The first night race of the 2016 Formula One season was held in at the Bahrain International Circuit. As usual, all eyes were on Mercedes and Ferrari to see which team would come out on top. Fernando Alonso was also popular in the news, as the FIA medical staff forced him to sit out the race.
Mercedes locked out the first two positions on the time charts for the both of the sessions on Friday. Nico Rosberg topped the sessions, with his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, close behind. Kimi Räikkönen was faster than his Ferrari teammate all day. He was third in free practice one, but he was overtaking during free practice two by a Toro Rosso and McLaren. Sebastian Vettel was out of the top ten in free practice one, but he steadily improved throughout the rest of the day. McLaren made the news on Friday when they were in P3 at the end of the last session of the day.
Ferrari bounced back in the first session on Saturday, as they took the top away from Mercedes. Mercedes was directly behind the pair of Ferrari drivers. Williams and Haas improved their pace in free practice three and finished behind the leading four. Hamilton earned the pole position and his teammate started beside him. Ferrari locked out the second row of the grid, with Daniel Ricciardo completing the top five in qualifying. Further down the field, Manor made an impressive qualifying, getting their driver into 16th position for the race.
Sunday didn’t start well for Ferrari, as Vettel suffered an engine failure during the formation lap and was unable to start. With Magnussen starting from the pitlane, the other Renault was also on the pitlane before the start, but they had no plan of starting. Jolyon Palmer was unable to start the race. When the race started, Räikkönen had a bit of a slow start, while the others pulled away. It wasn’t smooth sailing for Mercedes, as Hamilton was hit by the Williams of Valtteri Bottas in the first turn. Hamilton suffered damage and Bottas was given a drive-through penalty. At the end of the day, Rosberg was able to strengthen his championship lead with another race victory. Räikkönen piloted the Ferrari into second position, Hamilton wrapping up the podium.
The third round of the 2016 Formula One season will be at the Shanghai International Circuit on the weekend of April 17 for the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix.
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