Once again, Mercedes won another Formula One race in the 2015 season as Lewis Hamilton comfortably won the 2015 Bahrain Grand Prix – but the winning margin was not as large due to some creative tire choice strategies from Ferrari that brought Kimi Raikkonen to a relatively close second after a late race brake problem for Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg allowed Raikkonen to pass Rosberg in the battle for the final two podium spots.
In what continues to be a two team race for podium spots between Ferrari and Mercedes, the race began with a 19-car grid after Honda McLaren’s Jenson Button was unable to start the race due to a failure of his hybrid power unit and right away Ferrari unveiled their tactic of going after Mercedes’ weakest link – namely, Rosberg – as both Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel attacked Rosberg on the opening turn and bracketed the Mercedes driver with Vettel taking the second spot behind Hamilton and Raikkonen going around Rosberg to claim third. The two Ferrari drivers teamed up to hold off Rosberg for a few laps before Rosberg finally passed Raikkonen and then Vettel, setting up the familiar Mercedes 1-2 and Ferrari 3-4 arrangement seen in previous races, but not before creating some gaps between themselves and Hamilton far out in front.
From there, it became another dual tire strategy race for Ferrari with Vettel electing to go for softer tires early and Raikkonen changing to harder tires on his first pit stop. Both moves paid off for Ferrari as Vettel came out of the pits ahead of Rosberg on both pit stops but also made driving errors on both occasions that allowed Rosberg to pass him. Ultimately, his final driving error sent him wide into gravel and into the pits to replace a damaged wing. That error cost Vettel a possible podium spot and dropped him to fifth behind Williams’ Valtteri Bottas. Meanwhile, Raikkonen’s strategy paid off handsomely as he not only claimed second place after Rosberg’s late race brake problem but was also closing in on Hamilton as Hamilton eased his way through his own brake issues.
In other race elements that could be classified as drama, Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado provided nearly all of them – first starting in Button’s vacated grid spot and incurring a five-second penalty, then going wide twice on the first lap, hitting Williams’ Felipe Massa on Lap 21 and finally, skidding into the pit lane on Lap 42 and nearly setting his brakes on fire – effectively knocking him down to 15th place where he only finished ahead of the two pathetic parade lap cars from Manor [the Team Formerly Known as Marussia]. Red Bull junior team Toro Rosso lost both of their cars as Carlos Sainz, Jr. exited the race in Lap 30 and Max Verstappen followed him six laps later while Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo barely made it past the finish line for sixth place after blowing his Renault engine on the final straightaway.
Hamilton leads the overall 2015 Formula One season standings with 93 points, followed by Rosberg with 66 and Vettel with 65.
The 2015 Formula One season continues with the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona at 5 a.m. [PDT] on NBCSN on May 10, 2015.
2015 Bahrain Grand Prix Results
57 laps – 192 miles
Driver Points Time Avg. mph
1 Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes 25 1:35:05.809 194.478
2 Kimi Raikkonen – Ferrari 18 +3.380 Sec 194.363
3 Nico Rosberg – Mercedes 15 +6.033 Sec 194.273
4 Valtteri Bottas – Williams 12 +42.957 Sec 193.025
5 Sebastian Vettel – Ferrari 10 +43.989 Sec 192.99
6 Daniel Ricciardo – Red Bull 8 +1:01.751 Sec 192.396
7 Romain Grosjean – Lotus 6 +1:24.763 Sec 191.631
8 Sergio Perez – Force India 4 – 191.011
9 Daniil Kvyat – Red Bull 2 – 190.77
10 Felipe Massa – Williams 1 – 190.566
11 Fernando Alonso – McLaren 0 – 190.434
12 Felipe Nasr – Sauber 0 – 190.397
13 Nico Hulkenberg – Force India 0 – 190.151
14 Marcus Ericsson – Sauber 0 – 190.113
15 Pastor Maldonado – Lotus 0 – 188.898
16 Will Stevens – Marussia 0 – 184.923
17 Roberto Merhi – Marussia 0 – 183.532
18 Max Verstappen – Toro Rosso 0 – 186.245
19 Carlos Sainz Jr. – Toro Rosso 0 – 188.112
20 Jenson Button – McLaren 0 – – DNS