Lewis Hamilton wins Bahrain Formula One GP

Lewis Hamilton won the Bahrain Grand Prix to strengthen his overall lead in the Formula One standings with his third win in four races this season.

The defending champion started from pole position on Sunday for the first time in the desert race under floodlights and was more convincing, finishing ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, whose braking problem with two remaining laps let in Raikkonen.

“Ferrari gave us a really good run for our money and we will need to keep pushing as a team,” Hamilton said. “We’re trying to win both championships. So we won’t be 100 percent happy because we wanted to finish 1-2.”

It was a late brake problem that slowed Hamilton down a little on the final lap though he was still able to cross the line with 3.3 seconds ahead of Raikkonen and 6 seconds clear of Rosberg ” last year’s runner-up ” who has now won only once in the past 15 races.

“We’ve shown today that Mercedes are still the best but Ferrari are pushing very, very hard,” Hamilton said.

Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen finished in second position after he fought back strongly with the help from his Team.

A change in plan of putting Raikkonen on the faster soft tyres for his final stint enabled him to over haul the medium-tyred Rosberg, before passing the German – who like Hamilton had brake issues on the second last lap.

Nico Rosberg finished third making Mercedes still have a healthy points lead.

Jenson Button, last in Saturday’s qualifying, did not start due to a technical problem, while Brazilian driver Felipe Massa stalled his car on his formation lap due to an electrical problem and started from the pit lane.