ARABIAN PLIGHT
Another slow start from Hamilton lets Rosberg win
LEWIS HAMILTON paid immaculate attention to detail with his full arabian robes and head dress, down to the spacing of the buttons that were in keeping with Bahraini tradition.
His only lack of attentiveness came at the finger-release of his clutch, and it cost him victory. nico Rosberg, his mercedes teammate, capitalised on the world champion’s sluggishness to win not only the Bahrain Grand Prix but his second successive race this season.
Yes, it was Rosberg’s fifth consecutive win, but the first three of those came at the tail-end of last season, when the big prize had been handed out and the victorious Hamilton had dedicated himself to partying rather than continuing his run of pulverising perfection.
But this win, and the one in melbourne a fortnight ago, were delivered when it mattered, when the shape of the championship is being fashioned, when confidence is being built or knocked.
the German’s lead is admittedly just 17 points with 19 more instalments of this 21-round marathon to come, but put it the other way: if Hamilton had just won two races and led by the same margin, we might be writing off the season as all over.
Rosberg, not given to statements of animal ferocity, was predictably measured about his back-to-back success possibly giving him more belief, saying: ‘It’s not something I think about. I’m just taking it race by race and it’s great to win here today, great to have two on the trot, and that’s it.
‘next race — where are we going, China? It’s a good moment because we have a good car and I want to make the most of it.’
the record books show that he has now won 16 races in his career, level with Sir Stirling moss as one of the two drivers with most wins never to have won the Formula one crown.
THIS was one of Rosberg’s easiest victories. He made his own luck by his brisk start but after that he only really had to keep his wheels on the asphalt. It called for concentration rather than pyrotechnics. He did not waver, winning by 10 seconds from Kimi Raikkonen, of Ferrari, with Hamilton third.
Hamilton, who started on pole, was honest enough about his mistake afterwards, saying: ‘I just didn’t get a good getaway. It wasn’t anything mechanical.’
His tardiness with the paddle in his left hand was not only his second successive slow start, but condemned him to be ensnared at the first corner by the fastapproaching Williams of Valtteri Bottas, who got a drive-through penalty for his recklessness. that collision plunged Hamilton to ninth. He was hampered by a damaged floor and front wing for the rest of the evening. mercedes team principal toto Wolff said it cost his man a second a lap, which seemed like a lot. Hamilton drove as spiritedly as he always does, but his team-mate was moving clear. Rosberg was further helped by the disintegration of the Ferrari challenge behind him. Sebastian Vettel’s race ended before it had begun. Smoke, turned blue by the floodlights, billowed from the back of his machine on the parade lap. It was Ferrari’s second non-finish in two races after Raikkonen’s car had spouted flames in melbourne.
this setback brought to mind Bernie Ecclestone’s quip in which he said Ferrari were running an ice-cream stall, such is their lack of success in recent years.
‘It was very sudden,’ said Vettel of his engine failure. ‘We didn’t expect to have any problems.’ With the race still going on, he added: ‘now let’s push on Kimi’s car and see after the race what happened.’
Well, Raikkonen had a start as bad as Hamilton’s. However, the Finn recovered to produce a decent drive over the piece.
the off-track machinations continued unabated, of course. the teams met Ecclestone and FIa president Jean todt to address problems with the new knockout qualifying format.
agreement was not forthcoming and a further meeting is planned for thursday. a new proposal — aggregating two laps in each section of qualifying to produce the starting order, was put forward. one rather suspects there is more to this than the hard facts about qualifying. It is really about power in the sport and where it resides. as ever.
So with so much politics at play, the sport was crying out for another good race, as the opener in australia had been, to act as balm. It turned out not to be a gem, but nor was it a total dud. they cannot all be crackers.
HAMILTON, however, can cause controversy wherever he goes, and usually does. He posted a picture of his arabian garb — extremely rare among westerners — on social media with the words: ‘nothing but love and respect for this culture and Bahrain.’
that did not go down well with everyone, given that human rights concerns here have been in the headlines, if now less so than in previous years.
Hamilton’s remarks, while arguably rash given the context, were not meant as a comment on what is a complex situation in which one man’s ‘pro- democracy campaigners’ are another man’s ‘terrorists’.
But back to the racing. mclaren’s Jenson Button retired after seven laps. Fernando alonso, his teammate, who sat out the race after failing a medical examination following his crash in melbourne, closed his eyes and grimaced as Button’s failure flashed up in the garage.
So for 50 laps, three world championships’ worth of talent was looking at data screens in the garage. alonso’s replacement, Belgian debutant Stoffel Vandoorne, was a creditable 10th.
Briton Jolyon Palmer had nothing to celebrate after his Renault conked out on the formation lap and he turned into the pits, never to re-emerge.