Vettel takes second win of the year - as it happened

Another great drive, and strategy from Vettel and Ferrari. Could Hamilton have won had he not received the five second penalty? It's academic now, and it was his mistake. A superb race under the lights, stay on VAVEL for my impending race report.

Until then, I've been James Eagles - thanks for joining me.

CHEQUERED FLAG: Sebastian Vettel wins the Bahrain Grand Prix, from Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas! Ferrari take their second win of the season as Vettel retakes the outright lead of the championship.

57: FINAL LAP - as Vettel looks to be home and dry.

55: "Engine problem, engine problem, box now." says Alonso. It's another retirement.

55: Alonso runs deep at Turn 1, allowing Kvyat through.

54: Vettel has cleared the cluster of Kvyat, Alonso and Wehrlein.

53: Five laps to go. Vettel is in traffic at the moment.

52: Ericsson is out of the race, breaking down as Hamilton laps him.

"Gearbox, broken."

50: Vettel has lapped Palmer, but was held up.

49: The gap is just 12.1 seconds between Vettel and Hamilton.

48: Previous to that, Hamilton set the fastest lap and Vettel is about to hit traffic....

47: Hamilton passes Bottas at Turn 13. Most likely an order.

47: "You've got the pace to win this, come on". Hamilton is fired up.

46: Hamilton has eaten into Bottas' advantage. It's now under three seconds between the two.

44: They're certainly not hampering him, a 1:32.962 is the fastest lap.

43: "Why are we on this tyre?" asks Hamilton. He's told by Pete Bonnington that the soft is the superior tyre.

43: Ricciardo is currently the fastest man on track, with a 1:33.495

42: Vettel holds a nine second gap out front.

41: And here he is. He has a five second wait before they can work on the car. He rejoins in third.

41: Mercedes are out for Hamilton.

41: Ocon follows the Renault through.

40: Raikkonen's issue can't be slowing him down too much, as he sets the fastest lap. Hulkenberg nips past Wehrlein for 10th.

40: Ricciardo pits and rejoins on super-softs in 5th.

39: "F**k, [Ocon] was abut 300 metres behind."

"Okay Fernando, plan B. How are the tyres?"

"Just do what you want, mate."

Another fine radio exchange between Alonso and McLaren.

38: Grosjean performs another "pull alongside and pass at Turn 1" move. This time, it's on Kvyat.

38: Bottas gets past Ricciardo, as Raikkonen pits for softs. He rejoins in fifth.

37: "Is there nothing I can do with this issue?" asks Raikkonen.

35: "We need to look after these tyres until the end," Vettel is told. The German is also waved back through by Raikkonen for second.

34: Another overtake on poor Massa at Turn 1, this time his ex-teammate Bottas slithers by for fifth.

34: Vettel rejoins in third, behind Raikkonen and ahead of Ricciardo.

33: Bottas gets past Perez for 6th, as his teammate stays within touching distance of Vettel, who pits.

33: "Check what happened into Turn 4." Raikkonen is unhappy about something, but the rest of the message was inaudible. He's told to go on to a certain steering wheel setting.

32: In comes Grosjean from 9th.

31: Bottas is in for a set of softs. He rejoins in 7th, ahead of Hulkenberg and in clear air.

30: Kvyat makes an audacious move on Palmer at Turn 1 and this time gets through, they bang wheels which hinders Palmer run up to Turn 4, and Alonso takes full advantage.

29: "Keep your head down, this is an important phase of the race."

That suggests that Vettel will have to stop again.

29: Ricciardo takes 5th away from Massa at Turn 1, which seems to be the corner to watch.

27: Hamilton breezes past Bottas at Turn 1, as the Finn waves him by.

25: Alonso moans down the radio...again. Palmer and Kvyat dice, with the Renault losing a smidgen of front wing, but keeping 11th.

24: Raikkonen has passed Massa at Turn 1/

21: Mercedes wish for Bottas to let Hamilton through, so he can scamper away, reducing the impact of the penalty.

20: Five second penalty for Hamilton for slowing down unnecessarily.

20: Palmer follows the Spaniard through.

19: Alonso sweeps past Ericsson for 11th.

19: Grosjean complains about a lack of top speed.

18: Alonso and Palmer fight for 12th, and Alonso gets the job done.

17: Perez gets his former teammate Hulkenberg for 7th.

17: Ricciardo is dropping like a lead balloon on those cold soft tyres, Massa and Raikkonen demote him to 6th.

17: Bottas has a go at Vettel on the outside of Turn 4, but Vettel pushes him wide, the wise fox.

17: We're back underway, Vettel leads from Bottas. Hamilton wastes no time in passing Ricciardo.

16: Five retirements thus far: Vandoorne, Magnussen, Verstappen, Stroll and Sainz. The Safety Car is in this lap.

16: Also Sainz and Stroll's collision is under investigation.

Hamilton under investigation for slowing down Ricciardo at the pit entry.

15 laps in, this is your top 10: Vettel, Bottas, Ricciardo, Hamilton, Massa, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Ericsson, Perez, Grosjean

14: Both Bottas and Hamilton are in, utilising this spell. Vettel takes the lead.

13: Vettel is roaring now - a 1:34.597 is better than anything by far. I believe Stroll has been hit by Sainz and brought out the Safety Car.

12: VERSTAPPEN IN THE WALL! His brakes have failed at Turn 4. In comes Raikkonen, but it's slow at the front right.

12: Now free of turbulence from Vettel, Hamilton is closing in on Bottas.

12: Sure enough, Verstappen peels into the pits. Super-softs on his car too and he rejoins behind Vettel in 11th.

11: "I think we need to do something as well, like Ferrari." says Verstappen.

11: Vettel comes in for a set of super-softs. The first of the front-runners to pit. He rejoins in 12th.

10: "Starting to lose the rears more and more." reports Bottas. His engineer says that pressures are higher.

9: Magnussen becomes the second retiree in effect, pulling off at Turn 8.

9: "We're quicker than [Hamilton]" says Verstappen.

9: Verstappen is squirming about in order to distract Hamilton; Stroll pits after flat spotting his tyre.

8: The top five are all covered by three seconds at most. Behind, Raikkonen slips by Massa at Turn 1.

7: Verstappen is closing the gap on Hamilton, who needs to get a wriggle on.

6: "So getting a little bit of overheating" Bottas is told by Tony Ross. Overheating of what?

5: Bottas now sets the pace, a 1:36.463 is the new benchmark.

3: Verstappen sets the fastest lap, with a 1:36.716.

2: Vettel is certainly keeping Bottas very sharp at the front, as he swarms all over the back of the Mercedes.

2: At the end of lap 1, the order is: Bottas, Vettel, Hamilton, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Massa, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Grosjean and Ocon

1: Palmer makes a bold move on Ocon, but the Frenchman holds firm. Kvyat narrowly avoids taking Sainz out!

1: Bottas gets a great start and leads - Vettel also looks lively and gets past Hamilton into Turn 1!

The formation lap is underway.

So sad news for Stoffel. For your information, every car bar Ericsson is on the super-soft tyre.

Stoffel Vandoorne's MGU-H problem means that he may not start.

Before the formation lap, let's take a look at the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships.

News before the race, with both McLaren's seemingly having troubles before the race; they should be clear to start, thankfully.

Hello and welcome to VAVEL's live coverage of the 2017 Formula One Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix. Once again, I'm your correspondent, James Eagles and will be guiding you through all the events of tomorrow's Grand Prix from the Bahrain International Circuit, situated in the desert area of Sakhir, for the third round of the World Championship.

That's your lot for now, join me from 3:30pm BST tomorrow for F1 live coverage of the 2017 Bahrain Grand Prix.

What they said: Valtteri Bottas: "It was so close out there today. Having the first pole like this, with a fight with Lewis, it feels very good and obviously today, the car, for the evening conditions the set-up was feeling pretty nice. We did some good things after Practice 3 into Qualifying and I felt more comfortable with it."

Lewis Hamilton: "[Valtteri] did a better job altogether. The lap wasn't great; the second and third sector was good, but the first sector wasn't great and normally that's my quickest section, generally. When I came in after that first run, which was really close, I was two tenths down in the first sector to Valtteri, but everywhere else, I was gaining it back. There's obviously time there, but congratulations to him."

Sebastian Vettel: "I would've loved to have been on pole, I think that's why we're here. The gap is not great, and it's not the best news that we were hoping for today. The car felt good, and that's most important. That's what you carry in to tomorrow."

Will we see such a battle tomorrow? As a spectator, you'd like to think so; but after becoming a father on Monday - Toto Wolff doesn't need much more on his plate!

Bottas' stunning performance really has put down a marker - showing that he will be far from a number two to Hamilton, and has expressed that it's still very early in the year and anything can happen.

We don't have to look very far for the most exciting race around here - an event that saw the first titanic battle between Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in F1. The year of course was the first of the V6 turbo hybrid era - 2014.

It was also the first year Bahrain hosted its race under lights, and it proved to be one of the best spectacles of the year. Rosberg took pole from Hamilton, with Daniel Ricciardo, Bottas and Sergio Perez rounding out the top five. Struggling reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel failed to even make Q3.

Off the line, Hamilton gained the advantage, passing Rosberg on the inside of Turn 1, and successfully defending his position through the left kink of 2. In the lower region of the top 10, Kimi Raikkonen passed his Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso, but made contact with Kevin Magnussen.

Back at the front, Rosberg tried his luck round the outside at Turn 4, Hamilton defending stoically, pushing the German onto the outside tarmac and sand. Ferrari's poor start to the season continued, Nico Hulkenberg easing past Alonso at Turn 1, whilst their junior driver, Jules Bianchi, saw his race end after making hefty contact with the Sauber of Adrian Sutil.

Rosberg and Hamilton continued to scrap, trading places in Turns 1 and 2. Try as he might, Rosberg couldn't force his way past the Brit - Hamilton taking a wider line round the right of 1, in order to open up 2. It wasn't just limited to the first two turns, as the pair battled all throughout the lap - Hamilton staying ahead.

A distraction was provided by Pastor Maldonado utilising the Lotus' tusks at the nose of the car, sending Esteban Gutierrez the wrong way up after coming out the pits. Thankfully, the Mexican was okay, but the Safety Car made an appearance as his wrecked Sauber was cleared.

As the Mercedes pit wall pleaded for both cars to be brought home, they weren't the only team having to watch their drivers fight. Ricciardo surprised Vettel at Turn 1, with a bold move.

Valtteri Bottas proved his worth by pipping Hamilton to pole in a thrilling Qualifying session. In case you missed it, here's my report from earlier.

Like most tracks on the calendar, Mercedes have found a great deal of success here, having won the last three races. Let's have a look at the last 10 winners.

Having been introduced as a day race in 2004, Bahrain has now turned into one of three night races on the calendar; and the show has improved in doing so - as sparks fly into the black sky adding to the already intense heat. Temperatures can still exceed 30° come race time, at 6pm local time - so the physical challenge still remains.

Composed of nine right hand turns, alongside six left hand turns, a full guide to the circuit can be viewed here.

Just last week, the F1 roadshow rocked up in China for round two; a race that not only saw Lewis Hamilton claim his first win of 2017, but his fifth at the Shanghai circuit.

Jake Nichol's race report can be found here.