Sebastian Vettel managed to convert his first pole in 2012 to his first win in 2012 holding off both Lotus Renault drivers throughout the entire race. Vettel controlled his tyre degradation along with the hard task handling fuel consumption from lights to flag which helped him move into 1st in the Drivers World Championship & Red Bull Racing into 1st in the Constructors World Championship.
Before the race Lotus Renault Team Principle - Eric Boullier - told Sky F1's Natalie Pinkham that he would be delighted if the team could manage to get both drivers into the top 6, so the Frenchman must be ecstatic at the fact that the team got both drivers onto the podium & at stages threatened Vettel for the lead with Kimi Raikkonen.
Romain Gorsjean produced one of the starts of the season so far along with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso who gained 4 places from 9th to 5th posistion after turn 1. The Ferrari team had another hard weekend but managed to place both drivers into the points positions for the first time this season. Despite this success the team still had an hair raising moment when Fernando Alonso was released into the path of Mexican driver Sergio Perez in the pits. Sky F1's Martin Brundle commented saying the team will most likely get away with it but the incident is being investigated after the race.
Another team being investigated after the race are Mercedes, and in particular Nico Rosberg. Rosberg was brought back down to earth this weekend after his win in China when he qualified 5th and finished in the same place. Despite this the place could be taken off Rosberg for 2 "dangerous maneuvers" when fending off 1st Lewis Hamilton & then Fernando Alonso. Both World Champions radioed into there teams complaining about the young Germans aggressive driving saying "you must leave a gap". Schumacher on the other hand will feel satisfied with gaining 12 places from 22nd to 10th.
After Force India's mixed weekend the team will be delighted with Paul Di Resta's 6th posistion collecting some crucial world championship points for himself & the team. Along with Paul, Nico Hulkenberg showed some great mid race pace and was unlucky not to collect some points himself.
After Bahrain the teams travel to Mugello in Italy for a mid season test but 2 drivers who are not attending are McLaren's Lewis Hamilton & Jenson Button. The team and both drivers will feel that after the opening 4 races this season they had the potential in the car to be leading the championships but critically weather conditions + bad luck in the pit stops has cost them. With Lewis collecting 3 points today and Jenson scoring 0 after a puncture and eventually engine failure the team will want a strong show in Barcelona to bounce back and mount there title challenges.
Pos Driver Team Time1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h35:10.9902. Raikkonen Lotus-Renault + 3.3333. Grosjean Lotus-Renault + 10.1944. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 38.7885. Rosberg Mercedes + 55.4606. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 57.5437. Alonso Ferrari + 57.8038. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 58.9849. Massa Ferrari + 1:04.99910. Schumacher Mercedes + 1:11.49011. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 1:12.70212. Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes + 1:16.53913. Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:30.33414. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1:33.72315. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap16. Petrov Caterham-Renault + 1 lap17. Kovalainen Caterham-Renault + 1 lap18. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 1 lap19. Glock Marussia-Cosworth + 2 laps20. De la Rosa HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps21. Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps22. Senna Williams-Renault + 3 laps
