Grand Prix motor racing thundered back to the desert with a scintillating race that brought victory for defending world champions, Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull Racing team. The 2012 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix delivered an all-action race with a feast of overtaking and drama.
Starting on pole position, Vettel fired his Red Bull cleanly from the line without being troubled by the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton beside him. Starting on the ‘dirty’ side of the grid, neither Hamilton nor team-mate Jenson Button could do anything about Vettel, with Button suffering a dreadful start to slip from fourth to sixth.
The Ferrari of three-time Bahrain winner Fernando Alonso was one of the fastest off the line, vaulting from eighth to fifth. Behind him the concertina effect of cornering in a big group in the early laps caught out the 1Malaysia-entered Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen, whose strong qualifying performance was blunted in the midfield melee by a punctured rear tyre.
With Vettel on dominant form, pulling away from Hamilton at more than a second per lap, the men on the move were the Lotuses of Romain Grosjean and Kimi Räikkönen, which started the race in seventh and eleventh place respectively. On lap 6 Grosjean passed Hamilton in front of the Main Grandstand for second place, while on the same lap Räikkönen, the 2007 world champion, passed Felipe Massa’s Ferrari, Button’s McLaren and Alonso’s Ferrari in quick succession.
By lap 8 several of the top drivers were finding that their tyres were burnt out, with Massa and Button first in, followed by Hamilton, Mark Webber in the second Red Bull and Fernando Alonso. McLaren’s race fortunes were decided in the pits with successive delays for both drivers at each stop costing them track position and places – and Button suffering first a rear tyre deflation and then a cracked exhaust in the closing stages.
Last weekend’s winner in China, Nico Rosberg, was in robust form in his Mercedes, going wheel-to-wheel with Alonso and Hamilton. Elsewhere there was a three-way battle between the Williams of Pastor Maldonado, the Sauber of Sergio Perez and the Force India of Paul di Resta, the latter diving past both his rivals before going on the attack against Massa’s Ferrari.
Vettel now found both Lotuses together behind him, with Räikkönen passing his team mate at the start of lap 24 and setting about reeling the German’s lead in with a swashbuckling charge.
With his tyres far fresher and the bit between his teeth, Räikkönen closed in over the next dozen laps and drew alongside Vettel at the start of lap 36. However the German chopped off that attack neatly and defended firmly to hold the Finn back, forcing the team to rely on its pit stop skill to stand a chance of passing.
The Red Bull and the Lotus pitted together on Lap 40, but slick pit work from the 2011 champions ensured that Vettel retained his lead. Meanwhile Räikkönen found his final set of tyres less racy than their predecessors, effectively ending the bout and handing Vettel the cushion he needed to seal the victory.
Grosjean completed Lotus’ celebrations with the final podium position, while behind him Mark Webber took fourth place for the fourth time this season, Rosberg took fifth ahead of di Resta, Alonso, Hamilton, Massa and a fine performance from Michael Schumacher, who started 22nd in his Mercedes and charged up to complete the top 10.
“I think it was an incredible race, extremely tough,” said a delighted Vettel. “I can only say a big thank you to the team. They did an incredible job. The amount of work they had to do which we have given them because we were weren’t happy with the car… We got it right this weekend, I was very happy in qualifying and the race to be fair.”
Kimi Räikkönen was pleased with the strongest performance so far in his return to the sport, after two years competing in the World Rally Championship. “I think we gave ourselves a chance but I’m disappointed I didn’t manage to win it,” he said.
“I made a small mistake at the beginning, lost one place to Ferrari, and I had to get that place back. In the end we were not fast enough to win. I got one chance to get past Sebastian but I chose the wrong side. That was the only chance really.”
Vettel now goes to the top of the 2012 FIA World Championship standings, four points clear of Lewis Hamilton and five ahead of his team-mate Mark Webber. Red Bull sits nine points ahead of McLaren in the constructors’ championship – but with four winners from four races, the Bahrain Grand Prix proved how open the title race will be.
“It has been a fabulous weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit, and a real treat for the 28,000 fans who came to see Formula 1™ return to the Kingdom of Bahrain,” said BIC Chief Executive, Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa.
“All of us congratulate Sebastian on his first Bahrain Grand Prix victory and a– and also to Lotus for giving him such a run for his money. For our staff, our marshals and the organizers of the Bahrain Motor Federation, the wait was worth the result and we all thank them for organizing such a fabulous weekend that does credit to us all.”