Mercedes boss admits team orders call wasn't easy to make

Valtteri Bottas, who started from his first-ever pole position and led in the early stages, faded to third. And the world champions may well feel this was a race that got away from them.

Also caught up in the action was Valterri Bottas, who accepted his removal at lap 25 to make way for Hamilton as Vettel built a six second lead and with 10 laps remaining.

Heading into this race, Vettel and Hamilton were level with a win each, but the latter's second victory of the season and 44th of his career puts him in command.

A safety auto, brought out following a crash involving Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz, threatened to nullify Vettel's threat but Mercedes were forced to pit their two drivers at the same time.

This was deemed to have been excessive and the stewards awarded the Brit a five second penalty, which Hamilton took at his final pit stop later in the race and still managed to reel in Vettel; the penalty was roughly the time difference when the chequered flag was waved.

Hamilton was the new race leader, but with more than 20 laps to go, a time penalty still to take, and with Vettel on new tires, it was a precarious lead.

"I'm definitely a team player so I wouldn't say no", said Bottas.

Brazilian Felipe Massa finished sixth for Williams, a well-received Easter Sunday birthday gift for team boss Frank Williams who is 75, with Sergio Perez taking seventh for Force India. Haas' Roman Grosjean came eighth, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg's Renault and Esteban Ocon's Force India.

Wolff was clear that it was unlikely Mercedes could go as far as appointing a clear number one before the start of a race, but suggested that the team may have to be more open to favouring one of its men if it appears that Ferrari will beat it.

Hamilton and Bottas rounded out the podium for Mercedes with the pole victor finishing 20 seconds down on Vettel thus failing to convert his maiden F1 pole into a win.

Max Verstappen rued the fact that Red Bull "lost a lot of points" after a brake failure ended his race in Bahrain after just 11 laps.

Vettel started third on the grid, but on the first lap itself on turn one managed to squeeze past Lewis Hamilton and eventually managed to jump pole-sitter Valtteri Bottas in the first round of pit stops after a safety auto period. He initiated an overtaking maneuver on Hamilton going into Turn 1 and then proceeded to chase Bottas.

Lewis Hamilton has apologised to his Mercedes team after he admitted he was at fault for the pit-lane blunder which cost him a shot at victory in Bahrain on Sunday.

Having started the Bahrain GP in pole position, Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas was feeling disappointed after ending up in third place. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) +00:06.600; 3.

Kimi Räikkönen came home 4th in the other Ferrari. To try to minimise the delay he slowed on entry backing up the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.