Nico Rosberg made it back-to-back wins to start the new Formula One season by winning the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday, capitalizing on a first-corner collision involving Mercedes teammate lewis Hamilton and an engine failure which prevented Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel starting the race.
Rosberg led throughout to win by 10.2 seconds from Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, with Hamilton recovering from the collision with the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and finishing third. It was the fifth straight win for Rosberg, dating back to last season, and his first in Bahrain.
Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was fourth and Romain Grosjean fifth in another encouraging performance by the new American-based Haas team. Toro Rosso teenager Max Verstappen was sixth and Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat seventh, ahead of the Williams drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, with Mclaren's Stoffel Vandoorne in 10th to take a point on his F1 debut.
There was drama on the warm-up lap as smoke began pouring from the back of Vettel's Ferrari and he immediately parked the car. It was the second reliability failure for Ferrari already this season after trouble struck Raikkonen in Australia.
Pole-sitter Hamilton again got off to a poor start, like he did in Melbourne, as he adjusts to the new rule restricting drivers to a single clutch at the start. The Briton was running behind Rosberg at the first corner when Bottas made an ambitious move and collided with the right side of the Mercedes, dropping Hamilton down to seventh at the end of the first lap.
Bottas was blamed by stewards and was forced to do a pitlane drive-through penalty.