Contributor: James Parker, TJ13 on track correspondent

Bahrain once again gave way to a beautiful Sunday afternoon, which saw Sebastian Vettel deliver a champions drive to take his 28^th win of his career. Passing both Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg in the opening laps of the Grand Prix, he monstered the field, exercising a brilliant performance of tyre management. It sends ominous signs to the rest of the field going into Europe that, like 2012 he is ready to maximise any advantage that comes his way.

Lotus not famed for their aggressive strategies, executed a magnificent 2 stop for Raikkonen, to claim the 2^nd spot on the podium. A resurgent Grosjean rounded out a Lotus 2-3 after a late race charge saw him capture the last podium place ahead of a frustrated Paul Di Resta.

Stepping Up To The Plate
Two drivers going into Bahrain were hideously under pressure from their respective teams to deliver a performance which would set their season alight and they both duly delivered under the intense heat of Bahrain. Both Perez and Grosjean have been under the microscope since the start of 2013 to up their game somewhat, and today they produced drives which will surely impress both Boullier and Whitmarsh respectively.

For Perez, this weekend was all about proving he could stick with Button on race pace after receiving criticism from Whitmarsh post China that he needs to “toughen up” and fight harder when in the car.

Judging on his performance today he certainly did that. After having a magnificent start to the Grand Prix, the Mexican found himself up in 8^th place early on shadowing his team-mate Button for the first stint.

But from Lap 20 through to 35, he found himself in an enthralling battle with Button. The two McLaren drivers swapped positions upwards of 4-5 times as they fought for solid points. After numerous skirmishes going into T1, which saw Perez defend heavily on the pit straight from a double slip streaming Button on lap 24, it all came to a head on Lap 30.

Going into the wide T4, Perez tried to undercut his team leader on the exit, misjudging how slow Button would be on the apex, he nudged Button much to the bemusement of his team-mate – who radioed in to ask the team to calm Perez down. But the Mexican was truly a man on a mission, enjoying a last lap battle with Webber to claim 6^th place and a first eye opening result of 2013.

Elbows and knees were out aplenty and it was the first race of the season it looked like Perez was worthy of his place at the McLaren team. He outraced Button on merit with the latter forced to do 4 stops due to degradation worries and claim a lowly 10^th.

For Grosjean, after such a frustrating qualifying session, he desperately needed a strong race result to silence his doubters. So far in 2013, it appears the Frenchman has lost some confidence behind the wheel, unable to find a good balance in the Lotus.

But today, he worked through the traffic beautifully during the middle stint, which saw him pull moves on both McLaren’s and Mark Webber.

Once in clean air on the medium compound tyre in the final stint, he hunted down the Force India of Paul Di Resta (who was 2 stopping) rapidly and wasted no time in passing the Scotsman for the final podium spot. It is a race which will surely do Romain a world of good.  He finally looks comfortable in the Lotus and is able to show everyone what an instinctive driver and natural talent he is.

Both him and Perez must surely now go into Spain knowing their seasons have finally began.

Ferrari – A Race To Forget
What can we say about Ferrari. After such a promising qualifying session which saw both strategies covered going into Sunday they must have been feeling so confident. But lady luck was definitely not on their side and the race ended up disintegrating in front of their eyes.

What exactly happened to Alonso’s rear wing has yet to be revealed, but it certainly looks like the mechanism to close the wing once DRS was activated failed on the Spaniard. Two unscheduled stops later and unable to utilise DRS benefits for the entire Grand Prix, Alonso once again pulled a rabbit out a hat by running superb middle stints on the harder compound tyre. This saw him finish in 8^th, 37 seconds behind Vettel.

Whether without his problems he could have lived with Sebastian’s blistering pace up front is another matter.  A certain podium finish like Malaysia looks to have been squandered – will it potentially come back to haunt him in the WDC hunt?

For Massa, 15^th is a rather harsh reflection on his race, but like Alonso it appears all luck evaded him today. A touch in T4, which damaged his front wing on the opening lap with Adrian Sutil, kind of set the trend for the rest of his race.

A puncture on lap 18, caused by debris tearing the tyre (according to Pirelli) dropped the Brazilian back into the mid pack battle. A secondary puncture on lap 38 did nothing but completely demoralise the Ferrari man.

Ferrari will be frustrated no doubt. They had the race pace to fight for the podium but both cars have suffered problems out of their control. In Massa’s case however, the team may be posing a few questions towards Pirelli regarding the secondary failure which looked scarily similar to Hamilton’s on Saturday morning.

What is more significant however is that Alonso now finds himself 30 points off Vettel in the WDC and Ferrari drop behind Lotus to 3^rd in the WCC.

Lotus – What Could Have Been?
It appears to be a case of De Ja Vu for Lotus. Like 2012, they appear to be leaving themselves far too much work to do on a Sunday after suffering a lack of qualifying pace on the Saturday. We all know that the Lotus E21 has the trick FRICS suspension device, run a softer chassis setup naturally and therefore are able to be a lot softer on the tyres.

But could it be that the car is still suffering from heat generation over 1 lap to enable Raikkonen and Grosjean a good balance in Qualifying much like 2012? Both their drivers today had the race pace to keep RedBull on their toes during the Grand Prix, however were forced to chase shadows after a poor first stint which saw both Raikkonen and Grosjean tucked up in traffic.

Obviously with a double podium finish it was the perfect exercise in damage limitation for the Enstone squad going into the European leg of the season – but will it come back to haunt them later on in the year if Raikkonen finds himself in the title hunt?

When asked about the lack of Qualifying performance on Saturday the team were completely mystified regarding the distinctive lack of pace. Not being able to specify the cause must be a worrying factor for the engineers.

Final Thoughts
Sebastian Vettel today potentially produced the drive of the season so far. The opening exchanges of the Grand Prix with Rosberg were a joy to watch, and the overtake into T5 on Alonso on the opening lap was world class.

He never wavered at the head of the field and it was an ominous performance that was reminiscent from those produced towards the latter part of 2012. He has attracted a lot of negative criticism so far this season, but you simply cannot challenge his talent behind the wheel – he now rests 6^th on the all time winners list thanks to the win today.

Both Di Resta and Hamilton drove brilliant races today. Hamilton could not find any balance on the medium tyre in the first two stints of the race on high fuel. Once the harder compound tyres were bolted on though, combined with a lower fuel load, he found the missing performance and managed to finish 5th. Rosberg meanwhile struggled to a 9^th placed finish making 4 stops.

Di Resta was unlucky to miss out on the podium however a 2 stop strategy was always going to leave him exposed in the final stint. It has been his strongest weekend this season and although Sutil suffered a puncture early on thanks to contact with Massa, he looked to have the upper hand on the German and that will surely do his confidence a world of good. 

Driver of The Day – Sebastian Vettel closely followed by Fernando Alonso, who both for different reasons showed their quality today, Perez a close 3^rd.

Final Race Results

All that’s left to say is bring on Spain!