The Bahrain race was set amid intense criticism following the Anti-government protesters and the continued violence in the Gulf State.
World champion Sebastian Vettel took his and Red Bull's first pole position of 2012 ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton. Vettel than finished off the perfect weekend to win the Grand Prix.
Vettel’s victory was thanks to a bad performance from the McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, he now leads the championship. Red Bull Team boss Christian Horner said "we certainly did not expect" to lead the drivers and constructors championships after Bahrain.
Christian Horner went on to say: “We have consistently managed to be scoring pretty decent points in the first three races. So it just shows that if you maintain your focus and team-work, it can pay dividends."
Vettel’s Red Bull team mate Mark Webber finished fourth in the race. “I’m looking forward to getting on a plane. It's time to go back to Europe” he said after the Grand Prix.
Kimi Raikkonen, the 32-year-old Finn, clinched a podium finish for Lotus with a stunning drive to second place ahead of his team-mate Romain Grosjean.
This is his fourth race after his comeback, the 2007 world champion demonstrated his skill and managed to keep Vettel insight for the majority of the race.
Raikkonen said: “Of course I wanted to win and would have been much happier in myself if I had won, but nevertheless the team deserved what they got and hopefully we can put ourselves in this position more often. We had the car already in the first three races to be up there, but we made some small mistakes and it cost us too much."
Lewis Hamilton The 27-year-old Vodafone McLaren Mercedes star finished a disappointing eighth. When asked afterwards whether there should be an inquest into the team’s poor pit stops, Hamilton said: “There should be.” A miserable day for the McLaren team saw Jenson Button needing a late stop for a puncture and then having to retire with a lap to go.
Nico Rosberg came fifth for Mercedes and Paul di Resta sixth for Force India.
