Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel fought off Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen to take his first win of the season at the Bahrain Grand Prix, which passed off peacefully despite civil unrest.
Raikkonen’s teammate Romain Grosjean picked up his first podium finish with third place, in the former Renault team’s first double podium finish since 2006 and the first podium finish for a French driver since Jean Alesi in 1998.
Vettel leads the championship by four points from Lewis Hamilton, with the German's Red Bull teammate Mark Webber one point further back in third.
In a duel between two world champions, Raikkonen pulled alongside Vettel on lap 36 of 57, but was unable to complete the overtake.
The German then picked up a small lead at the pitstops when Raikkonen suffered a slow tire change, and clung on for the rest of the race as Raikkonen struggled to close the gap.
The threat from Raikkonen and Grosjean pushed Vettel to the limit, the German said.
“It was extremely tough to keep them behind us. Once it was very close, and I thought he would get more than one shot, but it turned out to be enough,” he said.
“It’s a bit disappointing that I didn’t manage to do it,” Raikkonen said. “We could have won the race, but at least we got the podium with both cars.”
Other teams had underestimated Lotus after Raikkonen finished fifth in last week’s race in China, with Grosjean tenth, Raikkonen suggested.
“At the last race we tried hard and we failed, so possibly people thought we are a bit stupid.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner praised Vettel’s drive and the team’s tactics.
“It was a tough race, but he drove a great race. Kimi was very quick today, but we got the strategy right,” he said.
Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber was fourth, ahead of Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg and Force India’s Paul di Resta.
Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were seventh and ninth, with 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton in eighth for McLaren. Rosberg’s teammate Michael Schumacher took the final championship point in tenth after starting 22nd on the grid.
Hamilton’s McLaren teammate Jenson Button retired with one lap remaining after suffering a puncture.
Russian driver Vitaly Petrov finished 16th, one place ahead of teammate Heikki Kovalainen and equaling his best result this season.
Before the race, Petrov had promised that his Caterham was capable of challenging the midfield teams, which he was able to do on occasion, while building a big lead to backmarkers HRT and Marussia.
