Sebastian Vettel soaked up the pressure from a charging Lewis Hamilton to win a strategic cat-and-mouse battle with his championship rival in yesterday’s Bahrain Grand Prix
Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel celebrates his Bahrain Grand PrixâÂu00c2u0080Âu00c2u0088win yesterday Pic/Getty Images
Sakhir (Bahrain): Sebastian Vettel soaked up the pressure from a charging Lewis Hamilton to win a strategic cat-and-mouse battle with his championship rival in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.
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The four-time champion crossed the line 6.6 seconds ahead of the Briton after starting third to take his 44th career win.
Valtteri Bottas, who started from his first-ever pole position and led in the early stages, faded to third.
Vettel's triumph for Ferrari under the floodlights yesterday was the 29-year-old's second from the opening three races of the year after he also took victory in last month's season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
It allows him to move clear into the lead at the top of the overall standings on 68 points, seven ahead of Mercedes' Hamilton, winner a week ago in China, after the pair went into the weekend level at the top.
"Really great day, I don't know what to say," said Vettel on the podium.
"I just love what I do.
"The car was really amazing to drive.
"Lewis was a threat towards the end and with the traffic you never know, but it was a controlled race."
Vettel rocketed off the line from third on the grid, leapfrogging Hamilton into the first corner and settling in behind Bottas who kept the lead.
But the Finn wasn't able to pull a gap with Vettel, clearly faster, staying glued to the back of the Mercedes.
Hamilton and the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo also joined the battle at the front with Bottas, struggling with high tyre pressures, at one point leading a train of five cars running nose to tail.
Unable to pass the Mercedes and under pressure form Hamilton and the Red Bulls behind, the German dived into the pits earlier than his rivals.
A safety car two laps later only worked in the Ferrari driver's favour as, pitstop out of the way, he jumped into the lead as the other cars streamed in.
Mercedes stopped both Bottas and Hamilton together. But a slow stop for the Finn forced Hamilton to back off to buy himself some time, in the process baulking Red Bull's Ricciardo for which the triple champion collected a five place time penalty.
He served it at his next pitstop and mounted a valiant charge late in the race, at times lapping a second-and-a-half a lap quicker than Vettel.
He slashed a 19-second gap down to 6.6 seconds at the finish in the space of just 16 laps, but it wasn't enough.
"It didn't start out the best," said Hamilton.
"The pitlane was my fault. I tried to catch up but it was a long way to go with 19 seconds."
Ricciardo finished fifth for Red Bull ahead of Felipe Massa who took sixth for Williams on team founder Frank Williams' 75th birthday. Both their team-mates failed to finish, with Verstappen retiring with a brake failure and Lance Stroll colliding with Carlos Sainz's Toro Rosso.
Sergio Perez was seventh for Force India ahead of Romain Grosjean in the Haas and Nico Hulkenberg in the Renault. Esteban Ocon rounded out the top ten and secured a double-points finish for Force India.
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