Flying Ferraris set fastest laps

2015 Bahrain Grand Prix lap times and fastest laps

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The Ferrari drivers headed the fastest laps table at the Bahrain Grand Prix as they took the fight to Mercedes in the race.

Bahrain Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded):

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2015drivercolours.csv

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57
Lewis Hamilton 101.39 98.955 99.257 99.602 100.081 100.006 100.156 100.159 100.447 100.307 100.368 101.363 100.781 101.123 103.877 119.67 98.145 99.061 99.284 99.394 98.819 99.023 99.085 99.161 98.919 99.185 99.408 99.356 99.453 99.533 99.451 99.551 102.217 118.791 98.217 98.242 97.906 97.857 99.009 99.291 99.119 98.921 98.837 98.592 98.596 98.533 98.359 98.505 98.187 98.075 98.585 98.918 98.928 98.716 98.654 99.537 100.847
Sebastian Vettel 102.217 99.607 99.45 99.73 100.205 100.235 100.306 102.357 102.499 101.138 100.844 101.099 104.118 118.328 98.201 99.661 98.917 98.793 99.31 99.203 99.286 99.349 99.605 99.385 100.435 99.469 99.808 99.981 100.143 100.027 100.302 103.027 118.751 97.547 98.013 103.492 126.735 96.624 97.362 97.562 98.065 98.452 98.372 98.968 98.752 98.917 99.469 99.289 99.507 99.225 99.471 99.503 99.537 99.743 99.699 99.756 99.952
Nico Rosberg 103.381 100.231 99.569 99.788 100.035 100.051 100.117 101.455 100.786 100.293 101.296 100.964 100.611 103.611 118.549 97.69 98.966 98.737 99.459 99.466 98.852 99.435 99.312 99.033 99.331 99.273 99.513 99.903 99.841 99.868 100.093 100.499 100.474 103.03 117.836 97.326 97.731 97.841 98.211 98.496 98.624 99.134 98.718 98.745 98.93 98.322 98.358 98.363 98.579 98.717 98.42 98.35 99.072 98.821 99.149 101.39 99.197
Kimi Raikkonen 102.896 99.882 99.852 102.277 100.262 100.056 100.196 100.592 101.331 101.066 101.172 101.192 101.268 101.148 100.973 100.898 104.164 119.477 98.403 98.688 99.193 99.013 98.986 99.017 99.101 99.171 99.398 99.389 99.606 99.733 99.995 99.565 99.509 99.45 99.632 99.884 99.591 99.665 100.684 104.5 117.785 96.311 96.62 96.832 96.722 96.785 97.541 97.59 97.524 97.683 97.316 97.695 97.72 98.228 99.181 98.766 98.015
Valtteri Bottas 104.432 100.302 99.904 101.101 100.802 101.214 100.923 101.297 101.321 101.419 101.521 101.698 102.062 105.572 121.018 98.095 98.656 98.879 99.06 99.044 99.632 99.712 100.034 100.143 100.104 100.471 100.448 100.566 100.559 100.904 101.279 101.83 105.08 118.678 98.51 99.143 99.127 98.777 98.902 98.744 98.64 98.68 98.962 98.921 98.894 98.878 99.438 99.491 99.25 99.375 99.521 99.457 99.425 99.792 99.735 99.542 99.802
Felipe Massa 111.189 101.887 101.981 101.596 101.475 101.771 101.893 102.477 102.383 105.864 120.121 99.094 99.475 100.2 100.52 100.7 100.723 101.226 101.169 101.314 101.581 101.905 102.262 106.002 121.037 99.479 100.374 100.25 101.081 100.053 100.537 100.41 100.775 99.981 100.513 100.47 100.185 100.303 100.432 100.292 100.547 100.651 100.476 100.584 100.592 100.466 100.973 100.818 101.774 102.001 101.618 101.52 102.878 104.805 102.922 103.08
Daniel Ricciardo 104.998 100.949 100.889 101.127 101.189 101.336 101.308 101.354 101.219 101.271 101.349 101.746 101.78 104.553 121.208 99.421 99.88 100.16 99.928 100.204 100.211 99.932 100.339 99.8 99.936 100.25 100.365 100.34 100.315 100.763 101.217 101.508 101.295 101.216 104.355 120.171 99.109 99.404 99.265 99.322 99.41 99.417 99.347 99.069 99.684 99.453 99.571 99.044 99.704 99.056 99.205 99.845 98.948 99.898 99.777 99.49 101.66
Nico Hulkenberg 106.025 101.26 101.338 101.443 101.55 101.63 101.912 102.075 102.186 104.82 122.568 100.317 100.422 101.589 101.786 100.94 100.749 101.143 101.091 101.394 101.505 101.753 101.98 102.217 104.907 119.978 100.076 100.652 99.802 100.186 101.163 100.746 102.83 102.023 101.891 101.637 101.646 104.108 122.738 98.653 99.201 99.467 99.583 99.584 100.817 99.927 100.474 100.854 100.75 101.579 100.526 100.427 100.606 100.641 100.752 101.27
Carlos Sainz Jnr 107.698 101.538 101.577 101.766 101.83 101.914 102.24 102.439 103.85 103.017 107.627 130.592 100.651 101.118 100.846 100.946 101.586 101.354 101.674 101.779 101.73 101.818 102.087 101.497 101.766 101.762 103.646 103.606 104.928
Romain Grosjean 105.366 101.107 101.127 101.082 101.358 101.631 101.96 101.753 102.008 102.279 102.386 105.241 120.563 99.556 100.27 99.826 100.222 100.429 100.454 100.651 100.727 100.926 100.992 101.319 101.431 101.294 101.619 101.415 101.902 102.275 105.04 120.544 99.213 99.161 99.4 99.439 99.635 99.587 99.871 99.969 100.167 99.955 99.915 99.714 100.137 100.238 100.755 100.542 100.342 100.177 100.286 100.275 100.534 100.391 100.387 100.532 101.197
Sergio Perez 108.268 101.618 101.688 101.737 101.911 101.98 102.096 102.518 101.726 101.893 102.181 101.967 102.03 102.949 103.008 103 106.296 121.091 99.088 99.301 99.47 99.859 100.424 100.924 100.274 100.797 100.407 100.44 100.876 101.363 101.464 101.701 101.206 101.433 101.679 102.644 104.827 120 98.338 98.831 99.083 99.294 99.468 99.738 99.591 99.567 100.075 100.375 101.672 100.136 100.54 100.232 100.392 100.618 102.127 101.162
Felipe Nasr 108.819 101.738 101.697 101.939 102.068 102.213 102.012 102.599 102.436 105.928 122.476 99.343 99.846 100.091 100.472 100.257 100.539 100.879 100.977 101.373 101.525 101.796 102.295 104.871 122.73 99.45 100.373 100.164 100.708 101.691 100.533 100.239 100.461 100.381 102.367 101.423 101.491 101.074 101.559 101.907 104.757 122.106 98.216 98.66 99.822 98.827 99.541 100.645 100.48 99.178 99.457 99.7 99.749 99.835 100.047 100.023
Marcus Ericsson 106.566 101.486 101.058 101.415 101.708 101.741 102.293 102.465 102.418 102.522 105.312 121.123 98.856 100.633 100.1 100.314 100.134 100.404 100.574 100.754 101.362 101.092 101.564 101.224 104.192 144.757 98.422 99.907 99.777 99.499 100.168 99.751 100.71 100.081 100.805 100.428 103.16 120.797 99.047 98.963 99.33 99.471 101.133 99.901 100.536 101.03 100.635 100.406 100.45 100.503 100.594 100.076 100.175 100.638 100.619 101.257
Fernando Alonso 109.376 102.035 101.762 101.753 101.996 102.521 103.382 102.257 102.478 102.712 103.093 104.581 106.103 121.883 100.927 100.741 101.146 102.74 101.421 101.644 101.737 101.801 101.752 101.943 101.615 101.823 102.275 101.46 101.942 102.172 102.573 102.233 102.054 102.137 104.509 120.291 99.326 98.992 99.292 100.936 99.554 99.394 99.152 99.445 100.026 100.297 99.989 100.198 100.845 100.329 100.128 100.089 99.943 99.91 100.124 99.826
Max Verstappen 109.895 102.009 102.17 102.196 103.296 106.696 136.163 100.982 101.257 101.797 101.831 103.113 101.672 103.288 102.949 102.012 101.899 102.228 101.812 101.978 101.784 101.768 101.802 101.678 101.782 102 102.091 102.596 102.639 104.937 123.456 99.607 99.812 116.809
Pastor Maldonado 111.121 101.421 101.821 103.185 102.308 101.753 102.131 102.34 102.22 105.144 126.713 98.495 99.451 99.887 100.173 100.149 100.405 100.511 100.617 100.834 100.923 101.177 101.659 105.057 119.108 98.34 99.388 98.685 99.039 99.334 99.732 99.883 100.788 99.672 99.771 99.856 100.53 99.814 100.016 99.958 103.42 97.665 97.754 99.063 98.451 98.669 98.458 98.697 98.718 98.797 98.64 98.968 98.894 98.85 98.736
Daniil Kvyat 110.564 103.347 101.763 102.547 102.083 103.081 101.375 102.013 102.175 102.413 102.309 103.061 102.825 102.61 105.467 122.131 99.463 101.072 100.174 99.931 100.227 100.794 100.355 100.323 100.684 100.645 101.049 101.083 101.163 101.36 101.619 101.88 102.025 105.112 121.315 98.725 99.167 99.431 99.715 99.579 100.305 99.519 99.724 100.478 99.948 99.599 100.152 99.976 99.807 100.044 100.545 102.765 100.759 103.129 100.835 100.339
Will Stevens 113.12 105.025 104.141 104.182 104.914 104.638 104.766 104.538 104.73 104.647 105.302 106.056 105.878 106.411 105.957 106.065 106.241 106.836 109.973 127.458 102.514 102.568 102.968 102.552 102.6 102.852 104.018 102.916 103.356 103.343 103.243 104.152 107.293 126.645 102.219 101.759 102.21 102.771 102.717 107.806 104.123 103.933 102.857 103.453 103.26 103.733 104.412 103.339 103.54 103.364 103.842 104.335 103.53 104.417 106.38
Roberto Merhi 113.056 104.459 104.11 104.278 104.967 106.003 105.026 105.459 105.276 105.593 106.613 106.567 106.961 107.059 107.4 107.643 107.65 111.719 126.826 103.029 103.517 104.403 103.261 103.342 103.731 104.009 105.237 104.195 105.465 106.522 106.365 105.61 105.374 109.146 126.139 102.033 102.56 103.425 103.576 104.696 103.031 103.487 104.029 103.5 103.814 104.44 105.293 104.349 104.313 104.113 105.666 107.919 105.123 106.244
Jenson Button

Kimi Raikkonen has always been a driver who delivers his very best over a race stint rather than in qualifying. And with a set of soft tyres at his disposal for the final stint, he was a genuine threat to the leading Mercedes duo.

He set the fastest lap of the race in his pursuit of Nico Rosberg, while Sebastian Vettel underlined the pace of the Ferrari by also lapping quicker than the two Mercedes.

Pastor Maldonado was another driver who ended the race on the soft tyres, but notwithstanding that the fact he was able to outpace the race-winning Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton will be of great encouragement to Lotus, even if he wasn’t able to bring home any points.

Bahrain Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

Rank Driver Car Fastest lap Gap On lap
1 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1’36.311 42
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’36.624 0.313 38
3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1’37.326 1.015 36
4 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes 1’37.665 1.354 43
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’37.857 1.546 38
6 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1’38.095 1.784 16
7 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1’38.216 1.905 43
8 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1’38.338 2.027 39
9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1’38.422 2.111 27
10 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1’38.653 2.342 40
11 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 1’38.725 2.414 36
12 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1’38.948 2.637 53
13 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1’38.992 2.681 38
14 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1’39.094 2.783 12
15 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 1’39.161 2.850 34
16 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 1’39.607 3.296 32
17 Carlos Sainz Jnr Toro Rosso-Renault 1’40.651 4.340 13
18 Will Stevens Manor-Ferrari 1’41.759 5.448 36
19 Roberto Merhi Manor-Ferrari 1’42.033 5.722 36
20 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda

2015 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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39 comments on “Flying Ferraris set fastest laps”

  1. McLaren is still too far behind. The best lap and the pace overall was terrible. They must find another second and a half in three weeks time.
    Kimi simply showed Vettel how you should race.

    1. Well, Alonso´s best lap is less than half a tenth behind Ricciardo. That´s exceeding expectations, they might even score points already before summer break.

      1. I think Alonso’s last set of tyres were on the options whereas Riccardio’s was on the primes which makes a difference.

        Kimi’s pace on the primes in his second stint was unbelievable.

      2. Fernando’s pace was almost on par with that of the Red Bulls, and that is some serious improvement given the pace at which they started the season. Also, with just one week between China and Bahrain, they probably couldn’t have changed anything significantly. Honda are bringing in a considerably revised engine package for Barcelona, which, reliability willing, will push them further ahead in the midfield. I expect they will be Q3 regulars in the second half of the season. Not bad at all, especially when you look at the way Renault are performing.

    2. Best laps mean nothing these days with the variations on strategy. Look at Grosjean’s best lap and the guy finished 7th.

      Alonso did quite well to finish 11th. A slight push ahead and he’ll be scoring points.

      1. I agree, although, after the race it seems that McLaren was only losing places, not gaining. The performance here was worse than in China. It is my first impression.
        Anyway, I believe that McLaren will challenge others for podium after the summer break.

        1. @slava Depends which part of the race you’re looking at. At one point they managed to unlap themselves and Alonso was pulling ahead of Hamilton :P

          They were on a 2 stopper too…

    3. Garry Webster
      19th April 2015, 22:32

      I like to take note how far Alonso is behind after 10 to 12 laps the last two races its been about 30 seconds so around 3 seconds a lap in other words a life time, they need to show a vast improvement on this if not rule out 2016 as well absolutely dire performance so far this season and not even getting Button out at all is a disgrace

    4. It’s obvious they’re losing a huge amount on the straights though, with DRS open he was barely keeping up with the cars in front. If they can get their engines on par with the Renault they’ll probably gain about 1s/lap I’d guess.

  2. can it really be said Hamilton was outpaced on a lap when he never really came under threat, and during the first stint of the race when he opened up a good gap, I don’t really feel anyone is quicker then him. He proed he could pull away and Vettel couldn’t really hold on to him.
    The latter part of the race is not really a good comparison as he was never under pressure to go 100%, but instead managing the gap to bring it home.

    just saying.

    1. What I don’t understand is how, when Raikkonen was on the mediums on his middle stint matching or being faster than Hamilton on softs, I thought that it was just tyres that were better. But when Kimi was on softs and the Mercs were on mediums, he suddenly became 2 seconds/lap faster.

      The Ferrari + Raikkonen package had incredible speed today, dare I say it, they had more race pace than even Hamilton.

      1. @kingshark
        1. Ham admitted he was saving tires throughout the race
        2. Ham was never under attack
        3. I think it’s safe to say Rosberg was flat out in the last stint because he let himself be caught by Kimi in the last stint.
        4. I assume Rosberg was not flat out in the middle stint and saved tires in case of safety car or change in strategy. Perhaps at that stage Merc did not see Kimi as a threat.

        All in all last stint is not a surprised, better tire will do that to laptime. What was surprising and mistake by Mercedes is not anticipating this in the middle stint.

        1. @kingshark @ivan-vinitskyy I’m not sure Mercedes could have done more today if they were really pushed!

          This news just show that Mercedes are somehow a little fragile and can’t stop improving rapidly if they want the Constructor Championship (I think the drivers one is for Hamilton already even with Ferrari catching because this year he’s just in another level from the rest of the field).

      2. Raikkonen’s had the advantage of a lighter car and clear window after the last pit to set a fastest time, also almost half the stint he ran in clean air and overtaking was a joke considering most of the lapped cars were on primes. I don’t understand why everyone is impressed by the Ferrari times, every race they matched Merc on tyre order they didn’t excel, and when they split it, they have a huge luck with clear air windows

  3. This question isn’t particular to the Bahrain race, but I’ve been wondering for a while: On the last lap, when the winner exits the last corner to cross the line, why does he always keep turning to finish on the dirty side of the track? Is this some sort of tradition, or is there a technical reason for it?

    1. Becasue there is the pit wall and they want to celebrate! The closer the better!

      1. Of all the racers RIC certainly is the man who knows how to celebrate haha. The fancier the better!

        1. For sure! A bit more fireworks, the better! :-D

    2. To wave at his engineers. Drivers also gather a lot of marbles on their tires on the cool down lap for technical reasons.

      1. The only reason is to make the car heavier, no?

        1. I think so. I remeber Kubica in his first race in F1 (2006 Hungary) – he was disqualified just because he forget to get some debries on the tyres – so he was a bit underweight. It was pity, because he was on points there…

          1. He weared out wets so much that he was 2kgs below limit.
            “Stewards praised the “assistance and cooperation” they received from the BMW Sauber team, who proved that Kubica’s car was inadvertently 2 kilograms below the minimum requirement because of “excessive and unexpected tyre wear (and therefore weight loss) through continued use of wet-weather tyres in comparison to the accustomed and anticipated rate of wear of dry tyres.”” From official F1.com

          2. Technically, the FIA doesn’t actually have to weigh the car with the tyres that the driver finished the race on. If they wanted to, the regulations do permit them to replace the tyres with a new set instead, though usually the only times when that is done is when the tyre is damaged in some way.

          3. Even if you gwt marbles on tyres to add weight if the weight is marginal the FIA can weigh the car with different tyres on to ensure the weight complies.

        2. @testacorsa Height was also an issue I thought?

          1. The plank wear would take care of the height, I think. They have the wooden plank, and the (we please the fans, so it looks like the good old days with sparkly) titanium skid plates now, so they can only go so low. So collecting marbles at the end, wouldn’t change the wear on the plank anyways. I’m not that much into the regulations, so maybe another would clarify?

    3. it makes for a better photograph being closer to the pit wall/camera

  4. I believe that Maclaren has made serious improvement! If Honda produce an even better PU I think that they will have podium finishes by the end of the year! I expect them to be in the top 3 teams next year! And imagine that this perfomance happens in a circuit that top speed really matters …and Maclaren is truly lacking top speed so the result today is great! Expect them to improve even more!

    1. Hopefully, one thing is that if regulations are changed for 2017 then they might be hit harder than the others. If they have to work so hard to get level with the others then they may not have enough time to focus on the next regulations.

  5. Even so, Mercedes will be very happy with the result. Another hot race out of the way, Rosberg up into second thanks to Vettel getting stuck behind Bottas. Good damage limitation.

  6. The fastest lap will not win you the race. Having consistently fast laps (being faster than the next guy, even if it is not a FLAP) over the entire race will, however.

    But Ferrari are knocking at the door of Mercedes (so to speak) the lap times between Lewis and Kimi are very close to each other when on similar tires.

  7. Grant Butler
    20th April 2015, 12:36

    Kimi was fast enough to win the race, yet somehow he didn’t and tbh I think keeping him out so long ruined it for him.

  8. A few fastest laps after early stops around lap 16, then others got their fastest at 2nd stops between laps 36 to 43, but RIC was all by himself doing his fastest on lap 53. Must have been looking after his last set of tyres. He finished with a long run (22 laps ?) on softs I think.

    1. Just found RIC was on mediums and 22 laps was about avg.

  9. Mr win or lose
    20th April 2015, 19:20

    Interestingly, even though Hamilton’s stops were on average slightly faster than Rosberg’s, he lost time in both his outlaps. So presumably he was trying not to overheat the tyres, which may explain why his tyres seemed to last slightly longer than Rosberg’s.

    1. pxcmerc (@)
      21st April 2015, 9:36

      Given how quick the tires seem to be falling off this year, the safest best is to just go slow at the front and use the turbulence to stall your opponent. Hamilton can win a great many races like this, oh yes. The Merc is fast enough to pass the Ferrari, but I haven’t seen a Ferrari pass a Merc barring Sepang when Merc screwed up their setup. All Merc have to do is watch the tires and dominate the red cars behind them, and it’s an easy 1-2. I don’t think you will be seeing very much over taking at the front this year, unless it’s back markers, reliability issues or severe setup issues.

  10. Just look at Vettel worst laps, when he did the well known mistakes: 8,9,36 and 37. Compare those lap times with his pace at that points of the race. Now re-align lap times, as if it was possible to remove those mistakes. You’ ll see Vettel lost 39 seconds. That means he would have finished just behind Raikkonen. Despite of being stuck behind Bottas. Who was faster then?
    Mathematics are not opinion.
    Just too much mistakes. Pure and simple. He struggled to find his rhythm in the cockpit.

    1. pxcmerc (@)
      21st April 2015, 9:39

      he was stuck in dirty air and lost his front tires. Kimi was in clean air and had a relatively smooth race. Lewis was chilling at the front, slowing down his opponents. Game set match. Lewis gets better tire life not being behind while his teammates have to keep 1.5 seconds off, if they get too close they blow their tires, if they get too close and push, they lose their tires even faster, and then Lewis pushes just enough to cover the DRS and watches the guy behind him fall to pieces.

      1. pxcmerc (@)
        21st April 2015, 9:40

        *teammate/opponents

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