MANAMA: Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton won the Bahrain Grand Prix for the second year in a row on Sunday with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen back on the podium to deny Mercedes another one-two finish.

The Briton’s pole-to-flag victory at the floodlit desert track was his third win in four races this season and 36th of his career.

Unlike last season, when he beat team-mate Nico Rosberg from second place on the grid in a wheel-to-wheel battle, Hamilton was untroubled by the German who finished third after fighting the Ferraris.

Hamilton came home 3.3 seconds clear of Finn Raikkonen who stole second ahead of Rosberg when the second Mercedes driver suffered a braking problem on the penultimate lap.

It had seemed that the 29-year-old German would hold off Raikkonen’s late challenge, but both Mercedes lost their brakes in the final laps, Hamilton just hanging on to win.

Hamilton increased his lead over Rosberg in the standings to 27 points. The Briton now has 93 points to the German’s 66.

Finn Valtteri Bottas of Williams finished fourth after resisting a late attack from German Sebastian Vettel in the second Ferrari.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo finished sixth for Red Bull, his engine blowing up as he crossed the line ahead of Frenchman Romain Grosjean of Lotus and Mexican Sergio Perez of Force India.

Russian Daniil Kvyat in the second Red Bull was ninth and Brazilian Felipe Massa, was 10th in the second Williams on another sweltering day at the Sakhir Circuit.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2015

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