Lewis Hamilton wins the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix following Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, giving up the lead….
There’s been a lot of hype surrounding the new Formula 1 season and today, we had a really great start to the season with fans of the sport (including myself) hoping for many more close battles.
Red Bull Racing has been the team to beat (so far), showing their strength in pre-season testing – along with Practices and Qualifying this weekend.
Despite Sergio Perez having issues on the initial formation lap, the driver managed to get his car up and running, starting the race from the pit lane.
Starting off the race well, the Red Bull Racing driver, Max Verstappen, managed to hold on to the lead – leaving Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas behind with Leclerc putting the pressure on Bottas, at the start.
Unfortunately for Mick Schumacher, he spun off track (but re-joined) along with incidents happening between Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo, who lost his front wing resulting in a Virtual Safety Car.
Over the team radio, we could hear Max Verstappen telling the team that he was having issues when applying throttle.
With Mercedes bringing in Lewis Hamilton on Lap 13 (earlier than expected), there were a few questions about the strategy however Hamilton’s pace was extremely strong – putting the pressure on Red Bull Racing.
Red Bull Racing called Max Verstappen into the pits on Lap 17 and from here, the battle for the win was firmly between Verstappen and Hamilton – with Verstappen pushing.
On Lap 28, Hamilton was brought into the pits with Mercedes telling Hamilton that they were wary of a Red Bull Racing “undercut” – following Hamilton saying that he could have stayed out for longer.
On Lap 39, Max Verstappen came into the pits and once back out on the track showed his strength, setting the fastest lap time of 1:33:228 – closing the gap to Hamilton, again, who re-took the lead.
Max Verstappen closed the gap quickly and put the pressure on Lewis Hamilton – taking the lead at one point however quickly gave the place back following “race control orders” as mentioned over the team radio by Christian Horner.
With Max Verstappen pushing for the lead, he couldn’t close the gap in time with Lewis Hamilton winning the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix – an extra lap or two and it would have been a different story.
The first race of the season has been fantastic for McLaren with Lando Norris finishing the race in P4 and saying over the radio “are the fireworks for me?” – celebrating the great result with his team.
Despite his start, Sergio Perez climbed through the grid, finishing in P5 – a great result for him as he could have been out of the race, right from the start.
The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc finished in P6 – an OK (not brilliant) result for the team with his new team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr finishing further back in P8.
Mattia Binnotto has said that he will not be attending all of the races this year – he will also be back at Maranello for a lot of the season, overlooking the development of the 2022 Formula 1 car.
Daniel Ricciardo finished in P7 – a good start for him at McLaren and by looking at his team-mate, there’s much more to come from the team it seems.
Sebastian Vettel didn’t have a good start to his season, finishing the race in P15 with Mick Schumacher in P16.
Take a look at the timing sheet below.
| POS | DRIVER | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:32:03.897 | 25 | |
| 2 | +0.745s | 18 | |
| 3 | +37.383s | 16 | |
| 4 | +46.466s | 12 | |
| 5 | +52.047s | 10 | |
| 6 | +59.090s | 8 | |
| 7 | +66.004s | 6 | |
| 8 | +67.100s | 4 | |
| 9 | +85.692s | 2 | |
| 10 | +86.713s | 1 | |
| 11 | +88.864s | 0 | |
| 12 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 13 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 14 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 15 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 16 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 17 | DNF | 0 | |
| 18 | DNF | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 |
The Formula 1 Girl
