2014 Bahrain Grand Prix - Race Report: Hamilton victorious, 900th Grand Prix one to remember

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2014 Bahrain Grand Prix - Race Report: Hamilton victorious, 900th Grand Prix one to remember

Published on 06 Apr 2014 18:45
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By: Danny Sosef

Lewis Hamilton has won the Bahrain Grand Prix. In an exciting battle with team mate Nico Rosberg, Mercedes dominated the whole race. Sergio Perez finished a fantastic third for Force India.

Mercedes
Where do we start with Mercedes? From the word go, the two silver arrows were wheel to wheel, battling for the victory but only one could take it. The battle really heated up around lap 17-18 with Rosberg trying to get past Hamilton after the Brit beat his team-mate of the line at the start but then the action settled down. After the safety car had bunched the pack up, the Mercedes left the rest of the field behind and started where they left off before when they were racing wheel to wheel. There were DRS passes, under cuts, the works but Hamilton was able to hold Rosberg, who was on the soft (option) tyres, off when the 2008 world champion was on the medium (prime) tyres, to go on to win his 24th victory of his career.

Force India
Great race for Force India with plenty of overtakes and battles. They were there at the top end of the field for the whole race, battling with the Ferrari's, Red Bull's, Williams' and McLaren's. Hulkenberg at the end of the Grand Prix was overtaken by Daniel Ricciardo but was able to hold of reigning world champion, Sebastian Vettel. Perez was doing brilliant overtakes coming out of Turn 4 and this helped him to third place but in the closing stages of the race, Ricciardo was closing him down lap by lap but ran out of laps. This gave Force India their second ever podium in F1 and Perez's fourth.

McLaren
After both cars were running well and in the points, Magnussen stopped on the straight out of Turn 10 down to Turn 11, whilst the safety car was out. Then Button at the restart after the safety car went back in, lost a handful of places and eventually retired the car from the 2009 world champion's 250th race. Going by the pace the MP4-29 had, they might have been able to beat both Ferrari’s for the final few points.

Red Bull
Red Bull had a good race today with both cars finishing in strong points paying positions. Daniel Ricciardo beat Sebastian Vettel and earlier on in the race, Vettel was told to let Ricciardo through in which he did at Turn 11. Ricciardo finally got points to his name for this season and hopefully gets to keep them this time. Vettel added to his 18 points which he had at the start of the race. Red Bull showed good pace today and if they can get their power up, then they will be able to challenge the Mercedes' at the front.

Ferrari
Ferrari had a dreadful day but still scored points. Both cars were passed on a number of times by the Force India's and other teams as well. Alonso complained saying he had no power but scoring just three points altogether from this weekend's Grand Prix, Ferrari are struggling and need to do something now in order to keep up with the teams in front of them.

Williams
Williams would have hoped for a better result but can be still pleased with 7th and 8th, with both cars in the points. Both cars were running 3rd and 4th in the early stages of the race but dropped down. At the end of the race, Massa was challenging Vettel for 6th but couldn't quite make his move stick, after he passed the four time world champion into Turn 1 but Vettel re-passed the Brazilian at Turn 4.

Toro Rosso
Toro Rosso had quite a quiet race today with Jean-Eric Vergne out after a puncture from contact with the Lotus of Maldonado. Daniil Kvyat was running at the tail end of the points scoring positions in the early stages of the Grand Prix but dropped back and finished 11, just outside the points but another impressive race by the rookie, who was competing in his third race of his Formula 1 career.

Lotus
Grosjean was able to finish the race in 12th, which isn't bad compared with how they did the last time they were here in winter testing, when they couldn't even do a single lap some days. Maldonado made contact with the Toro Rosso of Vergne in the early stages of the race but then when he came out of the pit lane later on in the race, Gutierrez in the Sauber went to turn in and Maldonado went into the side of the Mexican and Gutierrez rolled over. This then was investigated and resulted in the Venezuelan being given a 10 second stop go penalty.

Sauber
Both cars retired from the race today, with Sutil making contact with Jules Bianchi and then retired from the race. Gutierrez's retirement was a bit more spectacular after the Mexican went to turn in to Turn 1 and Maldonado went into the side of the Mexican and caused the Sauber to barrel roll. Gutierrez was ok but wanted to know what happened, when he radioed the team.

Marussia
Marussia also had a quiet race. Chilton finished 13th, which puts the team 10th in the constructors championship and crucially in front of Caterham. Bianchi had some contact with Sutil in the Sauber earlier on in the race but this didn't cause any damage to the Marussia. Both cars made it to the finish and this will give the team some positives.

Caterham
Not a great race for the Caterham team, with the team moving down to 11th in the constructors championship and one of their cars retiring. Marcus Ericsson stopped at the final corner and retired the car but Kamui Kobayashi finished the race in 15th place.

Mattie Noble
F1 Editor

F1 News Daniel Ricciardo Daniil Kvyat Lewis Hamilton Nico Rosberg Sebastian Vettel Marcus Ericsson Sergio Perez Ferrari Lotus F1 Mercedes Sauber Williams McLaren Force India Marussia