Bahrain Grand Prix: Rampant Red Bull Charges
The Midfield Outside the points, Maldonado drove a competitive race from 17th on the grid to take 11th place, just short of the points and ahead of Hulkenbergs race-leading Sauber from a week ago. Bottas collided with Vergne on the first lap, then gained an overall place from the grid to take 14th as Williams pushed as hard as possible, but generally had another uneventful race. Hulkenberg was unable to do any more than take back the 12th place he gained on the opening lap from Massa in the closing stages, struggling for pace as he had through the whole weekend. The Tail End Torro Rosso scratched their heads as they wondered quite why their excellent, points-winning pace from China had evaporated. Daniel Ricciardo could only take 16th place despite adjustments made at pit stops and generally struggled throughout the afternoon. Vergne was the only retirement of the race, being spun by a Williams straight into the path of Caterhams Van der Garde, causing significant damage to the car which rendered him unable to continue, retiring on lap 18 after attempting to keep going. Charles Pic demonstrated that Caterhams new aero package had made a big difference as he drove a great race to finish 17th, dominating the back of the grid as he beat Gutierrez Sauber and ran only around 5 seconds behind Ricciardos Torro Rosso, leaving Gutierrez under further pressure to improve after a poor qualifying and another first-lap entanglement relegated him to 18th place in a car capable of far more. Bianchi continued his strong run of performances to finish 19th ahead of teammate Chilton in their Marussia Cosworths, though the young Brit was much closer this weekend than he had been through the first three of the season, perhaps due to previous experience of the Sakhir circuit. Van der Garde had a torrid afternoon from the start, being wrong-place, wrong-time as he ploughed into Vergnes spinning Torro Rosso, losing his front wing and ending up last. Late in the race he developed a problem on the right front, requiring a fourth pit stop that only rubbed salt in the wound. He will hope for Barcelona he can have the luck and upgrades his teammate benefited from here in Bahrain.