Sebastian Vettel captured his second Formula One season victory thanks to a perfect Ferrari team strategy at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday - beating Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton and reclaiming sole possession of the championship lead.
Vettel took the lead from third on the grid thanks to an early pit stop and ahead of an early safety-car phase owing to a collision, and never looked back as a five-second penalty imposed on Hamilton also helped his cause.
Pole-sitter Valtteri Bottas was twice told by Mercedes to let team-mate Hamilton pass but the Briton was unable to hunt down the German Vettel after a late second pit stop.
Four-time world champion Vettel won from Hamilton and Bottas and tops the standings with 68 points from three races, seven clear of Hamilton who has 61 in what promises a thrilling season.
First place may be a good omen for Vettel as the Bahrain race winner has gone on to win the world title in the past five years - Vettel in 2012 and 2013, Hamilton in 2014 and 2015, and Nico Rosberg in 2016.
""A really great day. Right from the start I could feel we were quick," Vettel said.
"We went for the undercut and it worked fantastically. I was surprised I came out ahead of all of them as I thought we may have lost the advantage with the safety car. Lewis was a bit of a threat at the end. But the car was a dream today."
Hamilton admitted the penalty was "my fault" and added: "I tried my hardest to catch up. We will push hard together, keep fighting."
Bottas was untroubled at the start from his first career pole while Vettel squeezed past Hamilton into second place, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen even made up two places to fourth.
Vettel was called in for an early 11th-lap pit stop after not managing to get past Bottas, the start of a flurry of incidents.
Verstappen pitted a lap later, only to bow out soon after re-entering when his brakes failed.
And in lap 14 the safety car had to come out after a collision between Williams' Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso which forced both to retire.
The two Mercedes' pitted along with many others which gave Vettel the lead ahead of Bottas, and he managed to hold off the charging Finn on the restart in the 17th.
Hamilton meanwhile was punished with a five-second penalty for slowing down too much before entering the pit lane and thus blocking Red Bull's Danile Ricciardo.
Vettel pitted again in the 34th and Hamilton in the 42nd - serving his five-second penalty as well and returning in third place some 18 seconds behind Vettel and nine adrift of Bottas.
He quickly got past Bottas, via team instruction as happened earlier in the race, and had a glimmer of hope for another safety-car phase when Sauber's Marcus Ericsson had to retire.
But the obstacle was quickly removed and Vettel took the chequered flag in 1 hour 33 minutes 53.373 seconds - 6.6 seconds ahead of Hamilton and 20.4 clear of Bottas who struggled with pace throughout the race.
"We are happy. This team demonstrates braveness, determination and a bit of craziness," Mercedes team principal Maurizio Arrivabene told Sky TV.
Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Felipe Massa (Williams), Sergio Perez (Force India), Romain Grosjean (Haas), Nico Hulkenberg (Renault) and Esteban Ocon (Force India) completed the top 10.
McLaren meanwhile had another poor day, with Stoffel Vandoorne not able to start owing to power unit problems and Fernando Alonso having to retire with engine problems late in the race.
The next race is the Russian Grand Prix on April 30 in Sochi.
