Both Mercedes drivers pulled away from the rest of the field and Rosberg conserved fuel which allowed him to attack Hamilton before the first round of pit stops on lap 19 with his teammate successfully defending the lead.

He extended his advantage over Rosberg over the next 22 laps before an incident between Pastor Maldonado and Esteban Gutiérrez caused the safety car to be deployed and his lead was reduced to nothing.

Mercedes increased their advantage in the Constructors' Championship to be 68 points ahead of second-placed Force India who moved from fifth to second because of their strong result.

[8] With the potential of a title challenge between the two Mercedes drivers, Hamilton felt their relationship would be unaffected by the race, noting that the two had a healthy working association.

[10] Red Bull team principal Christian Horner felt the power advantage of both Mercedes cars would possibly be greater because of the Bahrain International Circuit being a "power-dominated" track.

[13] In October 2013, it was revealed by former McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh that the race would occur between the early part of the evening and nightfall saying he had observed plans for the idea.

Felipe Nasr drove in place of Williams driver Valtteri Bottas, the Sauber of Esteban Gutiérrez was taken over by Giedo van der Garde, and Robin Frijns utilised Kamui Kobayashi's Caterham.

[19] Hamilton lapped fastest in the first practice session at 1 minute and 37.502 seconds; Rosberg, Alonso, Nico Hülkenberg, Button, Kimi Räikkönen, Magnussen, Daniil Kvyat, Sergio Pérez and Sebastian Vettel were in positions two to ten.

The FIA's race director Charlie Whiting wrote to all teams warning that the track limits would be strictly enforced in the event any driver was shown to gain an advantage by going over this area.

Vettel missed the session's final 20 minutes because he spun at the second turn's exit and beached his car in the corner's gravel trap.

[28][29] He was joined on the grid's front row by Hamilton, who locked his brakes going into the first turn on his final timed lap, flat-spotting his tyres and abandoning his attempt.

[29] Vettel rounded out the top ten qualifiers due to a lack of track running following his final practice session spin, and a downshifting issue.

After Ricciardo's penalty was applied, Kvyat was separated by teammate Jean-Éric Vergne who made an engine adjustment after feeling he was low on power.

[36] When the race started, Hamilton accelerated faster than teammate Rosberg off the line,[37] moving ahead of him by using the space between the pit wall heading into the first corner.

[39] Massa made the best start of the field, moving from seventh to third by the end of the first lap, while Vergne lost eight positions over the same distance because of the Maldonado collision.

[34] At the end of the first lap, Hamilton led Rosberg by one second followed by: Massa, Pérez, Bottas, Button, Alonso, Hülkenberg, Räikkönen and Vettel.

[30] Ricciardo and Button made pit stops on lap 20 while Bianchi was issued with a drive-through penalty because he was judged to have caused the incident between himself and Sutil.

[39] Both Mercedes drivers made pit stops during the safety car period, but its deployment meant Hamilton's lead of over 10 seconds over Rosberg was reduced to nothing.

With no gap between them, Hamilton would be at a big disadvantage on medium tyres that were estimated to be around a second a lap slower as the two Mercedes cars scrapped for the lead.

Button fell to seventh after being passed by Vettel on the backstraight and Ricciardo around the outside,[40] while Maldonado was issued with a ten-second stop-and-go penalty for causing the incident between himself and Gutiérrez on lap 49 which he took immediately.

Rosberg continued his assault by attempting the move again on the following lap, and again Hamilton drove defensively heading towards turn four and managed to hold on to the lead.

[30] Hülkenberg made a mistake, allowing Ricciardo to take advantage and passed him at the turn eleven exit to move into fourth place on lap 53.

[44] At the podium interviews, conducted by AC/DC lead singer Brian Johnson, Hamilton said he was "really, really proud" to have secured his first victory at the track and was grateful for his team for working hard to achieve the result.

[45] In the later press conference, Hamilton said it was difficult to defend against Rosberg with the medium compound tyres, and that he had not driven as hard against him since they competed against each other early in their careers.

[45] Pérez felt his podium position was important to him having never achieved the feat while driving for McLaren in 2013; finishing the race in third gave him "a great feeling".

[47] Sutil felt Bianchi was driving aggressively having forced him wide at the race's start and was unable to prevent the crash from occurring.

[38] Media reactions to the race were positive, with David Tremayne of The Independent writing, "Thank the Lord that so many of Formula 1's detractors were present in Bahrain, where the 900th grand prix since the world championship was inaugurated turned out to be a humdinger that was easily the best held so far under the new regulations.

"[48] With the amount of battling across the field, it was not "taxi driving" as Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo earlier claimed would be the outcome of Formula One's adoption of greener technology.

[6] Writing for The Sunday Telegraph, Daniel Johnson stated the day's racing was "some of the finest seen in years", and the discussion over how Formula One's "new rules had stifled competition, leaving little more than a series of fuel economy run" was premature.

[49] Kevin Eason of The Times wrote, "It took team-mates of raw courage and epic skill to drag Formula One from the round of squalid infighting that polluted the cool night air of Bahrain yesterday.