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Lewis Hamilton kept up his good 2013 strike rate by recovering to fifth in Bahrain, having run outside the top 10 early on.

Hamilton’s steady scoring this year has put him into third in the World Championship, behind only Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. However his Bahrain race started badly when he struggled to find performance on the medium tyres.

“I was struggling like crazy at the beginning, I was nowhere, I was just falling back, I couldn’t hold onto anyone,” he said.

“I just had no grip. I was trying to look after my tyres, but I was massively slow, and even when I pushed I was massively slow.

“Then all of a sudden in the second or third stint the car picked up. In practice the car was pretty good, and in qualifying the car wasn’t very good, it’s almost like something re-set, and all of a sudden the car was back to normal and I was able to chase and hunt down everyone.

“It was a night and day difference. All of a sudden the car started gripping up and I could drive again, and I started closing the gap. I couldn’t believe how big a gap there was, they were miles ahead, I caught them up, so I’m really, really happy.”

Hamilton made some interesting observations about his early race struggles, when he ran outside the points.

“It’s horrible, I can’t express the feeling, you’re just a sitting duck. Nothing you can do, none of your skills, none of your talent, none of anything you might have can make a difference. Then the grip came back, and I was able to make a difference. I’m so happy I didn’t finish 11th.”

He said he enjoyed his late race battle with Mark Webber.

“It was good wheel-to-wheel racing. He was really fair and hopefully I was really fair as well. I was so determined to get by, I really needed that point.

“I wasn’t overtaking anyone at the beginning, for at least half of the race – it was, ‘This is boring, I’m not overtaking anyone!’ But then I caught people up and started to do some overtaking.”

Asked to sum up his season so far Lewis said: “I feel like we’re holding on by the skin of our teeth. I’m very proud of what the team have done, getting the car turned around to where we are already, so I feel very fortunate to be where we are points-wise and finishing-wise.

“But of course we’ve got to keep pushing, the guys back at the factory need to keep pushing, because we’re not that far off, and if we can just make that next step we can close that gap to them.”

A frustrated Mark Webber tumbled down to seventh in the closing laps of the Bahrain GP as he paid the price for excessive rear tyre wear – and was unable to defend his position.

He never caught up from a second stint that wasn’t as long as he’d planned, and at one stage the team thought he might even need a fourth stop.

Webber has made it clear that he’s no big fan of the way racing has unfolded in 2013 thus far.

“In the middle of the race I thought yeah we’ll be on the steps here, this looks alright,” said the Aussie. “It’s just pace management. When you’re in that situation if you get a little bit of a buffer it helps exponentially, you can wait and pace yourself. When you’ve got people on you there’s a fine line between racing and saving your tyres. I think I got one phone call to lift the pace and save your tyres. That’s how it these days.

“Maybe it looks quite good on TV, but we don’t have much to fight back with, that’s the thing. It’s good for the neutral at home, we’ve got obviously DRS and tyres that run out of puff, but it’s the same for everybody. It’s just a bit different, that’s all.

“I was racing at the end trying to hold position, of course. Not the finish we wanted, but the way it went.”

Summing up the first four races of the season he said: “I think I had pretty good momentum in the winter and drove well in the first three races. China was disappointing, the contact with Jean-Eric, but apart from that I think all-in-all I’ve been pretty happy with my form. I don’t think I’ve ever had a good result round this joint anyway, a bit of a bogey circuit. We’ll get back to Europe, regroup, and go again.”

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh says he was happy to see Sergio Perez in fighting form in Bahrain – but concedes that the Mexican overstepped the mark when he made contact with team mate Jenson Button.

Perez, who was recently encouraged by Whitmarsh to “get his elbows out,” angered Button with his aggressive approach.

“I think they were racing,” said Whitmarsh when asked by this writer about the fight with Button. “I had a lot of noise in my ear and people saying stop them fighting, but I let them fight, because that’s how we are, that’s how I am. I think he was trying to be tough, and they were both tough on each other, to be frank. We lost time because of it.

“The thing that was wrong is that you don’t hit your team mate, that was where he overstepped the mark. I’m not taking anything away from him. He was fighting today.”

Whitmarsh insisted that he was right not to impose orders.

“If you call a team order the guy behind is always going to be aggrieved. He was trying hard. It cost us a lot of time in the race, and it could have cost us a bigger calamity than that.

“That’s how we go motor racing. It was a little bit on the edge of what they should be doing to each other, but I think there is no doubt they both wanted to get the place.

“People were talking about Sergio being a bit too polite, they probably aren’t going to write those headlines this evening. He’s young, and he wanted to push. I was fine with it, but hitting a team mate is a more difficult to forgive offence, you don’t do that. But he’s young, he’s learning, and he’s fighting, and it’s fine with me.”

Regarding their post-race chat, Whitmarsh said: “I gave him my view on it. His response was, ‘Yes, you’re right, I was shitting myself at the time.’ Probably not what you want to write, but that’s what he actually said!

“Jenson’s a grown-up, and he’ll deal with it. We’ll probably get the two together and have a chat to them and let them talk amongst themselves. What happened there hurt both of them in the race to a degree, but that’s what happens if you’re going to let them race.

“You can’t suddenly change your mind on lap 38, sorry guys I didn’t mean it. You’ve got to let it happen. As I say, whatever happens the bloke behind says ‘I was quicker.’ So if you call a team order there’s not a racing driver in the world who won’t say, ‘If you hadn’t called that team order I would have had him.’

“I’d be disappointed in any racing driver who said, ‘That was fine, I didn’t mind that team order, it made it safer for us and the team.’ I’d be disturbed if a driver said that. And if I’m at the front and I’m cautiously going through the race my team mate crawling all over me like that is something I’m never going to be comfortable with.”

Ferrari started the Bahrain GP weekend with both cars on top in the first practice session, but ended it with just an eighth place after a frustrating race.

Fernando Alonso had to make two early stops when his DRS flap stuck open, and thereafter was not able to use it again. Meanwhile Felipe Massa finished out of the points after collecting two separate rear punctures.

Nevertheless team boss Stefano Domenicali was keen to see the positives, notably Alonso’s overall pace, despite the lack of DRS.

“We don’t know exactly what happened,” said Domenicali of the DRS issue. “For sure it’s a mechanical problem, it’s not a hydraulic problem. He was convinced that there was a problem of the rear tyres going away earlier than we would have expected, but then suddenly we saw from the data that there was this problem on the rear wing, so we had to call him in, because as you know the regulations, let’s say, forced us to do it.

“We put it back and it seemed that the situation was alright, but then suddenly we saw the problem coming back again. So we had to call him back and after that moment because of course it was clear that there was a real issue on the wing we said to him not to use it again.

“So it’s a bit unfortunate because honestly with the performance that Fernando had today, we could have done an incredible job. He was flying without the DRS, he was overtaking without the DRS – more than that it’s difficult to ask from Fernando.

“In this moment it’s better to keep the heads up, not to cry too much. For sure the biggest thing that’s not a positive is that we have less points than we should have, if you put in place the real performance of the car. We could have been always on the podium and had another win in the four races that we have done, but that’s the situation.

“I’m sure the positive will come back and maybe the negative that we had on our side today maybe will affect the others soon. So stay focussed – the championship is so long it’s not worth to cry too much.”

Domenicali insisted that Alonso would have given Vettel a hard time, despite the German’s apparent dominance.

“Sebastian did a very good race, but he was alone, he was able to control the pace. We know that when you have this situation, you manage the tyres the best way that you can, and we saw that in last race on our side. Honestly for Fernando today we could have done a very good race. I don’t want to say that we were able to win, because it’s easy to say that, but theoretically I think it was possible.

“If you look at his lap time without DRS you clearly understand what was possible. But at the end of the day it didn’t count, so we have to make sure that in the future we don’t have this kind of situation.

“It’s a shame that we had this little issue on reliability, and with Felipe he had a touch at the beginning and then he was really unfortunate to have a problem of the tyres, and his race was destroyed. It’s important, as I said, not to cry too much.”

He added that he wasn’t worried about the 30-point deficit to Sebastian Vettel.

“First of all, 30 points – if it’s zero points [for Vettel] next time and we win, it will be five, so it will be very easy. Only four races gone, there’s still plenty of time, don’t forget we had 50 points last summer, so easy stuff.”

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says that Sebastian Vettel and the team got everything just right in Bahrain – and insisted that the German had plenty in hand.

Vettel led the race from the third lap after disposing of Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg.

“Obviously we managed to get the balance just right for the conditions,” said Horner. “Sebastian did a phenomenal job of managing the tyres today, and he was totally in control from the moment he took the lead passing Nico Rosberg. Ne he then controlled the race beautifully thereafter.

“And at no point was he ever threatened. So it was an absolutely dominant display by him, very good strategy, great team work from the team today for in the end a very dominant win.”

Horner said Vettel did not simply take advantage of the delay suffered by Fernando Alonso.

“At no point was he stretched. He’d made the pass on Fernando before he had the issue, and was starting to pull away before Fernando picked up the DRS problem. I think he was untouchable today, I really do.

“I think these tyres are very complex, we got it just right today. The strategy worked, the strategy from yesterday worked in conserving those tyres for the race, and Sebastian had plenty in hand. When you’re in the window with the balance with these tyres then you can have a dominant display like we had today, but that window is very, very fine. If you’re outside of it you can be four or five stopping.”

He added that he wasn’t surprised when Vettel gave the team a fright by setting fastest lap a few laps from home: “Not really, I think we know him pretty well by now! I think he had plenty in hand. He got the DRS off Daniel Ricciardo, so the temptation was too great, seeing that he was already half a second off because of that DRS. You could see it coming a long way off…”

Meanwhile Mark Webber’s race was badly compromised by the Aussie using up the rear tyres prematurely.

“Mark’s was an interesting race, obviously he was running in the pack early on on the softer tyre, and he was just going through the tyres quicker than Sebastian. We undercut the cars ahead, we got him into second on the road, and the damage was done in the second stint. He started the stint very quickly, got himself up to second place in track position, but then didn’t have the range.

“He ran out of the tyres much, much quicker and then had to stop, he couldn’t go any further than he went. And thereafter byt the time he got to the third stop we were actually considering do we need to four-stop, because his third stop was only one or two laps later than Kimi, who was actually on a two-stop race. Obviously we need to look at it carefully and understand why, but definitely his degradation was very high today.”

Fernando Alonso’s Bahrain GP was ruined by a DRS problem that caused an extra pit stop and ultimately left him without the use of the device for the majority of the race.

Alonso’s DRS flap stuck open on lap seven, forcing him to in effect make his first stop a few laps early. He could have recovered, but it happened again so he immediately came in a second time to have the flap closed once more. After that he didn’t use it for the rest of the race, with an inevitable loss of performance and ability to pass. He eventually finished eighth.

“With the DRS it remained open the first time, I informed the team that we finished the rear tyres, because at that stage I thought it was the rear tyres gone completely,” he explained. “But they told me, ‘No, no the tyres are Ok, it’s just the DRS, so we pit in this lap.’

“It was very light the rear, I had a very strange snap braking for Turn 10, but at that point I was not looking in the mirror or anything, I really thought that it was the tyres going away. It was not good. I was keeping the position because no one could overtake me on the straight, because I was keeping the DRS open all the time, but it was obviously not the way to continue.

“They fixed it, there was some kind of feeling that it stuck there, and with that manoeuvre we thought it was OK. But obviously it was not OK, on the out lap again it happened, and we had to pit again.

“If this DRS problem happened in the last part of the race maybe with another stop you lose two or three positions, but when it happens in the first part of the race, you lose 18-20 positions, and it become more difficult to fight with no DRS. We tried to save some points but it was a little bit unlucky race.”

Alonso confirmed that that issue was unprecedented at Ferrari: “It was a little bit of a strange problem, because not opening the DRS sometimes happens, in the past or in the first year, it’s hydraulic system so you need a lot power to open the DRS with the downforce in that moment. But a DRS that doesn’t close, I don’t remember this problem.”

Lack of DRS robbed him of the chance to get involved in the Hamilton/Webber/Perez fight in the closing laps.

“I was close to them and I knew that on the start/finish line no way to overtake, because with no DRS and they had the DRS all of them, because we were in a group. I had to manage different places to overtake, braking for Turn 8 and braking to Turn 10, so I was damaging a lot the tyres I think, after this long straight and start/finish line. With one or two more laps In would lose a position with Nico because he was coming very fast, and I finished the tyres.”

Asked by this writer what he thought of Sergio Perez’s driving – after a clash between the pair – Alonso smiled and said: “No comment…”

As for the result he lost today, Alonso stopped short of saying he could have won the race.

“Final result, I don’t know, I don’t have a crystal ball to see, so I guess the podium was the realistic target. Looking at Kimi being on the podium and Grosjean as well, I think we could fit in those positions, I don’t know the timed laps from Sebastian because I didn’t see, but if he was too fast today for us, maybe second was good for us, but I don’t know if we were that fast or not.”

Jenson Button was quick to criticise team mate Sergio Perez after the pair made contact during a fraught battle in Bahrain.

Button was heard complaining to the team during the race, and afterwards Martin Whitmarsh told the Mexican that he had exceeded the limits by touching Jenson.

“I’ve raced with many team mates over the years, and obviously with quite an aggressive team mate in Lewis,” said Button. “But I’m not used to driving down the straight and then your team mate coming alongside and wiggling his wheels at you and banging at wheels at 300km/h. That’s things you do at karting, but normally you grow out of it. But obviously that’s not the case with Checo.

“Most of the racing was clean out there, which was great to see, and I’m sure great for TV. The only person that wasn’t really was Checo. I’m all for racing wheel to wheel, it’s great, but you don’t normally expect at the end of the straight for your team mate to bang into you when you’re going in a straight line. That was a bit unusual, and something I’ve not experienced before.

“The good thing is he got some good points for the team, that’s the important thing. But soon something serious will happen, so he has to calm down. He’s extremely quick and he did a great job today, but some of it is unnecessary, and an issue when you’re doing those speeds.”

He added: “Maybe this is the way we go racing now, but it’s not the way I want to go racing.

“He touched me from behind and he touched me from the side going in a straight line at 300 km/h. That’s dangerous. I’ve been with some very aggressive team mates in the past, but I’ve never had that.”

Button said his own race was ruined by excessive tyre wear which forced him to make four pit stops.

“I had problems with the rear tyres, I don’t know why, but I couldn’t look after the rear tyres as well as Checo. It was tricky, and I had that for the whole race really, I was really struggling with that. It seems that when it’s a temperature thing I’m not able to look after the tyres so well.

“Normally that’s a strong point, but I remember here last year struggling with the same thing. Obviously our car is not strong on traction, and with me behind the wheel, it wasn’t today. Not a great race for me, but good for the team to get some points.”

Sebastian Vettel made it two wins in four races in 2013 with a dominant victory in Bahrain – despite Lotus, Ferrari and Mercedes all setting the pace at various stages during the weekend.

Even the German admitted that he hadn’t expected to be able to win so easily, given the level of competition.

Vettel led from the third lap, having quickly disposed of Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg.

“Surely I did not expect that,” said Vettel. “I was pretty dominant today, as I said, certainly not the expectation. In the beginning, it was obviously quite tight, wheel-to-wheel racing. I knew it would be crucial to get in the lead if I can because then you have a little bit of an advantage, looking after your tyres and managing the race from there.

“I could feel that I was able to pull away and the medium compound felt pretty strong but then obviously we had three sets of new hards and for us the car seemed to work very well on those tyres.

“Obviously I realised in the second stint that I was able to open a gap so I thought, ‘right, I’ll take my chance as much as I can to pull away.’ Because you know it can only help at the end of the race, you don’t know what is going to happen. It probably buys us some flexibility. Fortunately we never got into a pressure situation again. But, a very strong race. We were able to look after the tyres and really manage every stint the best way we could..

“Yesterday wasn’t probably that straight forward but we decided to save the tyres that I mentioned and they seemed to work very good today and we had a very strong race, it all worked in our direction, so very pleased.”
Crucially Vettel managed to retake Alonso on the first lap after initially losing out to him, and he was also soon past Rosberg, which allowed him to control the race.

“Well, certainly we had more pace than we expected today, which I think is related to the way that we worked with the tyres. We know that the car is quick, we saw that yesterday that we were able to pull a strong qualifying lap together. Sure, it was crucial because another car in front, and especially once you start to settle into a rhythm, it’s difficult to overtake.

“I think today it was probably helped a little bit by the fact that there was quite a strong headwind down the main straight, so the advantage for DRS or for overtake was probably a little bit bigger than usual.

“At the beginning, I thought that if there was a small chance to get into the lead I have to take it because then I can take care of the tyres the way I like and hopefully divert the race the way that we planned beforehand, whereas if you sit behind someone and get stuck then you struggle, you lose grip, you start to slide and the tyres start to go off and you might have a different race, but surely with the pace that we had, I think we could have had a strong race, even not being in the lead immediately but I preferred it that way for sure.”

Regarding his potential title rivals, Vettel said: “It’s a long, long championship. I think if you look at the first four races Lotus is very quick, they manage the tyres pretty well in the race. Ferrari is very quick, the cars haven’t changed too much compared to last year. If you look, pure performance is very tight. On a Sunday it can be different because of the way you take care of the tyres; sometimes you’re in a better shape, sometimes not.

“But I think the Ferrari is an all-round car as in they’re always quick and they’ve been very competitive in the race. Mercedes is surely very quick over a lap but probably a little bit too aggressive with the tyres. Yeah, a little bit surprised by McLaren but I think they will come back at some stage this year, probably already in Barcelona and that’s how it is but to point out the main rivals, I think we need to look after ourselves, make sure we score points and everything else is difficult to predict.”

Nico Rosberg made it two poles in two races for Mercedes by pipping Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso to top spot on Bahrain, but the German concedes that Sunday will be a lot tougher.

He went as far as to say he doubted that the team “had what it takes to win” at the moment.

Rosberg said that pole was nevertheless a huge boost after a difficult first few races.

“It’s great because the start has not been going to plan, with a lot of ups and downs, and quite a lot of issues,” he said. “I’m hoping this is going to kick start my season, this weekend. It’s the first time that everything really has gone to plan, and until now it’s been great. To end up with the pole position is fantastic, I’m really, really happy with that, and I look forward to tomorrow.

“To get away from the front is a massive help, you can control everything, and you’re in clean air, hopefully, if everything goes well. Definitely tomorrow we need to be cautious, because it’s going to be a very, very tough race, especially rear tyre degradation and wear, this track is quite severe for that. I’m not sure if we have what it takes to win the race tomorrow.”

Asked by this writer if it was frustrating to have to accept that he didn’t have a winning car, Rosberg backtracked slightly.

“I didn’t say that. I just said that we need to be cautious for tomorrow, because it will be more challenging than it was today. Also in mind of the race in China where the car seemed to be quicker in qualifying than it did in the race. It’s possible that we’ll not be as quick as that in the race.”

Sebastian insists that he wasn’t disappointed to lose pole to Nico Rosberg in Bahrain – perhaps on the assumption that as in China, Mercedes won’t be able to back up its qualifying form on race day.

“I’m definitely not disappointed,” said Vettel. “Initially when I crossed the line I saw that I didn’t go first, so I saw second placed on one of the screens, but I didn’t know how much was missing, because the lap was fine.

“You always a little bit here or there but, yeah, when I got told the gap to P1, to Nico, it was clear that even with the perfect lap he was unbeatable today. But nevertheless, I’m very happy. I think we managed to save some tyres throughout qualifying.

“It will be all about tyres and tyre degradation tomorrow, once again. So, we’ll see what happens but for sure it’s good to start from the front.”

Red Bull has saved extra hard tyres relative to the opposition, but Vettel was coy about the team’s strategic plans.

“To be honest with you, I don’t know how many stops we have to do. I think you don’t have to be a genius… One stop is impossible for everybody, two stops is impossible for most, I think, and then it’s between three and four stops. I think we decided to do what we did because we think it’s the best way.

“In qualifying we were not exactly sure how quick we would be. We didn’t want to take any risks, we wanted to make sure that we finish in front and we believed that the soft tyre was faster, or the medium tyre, so we went for that in qualifying.”