The Rosberg Rule.

Raikkonen said he had only one good chance at Vettel but went the wrong way under braking.

Forgive the delay with the summary but I was racing myself this past week rather than sitting on a couch watching the GP. I did see the race eventually and, like the one before it, it was a great one.

I said it after China: Kimi is back. Lotus' tire strategy failed them in Shanghai but it was a bullseye in Bahrain. Kimi was supper aggressive on the start (check out his scrap with Rosberg) and the Renault RS27 were demons on the start regardless of what car they were in. Have a look a Grosjean's start from the overhead, it's like he lit the after burners. How do they do that? The Renault engine is more efficient than Ferrari or Mercedes and Renault teams can start with less fuel, as much as 9 kg less. Nine kilos weight delta is good for 3/10th a lap not to mention increased tire wear.

Kimi's performance, eleventh to second must have certainly made Grandpa Schumi grumpy. No wonder he was cursing his Pirelli's, in the third year of his comeback and he has yet to score a podium while Mr, Sleep/Ice Cream/Drive scored on on his fourth race. He pushed Vettel to the point where RBR were worried he had burned too much fuel to meet minimum weight and had him stop after the flag.

Mercedes were not able to get much advantage from their trick blower wing with that short DRS zone and Rosberg was forced to use some very grumpy grandpa tactics to defend.

At the time I thought he should have been penalized for his moves on Hamilton and Alonso but looking over the replays I think the stewards got it... almost right.  The rules state you can make one defensive move and then a second to get back on the racing line. It is only on this second move that you need to leave room, Rosberg certainly did that, in both cases, with Hamilton and with Alonso.  Dickish move but legal

Where the stewards did go wrong perhaps is that drivers are specifically forbidden to pass outside the confines of the track, Hamilton should have ducked back if he could or lifted instead he passed Rosberg with four wheels off the track surface. He's quite lucky to escape a penalty from the stewards on top of Mclaren's self inflicted ones on pit lane.

China was all Mercedes but Bahrain was totally Renault, how great is this season so far?

Executive Summary after the jump...