Nico Rosberg led the Drivers' Championship entering the weekend with 43 points, ahead of Hamilton in second and Fernando Alonso third. The decision to make Bahrain a night race had been observed in planning by former McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh in October 2013 and confirmed by organisers the following month to mark the tenth anniversary of the race. The circuit's floodlighting system was tested at the 2013 6 Hours of Bahrain. Sunday being a work day in Bahrain, the evening start produced a sharp increase in ticket sales, and the race format was confirmed as a permanent fixture. The race was also accompanied by human rights protests: an alliance of Bahraini organisations wrote to FIA president Jean Todt requesting suspension of the event pending an ethics investigation, and thousands attended a rally outside Manama on the Friday of the race weekend.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner cautioned that the Bahrain circuit's power-sensitive layout would likely amplify the Mercedes advantage.
Saturday evening's session — the first dry qualifying of the 2014 season — saw Rosberg take pole with 1:33.185, the fifth pole of his career. Hamilton was second after locking his brakes on his final lap and abandoning the attempt. Daniel Ricciardo qualified third but received a ten-place grid penalty for an unsafe pit release in Malaysia, promoting Valtteri Bottas to third and Sergio Pérez to fourth. Adrian Sutil received a five-place grid penalty for impeding Grosjean during qualifying and started from the back of the field.
Approximately 38,140 spectators attended the 18:00 local start. Hamilton accelerated past Rosberg through the gap beside the pit wall at the first corner and built a lead through the opening laps. Rosberg conserved fuel before making his move on lap 19, briefly getting past Hamilton before Hamilton immediately retook the position at turn two. This sequence determined tyre strategy: Hamilton, as the lead Mercedes, pitted first and emerged on the soft compound, while Rosberg took the medium, setting up the decisive final phase.
Rosberg remained close and Hamilton had extended his lead to 8.5 seconds by lap 32. A collision on lap 41 between Pastor Maldonado and Esteban Gutiérrez — who rolled over twice in the air before landing upright — brought out the safety car, erasing Hamilton's advantage. With fuel no longer a concern after the safety car period, both Mercedes were driven flat out and their superiority over the rest of the field was fully visible: within three laps the pair were six seconds clear of Pérez in third. Rosberg launched repeated late-braking attacks into turn one over the closing laps but Hamilton defended each time. Maldonado received a ten-second stop-and-go penalty for causing the Gutiérrez incident.
Hamilton won from Rosberg, with Pérez holding off a closing Ricciardo for third. Hülkenberg finished fifth, Vettel and Massa sixth and seventh. Jenson Button retired on lap 56 with a clutch problem. It was Pérez's first podium since the 2012 Italian Grand Prix and Force India's first podium since the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix.
The race was widely praised by media. David Tremayne in The Independent called it "a humdinger that was easily the best held so far under the new regulations." The Guardian's Paul Weaver wrote of "an absolute thriller from lights to flag with more overtaking moves than you could shake your DRS at." Rosberg's championship lead was reduced from 18 to 11 points. Force India rose to second in the Constructors' Championship. The circuit chair confirmed on 5 April that Bahrain would remain a permanent night race for future seasons.
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