The Mercedes driver made it 5 wins on the trot, going back to the Mexico GP last season, as he came in ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.
Indeed, Hamilton had started on pole for the race, but dropped to 7th by the first turn when his car was hit by Valtteri Bottas in the Williams at the first corner and suffered similar repercussions to that in Melbourne.
Whilst Hamilton dropped back, Rosberg led from the front throughout and wasn’t challenged. Whilst Raikonnen was working his way through the field in the race, his Ferrari team-mate, Sebastian Vettel, didn’t start it due to engine failure.
Towards the end, Raikonnen had closed to within 5 seconds of the leader, but on new tyres after 3 pit stops, the championship leader closed out another grand prix victory and moved 17 points clear of Lewis Hamilton in the standings.
The British driver managed to get vital points again, like in Australia, due to his tenacious effort to come through the field again. Major damage to the car meant he was in no position to challenge, but done enough to grab yet another podium spot.
Rosberg, who by winning in Bahrain, has now won 16 grand prix’ said afterwards: “I’m just enjoying the moment, fighting for wins, knowing I’m going to be fighting for the win in China. I’m really not looking ahead.”
Hamilton on the other hand doesn’t fear the big gap already opened up between him and his team-mate to win the Drivers title for 2016. “Don’t worry about it, I’m not,” he said.
He added: “This is a psychological game for sure, but with age and experience I’m in the most solid place I’ve been. There’s very little that can penetrate that. I know it will come good. We’ve had two poles and we’ll get more.”
By the time the F1 circus goes to China next week, the qualifying criteria which has come in for criticism, may not be employed in this race or others after, after drivers voted to go back to the original 2015 qualifying format.
The new system which was used in Australia and Bahrain, was a process that saw drivers eliminated over the weekend, but has now been successfully voted off the agenda.
