With his third win in four races, Lewis Hamilton edged further ahead of his Mercedes team-mate in the championship. But third place for Nico Rosberg in Bahrain gives a false impression.
Scarred by recent defeats at the hands of Hamilton, Rosberg looked to be on the back foot once more when a tactical error during qualifying saw him third on the grid, the Mercedes pair split by Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari.
It got worse when an attempt to get by the Ferrari at the first corner turned sour on Rosberg when he became trapped behind Vettel and the other Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen then demoted Rosberg to fourth. If anything, this fired Rosberg’s determination even more and he dispatched both Ferraris with demon out-braking moves on laps four and eight.
By now, Hamilton was six seconds in the lead and appearing, as has become familiar in 2015, to have everything under control. Any thoughts Rosberg might have had about attacking his team-mate were influenced by the close presence of Vettel, the unknown going into this race being whether or not Ferrari could make their tyres last longer than Mercedes.
Ferrari then threw a curve ball by bringing Vettel in for his first change of tyres, forcing Mercedes to do the same with Rosberg even though Hamilton should have stopped first. The value of stopping first – the so-called undercut – was shown when Vettel’s fast lap on fresh tyres was quick enough to have the Ferrari retake second place as Rosberg rejoined.
It was demonstrated even more dramatically at the end of the following lap as Hamilton emerged from his stop – and almost had Rosberg pile into the back of him as the German pulled off a late-braking move into the first corner to take second place back from Vettel. A startled Hamilton was prompted to ask: “What happened to my [six second] lead?”
Undaunted, Hamilton began the process all over again, gradually easing out a couple of tenths of a second each lap on Rosberg. Meanwhile Raikkonen, the last of the leaders to stop, had gone against popular opinion by opting to run the Medium tyre for his middle stint. To everyone’s surprise, the harder tyre produced competitive lap times as the track temperature continued to fall during the evening race.
At the second and final round of stops, Ferrari repeated their earlier move by bringing Vettel in first and leap-frogging him ahead of Rosberg. This time, the four-time champion made it easier for Rosberg by running wide and damaging his nose wing in the process. Not only did this let Rosberg back to second but Räikkönen was third – and about to start his final stint on the softer tyre at the point when the Mercedes drivers would be running the harder Medium (as demanded by the regulations).
Slowly but surely, the Ferrari began to reel in the leaders, Raikkonen having full view of the Mercedes pair as he entered the pit straight. A quick lap from Hamilton with six to go allowed him to leave Rosberg prey to Räikkönen’s attack. Whether or not he could have held him off remained unanswered when, with one lap to go, a fault with the brake-by-wire system sent Rosberg wide at the first corner and allowed Räikkönen to celebrate his first podium since 2013 by finishing second, Hamilton winning by 3,8 seconds.
Of the rest, Valtteri Bottas felt fourth was as good as Williams-Mercedes were likely to get given that Vettel’s pit stop for a new nose had dropped him to fifth. Daniel Ricciardo finished sixth – just! As the Red Bull crossed the line, his Renault V6 blew up in a major way, the third such failure for the Australian during four race weekends, showing Renault continue to be a long way off solving their problems.
There is a three-week break as the F1 teams return to base and prepare for the start of the European season in Spain. Mercedes continue to hold sway but Ferrari are ready to pounce given the slightest hesitation. And, despite the 27-point deficit to Hamilton, Rosberg has not given up on the fight with his team-mate.
“Yeah, I’m a bit disappointed, losing second at the end,” said Rosberg. “The brake pedal just went to the floor. Other than that, it was very exciting to pass those red cars like that and then chasing down Lewis. We were similar on pace and I did my best. It’s not over yet. Not by a long way.”