Sebastian Vettel WINS for Ferrari at the Bahrain Grand Prix – just

Sebastian Vettel scored his second win of the new F1 season at the 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix, narrowly holding off Mercedes’ Bottas in the closing laps.

Sebastian Vettel drove from pole to the chequered flag at the front of the Bahrain Grand Prix, taking his second win in a row and putting him 17 points in front of Lewis Hamilton after just two races in to the 2018 F1 season.

But it was a close run thing at the end as Bottas in the Mercedes closed up to Vettel’s tail, but  despite an almost half hearted effort to pass the Ferrari on the last lap Vettel hung on to take the win.

But impressive though Vettel’s race was, it was Hamilton who made the biggest strides in the race, coming from ninth on the grid to run in an almost threatening third place by the end part of the race, including one overtake early on to despatch three cars in one go, after a safety car to recover Daniel Ricciardo’s retired car.

He also survived a coming together with Max Verstappen in the Red Bull, but Verstappen came off worst and ended up retiring with a broken diff.

Behind the top three of Vettel, Bottas and Hamilton, it was a stunning fourth place for the Honda-powered Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly, three places ahead of multi-world champion Fernando Alonso in the McLaren which dumped Honda power for 2018.

Between Gasly and Alonso it was fifth and sixth for Magnussen in the Haas and Hulkenberg in the Renault, with Vandoorne in the McLaren following Alonso home in eighth, Ericsson grabbing points for Sauber in ninth and Ocon grabbing the last points place.

Ferrari’s win was overshadowed to some extent by a pit-lane accident when Raikkonen got the green light to go after a pit stop despite the left rear not being changed, running over a mechanic in the process and breaking his leg. It meant retirement for Raikkonen.

All that makes it 2:0 for Ferrari over Mercedes. The 2018 F1 season is getting interesting.