The Bahrain GP was successfully completed today despite large protests. The spectacular race was won by Red-Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel followed by Kimi Raikonnen and Romain Grosjean of Lotus. For a F1 race, overtaking was much more thanks to the close competition and the DRS. With eight of the top ten cars within 10 seconds of each other and about 10 laps to go, the race proved to be one of the best races of the season.
Four different drivers winning the first four races of the season, the championship has become a four way battle led by Vettel (53 points), Hamiton (49), Webber (48), Alonso (43) and Button(43). The constructor’s chart is led by Red bull closely followed by Mclaren Mercedes.
Mark Webber finished fourth, followed by Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and Sahara Force India’s Paul Di Resta. Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Micheal Schumacher finished in the top ten. These top notch racers, constantly battling for positions, were a treat to watch.
Sebastian Vettel led from pole, pulling away from traffic right from the beginning. He completed the race almost unchallenged as the Red Bull team strategy and pit stops were spot on. The first two laps witnessed numerous overtaking maneouvres with Kimi Raikonnen scaling four places up the grid. The Lotus cars were handling absolutely perfect helping the two drivers to undertake brave overtaking. Romain Grosjean displayed excellent skills and temperament after starting the race from 5th position and quickly settled in 2nd to be overtaken by his teammate, the Iceman.
The Ferraris, especially Massa’s, lacked traction in the beginning, but the handling improved as they got lighter in the course of the race. Mclaren continued its disappointing performance during pit stops, where Lewis Hamilton lost 6 precious seconds. Button had lost similar amount of time in the last race due to pit stop snags.
Force India performed well as a team with spot on 2 stop strategy. Paul Di Resta carried steady pace throughout the race to conserve the tyres at the demanding Bahrain Circuit. Hulkenberg, the other Sahara Force India driver, finished eleventh. Narain Karthikeyan finished the race in his HRT-Cosworth.
