Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg silence F1 doom with iconic Mercedes duel

'It is not racing, the drivers are too focused on battery management and can't push flat-out all of the time, bring back the V8s, look what they took from us.'

Around this time, you'll see some sense-attacking, visually stunning qualifying lap plastered all over social media as the new technical regulations get another battering for the forced change in driving style and the very fact that it is different to what came before.

For 2026, read 2014 and F1's first few races into the ambitious turbo hybrid engine era. 

The first two races had been largely dull and processional affairs at the head of the field as Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton picked up a win apiece in Australia and Malaysia, respectively, as F1 headed to Sakhir for the first-ever night race at the Bahrain GP, which incidentally, was the 900th world championship grand prix. 

Although the race was the usual 57 laps, this was a dogfight between the Mercedes duo to Lap 20 - when the lead car would be called for the expected fastest strategy. 

Off the line, Hamilton roared past pole-sitter Rosberg and just about held the position up the hill to Turn 4, as Rosberg settled in for the long game, conserving fuel and power for an attack later in the stint. 

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As ever in Bahrain, Rosberg's chief overtaking spot was into Turn 1 with the aid of DRS, which he tried firstly on Lap 17. 

Hamilton held on, but the first flashpoint came one lap later after Hamilton chopped across his team-mate at Turn 2, with a furious Rosberg telling him his team: "Warn him, that was not on" as both came within millimetres of contact.

Next time around, both locked up in Turn 1 as Rosberg nudged ahead, but Hamilton did not give up the ghost, and came slithering back past Turn 4. It was not over yet as the two raced side-by-side to Turn 6, the right-hander which begins the fall down the hill and into the heart of the lap. 

Whoever got there first would be given, on paper, the best strategy. And it was Hamilton who emerged, just, in the lead. 1-0 to the Briton. 

He pitted at the end of that lap for soft tyres, with Rosberg coming in one tour later for the hard rubber - another key battleline which had been drawn.

The race then settled down until Pastor Maldonado flipped Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber whilst coming out of the pits, the Mexican doing a complete aerial 360 at Turn 1 - with the safety car deployed.

A six-lap period later, the race resumed at the start of Lap 47 of 57, with Hamilton leading on hard tyres and Rosberg circling behind on fresh soft tyres. Game on. 

As the famous screenshot of the timing tower two laps later showed, the pair in just those two racing laps had pulled out 7.1s on Sergio Perez's similarly powered Force India-Mercedes.

By the flag, they had pulled out 24.067s on Perez in 10 laps, and also engaged in another round of sparring, with Rosberg again trying everything into Turn 1 and up the hill to Turn 4. 

He out-braked himself into Turn 1 or could not get himself just alongside enough to try forcing Hamilton wide as the latter won by 1.085s to conclude a thrilling and iconic race which silenced many of the doubters about the new regulations.

Then-Ferrari chief Luca di Montezemolo had described new rules as creating "taxi drivers" - something which had been firmly rejected after an all-time classic.

Oh, and for Hamilton vs Rosberg fans, another chapter to the rivalry was drawn when it emerged that Rosberg had used an engine mode banned by Mercedes in his attack of Hamilton. 

Hamilton himself used it in Spain during another battle two races later - coming out victorious both times. All's fair in love and war.