Nico Rosberg secured a comfortable victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix to take his second win in as many races this season, while Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton had to embark on another recovery drive after a first corner collision to finish third.

The Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen split the two Mercedes despite a poor getaway, while Sebastian Vettel failed make the start due to an engine problem. Raikkonen put up a spirited fight to move back through the field from fifth at the end of the first lap to second by the start of lap seven, finishing the race 10.2s shy of Rosberg. The Mercedes' lead never really came under threat, with Hamilton a further 19.8s down the road from Raikkonen in his crash-damaged Mercedes. The result gives Rosberg a 17-point advantage in the standings and his fifth victory in a row.

Rosberg made a strong start from second on the grid, while Hamilton's Mercedes made a slow getaway from pole position for the second race in a row. Hamilton positioned his car to follow his team-mate into Turn 1, but did not bank on the fast-starting Valtteri Bottas misjudging his braking. The ensuing collision saw Hamilton briefly slew sideways before falling down the order to eighth by Turn 4.

The No.44 Mercedes suffered significant damage in the accident, losing the turning vane on the sidepod, which exposed the crash structure underneath. Despite the damage, he stayed out on track and by lap eight had sought his revenge on Bottas, passing the Williams cleanly on the inside of Turn 1 for third place. Two laps later Bottas was hit with a drive-through penalty and went on to finish the race ninth.

Mercedes put Rosberg on a strategy of super-soft, soft, super-soft, soft, which saw his lead over Raikkonen, who was on in identical strategy, fluctuate but never come under threat. After the final pit stop the gap stood at 4.6s, but despite the Ferrari pit wall encouraging Raikkonen to go for victory, Rosberg extended his advantage over the remaining 18 laps. Hamilton adopted a different strategy in the hope of a safety car, putting medium tyres on at his first stop, but it soon became clear it was the wrong compound and his strategy later came in line with Rosberg and Raikkonen in the final two stints.

Outside the top three, star performers included Daniel Ricciardo, who finished fourth despite damaging his front wing at the start, and Romain Grosjean, who improved on Haas' impressive debut to finish fifth in just the second race for the American team.

Grosjean's success was based on strong start from seventh on the grid and staying out of trouble as chaos ensued all around in the opening laps. An inspired and unique strategy to stay on the super-soft tyres in the first three stints saw him battle his way up to fifth by the finish, holding off Max Verstappen by 2.6s at the chequered flag. Verstappen was also on an alternative strategy in the Toro Rosso, moving up from tenth on the grid to sixth with a long third stint on the medium compound.

Daniil Kvyat pulled off an impressive recovery drive from 15th on the grid to seventh, underlining the pace of the Red Bull, and finishing ahead of both Williams, whose faith in the medium tyres in their second and third stints failed to pay off.

In tenth, Stoffel Vandoorne made an outstanding debut as he stood in for the injured Fernando Alonso, scoring McLaren's first point of the 2016 season. However, comparisons with team-mate Jenson Button were cut short on lap seven, when the No.22 McLaren-Honda retired.

Source:
courtesy of ESPN

by Laurence Edmondson

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