Bahrain GP: Hamilton, Bottas finish in podium but Vettel secures win

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain steers his auto during the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix, at the Formula One Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Sunday, April 16, 2017. “Lewis was a threat towards the end and with the traffic you never know”.

“The beginning for us to be that close was great”.

“The vehicle was really wonderful to drive”, Vettel said. “I made a decent start and my first stint was pretty good, but it was tough to stay behind the Renault”.

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was third after starting from the pole for the first time. I felt right from the beginning that we had the speed to win today. “It was a really tricky race today”.

“I am trying to prepare the best I can for the next race”, Hamilton explained.

Kimi Raikkonen just missed the podium again, coming in fourth place. “I must say it’s exciting to watch #F1 on tv!” Hamilton lost a position to Vettel at the start, but his race really started to unravel when he received a five-second penalty for holding up Daniel Ricciardo in the pit lane under the Safety Car. I had to try and build a gap but there was no grip to build it. We need to find out why we didn’t have the pace. They had the opportunity at the end of the day to get some extra points for the team and fight for the victory.

After three races, Hamilton is 2-1 down to Vettel and seven points adrift of the German four-times world champion in the standings.

– Vettel equals Fernando Alonso as the driver with the most wins in Bahrain (3). “He was closing in and when I faced traffic I lost a lot of time, but when he faced it he lost time too”.

– Only one of Vettel’s five wins for Ferrari has been from pole (Singapore 2015).

Verstappen asked his team to match that strategy and he came in on the next lap. It’s a moment of realization that if you don’t react, you’re going to lose the race.

Mr. Hamilton, who had been dominant in China last weekend, was gracious in defeat, vowing to fight on.

Soon after Vettel reentered the track a full course yellow came out for a collision between Williams’ Lance Stroll and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz. The team have been reinvigorated by the performance of their auto this season after three years of Mercedes dominance and are showing a determination to match it with their calls from the pit wall having been equally astute in the opening race in Melbourne, where Vettel also won.

Hamilton’s Mercedes were forced to stack their cars as they pitted and the Englishman blocked Ricciardo into the pit entry, earning the penalty that cruelled his chances of taking victory despite Vettel’s 6.6-second overall advantage.