With two wins from two races under their belt in the new Formula One season, Mercedes are powering confidently towards another speedster’s paradise in Bahrain this week, albeit with a watchful eye on fast improving rivals Red Bull.

Lewis Hamilton’s pole-to-flag victory on Sunday ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg looked comfortable in the scorching Sepang sunshine, but quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel had managed to split the pair in a wet qualifying session.

The German Red Bull driver fell behind Rosberg before the first corner on race day in Malaysia but managed to push his compatriot for long periods before the gap widened in the final stages of the 56-lap race.

Vettel’s 15 points for third place were Red Bull’s first of the season and a jump in the right direction for a team that looked in disarray during winter testing after their Renault power unit suffered reliability woes.

“The last day of testing was four weeks ago or something and they were absolutely nowhere and now he (Vettel) was right in the back of me, pushing me,” Rosberg said.

Rosberg leads the drivers championship on 43 points, ahead of Hamilton (25) and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso (24).

Vettel’s team-mate, Daniel Ricciardo, also showed promising signs before a botched pit stop, damaged front wing and punctured tyre led to him retiring on lap 49.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was optimistic that they had made progress in bridging the gap on the pace setters.

“Considering where we were a month ago, to be on the podium with Sebastian in Malaysia in a dry race, is an incredible performance,” he said.

Adding fuel to the Renault-powered revival was Russian rookie Danil Kvyat grabbing 10th to give Toro Rosso a second weekend of points after a top-10 finish in Australia.

Even struggling Lotus managed to finish a race, with Romain Grosjean ending in 11th in Malaysia.

However, they were all second best to Mercedes, whose pace on the quick Sepang straights was too much for the Red Bulls.

With similarly long straights awaiting them in Manama before they head to another Hermann Tilke designed circuit in China after that, Horner was thinking small in the short term.

“For Bahrain, I don’t think there is going to be a solution and it does not tend to rain much in Bahrain so we are obviously going to try and make us much progress as we can in the week and hopefully we can nudge a bit closer to them,” he said.

“A lot of the issues are software related so hopefully the steps can be made and we can close that gap down.”