By Jens Marx, dpa
Sakhir, Bahrain (dpa) – Nico Rosberg coasted to his fifth straight Formula One victory on Sunday at the Bahrain Grand Prix as rivals Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton suffered setbacks right before and after the start.
Rosberg beat his pole-sitting Mercedes team-mate Hamilton at the start from second place on the grid, and Hamilton was then hit in the first turn by the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and dropped to ninth from where he recovered for third.
Vettel, who was third in qualifying and seen as the main challenger to the Mercedes duo, did not even make it to the start as his Ferrari failed and went up in smoke in the formation lap.
Rosberg claimed his first win in Bahrain and 16th overall ahead of second-placed Kimi Raikkonen, who salvaged Ferrari pride.
German Rosberg has won every race since Hamilton prematurely clinched the 2015 title – the final three of the past campaign as well as this year’s season-opener in Australia and Sunday.
«A great weekend, simply perfect,» Rosberg said. «The key was the start. I had a great getaway. From there I was just trying to control the race.»
Hamilton, who had also started poorly in Australia, admitted that all he could do again was damage limitation.
«We still managed to get back up there. I had so much damage to the car, I couldn’t fight with Kimi,» the Briton said.
Seeking his first world title after runner-up spots behind Hamilton in the past two seasons, Rosberg leads the championship with a maximum 50 points from two races, with Hamilton second on 33.
Rosberg got past Hamilton quickly from the off. Bottas meanwhile charged into the first tight right turn in third after passing Raikkonen but could not find enough room on the inside and hit Hamilton’s car.
Bottas was punished with a drive-through penalty by stewards for causing the collision but that did not help Hamilton, who dropped to ninth and had to play catch-up with a partially damaged car.
The Briton charged back to third by lap eight, including an incident-free passing of Bottas but Rosberg had long moved far ahead of the pack under the Bahrain floodlights.
Raikkonen managed to stay out of trouble like Rosberg and was running in second place, and Hamilton in third, after all teams had changed tyres for the first time.
This order did not change through the second and third stops as Rosberg crossed the finish line after 57 laps in 1 hour 33 minutes
34.696 seconds, 10 seconds clear of Raikkonen and half a minute ahead of Hamilton.
Vettel and Ferrari meanwhile were left lamenting the unexpected technical problem before the start which according to both came completely out of the blue.
«It surprised us, we hadn’t expected problems. I lost performance and then saw that smoke was coming out of the rear, and that was it,»
said Vettel, who had finished behind Rosberg and Hamilton in Australia.
Romain Grosjean improved from his sixth place in the maiden race for the Haas team in Australia with a fifth-placed finish behind Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.
McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne was a strong 10th for one championship point in his first F1 race in place of the injured Fernando Alonso.
Team-mate Jenson Button had to retire early in the race.
The season continues on April 17 with the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.
