#Vettel holds off @ValtteriBottas to win intense #BahrainGP #F1

Sebastian Vettel survived a late charge from a fast charging Valtteri Bottas to win a thrilling Bahrain Grand Prix.

 

 

The German held on to a finger biting finish as Bottas, on the more durable mediums to Vettel’s rapidly degrading softer compounds, just failed to snatch the victory.

 

When the 57 lap Bahrain Grand Prix began, pole sitter Vettel got a great run off the line while Bottas got by Raikkonen into turn one, and Vettel built a comfortable gap of over three seconds in his first stint.

 

Bottas started to hit back when and was only two seconds behind as the Scuderia pitted race leader Vettel for the yellow-branded softs.

 

Ferrari team-mate Raikkonen followed suit a lap later as Bottas remained out for another two laps, with the two SF71H racers getting to grips with the fresher rubber.

 

When Bottas finally made his stop for the medium compounds, Vettel’s lead was more than eight seconds ahead and Raikkonen was closing in on the Silver Arrows.

 

The leading trio remained stable for a few laps, until Vettel caught Hamilton who was running on a longer first stint on the softs and started ninth as the German waited to pass the Mercedes.

 

Raikkonen pulled in for a second stop that hoped would throw a strategic curveball in the lead battle but ended up taking him out of the fight.

 

The Finn moved away before the left rear tyre was fitted and struck the mechanic’s leg while Raikkonen stopped immediately in pit lane with three fresh supersofts and the unchanged soft on his car and was forced to retire.

 

The on-track action continued as Vettel was preparing to commit to a two-stop strategy but stuck to a one stopper as his pace remained stable and Bottas failed to close him down.

 

The lead dropped under five seconds with almost 10 laps remaining, and suddenly Vettel’s lead started rapidly falling.

 

Bottas got within DRS range with two laps remaining but only got within a sniff of the Ferrari at turn one on the last lap and was the only chance the Finn had.

 

Vettel crossed the line 0.699 seconds ahead of Bottas to claim his 49^th career victory in his 200^th Grand Prix start.

 

Hamilton completed the top three for the Silver Arrows 6.512 seconds off Vettel with Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly finishing an incredible fourth place in the team’s second race with Honda power.

 

Gasly kept clear of the feisty Haas of Kevin Magnussen and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, who tangled wheels through turn two, but the Frenchman somehow remained unscathed and was error-free for the rest of the Grand Prix to clinch his first points in Formula One to cap off a brilliant weekend.

 

Magnussen then survived a close-call with Haas F1 Team-mate Romain Grosjean, who was on older rubber, at turn two in the second half of the 57-lap race to complete the top five.

 

McLaren’s Fernando Alonso jumped from 13^th to ninth on the first lap and drove a solid race after the Woking-based squad endured a dismal qualifying session.

 

The Spaniard caught Hulkenberg’s RS18 in the closing laps but had to settle for seventh and ahead of McLaren team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne who was eighth and put his white-marked mediums to effective use.

 

Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson scored his first points since the 2015 Italian Grand Prix taking ninth place after a long first stint on the softs before switching to medium tyres and making the one stop strategy work.

 

Renault’s Carlos Sainz completed the top 10 to take the last point on offer.

 

It was a horrible day for Red Bull Racing as both driver’s races were cut incredibly short as Max Verstappen squeezed Hamilton too much exiting the first corner after overtaking the Briton on the start of the second lap, which damaged his left-rear tyre and caused a puncture.

 

The Dutchman made it back to the pits and changed tyres but pulled off due to a differential issue.

 

Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo’s Grand Prix ended early when his RB14 racer shutdown upon the exit of the turn eight hairpin.

 

The Full Formula 1 2018 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix Results Classification (After 57 laps)

Pos	Driver	Car	Gap	Laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	1h32m01.940s	57
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	0.699s	57
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	6.512s	57
4	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso	1m02.234s	57
5	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	1m15.046s	57
6	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault Sport F1	1m39.024s	57
7	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	1 Lap	56
8	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	1 Lap	56
9	Marcus Ericsson	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	1 Lap	56
10	Esteban Ocon	Force India F1 Team	1 Lap	56
11	Carlos Sainz	Renault Sport F1	1 Lap	56
12	Sergio Perez	Force India F1 Team	1 Lap	56
13	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso	1 Lap	56
14	Charles Leclerc	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	1 Lap	56
15	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	1 Lap	56
16	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing	1 Lap	56
17	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Martini Racing	1 Lap	56
–	Kimi Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	Retirement	35
–	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	Retirement	3
–	Daniel Ricciardo	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	Electrical	1

2018 Formula 1 World Drivers Championship Standings

1. Sebastian Vettel – 50 Points.
2. Lewis Hamilton – 33 Points.
3. Valtteri Bottas – 22 Points.
4. Fernando Alonso – 16 Points.
5. Kimi Raikkonen – 15 Points.
6. Nico Hulkenberg – 14 Points.
7. Daniel Ricciardo – 12 Points.
8. Pierre Gasly – 12 Points.
9. Kevin Magnussen – 10 Points.
10. Max Verstappen – 8 Points.

 

2018 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Scuderia Ferrari – 65 Points.
2. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 55 Points.
3. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 22 Points.
4. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – 20 Points.
5. Renault Sport F1 Team – 15 Points.
6. Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda – 12 Points.
7. Haas F1 Team – 10 Points.
8. Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team – 2 Points.
9. Force India F1 Team – 1 Point.
10. Williams Martini Racing – 0 Points.

 

Round three of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship returns straight to the Shanghai International Circuit in China for the Formula 1 2018 Heineken Chinese Grand Prix from April 13-15.