The Mercedes driver's 55th career win was hard-fought and tense, however, with Ferrari's Vettel seizing the lead at the start and in the hunt all the way to the finish as the tyre strategies played out.
Formula One championship leader Nico Rosberg put Mercedes on pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday and ended team mate Lewis Hamilton's hopes of a hat-trick.
Britain's Lewis Hamilton eased his Mercedes to a dominant victory in the German Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday and secured his fourth victory in a row.
Lewis Hamilton feels he faces "pretty impossible odds" going into Formula One's Abu Dhabi title-decider while Mercedes team mate and rival Nico Rosberg says he will treat Sunday's race like any other. Both are being disingenuous, of course. Hamilton knows he still has a real chance and Rosberg is well aware just how much is at stake. While Rosberg is the favourite to win the 'Duel in the Desert', needing only to finish on the Yas Marina podium to become Germany's third world champion after Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, he will still be on tenterhooks.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton set the pace in an incident-filled opening Monaco Grand Prix practice on Thursday, with debris and a loose drain cover bringing an early end to the session.
Nico Rosberg swept to his fifth successive pole position on Saturday with Mercedes team mate and triple Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton qualifying alongside on the Brazilian Grand Prix front row.
"Don't ever write that guy off. It's not over until it's over," said former F1 champion Damon Hill.
The four times world champion is enjoying his best start to a season since he was at Red Bull in 2011, leading Lewis Hamilton by seven points after two wins and a second place from the first three races.
Five-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova cut a forlorn figure in the post-match press conference as she was questioned about her injury problems.
US Open champion Naomi Osaka fought back tears and rallied from a set down to outlast Zhang Shuai 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the China Open quarter-finals on Friday.
Sebastian Vettel won a tense Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday in a Ferrari one-two that stretched his championship lead to 14 points after Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton sportingly surrendered third place to his teammate.
The world champion set up a front row duel with title rival Juan Pablo Montoya in the Sunday's Italian Grand Prix.
John Button, father of 2009 world champion Jenson and a popular presence in the Formula One paddock, has died of a suspected heart attack aged 70.
French driver Esteban Ocon will race for Force Indianext season after agreeing a multi-year deal, the Silverstone-based Formula One team said in a statement at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Thursday. Ocon replaces experienced German Nico Hulkenberg, who is moving to Renault, alongside Mexican Sergio Perez at a team co-owned by Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya and currently fourth in the championship. The 20-year-old is contracted long-term to Mercedes, Force India's engine provider, and made his debut this year with the lowly Manor team as a mid-season replacement for Indonesian Rio Haryanto.
Top seed Serena Williams shook off a spirited attempt by Agnieszka Radwanska and moved into the final of the Rogers Cup with a 7-6(3), 6-4 victory on Saturday and will meet Romania's Sorana Cirstea, whose surprising run continued when she beat China's Li Na 6-1, 7-6(5).
Melbourne's air quality went down overnight to "hazardous" due to bushfire smoke. Sixteen fires were still burning and 1.4 million hectares have been destroyed across Victoria.
She beat fellow-American Lindsay Davenport 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 in the final.
Images from Day 6 of Wimbledon at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London, on Saturday.
If Fernando Alonso were to beat the odds and win the Indianapolis 500 on May 28, the double Formula One world champion will be one step away from the 'Triple Crown of Motorsport'.
Images from the matches played at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, in Wimbledon, London, on Monday.
Swiss racer Simona De Silvestro's hopes of becoming the first woman since 1976 to race in Formula One have suffered a setback with the Sauber team ending a testing deal due to her lack of funds.
Germany's Nick Heidfeld was second fastest as he did his best to impress Williams in a wet and windy Formula One test session.
Sebastian Vettel led a Ferrari one-two at the top of the timesheets in final practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday, ending the stranglehold of previously dominant champions Mercedes. Vettel lapped the Sakhir Circuit in a best time of one minute 31.683 seconds, 0.040 faster than team mate Kimi Raikkonen on the supersoft tyres. It was the first time this season that any driver from outside the Mercedes pairing of Nico Rosberg and triple world champion Lewis Hamilton had ended practice on top. Hamilton was quickest in all three sessions in Australia two weeks ago while championship frontrunner Rosberg led his team mate in Bahrain practices one and two on Friday. Rosberg was third fastest in practice three, his time of 1:32.104 slower than Friday when he did 1:31.001, with Hamilton fourth.
Hamilton's flying lap of one minute 22.188 seconds set a new record at Albert Park but was only 0.268 seconds in front of German Vettel, offering the tantalising prospect of a competitive championship after three years of domination by the Silver Arrows.
This week's collection of unbelievably unusual images from across the world
The pole was Hamilton's eighth in nine races this season and the 46th of his career for the championship leader, who won at Silverstone last year and has a 10 point advantage over the German.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Friday
Lewis Hamilton moved within reach of a fourth Formula One world championship on Sunday after winning a Japanese Grand Prix that saw Ferrari title rival Sebastian Vettel retire with engine problems.
Sergio Perez expects to have his Formula One future decided before next month's Malaysian Grand Prix and said on Thursday that he is currently weighing up two options.
A summary of Thursday's play at the French Open.
Williams driver Felipe Massa has revealed that he considered quitting Formula One after Marussia driver Jules Bianchi's 160 miles-per-hour horror accident during the Japanese Grand Prix.
A fired-up Serena Williams sent out a warning to the young pretenders of women's tennis when she powered to a crushing 6-1, 6-3 victory over World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka to win the Madrid Open on Sunday.
The glittering career of Russian former World No 1 Maria Sharapova was in tatters after she was given a two-year ban by the International Tennis Federation. Check out the high points in her career...
Indian-American Ghazala Hashmi, a former community college professor, created history by becoming the first Muslim woman to be elected to the Virginia State Senate.
German Nico Rosberg eased to victory in a chaotic Belgian Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday.
Ana Ivanovic recovered from her opening loss to race to a 6-1, 6-3 victory over an out-of-sorts Eugenie Bouchard on Wednesday, putting the world number seven back into the mix for a WTA Finals last-four berth.
The FIA said that the hearing will be held in Paris, and the decision will be announced in a week's time.
IMAGES from Day 7 at Wimbledon on Monday
"It was not a problem of the mechanics, it was our problem and we have to make sure we fix it"
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton won the Bahrain Grand Prix for the second year in a row on Sunday with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen back on the podium to deny Mercedes another one-two finish under the floodlights.
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