Three-time world champion Lewis Hamilton apologises to his Mercedes team after incurring a five-second penalty which denied him the chance of victory in Bahrain. It was at that moment Hamilton made a crucial mistake, holding up Daniel Ricciardo on entry to the pit lane and earning a five-second penalty, meaning he had to sit stationary at his final stop. "I think they will be very quick in the next race but there's a lot of straights there as well and we've obviously got, I think, still the strongest power unit on the grid, so I think that will come into play, for sure".
Starting from third on the grid, Vettel jumped Hamilton at the start of the race and ran second to Valtteri Bottas early on before an early pit stop and Safety Car period saw the German take the lead.
To add to Mercedes' woes, Bottas and Hamilton both endured slow pit stops, allowing Vettel to take the lead behind the Safety Car while Hamilton dropped to fourth behind Ricciardo.
The stewards took a dim view of Hamilton's actions - declaring he drove "unnecessarily slowly and erratically" and slapped him with a five-second timed penalty and latterly two points on his licence. After qualifying, many were talking about Bottas finally being able to take the fight to Hamilton after he parked his auto on pole position with a lap that even had Hamilton cooing.
In lap 14, a collision between the cars of Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz prompted the safety auto to come out, but the Mercedes cars could not get back on track right away.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said such orders were "a call you don't like to make", with the team's two drivers officially assured of equal terms and treatment despite their track records.
"I'm really happy to come back like this, like I've never been away", he said.
SAKHIR, Bahrain (AP) - Sebastian Vettel is back on top of the Formula One standings and his Ferrari team is bursting with ambition again.
"The vehicle was working pretty nicely and, to be honest, I expected that". I had a good feeling yesterday, so for many laps it really worked well.
Samsung says Galaxy S8+ more popular with preorder customers in the US
Financially, there's a lot riding on it, but more than that, there's its reputation as the best Android phone manufacturer. The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus will be released commercially next week but sadly, Bixby will not be fully ready.
"That first stint was looking really competitive". But a very controlled race, the vehicle, as I said, was a dream today.
Kimi Raikkonen finished fourth in his Ferrari, while Massa was sixth in his WIlliams.
The day proved to be hard for Red Bull Racing.
McLaren endured another miserable race weekend with Stoffel Vandoorne unable to start the race due to engine problems and Fernando Alonso making his annoyance clear over team radio at his car's lack of oomph.
While Bottas had stunned the F1 fraternity with his pole-winning performance during qualifying, Sunday showed that his race craft is still not quite where Mercedes would like it to be.
The lap record there has been held by McLaren since 2005 at one minute thirty-one point four.
Romain Grosjean battled through to take eighth for Haas ahead of Nico Hulkenberg of Renault and Esteban Ocon in the second Force India.
Lance Stroll, the 18-year-old Canadian rookie whose career has been bankrolled by his fashion billionaire father Lawrence, has endured a tricky start to life in Formula One, and he was in the wars again on Sunday after he crashed into the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz as the Spaniard left the pits.
Comments