step up this year.

As we are only on the fourth race of the season it is quite legitimate to say we still have a fight on our hands, but for how much longer will we have to pretend that is the case? One of Rosberg, Vettel or Kimi need to show Lewis they are a proper contender, starting at the next race and preferably by all three if this isn't going to turn into a cruise as Hamilton seeks his third title.

Result

1. Hamilton - Mercedes
2. Raikkonen - Ferrari
3. Rosberg - Mercedes
4. Bottas - Williams
5. Vettel - Ferrari
6. Ricciardo - Red Bull
7. Grosjean - Lotus
8. Perez - Force India
9. Kvyat - Red Bull
10. Massa - Williams
11. Alonso - McLaren
12. Nasr - Sauber
13. Hulkenberg - Force India
14. Ericsson - Sauber
15. Maldonado - Lotus
16. Stevens - Marussia
17. Merhi - Marussia
R. Verstappen - Toro Rosso
R. Sainz - Toro Rosso
DNS. Button - McLaren

all photo's taken from autosport.com