The little horse won the head-to-head with the silver arrows. And although Bottas had won the start in pole position, Sebastian Vettel snatched first place from him with a spectacular start. An exciting grand prix, that of F1 in Bahrain, thus brought Ferrari back to the highest podium with Mercedes as pursuer: second is Valtteri Bottas and third Lewis Hamilton who suffered a 5-second penalty for incorrect behavior at the entrance of the pits. Kimi Raikkonen also placed well, arriving fourth.
The first part of the Grand Prix was very exciting with overtaking and off-track. In the first case, Vettel was immediately signaled as he overtook Lewis Hamilton at the start. The English driver came under observation for having slowed down Ricciardo when he returned to the pits for the pit stop: he was punished with five seconds, which will be added to him at the end of the race. The Ferrari driver found himself leading the pack after the safety car came in following the crash between Stroll and Sainz.
