Drama from the start in Bahrain as Lewis Hamilton lags behind Nico Rosberg

Well, it’s not often a race is won on the formation lap. The Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel had an engine failure as he headed round to take his place on the grid, meaning he was out before he even started. Without two Ferraris to push the Mercedes pair of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton on pace, two podium places were pretty much already assured. The championship leader stayed out of trouble and led throughout.

Another disastrous start for Lewis Hamilton, with Valtteri Bottas clipping him on the first corner and shunting him down the order. Some decent pit stops and the sheer magnificence of the Mercedes car took him through to the podium, but the damage to his car early on meant that he was lapping significantly slower than he was yesterday. Still, he certainly made his entrance in style, donning traditional robes as he arrived at the track.

Still quiet over the airwaves now that teams aren’t allowed to give the drivers too much information, but Rosberg threw a bit of a fit when his engineers tried to tell him about the gap between him and Kimi Raikkonen in second. “Don’t tell me every lap! Tell me…every four laps or something.” Maybe they thought he was getting lonely, out in front by himself for so long.

Romain Grosjean’s smart driving took him right up the pack from ninth early on, smoothly past Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo into fourth, showing that Haas have some quality in there for their first season. He continued to drive consistently throughout, finishing fifth (one better than he managed last time out) and was hailed by his American team as – what else? – “awesome”.

Kudos to Pascal Wehrlein of Manor, attacking impressively, and his overtake of Felipe Nasr on the straight was a thing of beauty, taking him into 12th in Lap 37.

Good work from Red Bull today after a quiet start to the season and problems with timing in qualifying. Not spectacular – and lacking in power when compared to some of their rivals, including Haas – but solid and safe, finishing fourth (Ricciardo, who started fifth) and seventh (Daniil Kvyat, who started in 15th).

Stoffel Vandoorne, in his Formula One debut, had a very creditable weekend all in all. When Jenson Button was forced to retire, pulling over to the side of the track at Turn 10, McLaren would have been justified in feeling a little nervous with a rookie their only representation. Yet Vandoorne, who outqualified Button on Saturday, finished 10th - a great result for him, and his team's first points of the season.

A hearty facepalm to the team principals, who watched another awful qualifying session unfold, had a meeting about it, and in that meeting decided to have another meeting about it in a few days’ time. Great. Thanks.

No Timmy Mallett, I'm afraid, but how's this for a famous face watching on?