Formula 1 - Bahrain Grand Prix 2015

Kimi Räikkönen has regained his strength and shot to second place in the evening race in Bahrain with his Ferrari after an exhilarating chase. A new image on the podium gives a breath of fresh air to Formula 1 and even more hope to Ferrari. Vettel with driving errors saved himself to fifth place.

by Bruno Fleckenstein

After the cold shower after the race in Shanghai a week earlier, when the Mercedes literally drove away from the Ferrari after the second pit stop, the question was whether that was it for the Scuderia's hopeful attempts. Or was it because the Ferrari couldn't cope with the hard tires? Qualifying in Bahrain proved the doubters wrong, because Sebastian Vettel had done it again and was on the front row next to Lewis Hamilton on the grid for the race. Vettel's teammate Kimi Raikkonen was next to Nico Rosberg and started from fourth on the grid.

Sauber got off to a good start, but fluffed at the pit stop
During the warm-up lap of the race, Felipe Massa's car stopped and had to start from the pit lane, i.e. last, with a penalty. After a slight delay, the lights came on and the race got underway. Hamilton kept the lead and Rosberg put pressure on Vettel and wanted to pass Vettel on the inside in the right-hand bend. Raikkonen took advantage of this and maneuvered his Ferrari to the left to Rosberg's height and past the Silver Arrow in the following left-hand bend. The entire field of drivers followed in a disciplined manner without an accident or contact.
The two Sauber drivers had started from positions 12 and 13, and Ericsson made a super start, gaining four places and driving quite well. But during the pit stop on lap 26, the left front wheel jammed, delaying the pit stop by more than 33 seconds and ending the dream of points. Meanwhile, teammate Nasr was battling for 10th place with Massa, who had meanwhile moved up from the very back to midfield. Massa's teammate Bottas continued alone at the same time in fifth place on the grid.

The final third saw a showdown between Ferrari and Mercedes
On lap 33, Vettel came in for his final pit stop and changed from soft to medium for the final stint. After a fast lap by Vettel, Rosberg fell behind Vettel after his pit stop, but the Heppenheimer misjudged in a corner came out too far and touched the gravel. This meant he had to pit again to pick up a new front wing. This relegated him to fifth place behind Bottas. The beneficiary of the mishap, meanwhile, was Raikkonen. At his last pit stop on lap 40, the Finn picked up the soft tires and was now in intermediate third place.

And now Räikkönen's incredible storming run began. On lap 42 he set the fastest lap of the race with 1:36.311 min. By lap 45 he had reduced his lead over Rosberg, who was in front of him, from 19 to 10 seconds. There were still 12 laps to go. And lap after lap he caught up. On lap 49, the gap was still 5.859 seconds. On lap 52, it was still 3.3 seconds, but traffic was holding him up. Will he make it was the question. Two laps later, with three laps to go, Nico saw Kimi ominously close in the rearview mirror with a gap of 1.1 seconds. Rosberg loudly radioed into the mic that he didn't want to know what the gap was anymore. The information from his team only seemed to make him more nervous. And hardly pronounced it happened and Nico braked in turn 1 and Räikkönen roared past the Silver Arrow and reaped second place. Nico tried to fight back, but in vain.

Lewis Hamilton was the confident winner, Kimi Raikkonen a well-deserved second and Nico Rosberg a happy third, because the problems with his brakes, which are said to have existed from the start, could also have led to a retirement. The Mercedes braking system "Brake by Wire" allegedly also caused Hamilton problems. "Brake-by-Wire" is an electronic technology that not only works via the brake discs, but also automatically brakes the engine.
Valteri Bottas successfully defended his fourth place against Sebastian Vettel and literally slowed down the Ferrari driver. Daniel Ricciardo was lucky to cross the finish line in sixth place with smoking engine damage.

Conclusion: If Vettel can't get between the Mercedes, then Räikkönen is another former world champion in the racing team, who incidentally was world champion with Ferrari in 2007 and can give the Mercedes a run for their money, which keeps Formula 1 exciting. Hamilton, meanwhile, continues to extend his lead in the world championship.

Results Bahrain Grand Prix 2015

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 3.38 sec.
3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 6.03 sec.
4 Valteri Bottas Williams 42.95 sec.
5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 43.98 sec.
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:01 min.
7 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:24 min.
8 Sergio Perez Force India + 1 lap
9 Daniil Kwjat Red Bull + 1 lap
10 Felipe Massa Williams + 1 lap
11 Fernando Alonso McLaren + 1 lap
12 Felipe Nasr Sauber + 1 lap
13 Nico Hülkenberg Force India + 1 lap
14 Marcus Ericsson Sauber + 1 lap
15 Pastor Maldonado Lotus + 1 lap
16 Will Stevens Manor Marussia +2 laps
17 Roberto Mehri Manor Marussia + 2 laps
18 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso retired on lap 32
19 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso retired on lap 13
20 Jenson Button McLaren retired, not started