Formula 1 - Bahrain GP, Round 4, 21/04/2013

Sebastian reigns supreme in Bahrain

It was his second race win of the season and second consecutive win in Bahrain that sees Sebastian Vettel back in control of the driver’s championship, 10 points clear of his closest rival Kimi Räikkönen. Sebastian in his Red Bull raced to a comfortable race victory which saw him lead 70% of the Bahrain GP.

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"Fantastic race, it was seamless from start to finish," said Vettel after starting from second on the grid. He only took 17 laps to take the lead from Nico Rosberg in pole. After jostling with his fellow German Nico, Vettel used the DRS and Kers systems to his advantage and managed to take control of the race. It was a day of mixed emotions for the Red Bull team which saw its sister car of Mark Webber finish in seventh being passed on the last lap by McLaren’s Sergio Perez. Webber failed to match the pace of Vettel this whole weekend only managing 4^th in qualifying but a 3 place grid penalty from last week’s Chinese GP saw Mark start the race in 7^th . All in all the Red Bull team now sit top of both the driver’s championship and the constructor’s championship.

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It was an equally strong showing from the Lotus team which managed to finish both its cars on the podium in 2^nd and 3^rd, Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean showing just how good the Lotus can be in race conditions. The Lotus was kind on its tires yet a poor display in qualifying had the Lotus’s starting in 9^th and 11^th respectively. One could only imagine what could have been if the Lotus cars started higher up the grid.  

Overall the race featured some of the best racing seen this season. There was several passes right back to the end of the grid. The two DRS zones in the Bahrain GP produced some of the most memorable overtakes. Such was the case with the McLaren teammates who battled it out for fifth at the time, touching wheels on several occasions. One can only wait for the F1 championship to resume in 3 weeks’ time in Valencia as the European round begins.

 Final Results classification: ( http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2013/896/7209/)

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	57	Winner	2	25
2	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	57	+9.1 secs	8	18
3	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	57	+19.5 secs	11	15
4	14	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	57	+21.7 secs	5	12
5	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	57	+35.2 secs	9	10
6	6	Sergio Perez	McLaren-Mercedes	57	+35.9 secs	12	8
7	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	57	+37.2 secs	7	6
8	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	57	+37.5 secs	3	4
9	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	57	+41.1 secs	1	2
10	5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	57	+46.6 secs	10	1
11	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	57	+66.4 secs	17
12	11	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	57	+72.9 secs	14
13	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	57	+76.7 secs	6
14	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	57	+81.5 secs	15
15	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	57	+86.3 secs	4
16	19	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	56	+1 Lap	13
17	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	56	+1 Lap	18
18	12	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	56	+1 Lap	22
19	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	56	+1 Lap	19
20	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	56	+1 Lap	21
21	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	55	+2 Laps	20
Ret	18	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Ferrari	16	Accident damage	16

By Riyaz