Can anybody stop Mercedes?

Mercedes’ rivals come to Bahrain for the country’s first ever night race convinced that the Sakhir circuit’s characteristics will suit the Silver Arrows down to the ground.

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton were very quick at the desert venue during winter testing, and after dominating the first two races of the year, the points leaders are determined to carry on the good work.

“The first two races have been a great start to my season and I’m already looking forward to carrying on that momentum in Bahrain,” Rosberg says. “It’s a great track and I really enjoy driving it. I’ve never had much luck on race weekends here, but it’s definitely the one I’m best prepared for this year. I came to Bahrain for the Pirelli tyre test back in December and during winter testing a few weeks ago. We may be leading both championships at the moment but our rivals are breathing down our necks, so we need to stay focused and keep doing our job calmly and professionally.”

 Hamilton, energised by a crushing victory last weekend, is ready for more of the same.

“It was great to kick-start my season with a win in Malaysia,” he explains. “Taking a one-two was also a fantastic result for the team and I can’t wait to see what we can do here. I’ve finished on the podium here a couple of times here but, for one reason or another, I’ve never managed to get the win. Until last week it was the same story for me with Malaysia, so fingers crossed this can be the year of breaking those cycles!

“Malaysia was a really busy event for the team and we have a test coming up straight after this weekend’s race, so it would be great to give the crew another good result to head home with. We know it’s going to be tough to maintain our current form, particularly at a circuit where every team has had so much running time over the winter, but I’ll be pushing hard to keep those results coming.”

Williams were also very quick here in winter testing, and are determined to push back ahead of Red Bull, Ferrari, Force India and McLaren after a couple of slightly disappointing showings in Australia and Malaysia, and to regain that momentum.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner said after the Malaysian race that his team don’t expect to challenge Mercedes here.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo faces a particular struggle this weekend, as he carries a 10-place grid penalty from Sepang for his team’s unsafe release during the race.

Elsewhere, there appear to be mixed feelings at Ferrari. Kimi Raikkonen says he’s pinning his hopes on some updates, but Fernando Alonso said he doesn’t expect an upturn in performance this weekend.

While Lotus have their tails up again after Romain Grosjean’s strong run to 11th in Malaysia, McLaren race boss Eric Boullier is worried that his MP4-29s won’t be any quicker than they were in Malaysia.

The big news from the track’s point of view this year is that the Grand Prix will start at 1800 hours local time meaning that it will start at twilight when the temperatures will just be starting to drop. As in Singapore and Abu Dhabi, the drivers will be racing under newly-installed floodlights.

As last year, there will be two DRS zones in Sakhir. The detection point of the first zone is 10m before Turn 9 and the activation point is 50m after Turn 10. The second zone’s detection point is 108m before Turn 14, with activation occurring 270m after Turn 15. Sunday’s race, which like the rest of the weekend is expected to be dry, will be run over 57 laps or 308.238 kilometres (191.530 miles). It starts at 1800 hours local time, which is one hour ahead of GMT.