This year’s Bahrain GP proved to be an exciting one with plenty of overtaking and drama. As a McLaren fan, the race did not go exactly as I’d hoped, and it is difficult to pick just one moment which was my personal highlight, however, an overall highlight for me has to be Kimi Räikkönen’s performance. Lotus has been threatening the ‘top’ teams in the first three races but today they got both cars on the podium. Räikkönen started back in 11th but a fast start got him up to seventh, while his team-mate Romain Grosjean, who also deserves a mention, got up to fourth. From there on both Lotus drivers continued to rise through the field with Räikkönen pressuring Sebastian Vettel for the race win towards the end. His drive proved that he is still fast and could be a serious contender this year – with Lotus moving into third position in the constructors. Räikkönen thoroughly deserved his return to the podium and this is my choice for my race highlight. I would also, however, like to mention Felipe Massa who picked up his first points of the season, which are thoroughly deserved after his trying start to the season.
Nico Rosberg’s Bahrain GP was a stark difference to China just a week before where he secured his first pole position and race win. He got involved in three race incidents which led to two separate steward investigations, which would be decided after the race. The incidents involved him pushing Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso off the track as they moved to overtake him. The first move came when Hamilton tried to overtake and Rosberg made his one move to defend, but moved his car right to the edge of the track, meaning that Hamilton found himself with all four wheels off the track and close to a barrier. Hamilton kept his foot on the throttle and passed Rosberg into the following corner. Rosberg quickly got onto his radio informing the team that Hamilton had passed him while off the track. A similar incident occurred when Alonso tried to overtake with Rosberg again moving across to defend. Alonso was not as far off the track as Hamilton had been but was still forced wide. He was clearly angry as he got onto his team radio and expressed his displeasure of the move, stating that Rosberg was supposed to leave him room but had not. The stewards chose to investigate both incidents after the race meaning, that if they choose to punish Rosberg, he could receive a time penalty (which would see him drop down the order), a grid drop for the Spanish GP or a reprimand. First of all, are Rosberg’s moves punishable? And secondly, if they do decide to punish him, should the stewards have given him a drive through penalty or stop/go penalty through the race when the incidents occurred?
Remembering Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna