Bahrain Grand Prix – Race Results: P2

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Sebastian Vettel breezed to his second victory of the 2013 Formula 1 season in the Bahrain Grand Prix. The world champion thrust his Red Bull to the front amid spectacular early dicing, then left the action behind. In a repeat of the 2012 Sakhir podium, Lotus duo Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean made it through the field to second and third, the latter denying Paul di Resta a maiden F1 podium with just six laps to go.

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                 

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap

Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari           16

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1m36.961s

World Championship standings, round 4:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel         77        1.  Red Bull-Renault          109
 2.  Raikkonen      67        2.  Lotus-Renault              93
 3.  Hamilton       50        3.  Ferrari                    77
 4.  Alonso         47        4.  Mercedes                   64
 5.  Webber         32        5.  Force India-Mercedes       26
 6.  Massa          30        6.  McLaren-Mercedes           23
 7.  Grosjean       26        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          7
 8.  Di Resta       20        8.  Sauber-Ferrari              5
 9.  Rosberg        14       
10.  Button         13       
11.  Perez          10       
12.  Ricciardo       6       
13.  Sutil           6       
14.  Hulkenberg      5       
15.  Vergne          1

News & Quotes:

@YallaF1
#f1 Allergy almost sidelined Raikkonen in Bahrain:

Raikkonen: win always beyond Lotus

“I think overall we did not have the speed to beat Red Bull this weekend. Yesterday we could have been a few places higher but we could not have challenged their speed at the front. So it was a good result. Today we got good points and didn’t lose too many to Seb. Yesterday wasn’t ideal, but we already planned on Friday to try to do two stops because it felt OK. Today it worked well. We gained a lot of places. I didn’t have a great start or first or second lap. But after that, the car started to come to me and I could start pushing more and more.”

Lotus Team Quotes:

Kimi Raikkonen – 2nd: “You’re never really happy if you don’t win, but I suppose second place is as close as you can get. I drove to the maximum and the car had the pace that we missed in qualifying yesterday so it was a pretty good result. We didn’t have the speed to challenge Sebastian [Vettel] today but we did have the pace to get both cars on the podium so I’m happy for the team.”

Romain Grosjean – 3rd: “It’s great to be back on the podium and it’s a fantastic result for the team. It hasn’t been an easy start to the season for me, but we made good progress through the weekend and are now back to where we should be. I felt much more comfortable in the car and the result today is a deserved reward for everyone after all our hard work. It was a really enjoyable race with a lot of overtaking and a couple of tense moments along the way, so to come from P11 through to the podium is really satisfying. We’ve had consistency already, finishing every race in the points, but now it’s the big results we’re chasing and this is a very good start to that challenge.”

Eric Boullier, team principal: “Here we are again, just like in 2012! This time around though it was much more difficult – especially after a qualifying performance which fell below our expectations – but we’ve shown flashes of pace throughout the weekend and confirmed that speed when it mattered today. The win was not quite within our reach after the start we made, but to come away with a double podium when the top six would maybe have been a more realistic pre-race target was a great performance from everybody involved. I’m delighted for the whole team here in Bahrain and back at Enstone; it’s a well-deserved result.”

Alan Permane, trackside operations director: “Both drivers did a fantastic job today. We know our car is kind on tyres so we were able to play to those strengths and rectify the disappointment of qualifying yesterday. We chose an aggressive strategy with Romain, opting for a three-stop race from eleventh on the grid, and it worked perfectly. He was able to drive aggressively when asked and conserve his tyres when needed, so we are very happy as he delivered everything we wanted from him. With Kimi we used a two-stop strategy and relied on our long run pace. Considering he was suffering from an allergic reaction before he started the race it’s a very impressive performance indeed.”

Video: Team radios, Sky Sports interview