Lewis Hamilton scores brilliant win in Bahrain Grand Prix
Hamilton overtakes Rosberg in the first lap and despite massive challenge from his teammate takes a brilliant win in Bahrain.
Lewis Hamilton, who had made a mistake during qualifying to hand over the pole position to his teammate, had a flying start and overtook Rosberg. Hamilton and Rosberg traded fastest laps and others were left far behind.
Sergio Perez of Force India brought in cheers as he finished in the podium. It was the first podium for Force India after 2009. Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull beat Perez’s teammate Nico Hulkenberg to the 4th position and was breathing down the neck of Sergio Perez. If there were one more lap, then Ricciardo may have had a chance to get the podium.
Ricciardo’s teammate Sebastian Vettel finished in 6th positions. The drivers from 1st to 6th used a two stop strategy. The only other two driver to employ stop strategy was Kobayashi who finished in 15th.
Felipe Massa of Williams too had a great start as he sliced through his teammate Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez of Force India to jump to 3rd position. Massa and Bottas were on a three stop strategy and finished behind the leading 2 stoppers. Massa and Bottas finished in 7th and 8th positions.
Alonso had a great opening lap as he jumped to 7th where as his teammate Kimi Raikkonen was 9th in the opening lap. However, they finished in 9th and 10th positions respectively.
In lap 41 Pastor Maldonado came out of the pits to hit Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber who went flying. Fortunately Gutierrez landed safely, but that was the end of his race and brought in the safety car. Maldonado was handed a 10 second stop-go penalty. The safety car negated Hamilton’s earlier advantage with the faster softer tyres. He had to run the rest of the laps with medium tyres where as Nico Rosberg was on softer tyres. So it was a tough battle between the two with Hamilton having the disadvantage of the slower tyres.
In Lap 46 Paddy Lowe of Mercedes came on radio to give a message “just make sure we bring the cars home”. This was a clear indication for Hamilton not to race against Rosberg and give up the race win. However, Lewis Hamilton has the instincts of a blood hound. He is a born racer. He was not ready to give it up to Rosberg on a platter. And a battle royale was played out.
Right after the safety car, Rosberg tried to overtake Hamilton, but Lewis Hamilton didn’t give him space. In Lap 52, Nico Rosberg overtook Hamilton in the turn 1 but Lewis regained the lead as Hamilton forces Rosberg off track at Turn 4. It was incredibly tense moments being played out. Then Hamilton left slight gap and Rosberg tried to overtake Hamilton taking the inside line, but was forced to outbrake himself so that Hamilton safely moving ahead. It showed that Lewis Hamilton was using his brains and not just foot to pedal.
Lewis Hamilton finally opened up a second gap to Rosberg and maintains it to win the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix 2014.
Jenson Button retired with a car problem but he has been classified as 17th with 2 laps down the leader.
Bahrain F1 Grand Prix Final Standings
Sl. No. Driver Team
1. Lewis
Hamilton Mercedes
2. Nico
Rosberg Mercedes
3. Sergio
Perez Force India
4. Daniel
Ricciardo Red Bull
5. Nico
Hulkenberg Force India
6. Sebastian
Vettel Red Bull
7. Felipe
Massa Williams
8. Valtteri
Bottas Williams
9. Fernando
Alonso Ferrari
10. Kimi
Raikkonen Ferrari
11. Daniil
Kvyat Toro Rosso
12. Romain
Grosjean Lotus
13. Max
Chilton Marussia
14. Pastor
Maldonado Lotus
15. Kamui
Kobayashi Caterham
16. Jules
Bianchi Marussia
17. Jenson Button McLaren
Retirements in Bahrain F1 Grand Prix
Driver Team Lap
Kevin Magnussen McLaren 40
Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 39
Marcus Ericsson Caterham 33
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 18
Adrian Sutil Sauber 17
No comments:
Post a Comment