While Lewis Hamilton’s 2014 world title was remembered for its strong end to the season, with six wins from the final seven races, it was due to the mechanical problems he endured in the first half of the campaign that he needed such a strong end to clinch his second championship.
In terms of issues in races, you had to go back to Canada, 10 months ago, for the last time Hamilton had a car problem on a Sunday afternoon, so in fairness, given Mercedes-GP teammate Nico Rosberg had suffered three since then, he was due another one.
But Hamilton’s luck was well and truly yesterday at the Bahrain International Circuit as a brake problem, which hampered his speed considerably, came on the last of the 57 laps of the race.
While he slowed, it was not enough to deny him the 36th victory of his Formula One career and the third of the season, as he finished three seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The double world champion swapped his panicked tone on the pit radio in the closing stages as he described the issue to his engineer on the pit radio for an altogether more relaxed one post-race as he said: “I think my brakes got a bit warm behind a few backmarkers.
“When you are behind you don’t get cool air, so they got a bit warm.”
Losing the win would have been cruel on Hamilton who again dominated the race in his Mercedes, showing strong speed when needed, and looking after his tyres well when all he had to do was control the gap to his rivals.
Even though he ended up finishing third, it was an improved performance from Rosberg in the second Mercedes.
He overtook a Ferrari four times in all in an aggressive drive, Sebastian Vettel three times and Raikkonen once, but he unfortunately never looked a threat to Hamilton in the fight for victory on outright pace.
That he lost second was no fault of his own. “I struggled with the brakes,” the German acknowledged.
“I lost the brakes two laps from the end and went straight on. I had to carry the car home for the last two laps.”
Raikkonen picked up his first podium of the season and first in F1 since the Korean Grand Prix in 2013, when he was with Lotus, thanks to a different pit strategy to his rivals as he chose to run the harder tyres in the middle of the race, allowing him to attack on the softer compound at the end, which was the opposite of the Mercedes strategy.
He gained a second a lap on Rosberg in the closing laps and was on hand to gain from the German’s problems and be agonisingly close to the slowing Hamilton at the finish.
“You’re never happy when you finish second, but after a difficult start of the year I’m pleased to get a bit better result,” the 2007 world champion said.
“We came through in the end but we ran out of laps. We have to be happy with that after where we qualified, but we are looking for better results.”
While Raikkonen impressed his teammate Vettel did not, the four-time world champion damaging his front wing as he ran wide at the final corner under pressure from Rosberg mid-race and he needed an extra pit-stop to change it, dropping him behind the Williams of Valtteri Bottas to finish a distant fifth.
It is is already looking ominous for the rest of the field with Hamilton taking a 27-point lead over Rosberg to the first European race of the season in Spain on May 10, and his teammate and the Ferrari drivers need to spend the next three weeks finding a way to beat the Briton if they are not to prevent this becoming an one-sided affair.
Star performer
Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) Made an alternative strategy to his rivals work well, and the Finn's relentless speed in the closing laps in his Ferrari allowed him to capitalise on Nico Rosberg's brake problems to take second.
Underperformer
Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) A very scrappy performance from the four-time world champion, highlighted by the error of running wide that led to having to change his front wing. Given he had been ahead of Raikkonen at the time, the mistake cost him a potential chance at victory given the problems both Mercedes cars had in the final laps.
Key moment Lewis Hamilton holding onto the lead after the first round of pit stops. He stayed out a lap too long on the soft tyres, but came out fractionally ahead of Mercedes-GP teammate Rosberg and was able to run untroubled at the front from there on until the final lap when his brakes began to fail.
Low point Toro Rosso's good start to the season seems a long time ago as both Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr struggled for pace throughout, and neither car made it to the finish, Sainz's due to a botched pit stop, to compound a miserable day at the office.
Move of the race Rosberg passed Vettel three times in all, but his first overtake was the highlight as he left it late on the brakes into Turn 1 and forced the Ferrari man wide as he gained the position.
Our verdict Mercedes again demonstrated they have the edge on raw pace, but Ferrari, through Raikkonen, demonstrated they are close enough to trouble the German manufacturers if they are creative with their pit strategies.
gcaygill@thenational.ae
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