Bahrain GP: Race - Re-Cap & Results

BAHRAIN GP - RACE - RE-CAP & RESULTS

    As teams prepared to go racing for the third round of the 2017 season, there was more trouble for McLaren-Honda before the lights could even go out. It was confirmed that Stoffel Vandoorne would not start the race due to a power unit issue. To make things worse, there were power unit issues for Alonso too. However, the Spaniard was able to start the race.

    Valtteri Bottas, starting from his first ever pole position, pulled away from the rest of the grid as the race started. Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton quickly charged after him. It was a tight battle of Ferrari and Mercedes power and it was advantage Mercedes.

    Kevin Magnussen was the first retirement of the race, pulling over to the side of the track as he lost power due to an electrical failure. His team-mate, Grosjean, finished the race in 8th, bringing 4 points to the Ferrari-powered American team. 

    It had looked to be a promising race for the Red Bull duo, but for Verstappen, his race was cut short due to a sudden brake failure. He was quick to come over the radio, singing the tune of "Brakes failed!" - He then climbed out of the car, visibly upset of the outcome. Daniel Ricciardo had better luck. While it wasn't a 'Shoey' finish, he still managed to bring the other RB13 home in 5th.

    More retirements happened just one lap later when Toro Rosso driver, Carlos Sainz, headed out of pit-lane. As he approached the end of pit-exit, he turned his car into Lance Stroll's williams. While it wasn't intentional or malicious, it still ended the race for both of them. The accident was investigated afterwards and Sainz was handed a 3-Place-Grid-Penalty for the upcoming Russian GP and 2 penalty points were also applied to his license.

    Lewis Hamilton was given a 5-Second-Time-Penalty for driving unnecessarily slow in the pit-lane. This was during a Mercedes double-pit-stop while the Safety car was out, following the Stroll/Sainz collision. Daniel Ricciardo was behind Hamilton and confirmed on the radio that Hamilton was driving too slow.

    It was a good/bad day for the Sauber-Ferrari team as well, with 1 retirement and 1 finish in the race. It was Ericsson that went out due to a gearbox issue, while Wehrlein, who sat out both the Australian GP and Chinese GP, finished in 11th, just one place away from a points finish for the Swiss team. 

    That last points position was taken by Esteban Ocon, the young rookie for Force India, who has finished in the points in all the races so far this season. His older team-mate, Sergio Perez, finished in 7th and brought home 6 points, bringing Sahara Force India up to 4th in the constructors standings.

    Fernando Alonso was the last retirement of the race as his power unit finally failed with just a few laps left in the race. He qualified as finished as he had completed over 90% of the race distance, but it still isn't the way anyone wants their race to end. 

    In the end, Sebastian Vettel come out on top and took the win. Both Vettel and Ferrari currently lead the drivers & constructors standings. Lewis Hamilton brought home 2nd while Bottas crossed the line in 3rd. While it wasn't a win for Bottas this time, there's no denying the Finn will bring home 1st for Mercedes in the future.

    Now the teams and some of the main drivers will stick around for the first 2-day in-season test, and in 2 weeks time, F1 heads to Sochi for the Russian Grand Prix.

RESULTS: 

1. Sebastian Vettel / Ferrari-Ferrari / Germany / + 25 Points

2. Lewis Hamilton / Mercedes-Mercedes / Great Britain / + 18 Points

3. Valtteri Bottas / Mercedes-Mercedes / Finland / + 15 points

4. Kimi Raikkonen / Ferrari-Ferrari / Finland / + 12 Points

5. Daniel Ricciardo / Red Bull-TAG-Heuer / Australia / + 10 Points

6. Felipe Massa / Williams-Mercedes / Brazil / + 8 Points

7. Sergio Perez / Force India-Mercedes / Mexico / + 6 Points

8. Romain Grosjean / Haas-Ferrari / France / + 4 Points

9. Nico Hulkenberg / Renault-Renault / Germany / + 2 Points

10. Esteban Ocon / Force India-Mercedes / France / + 1 Point

11. Pascal Wehrlein / Sauber-Ferrari / Germany

12. Daniil Kvyat / Toro Rosso-Renault / Russia

13. Jolyon Palmer / Renault-Renault / Great Britain

14. Fernando Alonso / McLaren-Honda / Spain / DNF - Power Unit*

RETIRED - Marcus Ericsson / Sauber-Ferrari / Sweden / Gearbox

RETIRED - Carlos Sainz / Toro Rosso-Renault / Spain / Collision

RETIRED - Lance Stroll / Williams-Mercedes / Canada / Collision

RETIRED - Max Verstappen / Red Bull-TAG-Heuer / Netherlands / Brake Failure

RETIRED - Kevin Magnussen / Haas-Ferrari / Denmark / Electrical Failure

DNS - Stoffel Vandoorne / McLaren-Honda / Belgium / Power Unit

* - Notes Alonso qualified as finished

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Article Written By: Amy Hawk

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