Cyril Dumont, Renault: "It was fantastic today. We made a really solid race with a good start and after that we just had to manage the first position for Sebastian. For Renault, it's a fantastic result, and I think we have to go back 15 years to find the last quadruple top finish in F1. The last was in '97, so I would like to congratulate everyone from Viry, from Renault and from Mechachrome for a very good job."

"Lewis pulled off some sensational passing manoeuvres in his efforts to push his way through to the front, but in the end he was let down by two slow pitstops, both of which were caused by delays at the left-rear corner of his car. Jenson's pitstops were trouble-free, by contrast, so we'll have to investigate what the problem was with the left-rear corner of Lewis's car.

"Jenson, too, had a frustrating run, which was finally curtailed by a puncture and a problem with both his differential and his exhaust, the combination of which forced us to retire his car. Again, we'll investigate what caused those problems in due course.

"Having said all that, we're in second position in the constructors' world championship, just nine points behind the leaders; equally, our drivers lie second and fourth in the drivers' world championship. Lewis, in second, is just four points off the lead.

"From here we travel to Barcelona, on which circuit we performed strongly in pre-season testing.

"Lewis and Jenson are as resilient as they are competitive, so you can be well sure that in Spain they'll both do their utmost to score as many points as possible in an effort to put Vodafone McLaren Mercedes back at the top of both the drivers' and the constructors' world championship standings.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again: the 2012 season is shaping up to be both gripping and unpredictable. Some races you win, some you don't. That's motor racing. But, above all, motor racing is a team sport - and I probably know better than anyone what a superb bunch of men and women the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team is made up of, which is why I'm utterly certain that every last one of them will now work as hard as is humanly possible to make sure that, on the sweeping curves of the Circuit di Catalunya, we're back where we belong: at the front."

Stefano Domenicali: Honestly, what happened on the track today is only of secondary importance for us. We are very sad to learn of the death of Matteo Vignali, a young man who worked in the Gearbox department, who suffered a heart attack. He lost his life at just thirty two years of age, something that leaves us in a state of dismay. Our thoughts are with his family and friends and because of this, I find it hard to comment on our actual race result. What I can say is that what has been a very tough first run of races for us has now come to an end, although this is just what we had expected. We managed to limit the damage, at least as far as the Drivers' championship is concerned. Now we must look to the future and make a step up in terms of quality which should allow us to fight for the podium and not just a points finish. That's what I have been asking our engineers for several weeks and by Barcelona, I expect to already see the results of the effort we are expending in every area.

Pat Fry: This result is in line with our current potential: we certainly can't be pleased, but we knew this first run of races would be an uphill struggle for us. The start and the opening lap represented one of the best chances of making up places and we managed it with both drivers. Then, Fernando and Felipe had reasonably linear races, dictated mainly by the behaviour of the tyres and the situation on track. Maybe on paper, the perfect division into stints could have been different to make the most of the sets of new tyres available in the end, but we also needed to cover what the drivers directly ahead of us or directly behind were doing, so as not to lose places which would then be difficult to retake on track. Sometimes we managed it, sometimes it was less successful, and there were also a couple of pit stops that were less than perfect, even if others were very quick. Honestly, I don't think that we could have done anything different in terms of strategy. Today, more than at the other races, the behaviour of the two types of tyre was very similar: between a set of Mediums with three laps on them and a set of new Softs, the difference was really minimal. We limited the damage in these four races, but clearly we must make significant progress compared to the others in the coming ones if we want to really fight for the title. We are working hard, on all fronts and we hope we will soon start to see the results of all these efforts. It won't be easy, because we have strong competition and they will also make progress: we must do a better job than them.

Nico had a hard-fought race, running in P9 through the opening stint, then gaining places as the race unfolded. He completed three stops on laps 8, 22 and 36 running an option/option/prime/prime tyre strategy. Starting from P22, Michael climbed 12 positions through the field over the course of the race to finish in P10. Michael made three stops on laps 9, 23 and 37, also running an option/option/prime/prime strategy. The team averaged 22.216 seconds in the pit lane over six pit stops, with Michael the day's fastest three-stopper.

Ross Brawn: "That was a tough but ultimately rewarding race today. Nico didn't get the best of starts and lost some positions which made the early part of the race difficult, but he had a very good drive to fight his way back up to fifth place. Michael did well to recover a point in 10th place, considering that he started at the back of the grid in 22nd. We saw again today that if you get the car right on the day, it makes a great deal of difference, with Red Bull and Lotus clearly getting their cars in better shape than we did. We will learn more lessons from today, however we made the best of what we had so I'm reasonably happy. Now we can look forward to some time back at the factory to improve the car before the next race."

Norbert Haug: "Having started fifth, Nico was running in ninth by the end of lap one. More than to recover to fifth place was not possible afterwards. Following Nico's victory in China, we handled the tyres quite well on this track in hotter temperatures, and we showed that we have a good base to work from. Michael came home in 10th place after starting in 22nd, which is a good result considering the extremely high level of competition this year. We are now looking forward to the next race in Barcelona where Mercedes will, like most of the teams, introduce upgrades which will be evaluated during the Mugello test."

Both cars started on the yellow-marked soft Pirelli P-Zero. Romain changed to a set on mediums on lap 10, then made two further stops for more mediums on laps 25 and 40. Kimi pitted for a set of softs on lap 11, then fresh sets of mediums on laps 24 and 39.

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: "It was a great team performance today and I'm delighted for everyone, both here in the paddock and back at Enstone. The first three races were very frustrating, as we knew we were capable of a result like this. Until now, small details have hindered our performance, so it's almost a relief to finally show what we are capable of. We took a bit of a gamble on strategy and I'm pleased to say it paid off. Both drivers put in a fantastic performance, and to have two cars not just on the podium but so closely matched all through the race demonstrates what a strong line-up we have. I'm immensely proud of what we've achieved today."

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations: "We've been saying over the last few races that podium finishes were on their way and today we've proved that. To come from eleventh to score a strong second, challenging for the win was an awesome performance from Kimi and shows that the E20 is a superb race car. For Romain to match Kimi's pace and finish just seven seconds behind him despite having fewer new tyres is a comparably impressive performance. Our race strategy calls today were not as tricky as we've seen in other races. We knew we had to make three stops and it became clear as the race went on that our main question was could we beat Sebastian (Vettel)? We gave it a good go. It wasn't a perfect performance this weekend - we weren't happy with our performance on the soft tyres in qualifying - but it's clear we have a car which has the pace to win races."

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: "Considering everything that has gone on this week, I am delighted to see such a strong team performance in today's race. We took a brave call on the strategy with Paul, but it paid off, and having saved the tyres yesterday allowed us to push the two-stop window right to the limit. Once again Paul drove a superb race, lapping consistently and making the strategy work perfectly. This sixth place is well-deserved and matches his best result in Formula One. It's a shame that Nico was the victim of a clutch issue on the opening lap, otherwise I'm sure he would have been up there fighting for points as well. Before we leave Bahrain I want to pay tribute to the team once again and thank each and every one of them for helping make today's result possible."

Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Head of Track Engineering: "The key point of the race was on lap one when we lost positions. The start was possibly not so good. That's something we have to look into. From that point on we were unable to recover. With Sergio we had planned a three stop strategy, and we were a bit aggressive with the first stop, but the competition reacted, and we could not benefit. With Kamui we decided to go for a two stop strategy, but in the second stint degradation came earlier than expected, so we had to bring him in. Then the third stint was too long, so he had to make another pitstop. Altogether we were not strong enough today to recover from all that."

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: Both cars had good starts gaining quite a few positions by the end of the first lap. Pastor's first stint of the race was decent but unfortunately he spun on lap 25 due to a problem on the left-rear of the car, which forced us to retire him from the race. We are still investigating this problem. Bruno was running in the mid-field for the majority of the race, but a few laps from the finish he complained of a worsening problem with the handling of the car and we took the difficult decision to retire his car too. As a team we now need to regroup and keep pushing in preparation for both the Mugello test and forthcoming Barcelona race.

Laurent Debout, Renault Sport F1 team support leader: It was a shame that we could not get some points in the 150th race for Williams-Renault. We introduced some new settings this race to improve driveability and the drivers were happy with the balance. Pastor's pace in the first part of the race was good, but from the starting positions it was always going to be hard to make up positions. All the same we've now got some time before the next race to look at everything in detail and improve next time out.

Mark Smith, Technical Director: "We can be pleased with today's performance from both cars. Despite the puncture Heikki suffered on the first lap he put in a very strong drive all afternoon and Vitaly was also racing Ricciardo hard for most of the afternoon. This shows we are definitely making progress, and our qualifying performance yesterday gives us good reason to look forward to the European season which starts in two weeks in Barcelona. We have a number of updates planned for the next few races, and more to come throughout the season, so we will aim to keep building on this type of performance and keep edging closer to the teams ahead."

As expected, tyre management was key at the fourth event of the season and strategies varied from two to four pitstops. Pedro did three and finished the race to the limit, whereas Narain came in four times, enabling him to put together his best laps towards the end of the race. The good work put in by the drivers and the correct performance of the cars, thanks to the upgrades introduced, offer a positive view of this Grand Prix overall.

After more than a month on Asian soil, the Championship comes back closer to home for the European swing which gets underway on the 11th of May with the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya, with a previous stop-off in Mugello for three days of testing (1st-3rd May).

Luis Perez-Sala, Team Principal: "We passed another stern test here in Bahrain with the high temperatures and I'm very satisfied with how everything went. We met our targets again and I want to thank the team once more for its excellent job. Perhaps the negative side was that we wore the tyres out a lot and that's why we had to do a four-stop strategy. We tried to go for three with Pedro but he finished right on the limit so maybe it wasn't the best choice. Reliability was also good and the team is working well. We can say that we are already at the standard with which we finished last year. From here we must progress".

Charles Pic started the race from P19 on the grid, with Timo displaced to P23 by penalties for drivers further up the field. True to form, Timo fought hard on the opening lap to make up the deficit and the two drivers were running in P19 and P20 respectively at that stage before settling into P20 and 21.

The opening stint of the race was the most critical, as with a heavy fuel load the tyre degradation was always going to be at its most severe. It was clear that from lap three onwards Timo was struggling with the balance of his car, whilst Charles was managing the tyres well and was able to stay out longer ahead of his first pitstop.

Charles' second stint was progressing equally well until lap 24 of the race when his car suffered a drop in pressure with the AVS (Air Valve System) and he was forced to retire, unable to make it back to the garage for his second pitstop.

Timo took the chequered flag to P19, securing further valuable mileage and data in challenging circumstances for the Pirelli P-Zero rubber, but it was far from an easy ride. He too experienced the AVS consumption issue and his car was off-balance for much of the race.

John Booth, Team Principal: "On a positive note, in today's race we saw a continuation of Charles' increasingly strong form and consolidation of his good work from yesterday. It's a real shame that the as yet undiagnosed AVS problem on the engine forced an early retirement during a period of the race where Charles was very competitive with respect to the cars that he was racing. Timo was also beset by the same engine issue and we'll work hard with Cosworth in the next few days to understand the causes of these problems. Unfortunately, our slightly bigger issue has been with the handling characteristics of Timo's car, which came into play from Saturday morning onwards. We have to identify and properly understand the problems that he has been experiencing with the car. Fortunately the Mugello test in one week's time will provide us with some opportunity to iron out these issues away from the pressures of a race weekend. I would like to take this opportunity to commend the team on a job very well done throughout the first four races, which have each brought their own unique challenges. We leave the opening long haul leg behind as a much stronger team and with plenty of cause for optimism for the start of the European season."

The German driver started off using the P Zero Yellow soft tyre, and then moved onto the P Zero White medium after 11 laps before completing his final stints on the P Zero Yellow soft followed by the P Zero White medium.

Bahrain is one of the most demanding circuits of the year in terms of tyre degradation, due to a frequently dirty track and several low to medium speed corners that ask a lot from the rear tyres in terms of traction.

As a result, knowing how to manage the tyres and contain thermal degradation was a vital skill throughout the 57-lap race, although the grand prix started in comparatively cool conditions with gusting winds and track temperatures of around 32 degrees centigrade.

Most drivers selected a three-stop strategy, but Force India's Paul di Resta opted for a two-stop strategy. The Scot made his final set of medium tyres last for 24 laps before ending up sixth, having started from 10th on the grid after not completing a qualifying run in Q3 in order to save tyres. Di Resta finished just behind Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, who chose to do just one run in Q3 to conserve an extra set of softs.

Lotus GP driver and former World Champion Kimi Raikkonen started 11th on the grid after missing out on Q3, but this also meant that he saved several fresh sets of tyres for the race. The Finn used these to good effect, challenging Vettel for the lead from the halfway point on the race, when Raikkonen was on the medium tyre and Vettel on the soft. During their final stints, after they both stopped on the same lap, both drivers used the medium compound. Having brought the tyre up to temperature, Vettel was able to pull away from the Lotus driver, but Raikkonen closed back up to him in the closing stages after conserving the tyres at the beginning of the final stint.

Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher also used a three-stop strategy to climb back up the field, finishing in the points after having to start 22nd on the grid following a gearbox change penalty.

Paul Hembery: "This was certainly a very technically challenging race, on a circuit that we had never experienced in racing conditions before. Nonetheless, we chose to bring our soft compound together with the medium in order to provide plenty of opportunities for strategy. Although degradation was a factor in this race, which was already evident from the tactics adopted in qualifying, the tyres stood up extremely well to the demands that were placed on them. During the closing stages of the race, the priority for the drivers was to ensure that the tyres didn't fall off 'the cliff' of performance: a task that they all managed very well. The closeness of the racing this year, during which we have narrowed the performance gap between our compounds, is reflected in the fact that we've seen four different winners in four races. It was also a great result for Lotus with two cars on the podium - and the first podium for our former test driver Romain Grosjean, who was with us when we tested at Bahrain in 2010: the experience was clearly useful to him. As for Kimi, he seems to have made the transition from our rally tyres to our P Zero race tyres pretty well!"