2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

  2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

Race details
Race 3 of 19 in the 2014 Formula One season
Layout of the Bahrain International Circuit
Date	6 April 2014
Official name	2014 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix[1]
Location	Bahrain International Circuit Sakhir, Bahrain
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.412 km (3.363 mi)
Distance	57 laps, 308.238 km (191.530 mi)
Weather	Dry
Attendance	38,140
Pole position
Driver	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
Time	1:33.185
Fastest lap
Driver	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
Time	1:37.020 on lap 49
Podium
First	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Second	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
Third	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes
Lap leaders

The 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix, formally known as the 2014 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix,^[1] was a Formula One motor race held on 6 April 2014 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain. The race, which was contested over 57 laps, was the third round of the 2014 season, and marked the tenth time that the Bahrain Grand Prix had been held as a round for the Formula One World Championship and the 900th World Championship event. The race was held as a night event, starting at 6:00pm local time under lights, similar to the Singapore Grand Prix.^[2] The decision to hold the race under lights was taken as a means of marking the tenth anniversary of the event.^[3]

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes won the race after starting 2nd and overtaking teammate Nico Rosberg at the start. Rosberg finished second, with Force India's Sergio Pérez finishing third, scoring Force India's second ever podium, and first podium since Giancarlo Fisichella at the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix.^[4]

The race was notable for the race-long battle between Hamilton and Rosberg and a collision on lap 41 between the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado and the Sauber of Esteban Gutiérrez. Gutierrez was flipped over in a side impact caused by Maldonado; Maldonado served a 5 place grid penalty at the Chinese Grand Prix for causing the crash.^[5]

Report

Background

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought its white-banded medium compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre, as opposed to the previous year where hard and medium selections were provided.^[6]

Following the Malaysian Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo was given a 10-place grid penalty, after his team released him from his pit box in an unsafe manner during the race.^[7]

Practice and qualifying

Three practice sessions were held before the race; two 90 minute sessions on Friday and one lasting an hour on Saturday. Lewis Hamilton was fastest in all three practice sessions.

Qualifying began at 6:00pm local time. Nico Rosberg secured his first pole position of the season in Q3 with a time of 1:33.185. Hamilton qualified behind his teammate in second, after he locked his brakes into turn 1 on his final flying lap, flat-spotting his tyres and abandoning the lap as a result.^[8]

Race

The race started at 6:00pm local time. Lewis Hamilton got a great start to beat polesitter Nico Rosberg into the first corner, but Felipe Massa had the best start of all to move from seventh up to third by the first corner. There was contact on the first lap between Pastor Maldonado and Jean-Éric Vergne, which punctured Vergne's tyre. There was also first-lap contact between Kevin Magnussen and Kimi Räikkönen resulting in bodywork damage to Räikkönen's car. Hamilton and Rosberg fought hard for the lead on the opening lap, with Rosberg attempting to overtake at turn 4 but being fended off by Hamilton.

Having been unsuccessful in his attempts to retake the lead, Rosberg started to conserve fuel to prepare for an attack later in the race, dropping back slightly from around a second behind his teammate to around 1.5 seconds by lap 7, and maintaining a similar gap over the following laps. The Williams cars were harder on their tyres than the cars around them, and on lap 10 Valtteri Bottas was overtaken by Jenson Button for fifth, and three laps later the other Williams of Felipe Massa was overtaken as well, with Sergio Pérez taking third place from the Brazilian. Both Williams cars - as well as both Ferraris - had to change strategy from a two-stop to a three-stop as a result of high tyre wear. Magnussen also converted to a three-stop as a result of high tyre wear, but teammate Button was able to conserve his tyres well enough to continue with the two-stop.

Rosberg had managed to maintain the gap to Hamilton despite conserving more fuel, and by lap 18 he was in DRS range. Due to having saved more fuel, he would have more horsepower available for an attack, and after utilising DRS down the pit straight he managed to briefly get past Hamilton by braking late on the inside into turn 1. However, Rosberg's late braking had forced him slightly wide, and Hamilton switched to the inside to immediately retake the position from Rosberg. On the following lap Rosberg attempted the same move into turn 1 again, and this time managed to stay ahead through turn 1. However, Hamilton managed to come back at his teammate to claim the inside for turn 2, with the two cars coming perilously close to contact as Hamilton cut across to retake the lead from Rosberg. This overtake was critical as, due to being the lead Mercedes at the time, it meant that Hamilton was called into the pits first - diving into the pits at the end of the lap to be fitted with the softer tyre - while Rosberg would pit on the following lap and take on the harder medium tyre.

Following his pit stop on lap 19, Hamilton pulled out a gap on the faster tyre over the next phase of the race and by lap 40 he was around 10 seconds ahead of Rosberg with 17 laps remaining. However, with the option tyre estimated to be as much as a second a lap faster than the prime, Rosberg would still had a very good chance of catching up to his teammate in the remaining laps, as they were scheduled to be put on the opposite tyres for the final stint - with Hamilton scheduled for primes and Rosberg for the faster option. However, the race was then turned on its head when Maldonado, who had just exited the pit lane, hit into the side of Esteban Gutiérrez's Sauber at turn 1. This flipped the Sauber over completely, and the ensuing debris resulted in the deployment of the safety car. Both Mercedes pitted under the safety car, but its deployment mean that Hamilton's lead of over 10 seconds was evaporated. Now with no buffer back to Rosberg, Hamilton would be at a large disadvantage on tyres that were estimated to be around a second a lap slower as the two Mercedes cars scrapped for the lead - Hamilton on the slower medium tyre, Rosberg on the faster soft. As the safety car circulated, Paddy Lowe spoke on the radio to both Mercedes drivers to remind them to make sure to bring both cars home.

With 10 laps to go, the safety car pulled into the pits and racing resumed. Hamilton defended from Rosberg into turn 1, but as a result Rosberg got the better line through the corner and through turns 2 and 3, and he attempted to overtake again on the outside of turn 4. Hamilton defended again, holding his teammate out wide and managing to maintain his position. With their drivers fighting hard for the lead of the race, and with fuel no longer being a concern due to the safety car, the Mercedes were being driven flat-out and the extent of the car's superiority was revealed for the first time; within three laps the two Mercedes had pulled out a gap of over six seconds to third-placed Sergio Pérez. On lap 52 Rosberg again attempted an audacious late braking move into turn 1, but Hamilton managed to stay ahead by waiting for Rosberg to run wide from his late braking move and turning in to switch to the inside and maintain his lead. Rosberg continued his assault by attempting the move again on the following lap, and again Hamilton had to get very defensive on the run towards turn 4 but still managed to hold onto the lead.^[8][9]

With the two Mercedes having repeatedly duelled for position over the closing laps, Rosberg had taken the best from his tyres by the start of the final lap. Hamilton held onto the lead to take his second win of the season ahead of Rosberg, with Sergio Pérez completing the podium in third. This was Force India's second ever podium, and their first since the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix.

Post-race

With his victory, Lewis Hamilton closed the gap to championship leader Nico Rosberg from 18 to 11 points.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:35.439	1:33.708	1:33.185	1
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:35.323	1:33.872	1:33.464	2
3	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:36.220	1:34.592	1:34.051	131
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:34.934	1:34.842	1:34.247	3
5	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	1:34.998	1:34.747	1:34.346	4
6	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:35.234	1:34.925	1:34.368	5
7	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:35.699	1:34.714	1:34.387	6
8	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:35.085	1:34.842	1:34.511	7
9	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:35.288	1:34.904	1:34.712	8
10	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:35.251	1:34.723	1:34.992	9
11	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:35.549	1:34.985		10
12	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:34.874	1:35.116		11
13	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	1:35.395	1:35.145		12
14	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	1:35.815	1:35.286		14
15	21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:36.567	1:35.891		15
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:36.654	1:35.908		16
17	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:36.663			17
18	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:36.840			222
19	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:37.085			18
20	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:37.310			19
21	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1:37.875			20
22	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:37.913			21
107% time: 1:41.515
Source:

Notes

• ^1  — Daniel Ricciardo was given a ten-place grid penalty for an unsafe pit release during the Malaysian Grand Prix.^[7]
• ^2  — Adrian Sutil was given a five-place grid penalty for impeding Romain Grosjean during qualifying.^[10]

Race

Sergio Pérez achieved his first podium finish since the 2012 season, with third place in the race.

Kimi Räikkönen, who finished in 10th place.

Daniil Kvyat finished outside the points in 11th place.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	57	1:39:42.743	2	25
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	57	+1.085	1	18
3	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	57	+24.067	4	15
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	57	+24.489	13	12
5	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	57	+28.654	11	10
6	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	57	+29.879	10	8
7	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	57	+31.265	7	6
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	57	+31.876	3	4
9	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	57	+32.595	9	2
10	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	57	+33.462	5	1
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	57	+41.342	12
12	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	57	+43.143	16
13	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	57	+59.909	21
14	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	57	+1:02.803	17
15	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	57	+1:27.900	18
16	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	56	+1 Lap	19
17	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	55	Clutch	6
Ret	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	40	Clutch	8
Ret	21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	39	Collision	15
Ret	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	33	Oil leak	20
Ret	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	18	Collision damage	14
Ret	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	17	Collision	22
Source:[11]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Nico Rosberg 61 2 Lewis Hamilton 50 3 3 Nico Hülkenberg 28 1 4 Fernando Alonso 26 1 5 Jenson Button 23

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Mercedes 111 3 2 Force India-Mercedes 44 1 3 McLaren-Mercedes 43 2 4 Red Bull Racing-Renault 35 2 5 Ferrari 33

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Anti-government protests

In January 2014 an alliance of Bahraini human rights organisations including the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights and the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights wrote to FIA President Jean Todt, requesting that the Bahrain Grand Prix be suspended until the FIA's Ethics Committee could investigate the impact the race has had on human rights in Bahrain. According to the BCHR no response was received from the FIA.^[12] Reports from the race meeting indicated that thousands of people attended a rally protesting against the Grand Prix and the government, held on the Friday before the race itself outside the Bahraini capital Manama. Clashes between protesters and police took place following the demonstration.^[13]

References

External links

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