Vettel holds on to win, Bottas 2nd, Hamilton up to 3rd from 9th
Raikkonen runs over mechanic in pits - breaking his leg
Hamilton overtakes three cars in one corner
Both Red Bulls out early on
Ricciardo, Verstappen, Raikkonen out
The pressure is on Valtteri Bottas today. He only came eighth in Australia and starts behind the Ferrari duo with Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton hampered by a grid-place penalty.
Image source, Getty Images
Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain
Kudos to Valtteri Bottas for bouncing back after his poor weekend in Australia by beating Lewis Hamilton at Sakhir.
The Finn did not quite manage to repeat his pole of last year but he was right behind the Ferraris in qualifying and Mercedes hopes of limiting the damage to Hamilton’s title hopes this evening rest to a large degree on his team-mate.
Image source, Getty ImagesThis is what happened to Valtteri Bottas in Australia. A crash in qualifying and a five-place grid penalty for needing a new gearbox meant he started 15th and finished eight
Great Formula 1 fightbacks
Bob McFeil: It’s a no brainer for me. Canada 2011, what a drive from Jenson Button!
Phil Slocombe: Lewis has made some phenomenal fightbacks in the past and will no doubt do so in this race.
Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain
What has gone wrong for Mercedes here at Sakhir, after Lewis Hamilton took pole by 0.7secs in Melbourne two weeks ago? The answer, as it has been so often in the past, was a combination of hot weather and the softer tyres.
Team boss Toto Wolff said: ”I always said right from the beginning that this was going to be a season where it was going to be much tougher, particularly against Ferrari and Red Bull. I was genuine about it and I meant it, and you could see that on a track like Bahrain with a very abrasive surface and lots of heat, we struggle.
"On the soft (tyres), the car was much better. But putting the softer compound on, the super-soft, it looks like we're overheating, and therefore not extracting the optimum grip.”
Image source, Getty ImagesBernie Ecclestone is at the race today. He also appears to have turned up in a shirt with the old F1 logo on it. Trolling Liberty Media there?
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We have already seen some action in Bahrain today as the FIA Formula 2 Championship held their 45-minute long sprint race.
Great Britain's Lando Norris, who won the hour-long feature race on Saturday, finished fourth with Russia's Artem Markelov winning, Germany's Maximilian Gunther coming second and Brazil's Sergio Sette Camara taking third spot.
Charles Leclerc won the championship last year and Norris, 18, who is part of McLaren's Young Driver Programme, is top of the standings after the first of 12 race meetings, each consisting of a feature race and a sprint race.
There was disappointment for the other two Brits in the competition as Jack Aitken was 18th earlier today and George Russell 19th. The next races in the championship will come during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend on 25-27 April.
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Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain
Strategy-wise, the trend since the start of 2017 has been for one-stop races, but Pirelli has deliberately made its tyre range softer this year and this race is looking more like a two-stop.
Some, though, will inevitably go for a one-stop and one of them may be Lewis Hamilton, who starts on the soft tyre, whereas everyone else in the top 10 will be on the super-soft. He could conceivably go long on the soft, and then switch to the medium, even if that is said by Pirelli to be the slowest strategy option.
Team boss Toto Wolff said: “There are two choices, a one-stop or a two-stop. Most teams are going to see how it pans out on the super-soft. Obviously we have an advantage on the soft in that we can go a bit longer but it is not clear-cut what it is.”
Image source, Getty ImagesThese are the tyres new and used for each of the drivers. We have three options today - the white mediums, the yellow softs and the red super-softs.
Image source, PirelliAnd this is how the experts see the race going and the tactics the teams should be looking at.
Image source, Pirelli
Image source, Pirelli
Image source, PirelliAndrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain
Short of a terrible start, it is hard to see past Sebastian Vettel as a winner of this race. He’s on pole position, he has team-mate Kimi Raikkonen as a rear-gunner, he has the fastest car and it is behaving in a way he likes.
As usual, though, he is taking it day by day. “Feeling good now,” he said on Saturday. “The race is a different story. It’s a long, long race and we’ve seen that it’s not that easy to make the tyres last. The car is quick - that usually helps.” He admitted to be so quick after lagging behind Mercedes in Australia was a “surprise”.
Image source, Getty ImagesAfter making it to 100 career podiums in Melbourne, Sebastian Vettel will today join the 200 race starts club - the 18th driver to do so.
The German has so far scored four world championships, 48 wins and 50 poles in 199 Grand Prix weekends.
Image source, Getty ImagesRace number 200 for Sebastian Vettel. He has won 48 of the previous 199, the fourth best record from any of the drivers, as you can see via this graphic.
Image source, Formula 1Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain
Lewis Hamilton was in one of his grumpy moods after qualifying on Saturday, and you could not really blame him. Already hit with a five-place grid penalty, he had qualified fourth, which meant a start in ninth on the grid.
The car was clearly lacking grip, understeering into corners, struggling under power, and yet asked what was wrong, he said: “I’ve not really had any problems. It doesn’t feel bad.” The race? “If I can overtake, I’ll overtake. If I can’t, I can’t. What will be will be and I will try the best I can. I just hope that we’re moving forwards. I will get into positive mental thinking.
"The set-up I have hopefully works well in the race. Hopefully I’ll be able to get up to at least where (Daniel) Ricciardo is (in fourth) but overtaking from then on is going to be very tough.” It’s hard to see how he won’t come out of this race with a bigger deficit to pole-man Sebastian Vettel in the championship.
Image source, Getty ImagesGreat Formula 1 fightbacks
Our first talking point today concerns those fantastic fightbacks that drivers have made as they have weaved their way through the pack.
Lewis Hamilton starts ninth, Max Verstappen starts 15th, but chances are they will not finish there.
So get involved be recalling your great driver fightbacks via the hashtag #bbcf1 and we will post your messages on this page throughout the afternoon.
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, F1These were the times for yesterday's qualifying. Only five tenths of a second separating the top five. Encouraging.
Image source, Formula 1Hello and welcome along to BBC Sport's live text commentary for the second race of the Formula 1 season from Bahrain.
Sebastian Vettel, thanks to some fine pit work from his team and a virtual safety car, took victory in the opening race in Australia with world champion Lewis Hamilton down in second.
I'm Michael Emons and I will be guiding you through the action in the desert. And there's more. We also have live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra as well.
We have an all-Ferrari front row in Bahrain with championship leader Sebastian Vettel nudging team-mate Kimi Raikkonen off pole.
Image source, Getty ImagesBut there are many other talking points as Lewis Hamilton, hampered by a five-place grid penalty, is way down the field in ninth, while Max Verstappen is even worse off in 15th after smashing into a wall on Saturday.
Image source, Getty ImagesAll in all, it is all set for a great race in Bahrain.