Sebastian Vettel wins Bahrain F1 Grand Prix

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Sebastian Vettel wins Bahrain F1 Grand Prix

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F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel has won the Grand Prix in Bahrain amid protests.

23 April,2012 02:04 pm

The rage continued to boil beyond the track among protesters who said the ruling family that crushed Arab Spring demonstrations last year should not have hosted the race.High security kept trouble well away from the track, where Red Bull’s Vettel had started in pole position in a race that passed without incident. But demonstrators said the nightly violence over the past week showed the authorities’ determination to go ahead with the race this year was a mistake.“They miscalculated. They thought cancelling the race would be a defeat for them but they didn’t realize the cost of holding the race,” activist Alaa Shehabi said by telephone.Thousands of people took to the streets in pro-democracy protests around Manama this weekend and demonstrators have hurled petrol bombs at security forces who responded with teargas, rubber bullets and birdshot.The luxury sporting event was the government’s chance to show that life is back to normal in the island kingdom after security concerns over anti-government demonstrations forced last year’s race to be delayed, then cancelled.Some teams have expressed frustration at the attention on politics. Vettel said shortly after arrival on Thursday that he thought much of what was being reported was hype.He looked forward to getting in the car and dealing with the “stuff that really matters - tire temperatures, cars”.Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen was second for Lotus on Sunday with French team mate Romain Grosjean in third place.