Sebastian Vettel lead from start to finish to win the Bahrain GP and also takes the lead in the Driver's Championship. Behind Vettel, Lotus secured the other two podiums to not only mark history for the team, but also prove they can be a force this season.
Vettel got away well from the start and had the crucial lead going into the first corner. From the start, Romain Grosjean had moved up four places into third, Jenson Button dropped to sixth with Fernando Alonso ahead of the McLaren. Nico Rosberg had also dropped to eighth with Felipe Massa climbing up to ninth. The carnage from the first lap saw Daniel Ricciardo cause Heikki Kovalainen to sustain a puncture but the Australian also suffered wing damage, costing him valuable places.
The Lotus looked quicker than most of the cars on the track and Grosjean was able to over-take Lewis Hamilton into second place on lap seven. It got worse for Hamilton as he suffered a poor pit stop on two occasions which cost him any chance of a podium finish.
Kimi Raikkonen's charge to a podium began on lap-13 where he overtook Mark Webber to secure fifth place and 11-laps later, the Finn eased past team-mate Grosjean into second. The first of four retirements came on lap-24 when Pastor Maldonado span out after suffering a puncture, he did manage to make it back to the pits but had also sustained suspension damage which was fatal to the car.
With Force India having a tough weekend for reasons other than racing, it was nice to see Paul Di Resta holding his own for his best ever finish. Webber did over-take him on lap-29 to move into fourth and Rosberg claimed fifth off of him on lap-52. But the Scot managed to finish sixth with a great performance to hold off Alonso.
If McLaren though Hamilton was having the tough breaks, Button had to come in for a force pit stop on lap 54 which placed him 13th. But it turned out the Button had sustained a broken exhaust and had to retire on the penultimate lap along with Bruno Senna. Race result:
1.Vettel (Red Bull), 2.Raikkonen (Lotus), 3.Grosjean (Lotus), 4.Webber (Red Bull), 5.Rosberg (Mercedes), 6.Di Resta (Force India), 7.Alonso (Ferrari), 8.Hamilton (McLaren), 9.Massa (Ferrari), 10.Schumacher (Mercedes), 11.Perez (Sauber), 12.Hulkenberg (Force India), 13.Kobayashi (Sauber), 14.Vergne (Toro Rosso), 15.Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), 16.Petrov (Caterham), 17.Kovalainen (Caterham), 18.Glock (Marussia), 19.De La Rosa (HRT), 20.Karthikeyan (HRT) DNF: Maldonado (Williams), Pic (Marussia), Button (McLaren), Senna (Williams)
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