Do you all remember, this time last week when so many people jumped up on their nearest soap-box proclaiming that this new F1 is boring and a failure... I like to try and see someone try and make that argument after seeing that race. Last year the Bahrain GP was one of the few highlights in a generally unimpressive season, featuring the internal battle at McLaren at the time - this time around the race was a carbon copy of that event... on steroids. When we saw that Mercedes had an all conquering car with a huge advantage - connotations of the Vettel dominance were initially brought to the fore, today proved beyond all reproach that it won't be quite so one sided. Team-mates were within millimetres from wiping each other out of the race yet managed to give each other just enough room - even in a contest right at the head of the field.
From one extreme to the other in comparison to the Malaysian GP, those 57 laps in the darkness were a veritable buffet of overtaking... and overturning. It was a good day for so many and a terrible day for others - and one where we question whether it really was a good idea to give Maldonado a car capable of running in the vicinity of anyone else. The Venezuelan was accused of 'trying to kill' Vergne and testing Esteban Gutierrez's gymnastic abilities.
The Race
At the start of the day we knew the battle out front was going to be intense as Hamilton stole the lead from Rosberg by the time the field made the apex of turn one. Massa cleaved through the field with a blistering start, much to the surprise of Bottas who suddenly found his team-mate very close in the first corner. Having seen the GP2 support races, where in each instance the pole-sitter lost ground, seeing Hamilton lead lap one was no great surprise. Further back Magnussen attempted an impossible move on the inside of Raikkonen, clipping the Ferrari for the second successive race, even further back an incident off camera saw Maldonado make contact with Jean-Eric Vergne. The Frenchman dropped to last with a shredded rear tyre, and was less than complimentary about Pastor's driving claiming he was crazy, mental and trying to kill him... can't imagine the Venezuelan would be friends with Gutierrez either, but more on that later.
For the moment the two Mercedes drivers were playing nice, so we take a look back at how Ferrari's day was going, and as it turned out it wasn't going very well - Hulkenberg was able to breeze past Alonso on the main straight. The red cars had a severe straight line speed deficit and had no defence to the anything with a Mercedes engine.In fact everyone was having difficulties keeping in touch with anything powered by the German engines - out of the 8 cars with the superior unit seven of them were running at the front of field, only Magnussen was a few places back. In some eerie reverse foreshadowing towards the back of the field Pastor Maldonado passed a Sauber without contact... lightning doesn't really strike twice.
Speaking of Saubers, Bianchi was having difficulties with the one containing Adrian Sutil who was out of position due to an early stop. To start off with Sutil had his second episode of push and shove of the weekend and served Jules off the track on the exit of turn four rather forcefully. But Bianchi wouldn't take that lying down and went back on the offensive, launching the car down inside of turn one - locking up and crashing into the side of the Sauber. Sutil was forced to retire due to the accident and Bianchi was given a drive through penalty for his involvement in the latter part of the tussle.
After the earliest round of pit-stops it was two by two throughout most of the top ten - Mercedes, Williams, Force India leading the way for those with Mercedes power. The top two hadn't stopped and had closed up on each other again - and the battle royale resumed - Nico had a lunge in turn one and stole the lead, Lewis issued almost immediate payback cutting back inside the German almost making contact in the process. Rosberg made another attempt in turn four and was forced wide on the exit again. On the next lap Nico launched another attack, a more successful one which saw him lead the race for all of four corners before being re-passed. This titanic struggle was interrupted when Hamilton came in for some new tyres.
Behind the Mercedes team, there was overtaking everywhere - mostly against Ferrari's Bottas for example was so much quicker than Raikkonen in a straight line he almost put the Williams in the wall avoiding it at the end of the main straight. In a role reversal of Malaysia Bottas now found himself under pressure from Massa - and this time no team orders were sent down the radio system, but as the duo fought for an advantage the two Force India's running in formation closed in. Adopting an attack strategy that proved successful for the Renault Squadron when they existed - and one that paid off for Perez in this case. Sergio watched Hulkenberg try and pass Massa and picked an opportunity to capitalise on his team-mate being distracted to take the position. Perez then repeated the same move to the inside of the high speed turn five against Massa, to claim the highest place achievable for a non-Mercedes car in 3rd. Meanwhile Ferrari were losing more places as Vettel, in a car known for being slower in a straight line drove past Raikkonen with ease.
Those running the three stop strategy came in for their second stop which shuffled the pack once more, which merged Williams with Red Bull, and Hulkenberg appeared behind Raikkonen and the second Red bull of Vettel. Within three corners the Hulk dispatched two world champions to get back on terms with Perez in the other Force India in the battle for third place. Bottas had to re-pass Raikkonen - everyone was passing Ferraris today - and then followed that up with a pass on Ricciardo. The Australian had also just been allowed past Vettel by team instruction a few laps earlier, and here was everyone thinking that Ricciardo would be a distant number two in the Red Bull team, it certainly wasn't playing out that way.
Miles out in the lead, Hamilton and Rosberg were now on alternate strategies, running the opposite tyre compounds - which allowed a gap to form between the pairing, as entralling as the Williams and Force India battles were... and they were. The lead battle had calmed down a little - so we needed an intervention, something like a safety car. But with massive amounts of run off and space in Bahrain safety cars are very unlikely - only one instance in the nine previous runnings of the race. It would take something pretty mental. Mental just happens to be Pastor Maldonado's speciality. So in one of his biggest acts of complete lunacy the Lotus driver exited pit-lane and drove straight into the rear wheel of Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber. Gutierrez was flipped up and over in quite a violent roll. The slow motion replay made Esteban's flight look quite graceful and he did land the right way up, but it is another example of Maldonado losing the plot. We did however get our safety car. And Gutierrez merely commented on team radio "Wow, what was that" before getting out of his ruined Sauber under his own power.
Several laps later, after Pastor had the book justifiably thrown at him, we had a restart and an already marvellous race shifted up at least three gears. Rosberg now on the softs attacked Hamilton immediately, behind them Perez pounced on Hulkenberg almost taking both Force India's off in turn one. The safety car also brought the Red Bull's to life - Ricciardo was on an immense charge and both Red Bull's mugged Jenson Button with ease. McLaren had already lost Magnussen under the safety car due to a mechanical failure, and Jenson's car seemed to be on it's last legs, as both Williams cars found it equally easy to dispatch the struggling McLaren.
Within a couple of laps, Mercedes had a six second lead and once more paid more attention to fighting each other, for about three laps Nico consistently threw the car down the inside of turn one but couldn't hold a tight enough line to retain the position. Hamilton then defended his lead on the run up to turn four and aggressively, but fairly, left no room for Rosberg to go round the outside at the top of the hill. A huge battle for the lead wasn't enough, Ricciardo was aiming for a podium, and his first obstacle was multiple world champion and team-mate - Vettel. Daniel was squeezed towards the wall on the pit straight as he made his way past but was determined to prove he was more than a match for the German bloke. His next target was Hulkenberg in the first of the Force India's holding onto 4th place.
Only four laps to go and Rosberg was throwing everything at Hamilton and was denied on every effort, how clever and forceful car placement the only thing keeping the German at bay. Ricciardo was having a similar problem with Hulkenberg - the Force India was too fast in a straight line for the Red Bull to overtake, but Daniel was better in the corners and made the pass stick round the outside of turn 11. Only one more car between him and the podium position, and Ricciardo was comfortably faster than the second Force India that held that all important position.
Sadly before anymore battles could reach their conclusion we ran out of laps - Rosberg's tyres lost their edge and couldn't wrestle the victory away from Hamilton. Likewise Perez was able to hold on to that final podium spot as Ricciardo pulled to within half a second of the Mexican in fourth. Hulkenberg brought his Force India home in 5th place, holding off Vettel who ended the race hampered by more technical gremlins. After having a very strong opening half of the race, Williams finished 7th and 8th - Massa in front - after the safety car compromised their strategy. Ferrari had ran out of cars to lose positions to and rounded out the points in 9th and 10th just keeping Kvyat's death stare out of the points this time.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
Where do I even begin with a race like that, so much overtaking and so much action throughout the race which was only intensified after the safety car intervention, so here are the points winners from today:
25pts - Sergio Perez - Many, many great passes and precision cutting through the field and reminding Hulkenberg that he can compete with his highly rated team-mate
18pts - Daniel Ricciardo - From 13th to 4th while coping with a straight line speed deficit to those around him
15pts - Hamilton/Rosberg - Have to have many points each for truly epic wheel to wheel racing without making any contact
12pts - Esteban Gutierrez - Landed the flip and walked away from one of the least gentle roll overs of recent times
10pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Almost had the podium spot despite not making it into Q3
8pts - Felipe Massa - For an astonishing start slicing through the field as if it didn't exist
6pts - Max Chilton - Still manages to finish in a chaotic race and moves Marussia ahead of Caherham
4pts - Valtteri Bottas - Excellent avoidance skills keeping it out of the wall and missing Raikkonen
2pts -Lotus - Their first double finish of the season, and for building a sturdy car too
1pt - Martin Brundle - For noticing from the damage to Gutierrez's car that it had been over before seeing the replay, didn't spot that one from here in Blog HQ
The Penalty Points Championship
When a race is that good there are fewer opportunities to issue some penalty points because most people should be applauded for racing fairly and without contact... but there are some exceptions:
- Adrian Sutil - Has to have a point for forcibly bumping Bianchi off, before Jules repaid the favour in turn one
- Pastor Maldonado - I know the FIA have imposed their sanctions on the wayward Lotus already but Blog HQ needs to had over a penalty point for his latest infraction. Yuji Ide disappeared from the sport after causing a similar accident at imola in 2006 when he flipped Cristjan Albers' Midland car.
Looking ahead to China
Well, you have a really tough act to follow Shanghai after that one, but I can't see that challenge been fulfilled, because the Chinese GP has a lot in common with the Malaysian GP - and we all know how much fun that was. However in recent years tyre strategy has turned the tables on that prognosis and delivered some brilliant racing - Webber's 18th to 3rd place charge being a key example. Also because we're away from the desert there is always a chance that the weather can return to play a part in the proceedings. This new F1 isn't half bad now is it?
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