Sport
Lewis Hamilton wins Bahrain Grand Prix
A jubilant Lewis Hamilton celebrates his winning the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix., Sunday April 6, 2014. PHOTO/AFP
Lewis Hamilton won a thrilling Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday after a duel with Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg in a floodlit night race full of overtaking and wheel-to-wheel battles.
The win, in Formula One’s 900th grand prix, was the Hamilton’s second in a row, the 24th of his career and also a second successive one-two for a team in a class of their own and with 2 drivers free to race each other from start to finish. Mercedes have now won all three races so far in 2014.
“Nico drove fantastically well throughout the race. It was very, very hard to keep him behind me,” smiled Hamilton, the 2008 world champion who last enjoyed back-to-back wins 4 years ago with McLaren.
“I was on the knife edge the whole time and a real relief when I got across the line,” said the Hamilton, who won by 1.085 seconds and described the race as the hardest since his 2007 debut season.
Mexican Sergio Perez took third place, 22.9 seconds behind Rosberg, as Mercedes-powered Force India celebrated the second podium finish in their history.
Hamilton, whose tally of wins pulls him level with the late Argentine great Juan Manuel Fangio in the all-time lists, made the better start from second place on the grid and led into the first corner.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth, despite starting 13th and behind quadruple champion team mate Sebastian Vettel, who ended up sixth and had to let his young team mate through early on.
