Bahrain Grand Prix: Rosberg WINS for Mercedes ahead of Ferrari’s Raikkonen

Nico Rosberg has taken a comfortable win at the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton crashed and Sebastian Vettel retired.

Lewis Hamilton may have been on pole position for the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix, but a poor start and a coming together left Rosberg in the lead and heading for a comfortable win.

Hamilton’s clash with the Williams of Bottas on the first lap saw him drop to seventh, and although he clawed his way back he never looked in contention, having to settle for third, behind the Ferrari of Raikkonen.

The win by Rosberg – his fifth on the trot – sees him establish a 17 point lead after just two races, but he must be as worried about Ferrari’s 2016 potential as much as his team mate, with Raikkonen’s second place proving the Ferarris are close to the Mercedes, even if Vettel’s car failed before the race even started.

And despite a poor start, Raikkonen got his Ferrari up to second spot by lap seven – although a full 12 seconds behind Rosberg’s Mercedes – and that’s how it stayed to the end.

Behind Rosberg, Raikkonen and Hamilton is was a fourth place for Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and the new Haas team managed a very impressive fifth from Romain Grosjen. Max Verstappen took sixth ahead of the Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat (after starting 15th), Massa took eighth for Williams and Bottas ninth.

But perhaps the most impressive result was tenth place – and a point – for Stoffel Vandoorne in his F1 debut, standing in for Alonso, in the McLaren, who out-qualified Button (although he was behind Button when Button retired with another McLaren Honda reliability problem). Impressive stuff.