Reigning Champion Lewis Hamilton scored his first win at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Manama, Round 2 of the Formula 1 World Championships. Ir was Hamilton’s third win at the desert track. Team mate Valtteri Bottas came home second, and together with Hamilton, claimed Mercedes’ 1000th point in F1. With second place, Bottas continues to lead the drivers standings with 44 points, just a point up on Hamilton.
Ferrari’s rookie Charles LeClerc who took his very pole on Saturday controlled the race from the start, but an engine issue would force a more careful drive and nearly cost him a podium spot. He would finish behind the Mercedes cars.
In the Constructors, no one could touch Mercedes with 87 points. Ferrari is closest with 48 points.
Mercedes cars didn’t have the best of starts as they started from row 2. The front group were the Ferraris, Mercedes and a Red Bull. Vettel led from Bottas and LeClerc at the start. It was a Ferrari 1 – 2 moments later as LeClerc jumped ahead After the stop, Mercedes cars took the top spot from the Ferraris and never looked back.
Bad news came when LeClerc’s car had an engine fault and couldn’t go max speed on the straights, during the most critical stage of the race. He struggled to keep the car in place but drifted further and further away from the Mercedes cars. Verstappen closed in for the bite in the last laps, but a safety car period due to the stranded Renaults at the end of the race saved LeClerc’s podium spot as Verstappen had clamped him down for the third spot. Vettel, too, had a disappointing race after losing positions and ended up fifth.
Lando Norris took sixth from Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen The second Red Bull of Pierre Gasly was eighth, followed by Alexander Albon, ninth, and Sergio Perez, tenth.
Qualifying for the second round of the Formula One World Championships again saw the Mercedes cars of Reigning Champion Lewis Hamiltona and Nico Rosberg take charge. The Mercedes duo bettered the Ferrari duo of Sebastien Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in another wild goose chase qualifier on the desert circuit. In the end, Hamilton finished less than a hundredth of a second from Rosberg for the pole, 0.077s to be exact.
It’s win number 3 for Lewis Hamilton as he stomped his way from pole to the chequered flag, relatively unchallenged. Kimi Raikkonen finished second, ahead of the second Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, to secure his first podium since his return to the Prancing Horse squad.
The Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix, the fourth race race of the season was an exciting one with Reigning Champion Sebastian Vettel dominating it from nearly start to finish. The two Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean finished second and third behind the Red Bull triple F1 Champion for the first Lotus double podium of the year. Fourth place was Paul di Resta who scored the highest finish for Force India, and fifth place went to Lewis Hamilton.
Qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix, Round 4 of the Formula One World Championships saw another Mercedes AMG F1 Team driver lead the session.