2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

Championship standings

Nico Rosberg leads the Drivers’ Championship with 43 points, ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton in second. Fernando Alonso holds third, with Jenson Button fourth and Kevin Magnussen fifth.

Previous race

Hamilton dominated in Malaysia from start to finish, leading every lap to claim the first Grand Chelem of his Formula One career. It was also Mercedes’ first 1–2 finish since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix, with Rosberg second and Vettel third. Hamilton equalled Jim Clark’s record of 33 pole positions by a British driver. Meanwhile Ricciardo retired after an unsafe pit stop release; he was subsequently given a 10-place grid penalty for this race.

Between-race developments

Red Bull’s appeal of Ricciardo’s Australia disqualification was heard on 14 April and rejected — the exclusion stands. Magnussen and Bianchi each received two penalty points on their super licences for incidents in Malaysia; Bottas was given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Ricciardo in qualifying.

Milestones

This is the 900th Formula One World Championship race.

Track changes

The Bahrain Grand Prix is held under floodlights for the first time, marking the tenth anniversary of the event’s inaugural running. Floodlighting was trialled at the 2013 6 Hours of Bahrain before being confirmed for this race.

Entrants

Felipe Nasr drives in free practice for Williams in place of Valtteri Bottas; Giedo van der Garde takes Adrian Sutil’s Sauber for the session; Robin Frijns drives Kamui Kobayashi’s Caterham.

Tyre choices

Pirelli brings the yellow-banded soft compound as the option and the white-banded medium as the prime — the same selection as Malaysia.

Practice

Hamilton was fastest in both Friday sessions — 1:37.502 in FP1 and 1:34.325 in FP2. In the second session, Maldonado’s car was launched airborne after striking the exit kerbs at turn four, damaging the car. Chilton lost control braking for the same corner following a front-left brake disc failure. The turn four kerb was subsequently removed by circuit officials following driver complaints. Vettel missed the final 20 minutes of FP2 after spinning at turn two and beaching his car in the gravel. Hamilton set the fastest time of FP3 at 1:35.324, ahead of Rosberg and Pérez.