Of
late the Silver Arrows are getting their aim perfect. At the qualifying race of
the Formula One race in Bahrain, Mercedes came first and second. The race is
being organised at the circuit in Sakhir. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes AMG Petronas
nudged his team mate Lewis Hamilton to grab pole position by nearly
three-tenths of a second.
Daniel
Riccaiardo of Red Bull Racing-Renault came in third. The final race will be
held on Sunday April 6 evening (as per the Indian local time at around 8.30pm). He was followed by Valtteri Bottas of
Williams Mercedes, who in turn was trailed by Sergio Perez of Force India.
For
2013 F1 champion Sebastian Vettel, the going continues to be tough as he was he
could only manage an 11th position. Incidentally, he has now been out-qualified
by team mate Ricciardo twice in three races - as many times as Mark Webber
managed during the whole of the 2013 season.
With
Ricciardo’s grid penalty from Malaysia taken into account, the grid will read:
Rosberg, Hamilton; Bottas, Perez; Raikkonen, Button; Massa, Magnussen; Alonso,
Vettel; Hulkenberg, Kvyat; Ricciardo, Vergne; Gutierrez, Grosjean; Maldonado,
Sutil; Kobayashi, Bianchi; Ericsson, Chilton.
Adrian
Sutil of Sauber Ferrari was given a five-place grid penalty and received two
penalty points on his Super Licence after the FIA deemed the Sauber driver to
have held up Lotus’s Romain Grosjean in an “unsafe manner” during qualifying in
Bahrain, according to Formula One news site.
Sutil
had qualified 18th, and will therefore start the third race of the season from
the back of the grid.
Sutil’s
demotion means that Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi is promoted to 18th, with
Marussia’s Jules Bianchi now sharing the tenth row with the second Caterham of
Marcus Ericsson. Marussia's Max Chilton, meanwhile, will start from 21st,
alongside Sutil.
Red
Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo also drops 10 places as part of his penalty for an
unsafe release at the last round in Malaysia. He thus starts 13th.
PICTURE COURTESY DAIMLER