It was what everyone was hoping for. A fight between two titans of Formula One. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. A battle that swung in both directions on multiple occasions, when Hamilton managed to get the undercut, then had to go long whilst Verstappen went short. This led to a thrilling fight when Verstappen chipped away at that gap and in the closing laps did everything he could to get past and got a run. But attempting a pass on the outside at Turn 4, he put all 4 wheels off the track and had to cede the position. From then on he couldn’t fight back, and Lewis Hamilton took the victory, leading Max Verstappen home by less than a second.
Valtteri Bottas finished in third, having been eliminated from contention after a poor pitstop, eventually pitting and claiming the point for fastest lap. Lando Norris drove a good race to finish in fourth ahead of worthy driver of the day recipient Sergio Perez. His car shut down on the formation lap and he had to pull over, restarting the car and starting from the pits. In true Perez fashion, he fought his way to fifth from last. Charles Leclerc finished in sixth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in seventh and Carlos Sainz in eighth.
Yuki Tsunoda drove a solid debut to score points on his F1 debut in ninth place, pulling off some nice overtakes, with Lance Stroll rounding out the top 10 in the Aston Martin.
The two Alfa Romeos of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi finished in eleventh and twelfth respectively. Esteban Ocon finished in thirteenth after a difficult day in the Alpine. George Russell finished in fourteenth, ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who had a miserable race, picking up a 10 second time penalty after a collision with Esteban Ocon. Mick Schumacher finished in sixteenth ahead of Pierre Gasly, who’s race was destroyed after he lost his wing as a result of contact with Daniel Ricciardo. Whilst Nicholas Latifi rounds out the finishers. There were two retirements. Fernando Alonso had to pull into the pits after a rear brake issue, whilst Nikita Mazepin crashed out at Turn 3, bringing out the safety car.
Here is the result of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
RaceWeek 