Vettel tops after exciting battle with Raikkonen

World champion Sebastian Vettel took his first victory of 2012 in a close battle with Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen at yesterday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

The result means Vettel leads the championship after starting the race in fifth place, while Lewis Hamilton has slipped down to second.

Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit is notorious for producing uninteresting races, but this was an exception, with a tensebattle for the lead and several wheel-to-wheel scraps down the field.