Even though Hamilton walked away with yet another win this year, he was arguably 1 lap away from losing his position to Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Raikkonen was simply flying late in the race on Sunday night thanks to his soft-medium-soft tire strategy, fighting back in a dramatic fashion and almost challenged Hamilton for first place. Even Mercedes said that if the race had gone on for another lap, Kimi would have probably had Lewis on the ropes.

Vettel on the other hand finished 5th, behind Williams‘ Valtteri Bottas who proved once again how talented he really is, keeping his car in front of the Ferrari without any problems.

3rd placed went to Nico Rosberg who didn’t have his best Grand Prix out there. Things got heated during the final laps of the race when he couldn’t fight off Raikkonen because of his brakes overheating. Still, 3rd place wasn’t a bad consolation prize.

Red Bull were very quiet on the track but managed respectable 6th and 9th place finishes with Ricciardo and Kvyat respectively. P7 went to Lotus‘ Romain Grosjean, while Force India’s Sergio Perez finished P8.

Brazilian Felipe Massa was very unlucky when his car stalled on the grid (he had to start the race from the pits), yet he fought back and finished 10th despite another incident where Lotus’ Maldonado hit him early on causing some aero damage to his car.

10 Random Things We’ve Noticed

– What is it with Hamilton and getting off the line so well? When’s the last time anyone saw him have a bad start to a race? Obviously he’s had a few, yet lately it just seems that he’s locked in. Must be why he keeps winning so much.

– Watching “cockpit cam” footage from Alonso’s McLaren as he’s trailing Massa’s Williams in a straight line is downright embarassing..for the McLaren. They’re still giving up horsepower to the Mercedes engine, yet it doesn’t seem to be as bad as it was at the beginning of the year. Also, at one point Alonso was engaged in a serious dogfight with Red Bull’s Kvyat and held his own. Then again, the Red Bull is kind of slow.

– Rosberg forces Vettel’s Ferrari wide into Turn 1, just like he first did with Raikkonen at the beginning of the race, and moves into 2nd place on lap 9.

– Announcers finally comment on the ‘Massa & Nasr” name similarity and yes, it’s hard to tell which one they mean if the graphics aren’t showing the driver at that specific moment.

– It’s lap 12 and..is the McLaren still running? It is? OK good. Just checking. But seriously now, it’s time to officially stop having any sort of expectations from McLaren-Honda this year. It’s clearly a transition type of season, and expecting them to challenge for a high grid spot is to be unrealistic. Sorry fans, you’ll just have to wait for next year.

– Undercut works for Ferrari as Vettel leapfrogs Rosberg! Unfortunately for the four time champ, his luck runs out when he has to pit again and change the nose on his car. It’s why he finished 5th. However it was his own fault, running wide and damaging the front wing. For some reason, there were lots of mistakes being made in Bahrain over the weekend. Luckily, no major incidents.

– It’s official! Rosberg has overtaken a Ferrari during this race more times than we can count. Just kidding, we can totally count them. It’s, um, fine never mind!

– Ouch, another painful exit for Lotus as Maldonado’s car starts “smoking” in the pits.

– It was interesting to hear about the brake by wire problem Mercedes had. One more lap and Kimi would have had Lewis. We would have loved to see that, especially because it would have put even more pressure on Mercedes with Barcelona being 3 weeks away now.

– We’re starting to feel like Williams deserves props since their cars have been so reliable this year. They may not be as fast as Mercedes, but they’re only just slightly slower than Ferrari and just as fast if not faster on certain temperature/tire combos. Massa drove like a mad man after starting the race from the pits. He managed to take 13th place after just 7 laps before finishing 10th. That’s pretty good.

Sakhir Race Results

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
4. Valtteri Bottas, Williams
5. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari
6. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull
7. Romain Grosjean, Lotus
8. Sergio Perez, Force India
9. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull
10. Felipe Massa, Williams
11. Fernando Alonso, Mclaren
12. Felipe Nasr, Sauber
13. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India
14. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber
15. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus
16. Will Stevens, Marussia
17. Roberto Merhi, Marussia