Hamilton’s dominance continues with Bahrain Grand Prix victory

Lewis Hamilton's dominant start to the Formula One season continued with a line-to-flag victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

As in China a week ago it was another masterful, controlled drive from the reigning world champion, who clinched his ninth win in 11 races.

Overall, Hamilton now has 36 career wins, with 21 of those from pole position, to open up a 27-point cushion over Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, who had to settle for third behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

It was the Finn’s first top-three finish since the 2013 Korean Grand Prix.

Hamilton finished a comfortable 3.3 seconds clear of Raikkonen, who made his way past Rosberg on lap 56 of the 57 courtesy of a mistake from the German, who seemingly had trouble with his brakes late on.

Sadly for F1, it was not the thriller of last year when Hamilton and Rosberg produced one of the sport's greatest duels over a number of laps before the Briton triumphed.

It is now back-to-back wins for Hamilton in Bahrain, whose 42nd pole in three dominant qualifying sessions again gave him the launchpad to set the pace out in front

It wasn't such good news for fellow Brit, and former team-mate, Jenson Button, however, as the McLaren driver’s wretched weekend concluded even before the race started.

After incurring issues in both practice sessions on Friday, and again in qualifying on Saturday, Button's car failed to even make it out of the team garage for the race.

Button was scheduled to start 20th and last after an electrical problem brought his qualifying to a halt after just three corners of his opening lap.

Meanwhile, after an ongoing battle with Rosberg and Raikkonen throughout the race, Sebastian Vettel could eventually only manage fifth behind Valtteri Bottas in his Williams, whilst Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was sixth, albeit crossing the line in spectacular fashion as his Renault power unit blew.

Button’s McLaren team-mate, Fernando Alonso, just missed out on the points in 11th.