Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel has taken his second win of the 2013 Formula 1 season with victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix this afternoon
Nico Rosberg, who started the race from pole position, was unable to match the pace of the cars immediately behind him, as Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Vettel both cruised past his Mercedes in the opening laps.
However, Alonso was forced into an early pit stop when the DRS panel on his rear wing jammed open, leaving the Spaniard without the overtaking aid for the rest of the Grand Prix.
Vettel, the reigning world champion opened up a comfortable lead at the front, while Paul di Resta moved into second in pursuit of his first podium in Formula 1.
Kimi Raikkonen lost places at the start of the race, but slowly worked his way through the field, before jumping ahead of Di Resta in the opening round of pitstops.
Five laps from the finish, Di Resta came under pressure from Raikkonen’s Lotus teammate Romain Grosjean, and the Frenchman powered past on the pit straight.
Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton battled hard in the closing stages for fifth place, while Sergio Perez and Alonso fought over seventh. In the end Lewis Hamilton won the battle for fifth as Mark Webber slipped back to seventh behind Sergio Perez.
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 57 laps 2. Raikkonen Lotus-Renault + 9.1s 3. Grosjean Lotus-Renault + 19.5s 4. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 21.7s 5. Hamilton Mercedes + 35.2s 6. Perez McLaren-Mercedes + 35.9s 7. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 37.2s 8. Alonso Ferrari + 37.5s 9. Rosberg Mercedes + 41.1s 10. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 46.6s 11. Maldonado Williams-Renault + 1m06.4s 12. Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari + 1m12.9s 13. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1m16.7s 14. Bottas Williams-Renault + 1m21.5s 15. Massa Ferrari + 1m26.3s 16. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap 17. Pic Caterham-Renault + 1 lap 18. Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap 19. Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth + 1 lap 20. Chilton Marussia-Cosworth + 1 lap 21. van der Garde Caterham-Renault + 2 laps