Nico Rosberg Wins 2016 Bahrain GP

 

Nico Rosberg won his fifth race in a row at the Bahrain GP to maintain the perfect start to his 2016 title bid as Lewis Hamilton finished third after a first-corner collision.  In a race that served up drama even before the lights went out as Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari blew up on the formation lap, Rosberg overtook polesitter Hamilton at the start, before seeing his team-mate plummet down the order.

The world champion's Mercedes was hit by Valtteri Bottas' fast-starting Williams into Turn One, an impact which spun the W07 round and badly damaged its bodywork and floor. Dropping to ninth, Hamilton quickly raced back up the order but couldn't catch Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen for second once up into third place. Mercedes calculated that the damage on the Briton's car cost him one second per lap and Hamilton finished 20 seconds adrift of the Finn.

Rosberg was never troubled out front once seizing the lead and his second win from two races at the start of the new season means he has opened up an early 17-point lead over Hamilton in the Drivers' Championship. Vettel is already 35 points adrift after his hopes of challenging Mercedes under the Bahrain floodlights were scuppered by an engine failure half-way round the formation lap.

The German, who qualified third, pulled off the road with plumes of smoke trailing from the back of his Ferrari - the first time Vettel has not taken the start of a race in his nine-year F1 career. Ferrari's woe appeared to be compounded when Raikkonen made a terrible getaway himself but, after impressively making short work of recovering his position, the Finn moved up to second place after the first stops.