Eager Sebastian Vettel wins Bahrain F1 GP
2013 Bahrain Podium: 1. Vettel 2. Raikkonen 3. Grosjean
Sebastian Vettel strengthened his lead at the top of the world championship with a dominant victory in the Bahrain grands prix. The German took the lead early from Nico Rosberg and controlled the race from there as he claimed his second win of the season.
Kimi Raikkonen continued his strong start to the season as he finished second, 10 seconds behind Vettel, and comfortably clear of his Lotus team mate Romain Grosjean in third. Grosjean passed Paul di Resta in the final few laps for his 4th career podium and denying the Force India driver his first.
Lewis Hamilton battled through severe tyre degradation to finish 5th, ahead of Sergio Pérez, Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso. Alonso was well placed to compete for victory before his DRS flap jammed open twice. Two pit stops to correct the issue put the Spaniard far down the field. It was an even worse race for his team mate Felipe Massa who damaged his front wing on the first lap after contact with Adrian Sutil. This coupled with a puncture saw him finish 14 th.
Vettel was as ruthless as he was in Malaysia, albeit in a positive way. He pulled off a spectacular move on Alonso on lap one, before harrying Rosberg hard until getting by. From there he disappeared into the lead and went on to claim his 28th career win.
Kimi Raikkonen at Bahrain
Championship rival Raikkonen stopped twice, once less than the leading cars, to leap frog himself from 8th to 2nd. The Lotus’s impressive tyre management was key to their two podium finishes. While Rosberg faded to finish 9th, Hamilton participated in a superb battle for 5th. It did seem that Mark Webber had won the fight but Hamilton, on fresher tyres, dived up the inside to snatch the place on the final lap.
Perez VS Button at Bahrain
Webber fell further behind to the super aggressive Sergio Pérez, who vastly improved on his disappointing China performance to finally show he deserves his McLaren race seat. His team mate Jenson Button suffered higher wear on his tyres and was forced to make an extra stop which resulted in him coming tenth. Perez and Button enjoyed a real scrap in the middle of the race. Perez’s aggressive driving angered Button who voiced his opinions in several heated messages to his team.
At the end of the first Asia leg it’s Sebastian Vettel who has control over the championship. The Red Bull once again looks in ominous form as we head into the European season in three weeks’ time. Alonso and Ferrari need to cut out the mistakes and Raikkonen needs to improve in qualifying in order to prevent the German running away with the title again.
See race results 2013 Bahrain F1 Grand Prix
See Sebastian Vettel info & statistics
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