Sebastian Vettel holds off Valtteri Bottas in Sakhir

Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) resisted to the end Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) to win his second consecutive Grand Prix after his Australian victory.

The start of the race was initially fatal for both Red Bull de Daniel Ricciardo et Max Verstappen, forced to retire in the first laps. First of all, it was the Australian who had to stop his RB14 at the side of the track after an apparent power cut, causing the deployment of the virtual safety car.

Just before this episode, Max Verstappen was forced to return to the pits after a puncture following overtaking and contact with the Mercedes W09 of Lewis Hamilton. Returning to the track to remedy the problem, the Dutchman finally stopped his car a few moments later.

With Red Bull eliminated, Ferrari and Mercedes began a duel from a distance via offbeat strategies. Starting ninth, Hamilton quickly made his way through the peloton, notably recovering three positions at once by overtaking Esteban Ocon (Force India), Nico Hulkenberg (Renault) and Fernando Alonso (McLaren) braking for the first corner, to take sixth place before returning to third place.

Vettel as a good manager

On a one-stop strategy, Ferrari will choose the soft tires for Vettel's second stint, when Mercedes fits the medium tires on its W09s. The German managed to maintain the advantage over Bottas despite a collapse in the performance of his tires at the end of the race, and was ahead of the Finn by less than a second at the checkered flag.

Hamilton finally failed in third position ahead of Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso), which offers its best result in F1. Honda also achieved its best result since its return as an engine manufacturer.

The Frenchman had a solid race to finish with a lead of almost ten seconds over the Haas VF-18 Kevin Magnussen, after a duel between the two drivers at the start of the race.

Nico Hülkenberg follows in sixth position ahead of the two McLaren – Renault of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne. Marcus Ericsson (Alfa Romeo Sauber) and Esteban Ocon complete the top 10.

Romain Grosjean (Haas) could not do better than fifteenth, after having seen his car lose the left bargeboard during the race.

In contention for the podium, Kimi Räikkönen saw his race interrupted following a dramatic pit stop for Scuderia Ferrari. Once the SF17H was stopped in its location for its second pass in the pitlane, the procedure for replacing the left rear wheel could not be carried out, but the green light was given to the Finn to set off again.

A mechanic was hit by the car and visibly injured his leg. Taken care of by doctors, the latter was taken to hospital.

Our mechanic was taken to hospital for treatment #BahrainGP

- Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) April 8, 2018

INITIAL CLASSIFICATION (LAP 57/57)

Immense pressure from Bottas, immense effort from Gasly in P4!#BahrainGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/YeBLa92uSo

- Formula 1 (@ F1) April 8, 2018

Race ranking

Discover the full report and analysis of the Bahrain Grand Prix, produced by our special correspondents on the Sakhir track, in AUTO issue 2160hebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version and this Wednesday on newsstands.