Australian rookie Daniel Ricciardo really impressed last Saturday in qualifying sixth for the Bahrain Formula1 Grand Prix. He qualified his Toro Rosso ahead of the Romain Grosjean’s Lotus, Perez’s Sauber and Alonso’s Ferrari.
Sebastian Vettel clinched pole position for the first time this season with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton taking second spot and Mark Webber qualifying in third. Michael Schumacher failed to qualify in the top ten and then suffered a grid relegation after a stewards penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.
Defending World champion Sebastian Vettel led from start to finish to claim his and Red Bull’s first victory of the season. Pirelli only made the soft and medium compound tyre available for this race which in many aspects were not the ideal tyres for the very abrasive surface of the circuit. It made the race extremely tough for all the teams with many cars on a three pitstop strategy for rubber.
The exception for the day was Kimi Raikkonen who having missed final qualifying on Saturday had the benefit of several sets of fresh soft tyres for the race and took full advantage of the situation by challenging for the lead.
Vettel was hounded in the final laps by former world champion Raikkonen, who had come from eleventh on the grid to finish second ahead of Lotus team-mate Romain Grosjean. Australian Mark Webber was fourth for the fourth successive race in the other Red Bull.
Nico Rosberg, winner in the Chinese GP 2 weeks ago finished fifth, but will have to contend with a stewards’ enquiry after driving incidents with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. Seven times world champion, Michael Schumacher who started from position 22 finished in tenth.
