Bahrain GP 2016: Rosberg wins, Hamilton third after start crash

Nico Rosberg won the 2016 Bahrain GP for Mercedes, finishing 10.282 seconds clear of Kimi Räikkönen in the Ferrari. Pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton came home third. The race was effectively decided at the first corner. Hamilton made a poor start and was taken out by Valtteri Bottas. Rosberg, by contrast, drove away unchallenged and also set the fastest lap.

At the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Rosberg claimed his second win in the second race of the season. Including his victories at the end of the 2015 season, that made it five in a row.

Trouble struck even before the start. Sebastian Vettel pulled over in his Ferrari on the formation lap. According to formula1.com's team review, the rear of the car was smoking and he lost power. Jolyon Palmer also failed to start. He peeled into the pits after the formation lap, the cause being a hydraulic problem. That left two cars missing from the grid, including the Ferrari from 3rd on the grid.

At the start, Hamilton got away badly from pole, and Rosberg swept past into the lead. Räikkönen also lost ground at the start. Bottas had made a good getaway from 6th on the grid and dived down the inside of Hamilton at Turn 1. The two made contact, the Mercedes half-spun and dropped to 9th place. Hamilton had damage to his front wing and floor. According to grandprix.com, it cost him around a second per lap. Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull was also caught up in the incident and lost parts of his front wing. Bottas received a drive-through penalty for the collision.

The big winner at the start was Felipe Massa. The Williams driver rocketed forward from 7th on the grid and briefly ran 2nd behind Rosberg. Further back, Nico Hülkenberg had to pit for a new front wing after just the first lap following contact.

Rosberg left nothing to chance at the front. He pulled away and always had an answer whenever Räikkönen closed in. The Finn worked his way back up to 2nd place after his botched start. He brought that position home, but never really threatened Rosberg.

Despite his damaged car, Hamilton launched a fightback. According to Wikipedia, he was already up to 4th place by lap 8 and also passed Ricciardo on lap 17. That put him 3rd. Mercedes pitted him on laps 13, 28 and 41. Thanks to his late final stop, he briefly led the race on lap 40. He then rejoined in third. In the closing stages, by his own account, he had to save his tyres in case of a Safety Car, but none came. At the flag, Hamilton was 30.148 seconds behind the winner.

Ricciardo stayed in the fight for the podium for a long time despite his damaged wing. In the end he finished fourth.

Pirelli brought the supersoft, soft and medium compounds to Bahrain. The front-runners stopped three times. Rosberg pitted on laps 13, 30 and 39, Räikkönen one or two laps earlier each time (12, 29 and 37). According to grandprix.com, Mercedes deliberately chose the safest rather than the fastest strategy for Rosberg. That way he would also have been covered in the event of a Safety Car.

Williams got their strategy wrong. Massa stopped only twice (laps 7 and 29), but his pace on the medium tyres was too weak. The cars on the softer compounds passed him one after another. Bottas lost additional time through his penalty. In the end, the Williams cars only finished 8th and 9th and were lapped.

It was a very different story for Romain Grosjean and the Haas F1 Team. Grosjean ran three stints on supersofts and the last on softs. That took him from 9th on the grid to 5th place, even though his final stop on lap 40 took longer. According to our data, he spent 30.1 seconds in the pit lane. Daniil Kvyat also benefited from a flexible strategy. By his own account, the team kept him out of traffic, and on fresh tyres he then moved forward. On the penultimate lap he also passed Massa and finished seventh.

• Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari): Engine failure on the formation lap; he did not start the race.
• Jolyon Palmer (Renault): Hydraulic problem; he did not start the race.
• Jenson Button (McLaren): Retired after 6 laps with a power unit failure. Button reported a loss of power, after which the car stopped.
• Esteban Gutiérrez (Haas F1 Team): Retired after 9 laps. He had a front brake problem, on the left front according to team principal Günther Steiner.
• Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso): Retired after 29 laps. Right at the start of the race, Sergio Pérez (Force India) ran into the back of him; Pérez himself spoke of lap 2. Sainz suffered a puncture, and both had to pit. Toro Rosso later called him in for good. Pérez was also out of the fight for points as a result and finished only 16th.

Winners of the day:

• Romain Grosjean: He went from 9th to 5th, a gain of four places. In only the second race of their history, he and Haas scored points for the second time.
• Max Verstappen: He climbed from 10th on the grid to 6th place, making him the best-placed Toro Rosso.
• Daniil Kvyat: He gained eight places, from 15th on the grid to 7th.
• Kevin Magnussen: According to our data, he gained the most places (11). He started from the pit lane, according to Wikipedia because he had failed to report to the weighbridge in qualifying. In eleventh, he narrowly missed out on the points.
• Stoffel Vandoorne: He stepped in at short notice for Fernando Alonso, who was not allowed to race after his heavy crash at the Australian GP. He beat Button in qualifying, and in the race he scored McLaren's first point of the season in tenth. According to AP, that made him the first stand-in driver since Sebastian Vettel in 2007 to score on his debut.

There was a small bright spot further down the field too. According to formula1.com, Pascal Wehrlein ran as high as 7th in the Manor Marussia at one point. In the end he was only 13th; according to Wehrlein, tyre wear forced a third stop.

Losers of the day:

• Ferrari: Vettel was out before the race had even started.
• Hamilton: From pole he could only manage 3rd place.
• Williams: Bottas lost three places, Massa one despite his dream start.
• Hülkenberg: Because of his early stop, he dropped from 8th on the grid to 15th. That was seven places lost, as many as Sainz lost.

Rosberg led the 2016 standings with the maximum haul of 50 points. Hamilton was 2nd on 33 points, already 17 points behind. Ricciardo was third on 24 points. Räikkönen and Grosjean followed with 18 points apiece. Vettel dropped to 6th place with 15 points. In the constructors' standings, Mercedes led comfortably on 83 points ahead of Ferrari (33) and Red Bull (30). Newcomers Haas were 5th with 18 points, ahead of Toro Rosso and Force India.

On the sidelines, the debate over the new elimination qualifying format also rumbled on. It had been heavily criticised after the season opener but was used once more in Bahrain. Sakhir revealed two things. Rosberg ruthlessly exploited every weakness of his team-mate, and Ferrari had the pace to run at the front but still had reliability problems. For Haas, a good debut turned into a genuine success story.