Bahrain: Hamilton fights through

The race had been pretty calm until that point, even with a safety car period just after the start, where Marko Asmer came off worst in the first-corner scrap and lost several places. After the re-start, Green was comfortable in the lead ahead of Nico Rosberg, Fabio Carbone and Hamilton.

Then Hamilton got past both Rosberg (Team Rosberg) and Carbone (Three Bond Racing) before he lost his tyres and Rosberg swept past him in the middle of a race that had no shortage of passing manouvres on the wide Grand Prix track. The top four was quiet until the safety car came out at the end and left the field with two laps of racing to the chequered flag.

The smart money would have been on Green, but he didn't anticipate the safety car pulling in when it did. The lights went off very late and it led to confusion on the re-start with some drivers flooring the throttle and others caught unawares. Rosberg got alongside Green into the first corner, but as the pair battled up to the next hairpin it all got messy.



Green and Rosberg both outbraked themselves and Hamilton sailed neatly through the turn into a comfortable lead! Green lost momentum and dropped to fourth behind Lucas di Grassi but the pair clashed and Green got back up to third behind Rosberg. Neither could do much about Hamilton with a lap and a half to go, though the Manor Motorsport driver admitted he'd have struggled to hold the lead for another lap.

James Rossiter was a big winner in the re-start chaos and the madness of the last two laps, making up several spots and finishing fourth ahead of Carbone. Richard Antinucci and Ronnie Quintarelli were fifth and sixth before the safety car, but crashed into each other shortly after it pulled in. Di Grassi had lost more places with a wide moment, then got a time penalty for overtaking before the line at the re-start.

Lewis Hamilton (Dallara-Mercedes)
Nico Rosberg (Dallara-Opel)
Jamie Green (Dallara-Mercedes)
James Rossiter (Dallara-Opel)
Fabio Carbone (Dallara-Nissan)
Marko Asmer (Dallara-Mugen)
Kazuki Nakajima (Dallara-Toyota)
Loic Duval (Dallara-Opel)
Alexandre Prémat (Dallara-Mercedes)
Ernesto Viso (Dallara-Opel)