Championship leader Jenson Button claimed his third win of the season after an action-packed Bahrain Grand Prix. In a race dominated by long-running individual battles, Button led the pack most of the way, finishing seven seconds ahead of the Red Bull of Sebastien Vettel. Button was able to calmly stretch his lead throughout the race as a pack of drivers, including Jarno Trulli, Lewis Hamilton and Vettel, scrabbled for second place behind him. The win came after victories for the Brawn GP in Melbourne and Malaysia in the first two races of the season. Button said: "To come away with the win at this point of the season, I am chuffed to bits. "The whole team should be very proud of themselves. They have worked so hard. "As you probably know we are much smaller (in personnel) than we used to be and they are having to work doubly hard to get the job done. "So I am very proud of all of them, and they should be also." Trulli, who qualified in pole, lost the lead to his teammate Timo Glock within seconds of the start, but finished in third, nine seconds behind Button. Ferrari will look back on the race with some relief after claiming their first championship points of the season, following promising signs of improvement in yesterday's qualifying session. Kimi Raikkonen finished in sixth place, putting an end to Ferrari's streak without a single championship point this season. Teammate Felipe Massa, last season's runner-up, finished in 14th place. Lewis Hamilton, again showed signs of improvement, finished fourth and Rubens Barrichello, despite three pit stops, finished in fifth. The win extends Button's lead in the championship to 31 points, 12 ahead of teammate Barrichello. The next race takes place in Barcelona in two weeks' time.
rhughes@thenational.ae
