Manama, April 9: German Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel has won the Bahrain Grand Prix, the second race of the 2018 Formula 1 season, for a record of fourth time, two weeks after clinching the Australian GP, strengthening his grip on the top spot in the driver standings.

Vettel earned his 49th win in his 200th Formula 1 race and the fourth here on Sunday to break the record set by Spaniard Fernando Alonso, reports Efe.

To set the milestone, Vettel, 30, had to fend off a late fierce attack from Mercedes' Finnish driver - Valtteri Bottas - who had to settle for the second spot.

Starting the race from the ninth position due to a five-place grid penalty over a gearbox change, the defending champion - Britain's Lewis Hamilton - rounded out the podium.

Pierre Gasly amazed by coming in fourth completing a great weekend with his Toro Rosso, powered by Renault for the first season.

Haas' Danish driver Kevin Magnussen was fifth, ahead of Germany's Nico Hulkenberg (Renault), while Fernando Alonso (McLaren) ended up seventh.

After the win, Vettel now has 50 points in the 2018 driver standings, 17 points ahead of Hamilton, while the Briton's teammate Bottas is in third 28 points off the pace.

 

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Hyderabad, Apr 6 (PTI): Mohammed Siraj bowled with fire in his belly to return excellent figures of 4/17 as Gujarat Titans restricted Sunrisers Hyderabad to 152 for eight in their Indian Premier League match here on Sunday.

Siraj dismissed struggling openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma cheaply before coming back to add two more wickets to his tally on a slow surface.

Left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore (2/24) and seamer Prasidh Krishna (2/25) too performed admirably but a wayward Ishant Sharma leaked 53 runs in his four overs to allow SRH cross 150 after they were 135 for eight at the start of the final over.

Head (8) had a fortuitous start as his edge off Siraj went past the stumps for a boundary. However, Siraj had the last laugh as the pacer got rid of the danger man from Australia when the opener flicked one for Sai Sudharsan to complete a smart diving catch at mid-wicket.

The crowd at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium found their voice after a few boundaries.

Siraj, however, had other ideas as the pumped-up seamer sent back Abhishek after the batter took the aerial route but failed to get the timing right and was caught at mid-on.

This meant the SRH openers' struggles continued in this edition of the IPL as the side reached 45 for two at the end of the power play.

Even as the visitors dominated proceedings at that stage, they faced some anxious moments when Glenn Phillips got injured. After being attended to by the physio, Phillips hobbled off the field.

Ishan Kishan (17) perished when he miscued a pull off a Prasidh Krishna short ball to deep square leg where Ishant completed the catch.

The duo of Nitish Kumar Reddy (31 off 34 balls) and Heinrich Klaasen (27 off 19 balls) tried to revive SRH innings with a fifty-run stand for the fourth wicket, a phase where GT got a few fours and a six by the South African big-hitter against Rashid Khan.

But just when SRH looked like laying the foundation for a respectable score, left-arm spinner Sai Kishore picked up the prized wicket of Klaasen whose leg stump was disturbed as he rocked back to employ the pull shot.

Reddy too perished while trying to smash Sai Kishore out of the park, leaving SRH at 105 for five in the beginning of the 16th over.