Vettel raises to victory  in Bahrain

Sebastian Vettel wins a commanding Bahrain Grand Prix after taking the lead in Lap 3 from pole sitter Nico Rosberg on the Mercedes. The Lotus´ of Raikkonen and Grosjean came in 2nd and 3rd what makes an exact repeat of last year´s podium.

At the start Rosberg held it tightly from Vettel to keep the lead into turn 1 which helped Alonso to get past Vettel briefly. Vettel mustered past the DRS less Ferrari of Alonso and started to attack compatriot Rosberg for the lead. Rosberg held on to keep Vettel on the bay for couple of laps until finally losing to the raging Red Bull on lap3 after which the Mercedes driver could not do much to keep in pace.

Meanwhile Massa and Sutil touched each other on the first few corners of the race which pushed the Force India to the back of the field and the Ferrari with a broken front wing. Verge too experienced a puntcure on Lap 1.

Alonso and Di Resta passed Rosberg while Vettel was getting away with a clear track. Alonso´s Ferrari experienced a DRS failure with its rear wing stuck open only to be adjusted on the first pit stop on Lap8 and then failing again in the next lap which caused him to pit again putting him out of race contention and without DRS for the rest of the race.

Mid field the Lotus of Raikkonen and Grosjean where held up behind the McLarens of Button and Perez and Hamilton was running 11th.

As the drivers started to pit for fresher tyres the positions started to tumble only with Vettel safely in the lead and the Lotus of Raikkonen and Force India of Di Resta doing longer runs.

For most part of the race the dicing took place between the Mercedes of Rosberg, the Mclarens of Button and Perez and the Lotuses of Raikkonen and Grosjean with Alonso, Webber and Hamilton also playing in while Vettel was solidly ahead.

Raikkonen´s strategy played to his advantage and put him in contention for the podium position taking over 2nd from Di Resta mean while young Perez was going wheel to wheel with team mate Jenson Button in the McLaren and almost touching twice in the process .

The chaos settled down as the race entered the final stages it was clear that Vettel had full control of the race and the gainers in the back were Raikkonen, Grosjean, Hamilton and Perez who raced upwards while Rosberg, Button dropped down.

Grosjean on the second Lotus passed the struggling Force India of Di Resta to grab the final podium spot.

Further behind Hamilton took over Perez, Button to move up to 6th and battled up Webber for a few laps to grab 5th. Webber came back on Hamilton and the fight lasted till the last lap in which Hamilton managed to make a move stick on Webber and soon followed Perez pushing Webber to 7th while Vettel crossed the line to take the win.

Alonso came in 8th with Rosberg and Button in 9th and 10th respectively. 

This will be Vettel´s 28th career victory and second of the season.

Note - Webber, Gutierrez qualified P5 and P18, dropped 3 and 5 grid places respectively for collisions at previous round. Hamilton qualified P4, dropped 5 places for unscheduled gearbox change