Sebastian Vettel took his second victory of the 2017 season as he won the Bahrain Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton got a time penalty and came second followed by Bottas in third.

Vettel crossed the line 6.660s ahead of Hamilton, who had slashed his advantage from 20s after making his second pitstop. Bottas held the lead at the start, with Vettel making a better getaway than Hamilton to draw alongside him on the run to the first corner and then sweep around the outside on turn-in to run second.

Vettel then pressured Bottas in the early laps, the Mercedes driver struggling for rear grip thanks to high rear tyre pressures caused by a faulty generator used to help set them on the grid, with Hamilton just behind and keeping the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo just behind him.

With Hamilton eventually slipping out of DRS range of Vettel, the Ferrari driver became the first of the frontrunners to stop on lap 10 and committed to a two-stop strategy by taking a second set of supersofts.Verstappen followed Vettel into the pits a lap later, but suffered a brake problem on his out-lap and went off at Turn 4, his race ending in the barrier.The safety car was deployed on lap 13 when Williams driver Lance Stroll was hit by Carlos Sainz’s Toro Rosso. Sainz had just made his first pitstop, but closed rapidly under braking for Turn 1, hitting Stroll’s sidepod as the Williams took the apex. The contact put both out of the race, and triggered a flurry of pitstops that allowed Vettel to take the lead.

Mercedes had to pit both Bottas and Hamilton under the safety car, with both having slow stops lasting just over six seconds, and Ricciardo able to emerge from the pits between them. Hamilton, who knew he would have to queue behind Bottas, slowed on the entry to the pitlane and delayed Ricciardo, leading to a stewards’ investigation and subsequent five-second penalty.

Vettel led from Bottas at the restart on lap 17, with Hamilton jumping Ricciardo for third on the run to the first corner, followed on the run to Turn 4 by Williams driver Felipe Massa.Bottas, who opted for supersofts at his previous stop, made his second stop to take softs 13 laps later, emerging seventh behind Sergio Perez’s Force India and quickly moving ahead of both the Mexican and Massa to run fifth.While Vettel gradually extended his lead to over six seconds from Bottas, Hamilton chased his teammate before taking second place up the inside into Turn 1 on lap 27. At that point, Vettel had a 6.3s lead, but Hamilton had cut that advantage to just under four seconds when the Ferrari driver pitted for softs at the end of lap 33.

Vettel emerged from the pits in third place, 17 seconds behind Hamilton and three behind Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

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