Lewis Hamilton fought off a late charge from Max Verstappen to win the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Red Bull driver looked to be the driver to beat all weekend, topping the timing sheets and claiming pole position. However it wasn’t enough to keep Hamilton at bay, with the Mercedes driver taking victory ahead of Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas.
Ferrari and McLaren seem to have the lead on the midfield. Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc had a great start at the Bahrain International Circuit: Charles managed to get passed Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and in the first few laps was in third position, but eventually the SF21 was not able to display the same race pace as Mercedes or even McLaren. Lando Norris got passed Charles Leclerc and despite and undercut in the second part of the race, Ferrari did not manage to recover the lost position. For it seems that for the moment McLaren is slightly faster on race pace, but the Maranello team does seem capable to challenge for third place in the Constructors Championship. In in the final laps, Charles tried to fight off the challenge of Sergio Perez, but the speed of the Red Bull car was superior.
Carlos Sainz started eighth on the grid and finished on the same position, but had to recover after a bad start. The Spanish driver managed a creat double overtake on Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso, before also overtaking Lance Stroll in the final stages of the race to recover and finish in eighth place.
Check out the full results below.
Race – Bahrain
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis HAMILTON | Mercedes | LAP 56 |
| 2 | Max VERSTAPPEN | Red Bull | + 0.745 |
| 3 | Valtteri BOTTAS | Mercedes | + 37.383 |
| 4 | Lando NORRIS | McLaren | + 46.466 |
| 5 | Sergio PÉREZ | Red Bull | + 52.047 |
| 6 | Charles LECLERC | Ferrari | + 59.090 |
| 7 | Daniel RICCIARDO | McLaren | + 66.004 |
| 8 | Carlos SAINZ | Ferrari | + 67.100 |
| 9 | Yuki TSUNODA | Alpha Tauri | + 85.692 |
| 10 | Lance STROLL | Aston Martin | + 86.713 |
| 11 | Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN | Alfa Romeo | + 88.864 |
| 12 | Antonio GIOVINAZZI | Alfa Romeo | + 1 L |
| 13 | Esteban OCON | Alpine | + 1 L |
| 14 | George RUSSELL | Williams | + 1 L |
| 15 | Sebastian VETTEL | Aston Martin | + 1 L |
| 16 | Mick SCHUMACHER | Haas | + 1 L |
| 17 | Pierre GASLY | Alpha Tauri | DNF |
| 18 | Nicholas LATIFI | Williams | DNF |
| 19 | Fernando ALONSO | Alpine | DNF |
| 20 | Nikita MAZEPIN | Haas | DNF |






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