16 April in Ferrari history: Sebastian Vettel’s Bahrain victory
16 April marks Sebastian Vettel’s victory at the 2017 Bahrain Grand Prix. Ferrari defeated both Mercedes drivers in a race shaped by the opening lap, pit-stop timing and the management of a late challenge.
2017: Sebastian Vettel moves into contention immediately
Starting third, Sebastian Vettel passed Lewis Hamilton at the first corner and began chasing race leader Valtteri Bottas. That early gain placed the Ferrari directly behind the leading Mercedes.
Ferrari then brought Sebastian Vettel into the pits early, using the undercut to challenge for the lead. The strategy helped turn a third-place grid position into control of the race.
Ferrari withstands the closing Mercedes challenge
Lewis Hamilton closed the gap in the final stages, but Sebastian Vettel retained enough of an advantage to win. The Ferrari finished 6.660 seconds ahead, with Valtteri Bottas third and Kimi Räikkönen fourth.
Bahrain was Sebastian Vettel’s second victory in the opening three races of 2017, following his success in Australia. It strengthened Ferrari’s early championship challenge and demonstrated that its race performance could trouble Mercedes.
Explore the complete Ferrari chapter of his career in our Sebastian Vettel Formula 1 records and statistics.
Ferrari history recorded on 16 April
April 16 in Ferrari Formula 1 history
Explore Ferrari Grand Prix results, qualifying and Sprint sessions, driver birthdays, remembrance dates and selected milestones connected with this day.
Ferrari Grands Prix held on April 16
Race, qualifying, Sprint and Ferrari driver biographical dates are generated from the locally processed F1DB dataset. Session anniversaries are shown only when an explicit session date is available in the source. Selected non-race Ferrari milestones are curated separately from Ferrari sources. Historical shared-car result rows are preserved without inventing additional Grand Prix starts.
Find more victories and driver milestones in the Ferrari on this day calendar.
