Defending Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton hopes to add to his successes at the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix and make it three wins in succession.

With the Australian Grand Prix complete and Nico Rosberg drawing first blood this season, the eyes of the world now turn to ‘the home of motorsport in the Middle East’.

Hamilton was happy to limit the damage of a terrible start and fight back for second place behind his Mercedes teammate in last Sunday’s race. He said: “I’ve had far worse starts to the season, so I’ll take that and head into the next one looking up. In any case, the team did a great job to help us pull it back and there’s still 20 races to go, so I’m feeling pretty chilled.”

Pole-sitter Hamilton could do little to prevent Ferrari’s fast-starting Sebastian Vettel from roaring to the front from third on the grid in Melbourne and the Briton then fell back to sixth after making contact with Rosberg at the first turn.

Hamilton soon moved up a place before getting stuck behind teenage Toro Rosso driver Max Verstappen but the race turned on its head when McLaren’s Fernando Alonso was involved in a huge crash that brought out the red flag at lap 18.

Frustrated by his lack of progress, Hamilton changed to the medium compound tyres shortly before the race was halted and his one-stop gamble paid dividends as the durable tyres held out and gave him enough breathing room to see off third-placed Vettel.

“I did the best I could with a difficult start and yeah, just grateful I got back. It was damage limitation really because obviously Nico could have got a lot more points than me.

“I’d had a perfect weekend in every way up until the lights went out and felt confident heading into the race. I got a bit of wheel-spin off the line then got pushed wide at the first corner, so from there it was just about recovering. But these things happen and I’m grateful for the way I was able to fight back through.

“I could just see the others pulling away, so the safety car definitely helped by bunching us all up again. I was already on a one-stop strategy and, to be honest, I don’t know why everyone else didn’t do the same on the medium. I’m happy they didn’t, as I probably would have finished a lot further back.”

Rosberg has now won four races in succession after sweeping the final three races last season in the wake of Hamilton clinching his second successive championship with Mercedes in Texas.

The intra-team rivalry between the German and the Briton has been heated at times and could prove so again this season but last Sunday the pair hugged after the race in a rare sporting moment.

The good relations continued in the post-race media conference with Rosberg offering an apology for the start that set the Briton back. “If I did push you out wide then I apologise, of course, that was not the intention,” he said.

Hamilton spoke of Ferrari hiding something ‘up their sleeve’ before qualifying and had they chosen a better tyre strategy, the season could have started with a Vettel win.

“Ferraris obviously are there and in the battle as you’ve seen today, so hopefully some exciting races coming up ahead of us,” Hamilton added.

Thoughts are clearly on Bahrain now and the first weekend of April. Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, said: “First of all, a big relief to see Fernando walk away from that shunt. The race itself was extremely tense throughout – a real cliffhanger and a great way to show what Formula One is really about. We didn’t get it right at the start. The drivers were slow away from the line then touched at the first corner, so we were forced into recovery mode.

“A perfect result to start the year, a great job from the drivers to manage and recover the race, fantastic work on the pit wall to give them the right strategy to do so and an incredible team effort from everybody at the factories to get us here. We must now sort our starts and look to carry out momentum into Bahrain.”

The Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) team is ready and waiting to receive the stars of the show. BIC chief executive Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa told GulfWeekly: “We now look forward to welcoming the Formula 1 family to Bahrain in less than a fortnight’s time.

“It’s going to be a spectacular night race, hopefully more thrilling than the past two floodlit grand prix events that captivated us all here.

“We invite everyone to join us for the weekend. There will be plenty for everyone to enjoy both on and off the track. We can’t wait to get racing!”