Flying Ferraris set fastest laps

2015 Bahrain Grand Prix lap times and fastest laps

19th April 2015, 19:0519th April 2015, 19:07 | Written by Keith Collantine

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

Browse all 2015 Bahrain Grand Prix articles

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39 comments on “Flying Ferraris set fastest laps”

Slava (@)
19th April 2015, 19:10
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. Sven (@crammond)
  19th April 2015, 19:21
  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. Broom (@)
    19th April 2015, 19:28
    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. SundarF1 (@sundarf1)
    19th April 2015, 19:33
    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. Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
  19th April 2015, 19:30
  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. Slava (@)
    19th April 2015, 21:13
    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. Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
      19th April 2015, 23:15
      @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. George (@george)
  20th April 2015, 0:20
  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.
MarkM
19th April 2015, 19:14
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. Kingshark (@kingshark)
  19th April 2015, 19:44
  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. Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
    19th April 2015, 20:10
    @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. Key (@key75)
      19th April 2015, 21:46
      @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. Adrian (@blackmoo)
    20th April 2015, 4:23
    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
Mrahealpia
19th April 2015, 19:19
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. Andy (@andycz)
  19th April 2015, 19:23
  Becasue there is the pit wall and they want to celebrate! The closer the better!
  1. Mrahealpia
    19th April 2015, 19:25
    Of all the racers RIC certainly is the man who knows how to celebrate haha. The fancier the better!
    1. Andy (@andycz)
      19th April 2015, 19:33
      For sure! A bit more fireworks, the better! :-D
2. PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
  19th April 2015, 19:24
  To wave at his engineers. Drivers also gather a lot of marbles on their tires on the cool down lap for technical reasons.
  1. Grosjean's smile (@testacorsa)
    19th April 2015, 19:28
    The only reason is to make the car heavier, no?
    1. Andy (@andycz)
      19th April 2015, 19:35
      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. Czef (@czef)
        19th April 2015, 20:41
        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. anon
        19th April 2015, 21:05
        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. mark p
        19th April 2015, 21:33
        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. PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
      19th April 2015, 21:12
      @testacorsa Height was also an issue I thought?
      1. Grosjean's smile (@testacorsa)
        20th April 2015, 8:16
        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. Darth-Ecclestone (@darth-ecclestone)
  19th April 2015, 19:27
  it makes for a better photograph being closer to the pit wall/camera
SotF1Rules (@sotiris07)
19th April 2015, 19:50
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. William Stuart (@williamstuart)
  19th April 2015, 20:07
  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.
D
19th April 2015, 19:54
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.
Daniel (@dstaplet13)
20th April 2015, 2:17
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.
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.
Dale
20th April 2015, 13:44
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. Dale
  20th April 2015, 13:48
  Just found RIC was on mediums and 22 laps was about avg.
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.
simone
20th April 2015, 23:35
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