Bahrain Grand Prix 2016: Winners and Losers from Sakhir Race
Nico Rosberg claimed his second victory of the 2016 Formula One season in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix at the Sakhir circuit.
After starting from second on the grid, the German moved into the lead at the first corner and led almost throughout, claiming his fifth win in succession and extending his early lead at the top of the drivers' championship.
The trials and tribulations endured by Lewis Hamilton, whom Valtteri Bottas hit at the first corner, and Sebastian Vettel, who failed to even start the race, made Rosberg's evening easier than it might otherwise have been, with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen emerging as the Mercedes driver's biggest threat in the desert.
On a day Romain Grosjean continued Haas' strong start to life in F1 and McLaren-Honda's Stoffel Vandoorne became the latest driver to score a point on debut, here are the main winners and losers from Bahrain.
Winner: Nico Rosberg
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At the end of qualifying, the bad memories of 2015 may have been flooding back to Rosberg.
The German had been quicker than Mercedes team-mate Hamilton in all three practice sessions in Bahrain, and he carried that advantage into the early stages of qualifying.
Yet when it really mattered, on the final run of Q3, it was Hamilton on pole position by the tiniest of margins—0.077 seconds to be precise—and Rosberg, ever the bridesmaid, was forced to settle for second.
Again.
Although he assured the FIA press conference that Sakhir is "one of the tracks where pole counts least," his fidgety demeanour and struggle to disguise his disappointment appeared to tell a different story.
But even after two races, it is clear that this year's Nico Rosberg is different than last year's Nico Rosberg, and while his rivals were caught up in dramas in the early stages of the grand prix, the German—much like in Australia—kept things neat and tidy.
Vettel's engine failure on the formation lap eased the pressure on the Mercedes drivers at the start, and for the second race in succession, it was Rosberg who had a superior getaway, moving clear of Hamilton before the braking zone of Turn 1.
From the moment his team-mate was nudged by Valtteri Bottas at the first corner, the grand prix was Rosberg's to lose. And he managed the pace superbly, winning the race at the slowest possible speed in an Alain Prost-esque manner.
A decade after setting the fastest lap on his F1 debut in Bahrain, Rosberg extended his career-best winning streak to five and extended his points lead to 17.
Loser: Sebastian Vettel
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With victories in 2012 and '13, Sebastian Vettel is among the most successful drivers in the history of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
But since his move to Ferrari at the beginning of 2015, the Sakhir circuit has become something of a bogey track for the four-time world champion.
Vettel entered last year's race as the favourite to take the fight to the all-conquering Mercedes drivers, yet he produced what remains his worst performance for the Prancing Horse, running off the track on several occasions en route to a distant fifth-place finish.
Following his impressive performance in Australia, where he led the opening phase of the race and may have won were it not for his team's strategic error, the German was again regarded as the one to watch at this weekend's race.
After the Ferrari drivers' impressive getaways at Albert Park, the start was bound to be all-important, yet Vettel was unable to even to make it to the grid after smoke bellowed from his car on the back straight during the formation lap, leaving him with no option but to pull to the side of the track.
Although he was unable to participate in the race himself, Vettel was clearly eager to play at least some part in any Ferrari success. Television pictures showed the four-time world champion consulting the pit wall soon after his retirement and later chatting with Mark Arnall, Raikkonen's physiotherapist, in the Ferrari garage.
His absence from the track, however, not only harmed the spectacle of the race but his championship prospects, with Vettel already 35 points adrift of Rosberg after two rounds.
Winner: Kimi Raikkonen
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While Sakhir is fast becoming a bogey venue for Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen has often excelled in Bahrain, claiming seven top-three finishes in his 10 previous appearances at the track.
The 2007 world champion's chances of increasing that tally to eight in 11 were remote at the start, when a fortnight after vaulting from fourth to second he lost a number of positions—adding insult to injury after his team-mate's engine failure.
But Raikkonen recovered strongly to emerge as the only semi-serious threat to NicoRosberg in the latter stages, ultimately finishing 10 seconds behind the race winner in second place.
Central to his fightback, of course, was his aggression in wheel-to-wheel combat, with his brave early passes around the outside of Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas, with whom he collided on two separate occasions toward the end of 2015, more than making up for his poor getaway.
"Absolutely spectacular," was how team principal Maurizio Arrivabene referred to Raikkonen's performance after the race, per Motorsport.com's Pablo Elizalde, claiming that the 36-year-old's move on Ricciardo at Turn 4 had "reminded me of the driver from the old times."
It is notable that three of Raikkonen's four podium finishes over the last 12 months have come on weekends when Vettel, the team's obvious focal point, has hit trouble, forcing the team to get fully behind Raikkonen.
As noted at the end of last season, could it be that Raikkonen—despite his "Iceman" reputation—requires a little more faith from Arrivabene and the Ferrari management in order to offer more frequent reminders of "the old times"?
Loser: Valtteri Bottas
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As reported by Autosport's Lawrence Barretto, Williams went to the effort of flying their long-awaited new front wing to Bahrain on Friday night in the hope of enhancing their prospects for the race.
As the team only had one new nose available, however, it was decided the upgrade would be fitted to Felipe Massa's car, rather than Valtteri Bottas', due to the Brazilian's higher position in the drivers' standings.
Come the end of the grand prix, the team would have been relieved that the new part was given to Massa, for it would have had a lifespan of approximately one corner had it been in the hands of Bottas.
Williams' muted performance in Australia, where Massa finished a lonely fifth and Bottas was among the several drivers trapped behind Romain Grosjean's Haas, meant the team arrived in Bahrain requiring a strong haul of points at a circuit that plays to the strengths of their car.
At the start, it seemed they could have been on course for just that, as Bottas benefited from Ferrari's early troubles to jump from sixth to third on the run toward Turn 1.
Yet as Hamilton began sniffing at the rear of Rosberg's car, the Finn—renowned for his calculating, percentage-based approach to racing—placed his car in a gap that was always going to close. And his half-hearted overtaking attempt saw Bottas slide into the side of Hamilton's W07.
The clumsy nature of the incident, and the damage done to the three-time world champion's car meant a drive-through penalty was inevitable, with the Finn's race ruined when the punishment was delivered.
As he told the team's official website, Bottas paid for his misjudgment for the remainder of the race, with his damaged front wing compromising his speed and contributing to a "disappointing" ninth-place finish on a day a podium could have been possible.
Winner: Romain Grosjean
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Romain Grosjean claimed the first of his 10 podium finishes in Bahrain four years ago, but despite his familiarity with podium champagne, the Frenchman seems to be taking more enjoyment from establishing Haas as a credible F1 operation than challenging for trophies.
"This is a win for us!" he cried over pit-to-car radio after finishing sixth in the American team's debut race in Australia. Although his lofty finish, achieved by withstanding pressure from Force India and Williams cars, was to be admired, there appeared to be little doubt that Haas' points finish—24 hours after qualifying on the penultimate row of the grid—was circumstantial.
It was thought that the red-flag stoppage, which effectively gave Grosjean a free tyre change, was integral to his result and that in normal conditions, on a more conventional circuit, Haas—for all their help from Ferrari—would slip back into a more modest, natural position.
But could it be that the exception is, in actual fact, the rule?
Two weeks after starting from 19th, Grosjean dragged his VF-16 to ninth on the grid—the so-called golden position under the new, elimination-style qualifying format, which gives teams plenty of freedom in terms of tyre strategy.
And the team capitalised on that opportunity, running the super-soft tyres in each of their opening three stints before switching to the soft-compound rubber for the final stint. The No. 8 car hardly looked out of place as Grosjean battled Red Bulls and Williams'.
The 10 points Grosjean earned for fifth place means Haas have more points after the opening two races than Toro Rosso, Force India, McLaren-Honda, Renault, Sauber and Manor combined—proving that new teams can arrive in F1 and be immediately competitive.
As the Frenchman told the team's official website, there are "still a lot of things" Haas "can do better," with Grosjean suffering another front-wing failure in practice and a slow pit stop threatening to undo all the team's hard work. But so far, their success in this F1 business has been beyond their wildest dreams.
"This," as Grosjean told the same source, "is the American dream."
Loser: Force India
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The Bahrain Grand Prix has traditionally been kind to Force India, who have claimed a number of strong points finishes—and even a podium appearance—at Sakhir in recent seasons.
After a disappointing race in Australia, where the red-flag stoppage ruined the afternoons of both Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez, the team—much like fellow Mercedes customers Williams—had been expected to get back on track this weekend.
Yet Force India not only suffered more misfortune in Bahrain but were strangely noncompetitive for much of the event.
Perhaps Perez's preparation for the race was harmed after his car was handed to development driver Alfonso Celis Jr. for the first practice session on Friday, but the Mexican endured yet another weekend to forget, failing to progress from Q1 before damaging his front wing in a collision with Carlos Sainz Jr. at the beginning of Lap 2.
Despite the nature of the circuit and the abrasive track surface suiting Perez's tyre-preservation skills, he told the team's official website how "a lot of tyre degradation" had cost him time, despite spending more laps than any other driver on both the soft and super-soft compounds en route to 16th place.
By the time Perez broke his front wing, Hulkenberg had already pitted to replace his after being involved in the first-lap carnage, with the German—who made a poor start from eighth—telling the same source that he was "out of synch with everybody and always playing catch-up" after finishing 15th.
Winner: Stoffel Vandoorne
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After 12 months spent trying and failing to cater for the needs of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, fielding Stoffel Vandoorne in the Bahrain GP would have felt a little like respite for McLaren-Honda.
Rather than having two highly successful, incredibly demanding world champions reminding the team that their efforts were unworthy of their talent, at Sakhir they had a young driver simply pleased to be there and hoping to make the most of an unexpected opportunity.
The late decision to replace Alonso—recovering from the injuries sustained in his Australian GP crash—with an F1 debutant almost seemed to lift the burden from McLaren, allowing the team to enter a race unashamed of their relatively low expectations.
Given that Vandoorne hadn't even tested the team's 2016 car and had only just arrived from Japan, the emphasis was not so much on the 2015 GP2 champion's results in qualifying and the race but his ability to get to grips with the operational challenges, as he told Sky Sports' television coverage of the event.
Yet the Belgian far exceeded those expectations, becoming the first stand-in debutant to score a point since Vettel at the 2007 United States GP.
Vandoorne outqualified Button by two positions on Saturday and produced what racing director Eric Boullier described as a "flawlessly mature performance" in the race, per the team's official website, avoiding the carnage of the opening laps and making no mistakes throughout.
He was rewarded with a 10th-place finish, claiming McLaren's first point since last November's United States GP.
Should Alonso make a full recovery in time for the next race in China, Vandoorne will be banished to the Super Formula category for the remainder of this season. But the level and calmness of his performance in Bahrain means he will surely be in contention to replace either Alonso or Button on a permanent basis in 2017.
All timing and tyre data, as well as team radio quotes, are sourced from the official F1 website, the FOM television feed and Pirelli Motorsport's infographic on Twitter.
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