Rosberg played it safe in Bahrain

Nico Rosberg took his second victory of the season and fifth in a row at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The pilot Mercedes leaves the Sakhir circuit with a lead of 17 points over his teammate Lewis Hamilton only third after being hooked at the start by Valtteri Bottas (video).

“We worked a lot on departures”, explained Nico Rosberg at a press conference. “I’m delighted to see it worked so well. I left really quickly while I was in the dirty part of the track. This is what decided the fate of my race. »

Freed from his direct adversaries, also with the abandonment of Sebastian Vettel in the formation lap (video), the German was able to adopt a cautious strategy by managing his lead over Kimi Räikkönen. The Mercedes driver switched from super soft to soft tires twice to win with around ten seconds ahead of the Finn.

" There car behaved very well. I just had to manage my lead while remaining cautious. I was thinking about the possible entry of the safety car. We adopted the most cautious strategy, not the fastest”, explained the Championship leader.

Discover the analysis of the Bahrain Grand Prix carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2057 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.