Formula One Bahrain GP 2014: Duel in the desert

I admit it: I was wrong; I am sorry. Kindly allow me to apologize for my mistake. I made a decision without taking in all the facts. I’ve been thinking out loud that the Bahrain Grand Prix is nothing more than a parade to the flag, and even voiced out my opinion on more than one occasion that it should be scrapped for the lack of overtaking and wheel-to-wheel racing that fans deserve.

The 2014 edition put all my apprehensions about the race down the drain. The 2014 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix was great—check that; it was awesome!

Saturday qualifying again placed this year’s favored team, Mercedes AMG-Petronas, on P1 and P2. Rosberg took top honors, while the rest of the grid had to be content with fighting for the P3 spot downwards. Mercedes’ F1W05 made everyone else play catch-up. Daniel Ricciardo on his RB10 took 3rd, and Valterri Bottas was 4th. Then Sergio Perez, Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button, Felipe Massa, Kevin Magnussen and Fernando Alonso rounded up the top 10.

Race day in Bahrain saw the cars line up under the floodlights. With the exception of Sebastian Vettel and Sutil, the rest statrted on Pirelli Yellows, which are the options for this race, with the White Pirelli Mediums as the prime. As the red lights went out, both Mercedes took off, with Rosberg trying to chop Hamilton midway down the straight. But Hamilton kept his composure and out-dragged Rosberg into the tight right-hander of turn 1, never backing down. Both drivers kept the pressure on each other but they raced cleanly, and no drama was evident. It was just all-out racing.

On lap 5, Fernando Alonso came over the radio informing the team “we don’t have the power”, which was sad news for the tifosi. With Ferrari president Luca Di Montezemolo in attendance, that was a bitter pill to swallow for the team. As the window for the first stop in a three-stop race strategy came about, on lap 10-13, most of the teams brought in their drivers. The exceptions were the front runners who were on a two-stop strategy.

On lap 14, Sebastian Vettel informed his team that his Drag Reduction System (DRS) was not working. This prompted the Red Bull team to inform Vettel a lap later to give way to his faster teammate and not hold him back, to the delight of non-Vettel fans (and a few t-shirt printers).

Lap 21 finally brought in race leader Lewis Hamilton in for tires, and Nico Rosberg came in two laps later. The team split their tire strategy and gave Lewis the primes while Nico was on options. Kimi Raikkonen, who also didn’t have ERS, was faring no better than his teammate. Vettel overtook him on lap 25 with relative ease.

The race progressed without any major incident, until, Lap 41. Pastor Maldonado in his Lotus, after coming out of the pits, dove and tried to take turn one over the faster Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez, who was on the racing line. Maldonado t-boned the Sauber, causing it to flip over and land heavily just outside turn 1. This prompted race control to field the safety car as the crews retrieved the damaged Sauber C33.

The safety car period was a chance for a few of the drivers to come in for a change of tires without losing their position. But for Hamilton, this was a huge blow, as his lead disappeared instantly. He was left to fend off Nico, who had the slightly better tire choice. Both Mercedes were given a radio message to “take the cars home,” which was understood by most to be team orders maintain their position to the flag. But, how wrong were we all. Fans were given about 10 fantastic laps on how racing should be. No quarter was given by either driver, and it was a clinic on how to overtake cleanly in Formula One.

The lead between the two changed faster than the scoreboard could cope. Nico would dive and take a corner, but Lewis would re-take the lead immediately. This went on and on, and even made us wonder how long before the team orders told them to stop, or worse, before they took each other out of the race. But team orders weren’t a factor and both were given the green light to fight to the checkered flag. It was just pure racing!

As both Silver Arrows crossed the line at the Sakhir Circuit, with Hamilton over Rosberg and Sergio Perez in his Force India-Mercedes VJM07 claiming the last step on the podium, fans the world over were in high praises for the race. Social networks were lit up by favorable comments about the GP.

If the 2014 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain GP is any indication for the rest of the season, then we should be in for a fantastic year of Grand Prix racing.