The Mercedes executive director, Toto Wolff, has said the team will consider team orders after defeat at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday made it clear the battle for this year's Formula One world championship will be closely contested with Ferrari. However, this late attack from Mercedes didn't bother Ferrari, as Vettel took the chequered flag to win his second race of the season.
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 vehicle period.
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. When the five red lights went out, it was the Finnish driver who got off to a ideal start, pulling away from the chasing pack. But with five laps to go, Vettel stabilised the margin, and in the end was a comfortable victor with more than six seconds to spare. Bottas came in first, which pushed back Hamilton's stop. Verstappen was the second driver to pit, but was soon sent into retirement, when he rear brakes failed on his out lap, sending the Dutch driver into the wall. A lap later, Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz crashed into Williams' Lance Stroll shortly after leaving the pits. Bottas lost time in the pits, coming out behind Vettel.
Up front, a jubilant Sebastien Vettel had a joyous drive in his Ferrari, finishing ahead of the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, with Kimi Raikkonen fourth in the other Ferrari. But since he impeded Daniel Ricciardo while doing this, he was handed a five-second penalty.
Vettel kept his Scuderia Ferrari close to the gearbox of Bottas. Meanwhile, Hamilton moved up to third place.
Hamilton managed to recover from that setback as he got past Ricciardo and Bottas, but could not catch up to the race leader in time.
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Winner Vettel poses with the winners trophy.
Mercedes has revealed that Valtteri Bottas' struggle for pace in the opening stint of the Bahrain Grand Prix was caused by a "perfect storm" of problems on the grid. This allowed Hamilton to take position from his team-mate.
"In Australia it was a matter of the tyres and I had to pit".
That saw Vettel in the lead, with Bottas and Hamilton behind, and Vettel pulled away, further helped down the line by Hamilton's penalty.
But it wasn't just Hamilton's sully moves and subsequent penalty that won it for Vettel, it was also Ferrari's clever, and early, first stop when Vettel was caught in a train of cars, with the rest of the train pitting a bit later under the safety vehicle.
Vettel went for his second pit stop on lap 33, thus putting Hamilton into the first position.
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