F1: Mercedes’ Rosberg wins Bahrain Grand Prix
Ryan Joseph Ramos April 3, 2016
Nico Rosberg has now won five straight GPs, including the first two in the 2016 Formula One season. The Mercedes driver took the chequered flag comfortably, with a 10-second lead over second-placer Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari. Meanwhile, defending champion took the final podium slot 20 seconds behind the red car.
As Rosberg had predicted, Hamilton was not really able to capitalize on his pole position. He dropped all the way to P9 after getting tangled with the Williams of Valtteri Bottas right on turn 1. While he fought valiantly to recover enough and get third, the damage was too much to overcome and Rosberg coasted all the way to the race win.
Rosberg has now run off to a quick lead in the drivers’ championship standings, with 50 points to Hamilton’s 33. Sebastian Vettel will be idle in the standings at 15 points thanks to his Ferrari failing to start during the formation lap.
In lap 41, Rosberg set the race’s fastest time at 1:34.482.
After the podium finishers, Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull took fourth, while Haas’ Romain Grosjean was fantastic in a fifth-place finish to have a total of 18 points on the season, tied with Raikkonen, who suffered a retirement in the last race.
Both drivers after Rosberg had to deal with bad starts, and this made it a cakewalk for the current championship frontrunner. Rosberg doesn’t care, really. He said he was “very, very happy” and that it was a “great getaway.” Just look at that happy mug:
BOOM!! ?? #BahrainGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/Oh8ucadEm5
— Nico Rosberg (@nico_rosberg) April 3, 2016
Well, that’s all for this race at the Bahrain International Circuit. Join us as we provide you with F1 recaps and updates again once the Chinese GP weekend comes around in two weeks.
