Once again we were treated to a thoroughly entertaining race in Bahrain, with the Sakhir circuit producing frenetic racing from the word go up and down the order.
The track looked majestic under the floodlights as Nico Rosberg romped to yet another victory for Mercedes – his fifth in succession when you factor in his wins during the last three races last season.
Meanwhile team-mate Lewis Hamilton was caught up in a melee with Valtteri Bottas at Turn 1, whilst Mercedes’ biggest threat Sebastian Vettel was eliminated before the race even began after an engine failure on the formation lap.
As the Formula 1 fraternity looks ahead to the next race in China, Grand Prix Times’ Andy Young takes a look at five talking points from the Bahrain Grand Prix.
1. Rosberg in command at the front
For the last two seasons it has been clear that Hamilton has had the edge over team-mate Rosberg within Mercedes, with the Briton storming to two successive championship crowns and 21 race victories, in stark comparison to Rosberg’s 13 race victories and no championship crown.
But when Hamilton clinched the championship last season in Austin, Rosberg began to shine and has won every race since.
Admittedly last season Hamilton had no real need to fight too hard for victory in Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi as he had already secured the championship.
Whether the Briton had taken his foot off the gas, so to speak, during the last three races of last season is neither here nor there now though, with Rosberg confidently starting the 2016 season from where he left off in Abu Dhabi.
In the opening two races the German has led at the front majestically, enjoying a particularly competitive start in Bahrain and romping off into the distance to secure his fifth consecutive victory and 16th overall.
Whilst it is way too early to begin discussing the championship battle, there is no denying that Hamilton simply must stop Rosberg’s winning streak.
Rosberg has never looked more confident at the front, and controlled proceedings in Bahrain dominantly from the word go.
Many might say that Hamilton’s collision with Bottas at Turn 1 practically gave the race victory to Rosberg on a plate, however the German enjoyed a tremendous start and had already cleared his team-mate way before the apex of the first corner.
Had Hamilton managed to avoid contact at Turn 1 then maybe a battle reminiscent of 2014 could’ve been on the cards. However Rosberg certainly looked like a man on a mission at the start.
The German will be targeting victory number six on the bounce next time out in China, with Hamilton already 17 points behind his team-mate.
It’s certainly advantage Rosberg after the opening two rounds.
2. Stewarding inconsistencies
In recent years the F1 race stewards have been strongly criticised for making the wrong decisions after contact between two or more drivers during a race.
Immediately after the almighty incident between Esteban Gutierrez and Fernando Alonso in Australia, attention immediately switched once Alonso had extricated himself relatively unscathed as to who was to blame for causing the shunt.
Rather surprisingly and rightly so the race stewards deemed the contact to be a racing incident, despite the shock factor and severity of the outcome for Alonso.
Fast forward two weeks and the inconsistencies of the race stewards reared their ugly heads once again, with the incident between Hamilton and Bottas resulting in a penalty for the Finn whereas the clash between Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz a lap later resulted in absolutely nothing, not even an initial investigation.
Whilst the incident between Hamilton and Bottas could’ve been avoided, neither driver suffered drastic damage and both managed to continue circulating until their first scheduled pit-stop.
Hamilton even rose back through the order to finish a respectable third, despite damage to the floor of his Mercedes.
Meanwhile Perez’s collision with Sainz, which was essentially a carbon copy of the contact between Hamilton and Bottas, left the Spaniard with a right-rear puncture.
The Spaniard then plummeted from 11th to the back of the order, limping back to the pits for repairs before finally rejoining the action.
Eventually Toro Rosso elected to retire Sainz due to damage sustained to the floor of his car during the incident and the eventual lap back to the pits with a punctured tyre.
This therefore should’ve left the race stewards no option but to penalise Perez, considering the penalty dished out to Bottas for a similar and less critical incident.
Ultimately in my opinion both were racing incidents and no further action should’ve been taken. Admittedly Sainz’s race was ruined by Perez, however the Spaniard could’ve left him room at Turn 1 and the same could be said for Hamilton on the opening with Bottas.
Fans enjoy seeing the drivers battle wheel-to-wheel for track position, and the inconsistent decisions by the race stewards will only prevent them from attacking wholeheartedly in the future.
3. Start line woes for Hamilton once again
The start of a race is one of the most crucial parts of a race weekend. A good start can make a poor qualifying session seem unimportant, whereas a bad one can immediately ruin the hard work from the previous day and make your race a chore.
The latter is exactly what happened to Hamilton in Bahrain, as the Briton was immediately jumped by team-mate Rosberg, so much so that Hamilton briefly tucked in behind his team-mate on the long run down to Turn 1.
For 2016 a new clutch system has been introduced to F1, with the drivers now only able to operate a single clutch paddle for the start of the race.
This might not sound like a major alteration, but it has quite evidently made getting off the line smoothly a major challenge for even the top dogs of the sport.
In Australia both Hamilton and Rosberg were sluggish getting away, allowing the Ferraris to gain the lead into Turn 1, with Hamilton losing ground after minor contact with team-mate Rosberg and dropping even lower to sixth.
In Bahrain Hamilton suffered yet another far from perfect start, this time along with the sole remaining Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.
During the Thursday press conference in Bahrain the drivers were questioned over how difficult the single clutch paddle is in comparison to the old format, with the drivers agreeing the new format is more of a challenge.
“I think I prefer the old-style one,” said Romain Grosjean.
“It’s a good challenge,” added Rosberg. “It makes it more difficult, there will be a bit more variability in the starts.”
This has certainly been the case so far this season!
In Australia the Ferraris went from third and fourth to first and second, and in Bahrain pole man and race favourite Hamilton suffered a dreadful getaway and was well and truly beaten by his team-mate.
After the first two races, the Chinese Grand Prix will be a major test to see if the drivers have managed to master the new clutch system.
4. Medium tyre misgivings in Bahrain
After the varying strategies that spiced up the season opener in Australia, where several drivers including Rosberg, Hamilton and Grosjean all switched to the medium tyre compound during the red flag period and went to the end, many were somewhat surprised by how the medium tyre failed to perform as predicted in Bahrain.
As the race unfolded many were expecting some drivers to opt for a two stop strategy with the medium tyre compound, with Felipe Massa doing just that in the Williams.
However, this left the Brazilian struggling for pace in the closing laps, with the medium tyres failing to last as they had done in Australia.
Overall only three drivers ended the race on the medium tyres, with Daniel Ricciardo and Marcus Ericsson joining Massa.
Throughout the race only Hamilton, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Massa, Bottas, Ericsson, Nasr, Haryanto and Sainz used the medium tyre compound, with an overall lack of race pace from the tyre in comparison to the likes of the softs and super-softs being noticeable.
One driver who didn’t run the medium tyres during the race was Grosjean in the Haas, despite a strong belief in the paddock that the American outfit would try and two-stop with the compound, just like Massa and Ericsson.
Luckily for Grosjean the team elected against using the mediums, running the super-softs until their final stop when the Frenchman switched to the softs.
This enabled Grosjean to make several late overtaking manoeuvres on the more competitive soft compound, and storm to an astonishing fifth place finish.
5. Wunderkind Wehrlein rises Manor into the midfield
Manor ended last year's Bahrain GP 16th and 17th, its drivers two and three laps adrift from the pace of the leaders.
Fast forward 12 months and Pascal Wehrlein managed to not only out-qualify Ericsson, Perez, Jolyon Palmer, team-mate Haryanto and Nasr, but also run as high as seventh before ultimately finishing a very respectable 13th.
On top of that, the Mercedes junior produced the sixth fastest lap of the race, 0.966s slower than that of race winner Rosberg.
Compile all of these stats together and it's evident that Mercedes power and the Williams technical partnership has given Manor one heck of a boost for 2016.
Admittedly, Manor are still towards the back of the pecking order, but Wehrlein is certainly making a name for himself in F1.
The reigning DTM champion started the season in similar fashion in Australia, running as high as 13th after a stunning opening lap before finishing 16th.
Wehrlein is taking his chance with Manor by the scruff of the neck, showing Mercedes that he is more than ready to battle with the big boys, whether he has superior machinery or not.
Germany has a future champion in the making! He is quick and unafraid to make a name for himself.
Wehrlein’s F1 future certainly looks bright.
