Wow! You could sum up this race with just a few words: astonishing; brilliant; fantastic and amazing. And those words could be used to describe Mercedes’s team performance at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
From red light to chequered flag the Mercedes team were peerless. A dominant performance that Red Bull would have been proud of (and maybe a little jealous). As much as they where dominant over the last four seasons I can’t remember a race that Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were allowed to fight so hard against each other for the lead.
From the get go Lewis Hamilton overtook Nico Rosberg into the first corner. They scrapped over the next couple of laps but Hamilton stayed ahead. I thought instantly game over and I couldn’t have been more wrong: they went at it over the next sixteen laps or so until just before the pit stop window. Rosberg closed the gap to under a second. He engaged his DRS and took Hamilton into turn one, Hamilton fought straight back and regained his lead, then onto lap nineteen and another chance for Rosberg only for Hamilton to fight straight back again to take the lead, within a lap or two he pitted for a new set of soft tires.
By getting back ahead of his team mate he got first call on strategy and with it the undercut. By the time Rosberg stopped two laps later for a set of hard tires, and re-joined the action, Hamilton was a further six and a half seconds up the road.
Both drivers now on a clear two-stop strategy with Hamilton on soft, soft, hard and Rosberg on a soft, hard, soft route. All was going well for Hamilton as over the next twenty laps or so he eked out almost a ten-second advantage. Unfortunately for him Pastor Maldonado had another moment of sheer madness T-boning Sergio Perez, flipping his car and dispatching him from the race and to the hospital for checks. Surely the person needing checks in a hospital was Maldonado.
Moments later the safety car was deployed sending both Mercedes into the pits for a second time and eliminating Lewis Hamilton’s hard earned advantage.
From this point on and with everyone watching it was game on, Lewis Hamilton on the medium slower tire and Nico on the faster soft tires.
With twelve laps to go and a message from Mercedes team’s Paddy Lowe to both drivers “Bring the cars home safe” was this a genuine instruction or a team order?
Nobody had to wait long to find out. With the safety car in and now with just ten laps remaining and under a second between them Rosberg immediately tried to overtake the former World Champion using the advantage that DRS gave him. For the next six or seven laps Rosberg and Hamilton went at it, neither giving a quarter until finally with just three laps to go Hamilton broke away by a second, cancelling the DRS advantage and taking his second win of the season and with it Mercedes’ second consecutive one-two finish.
Not since Aryton Senna battled Nigel Mansell for the win in Monaco have I seen such a fight for a win, this was by far one of the best Grand Prix I have ever seen and I’ve been watching longer than I care to admit.
Hamilton said:“It’s been so long since I had a real racer’s race, the first time in years and years I’ve been able to use my karting skills. I can throw this car around. One of the greatest feelings.”
With the Chinese Grand Prix next, another race that should suit Mercedes, the team are looking strong before they head back to Europe and to Barcelona where all the teams will be able to bring the first of their significant upgrades. With as much as a two-second advantage a lap at the Bahrain Grand Prix, I can’t see anyone catching Mercedes this season.
This race proves once and for all that Lewis Hamilton made the right decision to move to Mercedes, leaving behind the once dominant McLaren team. He has showed once again that he is one of the greats, not just of the current crop of excellent drivers but in the list of all-time greats. He just needs a few more Drivers’ Championships to cement his legacy.
What a race! What a sport!
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