Vettel victorious in Bahrain

22Apr 2013

Pre-race favourite Fernando Alonso suffered a nightmare start to the Bahrain Grand Prix, leaving the way clear for Red Bull rival Sebastian Vettel to take his second consecutive victory in Bahrain and lengthen his championship lead in the process...

Sebastian Vettel triumphed ahead of the Lotus duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, coincidentally the same three drivers that finished first, second and third last year. Paul di Resta delivered on his pre-race promise, the Force India driver looking as if he would take his maiden podium finish in F1 before Grosjean battled past in the closing stages.

As expected polesitter Nico Rosberg wasn't able to maintain position at the front, in fact the Mercedes driver was under pressure from the outset and lost out to Vettel on lap three. The Red Bull driver looked to have the match of anyone in the field and Fernando Alonso was denied the opportunity to put up a fight when his DRS wing jammed open. He stopped to fix it only for the problem to reoccur next time DRS was used, so was forced to pit again and run without the use of DRS for the rest of the afternoon. That compromised his ability to fight back through the field but having been 19th at one stage, the Spaniard produced a creditable drive to finish eighth.

Vettel's second win in three races establishes him as the clear favourite, with his odds moving to 1.93 from 2.62 following Alonso's Chinese triumph. Alonso moves back out to 3.8 but he shouldn't be discounted to fight back and close the 30-point gap that exists between them - today's race featured one of those freak occurrences and Ferrari will have nailed down that problem by the time F1 reconvenes in Spain on 12th May. Raikkonen's odds remain longer at 8.2 - the Iceman looks to be putting together a campaign of equal consistency to 2012 but he'll need to qualify better than he did in Bahrain in order to convert the pace of Lotus into results that will form the basis of a title-winning campaign. He should be backed in the Top Three market at 1.76 and let's see what happens in the European season before deciding whether to back him for the title.

Red Bull remains out in front in the Constructor's Championship at 1.64 with Ferrari next-best at 3.05. Afternoons like the one Ferrari had today, where Alonso finished eighth from third on the grid and Massa wound up 15th having started fourth, won't do them any favours but it is most likely a blip and we'll see a return to previous form next time out at the Spanish Grand Prix, especially with it being Alonso's home race.