Rosberg had won the Australian Grand Prix and held maximum available points heading into Bahrain. Hamilton was the defending Bahrain race winner. Following near-universal criticism of the elimination qualifying format used in Australia — in which the slowest driver was progressively eliminated every 90 seconds from each segment — teams voted to return to the established three-part format. However, the Strategy Working Group met formally in the week after Australia and voted to keep the elimination format for Bahrain pending a more thorough review. Vettel told the press he was "as disappointed as probably anyone I know"; Hamilton called the decision "strange." A race-day meeting between the FIA, Formula One Management, and the teams produced no agreement. A subsequent proposal requiring two timed laps per segment with aggregate times determining grid positions was described by Vettel as "a shit idea" and was unanimously rejected by teams on 7 April. The reversion to the 2006–2015 format was finalised four days later.
Fernando Alonso was absent, ruled out with broken ribs and a pneumothorax from his crash with Esteban Gutiérrez in Australia. McLaren reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne replaced him, making his Formula One debut. Gutiérrez received a new chassis after his original was found too damaged for repair, mostly from crane contact during the Australian recovery operation. Haas F1 were making their second Formula One race appearance. Human rights concerns accompanied the event as in previous years; the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy wrote an open letter to Jean Todt urging the FIA to be prepared to cancel the race in future years.
Hamilton set the fastest ever lap at the Bahrain circuit in Q3, a 1:29.493, to claim pole 0.077 seconds ahead of Rosberg. Vettel qualified third and Räikkönen fourth. A post-qualifying FIA investigation was launched after Hamilton reversed in the pit lane to park, but he was given only a reprimand and his pole position stood.
Two drivers failed to make the start: Vettel stopped on track during the warm-up lap with an engine failure — the first time in his Formula One career he was unable to start a race — and Jolyon Palmer suffered a hydraulic failure and returned to the pit lane. At the start, Hamilton made contact with Valtteri Bottas and dropped to ninth. Both Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo sustained front wing damage. Massa moved into second behind Rosberg, while Pérez and Carlos Sainz Jr. also made contact, sending Sainz to the pits with a puncture. Button retired on lap six with an energy recovery system failure.
Rosberg pulled clear after the opening exchanges and led Räikkönen by twelve seconds by lap 22. Hamilton recovered from his first-corner incident to reach third by lap 17 and spent the remainder of the race chasing Räikkönen but could not close the gap sufficiently. Rosberg controlled the remainder of the race through the pit stop cycles and won by approximately eight seconds over Räikkönen, with Hamilton third and Ricciardo fourth.
Grosjean drove to fifth place, aided by a mechanic who noticed and replaced a loose left-rear wheel nut during the race. Vandoorne scored a championship point in tenth position on debut. Haas achieved fifth and sixth place in their first two Formula One races, the best start by a new team since Shadow in 1973.
Rosberg held a 17-point lead over Hamilton in the Drivers' Championship after the first two rounds, having scored the maximum 50 available points. Hamilton described his second consecutive problematic start as "perhaps more painful" than in Australia. Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene praised Räikkönen's drive, noting an outside overtake on Ricciardo that reminded him of Räikkönen "from the old times." The 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix was the last occasion the elimination qualifying format was used in Formula One.
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