Bahrain Grand Prix:Hamilton wins as Raikkonen splits the Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton takes his third victory out of four races as Kimi Raikkonen finishes second to split the two Mercedes in an exciting finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

It was a pretty close encounter between Mercedes and Ferrari which began at the start of the race when Raikkonen overtook Rosberg to take up the third position. Rosberg was quick to respond back and take up the third position in a close neck and neck battle with the Finn. Vettel was running in second before Rosberg displayed some aggressive overtaking to take up second in the early part of the race. It was Rosberg at his finest, attacking at every possible corner, braking late and ultimately taking the position. Vettel and Ferrari perfected the undercut during the two pit stops by ending up ahead of Rosberg, but couldn’t hold their position as Rosberg was quick to overtake both the times.  The second time Vettel damaged his front wing by running wide in the last corner, thus giving the Mercedes and his team mate Kimi Raikkonen a clear advantage. Vettel had to pit again for a new nose, which ruined his race considerably. He then spent his entire race behind the Williams of Valtteri Bottas fighting for fourth position but was never able to do so.

It was a battle not only of sheer raw pace, but of strategies and mind games at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Ferrari with Raikkonen went on to Mediums at the first pit stop unlike the other who went on to Softs. While this seemed a questionable move initially as Ferrari kept Raikkonen out of pits for more laps than required, it gave Kimi the advantage of the faster rubber in the ending few laps. With the softs on, in his second pit stop, Kimi was nearly more than a second faster than the second running Nico Rosberg per lap. He was able to cover a gap of nearly 15s in the last 14 laps and took up second position. Nico in the end committed a small mistake to give up the second position by going wide, thus returning Ferrari, the favour made by Vettel earlier.

Daniel Ricciardo displayed immense luck today as his engine blew up just inches before the finishing line. He ended up finishing sixth, while his team mate ensured a double points finish for Red Bull, finishing ninth having started 16th.

Pastor Maldonado continued his share of poor luck. He was initially reprimanded for being out of position at the start of the race, with a time penalty. His race was ruined further when during his second pit stop, a lot of smoke started coming out of his brakes due to excessive heating. Maldonado was unto eighth position when he had troubles with his brakes. He eventually finished 15th. His team mate, Romain Grosjean had a pretty strong race, finishing seventh, staying out of any sort of trouble.

Perez took some important points for Force India finishing eight, while Nico Hulkenberg struggled at the end battling the two Saubers and ended up finishing 13th.

Felipe Massa couldn’t start his car before the warm up lap and hence had to start from the pits. He raced aggressively to finish tenth in the end and take the last championship point, having involved in incredible racing in the midfield with the Saubers and Force Indias.

The two Saubers of Nasr and Ericsson finished 12th and 14th respectively. Nasr was particularly very impressive during his battle with his country-man Felipe Massa, showing no signs of inexperience or immaturity. The Sauber is definitely fast, and is one of the top contenders in the mid field.

The McLarens had fixed fortunes. Jenson Button couldn’t start the race while Fernando Alonso was involved right up in the mid field battle, ending up finishing 11th. The car is considerably slower, and if not for Alonso’s incredible driving, McLaren would come nowhere near to such a high position.

Toro Rosso had a poor luck this time, with both of its drivers, Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr, having mechanical problems and couldn’t finish the race.Both the Manors managed to cross the race line with Will Stevens finishing 16th and Roberto Merhi 17th.

It was a pretty entertaining race, to be honest. The mid field comprising of Sauber, Toro Rosso, Force India, Red Bull and now even McLaren looks pretty packed and for each of these teams every single point finish will be incredibly crucial.

At the top, the Ferraris are right there with the Mercedes, it was clear from the race. Kimi beat Nico fair and square in terms of strategy and sheer pace. Had there been 3-4 laps more, Kimi might have posed problems to Lewis up front as well, who finished just 4s ahead of him.

The driver of the day has got to be Kimi for us. He showed immense maturity, pushing harder and harder when necessary and other wise running a smooth and calm race. The strategy worked, and ultimately he covered a gap of more than 14s in less than 14 laps from Nico.

Edited By Shuvam Kumar