By . Phil Duncan . Esteban Gutierrez was taken to hospital for precautionary checks after his jaw-dropping crash with Pastor Maldonado in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix. Maldonado was handed three penalties by the stewards after the stunning incident which saw Gutierrez roll his Sauber. The Lotus driver clumsily t-boned Gutierrez as he exited the pits, subsequently flipping the Sauber airborne. Roll over: Pastor Maldonado t-bones Esteban Gutierrez thus launching the Sauber airborne . Going over: The Sauber driver was taken to hospital for precautionary checks but later released . In trouble: The Mexican was fortunate to walk away from the accident relatively unscathed . The view from on-board: Gutierrez is left a passenger as his Sauber is sent airborne by Maldonado . The crash led to the deployment of the safety car, with Gutierrez fortunate to walk away relatively unscathed from the incident on lap 40. Maldonado was handed a ten second stop-and-go penalty during the race by the stewards, and a five-place grid penalty to be served at the Chinese Grand Prix in a fortnight. As a further punishment, he was also given three penalty points on his licence. Nine more and he'll be hit with a one-race ban. 'Good news! Esteban Gutierrez has completed all medical checks and everything is fine. He has been released from the hospital,' Sauber later said. Hats off to all at Mercedes for allowing Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg go toe-to-toe for the race win. It would have been much easier for the top brass at Mercedes to impose team orders on the duelling pair and thus denying us all of a brilliant spectacle. Refreshingly Paddy Lowe asked both drivers to bring both cars home – as opposed to requesting them to hold station – and his order was duly obliged. Can Mercedes however, continue with this approach? I see no reason why not. Such is their advantage, they could collide at more than one race this season and still lead both championships.  Indeed, the Silver Arrows are already 67 points clear of their nearest challengers. Whether such an occurrence would be good for team morale is, however, another debate. Team game: Mercedes celebrated their second 1-2 finish in as many races - they lead the constructors' championship . Pure theatre: Rosberg (left) and Hamilton duel for the lead of the Bahrain Grand Prix . Three-time world champion Niki Lauda claimed Sunday's race was one of the greatest grands prix he'd ever witnessed – high praise indeed from a man who has been involved in the sport for the best part of five decades. 'If anybody complains that F1 is boring then they are an idiot,' he added. And few would contest Lauda's sentiments. Aside from one of the greatest on-track battles for the win, there was also action right throughout the field. From the warring Williams duo of Valterri Bottas and Felipe Massa, to a sublime inter-team battle between Force India drivers' Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg, and Daniel Ricciardo picking his way through the field after starting 13th, Sunday's race really did have it all. If this is Formula One in crisis, then you'll have no complaints from me. Roll on, China. What drama: The Bahrain Grand Prix was one of the finest Formula One races in recent times . 'Daniel is quicker than you. Let him go by please'. The radio message relayed to Sebastian Vettel that none of us ever expected to hear. Ricciardo wasn't given a hope in heck of showing up his four-time world champion team-mate after he was unveiled as Mark Webber's successor at Red Bull. How wrong we all were. After blowing his Red Bull team-mate away in qualifying, Vettel was then ordered to move out of Ricciardo's way during Sunday's race. Admittedly the two were on differing strategies at that point in the race. But in the closing stages of the grand prix, with Ricciardo behind Vettel, the Australian, brimming with confidence, laid down another marker on his team-mate when he executed a perfect move for fifth place. He then passed Nico Hulkenberg before coming up just short of a podium finish. Not bad after starting 13th. Bravo. Man on a mission: Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth after starting Sunday's race in 13th following his grid penalty . Jenson Button marked his 250th grand prix with McLaren ahead of Sunday's race as the team posed for a host of group photos sporting commemorative t-shirts. It's a good job they celebrated Button's impressive landmark before the race as they had little to fawn over in the aftermath. Kevin Magnussen became the first McLaren driver to retire from a race since Lewis Hamilton crashed out at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2012 when he suffered a terminal gearbox issue . And the problem was somewhat contagious with Button suffering a similar race-ending glitch. 'I was running in fifth and it was going to be a interesting race,' said Button. 'The guys then said stop changing gears which was a little bit difficult. 'At the restart it took a second to change at every gear shift. I thought we could get to the end but it failed and we had to retire.' Button's 250th start came in Formula One's 900th race meaning the Brit can boast appearing in 28 per cent of all world championship races.
Esteban Gutierrez hospitalised after he is t-boned by Pastor Maldonado .
Maldonado slapped with five-place grid drop for Chinese Grand Prix .
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg involved in memorable battle for win .
Sebastian Vettel is ordered to make way for team-mate Daniel Ricciardo .
Jenson Button retires with gearbox glitch on 250th grand prix appearance .
By . Phil Duncan . Esteban Gutierrez was taken to hospital for precautionary checks after his jaw-dropping crash with Pastor Maldonado in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix. Maldonado was handed three penalties by the stewards after the stunning incident which saw Gutierrez roll his Sauber. The Lotus driver clumsily t-boned Gutierrez as he exited the pits, subsequently flipping the Sauber airborne. Roll over: Pastor Maldonado t-bones Esteban Gutierrez thus launching the Sauber airborne . Going over: The Sauber driver was taken to hospital for precautionary checks but later released . In trouble: The Mexican was fortunate to walk away from the accident relatively unscathed . The view from on-board: Gutierrez is left a passenger as his Sauber is sent airborne by Maldonado . The crash led to the deployment of the safety car, with Gutierrez fortunate to walk away relatively unscathed from the incident on lap 40. Maldonado was handed a ten second stop-and-go penalty during the race by the stewards, and a five-place grid penalty to be served at the Chinese Grand Prix in a fortnight. As a further punishment, he was also given three penalty points on his licence. Nine more and he'll be hit with a one-race ban. 'Good news! Esteban Gutierrez has completed all medical checks and everything is fine. He has been released from the hospital,' Sauber later said. Hats off to all at Mercedes for allowing Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg go toe-to-toe for the race win. It would have been much easier for the top brass at Mercedes to impose team orders on the duelling pair and thus denying us all of a brilliant spectacle. Refreshingly Paddy Lowe asked both drivers to bring both cars home – as opposed to requesting them to hold station – and his order was duly obliged. Can Mercedes however, continue with this approach? I see no reason why not. Such is their advantage, they could collide at more than one race this season and still lead both championships.  Indeed, the Silver Arrows are already 67 points clear of their nearest challengers. Whether such an occurrence would be good for team morale is, however, another debate. Team game: Mercedes celebrated their second 1-2 finish in as many races - they lead the constructors' championship . Pure theatre: Rosberg (left) and Hamilton duel for the lead of the Bahrain Grand Prix . Three-time world champion Niki Lauda claimed Sunday's race was one of the greatest grands prix he'd ever witnessed – high praise indeed from a man who has been involved in the sport for the best part of five decades. 'If anybody complains that F1 is boring then they are an idiot,' he added. And few would contest Lauda's sentiments. Aside from one of the greatest on-track battles for the win, there was also action right throughout the field. From the warring Williams duo of Valterri Bottas and Felipe Massa, to a sublime inter-team battle between Force India drivers' Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg, and Daniel Ricciardo picking his way through the field after starting 13th, Sunday's race really did have it all. If this is Formula One in crisis, then you'll have no complaints from me. Roll on, China. What drama: The Bahrain Grand Prix was one of the finest Formula One races in recent times . 'Daniel is quicker than you. Let him go by please'. The radio message relayed to Sebastian Vettel that none of us ever expected to hear. Ricciardo wasn't given a hope in heck of showing up his four-time world champion team-mate after he was unveiled as Mark Webber's successor at Red Bull. How wrong we all were. After blowing his Red Bull team-mate away in qualifying, Vettel was then ordered to move out of Ricciardo's way during Sunday's race. Admittedly the two were on differing strategies at that point in the race. But in the closing stages of the grand prix, with Ricciardo behind Vettel, the Australian, brimming with confidence, laid down another marker on his team-mate when he executed a perfect move for fifth place. He then passed Nico Hulkenberg before coming up just short of a podium finish. Not bad after starting 13th. Bravo. Man on a mission: Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth after starting Sunday's race in 13th following his grid penalty . Jenson Button marked his 250th grand prix with McLaren ahead of Sunday's race as the team posed for a host of group photos sporting commemorative t-shirts. It's a good job they celebrated Button's impressive landmark before the race as they had little to fawn over in the aftermath. Kevin Magnussen became the first McLaren driver to retire from a race since Lewis Hamilton crashed out at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2012 when he suffered a terminal gearbox issue . And the problem was somewhat contagious with Button suffering a similar race-ending glitch. 'I was running in fifth and it was going to be a interesting race,' said Button. 'The guys then said stop changing gears which was a little bit difficult. 'At the restart it took a second to change at every gear shift. I thought we could get to the end but it failed and we had to retire.' Button's 250th start came in Formula One's 900th race meaning the Brit can boast appearing in 28 per cent of all world championship races.
jaw-dropping crash with Pastor Maldonado in Maldonado t-bones Esteban Gutierrez thus grid penalty to be served at the Chinese Grand for allowing Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg go the Bahrain Grand Prix . Three-time world Nico Hulkenberg, and Daniel Ricciardo picking his radio message relayed to Sebastian Vettel that four-time world champion team-mate after he was ordered to move out of Ricciardo's way during penalty . Jenson Button marked his 250th grand