Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel dominated the Formula One Bahrain GP, cruising to an error-free and more crucially worry-free victory.
Vettel, starting second on the grid, had the easiest of times in the desert, winning the race by a margin of over nine seconds from Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus, despite making a stop more in the pits, which emphasized the German's dominance in Bahrain.
Raikkonen's teammate Romain Grosjean finished third, while Paul Di Resta of Force India came in an impressive fourth.
"Big, big thank you to the team," Vettel told David Coulthard in a podium interview. "A flawless, seamless race from start to finish. I knew it was crucial straight away after the start to get into the lead if I could and then go from there and look after the tyres.
"The pace was phenomenal. The car was very quick and it just started to get better and better towards the end. Really, a beautiful race where you could push every single lap. We took care of the tyres, so overall very happy.
With the 25 points, Vettel increased his lead at the top to ten points from Raikkonen. Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, who came in fifth in Bahrain, is third on 50 points with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso fourth, a further three points behind.
Alonso had a forgettable Bahrain GP, having to pit for the second time in two laps after his DRS rear wing flap got stuck in the open position.
That basically ended his chances of finishing in the podium places, with the Spaniard eventually having to settle for eighth place, with his teammate Felipe Massa only managing 15th place.
"We definitely didn't have much luck today and that's a real shame, at the end of what had been such a positive weekend for me and Felipe up until this afternoon," Alonso said. "We had been competitive in free practice and qualifying and we were both expecting to have a good race.
"After the opening laps, when I thought the rear tyres had gone off, the pit wall informed that the DRS was stuck. It wasn't fixed properly at the first stop and so I had to come in for another one.
"From then on, the clear instruction from the pit wall not to use it affected my race. I tried to recover but it was really difficult finding places to overtake without DRS."
