Sebastian Vettel has taken out the Bahrain Grand Prix from Lewis Hamilton, with Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo finishing in fifth.

The victory was Vettel’s second of the season after the four-time world champion won the opener in Australia. Hamilton, who won in China last weekend, crossed the finish line 6.6 seconds behind.

Vettel’s win lifted him to 68 points, with Hamilton second on 61.

“Yes guys, that’s what I’m talking about,” whooped the German, who was helped by a safety car after an aggressive early pitstop.

“It was a really great day. It was on the last half of the out lap when all the fireworks were going off that I was like ‘I love what I do’,” he said.

Pole-sitter Valtteri Bottas finished third in his Mercedes, on a day when the Finn struggled. He had a generator problem on the grid, leaving him with tyre pressure issues.

Vettel though was on song from the beginning, passing Hamilton into the opening turn as the Brit bogged down on the start and then it was a case of the German’s team making the call to pit early that gave him the lead.

Vettel, who was held up behind Bottas early on was the first of the major players to pit and when Ricciardo’s teammate Max Verstappen suffered rear brake failure on the 12th lap and crashed it unleashed a chain of events.

On the next lap Lance Stroll in his Williams and the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz came together to bring out the safety car and start a mad dash for the pits.

Mercedes were forced to stack their cars as they pitted and Hamilton blocked Ricciardo into the pit entry, earning himself a five-second penalty that would cruel his chances of taking victory despite his superior race pace.

Coming into the restart, Ricciardo was on soft tyres, which he struggled to get up to speed and with a lack of traction he quickly slipped from third to sixth in a matter of corners.

He eventually got back past Felipe Massa’s Williams but the Australian couldn’t help but feel disappointed at the outcome.

“I genuinely thought we had a chance to win,” Ricciardo said.

“That first stint was looking really competitive. I could see that Valtteri was struggling, I believe he had some issues with the tyres or whatever.

“I was at the end of that train, I could see everyone else, they were sliding around. I was looking after my tyres, so we were in a really good position.

“Then the safety car came out, we put the softs on and that tyre was just not happening for us today.

“On the restart, out of the last corner, it felt like the tyre just wasn’t switched on. Basically the whole first I was sliding, so that’s why I went back.

“Beyond that the tyre never really came good, I was on Massa’s pace and we know we’re quicker than that, so it was a strange chain of events from the beginning of the race.”

Kimi Raikkonen finished fourth in his Ferrari, while Massa was sixth in his WIlliams.

It was yet another frustrating day for former world champion Fernando Alonso in his McLaren.

Alonso could be heard on the team radio complaining about the complete lack of power his car had and eventually retired at the death of the race.