Top ten pictures from the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

Ten of the best pictures which tell the story of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

Robin Frijns, Friday

Robin Frijns impressed on his first appearance in an official F1 test session, outpacing Caterham’s regular driver Marcus Ericsson in the first practice session.

Jules Bianchi, Friday

Jules Bianchi emerges from the Marussia garage. The Malaysia-Bahrain back-to-back races didn’t go well for him – he tangled with rivals in both events, picking up a pair of penalty points for each incident.

Sebastian Vettel, Saturday

Spinning into a gravel trap is not an easy thing to do on modern circuits but the world champion managed it during final practice.

Jenson Button, Bahrain Grand Prix

Traffic lights, rear lights, ERS lights. And, for the first time in Bahrain, 495 tracks lights, which were erected around the circuit to illuminate the newest night race on the F1 calendar.

Fernando Alonso, Saturday

Fernando Alonso coped with a damaged car in Malaysia to qualify an excellent fourth, but in Bahrain he was powerless to make it higher than tenth on a grid, struggling with worsening straight-line speed.

Luca di Montezemolo, Sunday

Luca di Montezemolo held court with the Italian media on Sunday morning to renew his criticism of the new Formula One rules and push Ferrari’s PR line that the change is bad for the sport. But that afternoon’s thrilling race – which Montezemolo left before the end of – did much to undermine his complaints.

Valtteri Bottas, Bahrain Grand Prix

Valtteri Bottas hops in.

Bahrain Grand Prix start

Lewis Hamilton’s start was only slightly better than Nico Rosberg’s but it was enough to get him down the inside and through into the lead. Behind him, Felipe Massa made a scorching getaway from seventh to take third place.

Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Bahrain Grand Prix

This was the story of the Bahrain Grand Prix – the two Mercedes drivers put on a thrilling contest for victory.

Sergio Perez, Bahrain Grand Prix

Sergio Perez brought joy to Force India in his third start for the team, giving them their first podium finish in over four years.

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Images © Daimler/Hoch Zwei, Force India, Williams/LAT, McLaren/LAT, Ferrari/Ercole Colombo