Lewis Hamilton beats Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg to Bahrain victory

Mercedes claimed a one-two at the Bahrain Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton beat polesitter Nico Rosberg in a ding-dong battle this evening.

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Rosberg might have got the better of Hamilton yesterday to earn pole, but the German was overtaken by the Englishman at the first corner after getting a slower start.

The 2008 world champion maintained his lead until lap 19 when his tyres started to lose performance, allowing Rosberg the chance to overtake.

He squeezed past but Hamilton wasn't ready to give up and got back first place before entering the pits for a fresh set of rubber.

Hamilton had extended his lead to around 10 seconds but then the field was bunched together after a nasty collision between Esteban Gutierrez and Pastor Maldonado.

It was a thrilling final few laps as Rosberg appeared to have the pace on Hamilton but just couldn't make the right move to claim first place.

Force India's Sergio Perez completed the podium, with Red Bull, Williams and Ferrari the only other teams to score points.

1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 2. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 3. Sergio Perez (Force India) 4. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) 5. Nico Hulkenburg (Force India) 6. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 7. Felipe Massa (Williams) 8. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 9. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 10. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 11. Daniel Kvyat (Toro Rosso) 12. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) 13. Max Chilton (Marussia) 14. Pastor Maldonado (Lotus) 15. Kamui Kobayashi (Caterham) 16. Jules Bianchi (Marussia) 17. Jenson Button (McLaren) 18. Kevin Magnussen (McLaren) 19. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) 20. Marcus Ericsson (Caterham) 21. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) 22. Adrian Sutil (Sauber)