Lewis Hamilton claims Bahrain GP win

Lewis Hamilton extended his World Championship lead with his third victory of the 2015 season in a Bahrain GP in which a rejuvenated Kimi Raikkonen claimed a brilliant second place.

 

Although Hamilton never enjoyed a lead of more than six seconds at any stage of the 57-lap night race, the polesitter took control of proceedings from the start and expertly managed his tyres and pace in the evening conditions of the desert to secure yet another win and open up a 27-point championship lead.

Behind the world champion, however, the battle for second place proved to be both tense and fast-changing with Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel and, in by far the finest performance of his largely underwhelming second Ferrari career, Raikkonen all going head-to-head and wheel-to-wheel at various stages of the race.

Raikkonen’s second place represented the former world champion’s first podium since the 2013 Korean GP – some 26 races ago when the Finn was still a Lotus driver – and goes a long way to proving that the grid’s eldest driver is not yet a spent force despite a disastrous 2014.

Raikkonen’s stirring drive from fourth to second was in sharp contrast to team-mate Vettel’s, who ended up behind Valtteri Bottas’s Williams in fifth place after a hat-trick of errors eventually resulted in a broken front wing.

...SkySports