Superb last few laps gets Hamilton his 96th victory

By Malhaar Khaladkar

Lewis Hamilton took a sensational win at the 2021 season opening Bahrain Grand Prix by just 0.7s from the rapid Red Bull of Max Verstappen, breaking Michael Schumacher’s record of most laps led in the process. Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas completed the podium as he set the fastest lap of the race on lap 56.

London, 29 March 2021: Defending superbly and nurturing the tyres in the last few laps, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton took his 96^th career victory ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who fought for the lead till the last lap. Valtteri Bottas finishing P3 with an extra point for the fastest lap for the race. McLaren’s Lando Norris finished P4 in their new Mercedes powered challenger, ahead of his latest teammate Daniel Ricciardo who crossed the line in P7. Sergio Perez finished P5 in his new Red Bull machinery, after starting from the pitlane due to power unit issues on the formation lap. Charles Leclerc finished in P6 in the much-improved Ferrari SF21, two places ahead of new teammate Carlos Sainz. AlphaTauri rookie Yuki Tsunoda achieved his first points as he finished P9 on debut, ahead of Lance Stroll in the re-branded Aston Martin team.

Alfa Romeo pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi finished P11 and P12 respectively. It was an unsuccessful race for Alpine after Esteban Ocon only managed P13- partly due to being hit by Sebastian Vettel from behind- and veteran returnee Fernando Alonso retiring due to break failure. Williams’ George Russell finished P14, ahead of Sebastian Vettel in P15 as his teammate Nicholas Latifi DNF’d from the race. Other DNF’s included Pierre Gasly and Nikita Mazepin. Mick Schumacher was the last to finish in P16.

Drama ensued before the race started as Perez’s car shut down on formation lap at turn 13 and came to a standstill. Due to this, an extra formation lap took place while Perez’s car could be recovered. As luck would have it, Perez was able to start his car, but had to start from the pitlane as per regulations.

Verstappen covered Hamilton at the start and both maintained positions. Leclerc was aggressive and got ahead of Bottas in P3. Meanwhile, Norris got ahead of his new teammate Ricciardo. The new Aston Martin Vantage safety car was called into action as Mazepin spun and went into the wall at Turn 3, ending his first F1 race.

The race got underway on lap 4, with Verstappen leaving the restart as late as possible, to decrease the chances of Hamilton slip streaming and overtaking him. As Hamilton started chasing Verstappen, Bottas passed Leclerc for P3, Norris followed suit and passed Leclerc for P4. Gasly’s front wing unfortunately touched Ricciardo’s rear left tyre and dislodged it, sending the Frenchman to the back of the grid.

Alpine and Alonso pulled the trigger to initiate the first round of pitstops on lap 11, with Alonso electing the medium tyres. Lap 12 saw Norris, Leclerc, Stroll and Giovinazzi pit. Everyone going on the mediums except for the Alfa Romeo who chose hard tyres. At the front, Mercedes pulled the trigger and pitted Hamilton for a set of hard tyres in a bid to undercut Verstappen. It seemed to work as the Dutchman pitted four laps later albeit for medium tyres. Once he came out, Hamilton had a six second advantage on him.

Hamilton’s advantage eroded quickly as Verstappen was within 1.5-2s, this time Hamilton in a danger of being undercut. Bottas was close behind to the top two cars. Behind, Norris maintained P4, ahead of Leclerc, Ricciardo, Stroll and Sainz- who battled with former Ferrari drivers Alonso and Vettel to get up to P8.

Mercedes once more protected against the undercut, pitting Hamilton on lap 28 for another set of hard tyres, Bottas followed suit 2 laps later. Although a slow stop by Mercedes meant Bottas came out in P5, though, Norris and Leclerc were yet to pit, giving him a net P3. With Hamilton in P2 and steadily reducing the gap to Verstappen, Red Bull boxed him on lap 39 for hard tyres. This meant he would have 10 laps fresher tyres compared to Hamilton. He came out 8.6s behind the Mercedes.

Alonso’s F1 return ended abruptly on lap 33 due to brake issues. Meanwhile, Perez behind was making steady gains as he was now behind Ricciardo and Leclerc. Vettel too had a dismal debut for Aston Martin as he ploughed into the back of Ocon, spinning them both and earning the German a 10-second time penalty.

At the front, Verstappen was right on the gearbox of Hamilton as the difference was around about 1s. On lap 53, Verstappen with help of DRS got a run on Hamilton exiting turn 3 and seemed to get past him on the exit of turn 4. Only he had gone too wide and extended the track limits while overtaking the Mercedes car and thus, was instructed to give the place back to Hamilton. After that point Verstappen couldn’t get close enough to mount another challenge ultimately finishing second.

The first blow was dealt by Mercedes, but Red Bull know they can consistently challenge the Silver Arrows in the upcoming races. It is game on for 2021!

Mercedes clearly lacked qualifying pace as they for three-tenths off the pole position. In race trim they were matched with Red Bull as aggressive strategy and brilliant tyre management by Hamilton earned them the victory and double podium. The W12 is not in the sweet spot and clearly has lots of room for improvement. Mercedes will be hopeful to iron out these issues as soon as possible to challenge Red Bull, especially in qualifying. Red Bull’s RB16B looks like the class of the field at the moment. The car looks stable and with immense work put in by Honda over the winter they are the favorites this season. Once again reliability hampered them as Perez had to start from the pitlane. It will be interesting to watch the development race between Mercedes and Red Bull this season.

McLaren have made a step forward, owing to the new Mercedes power unit as they still look like the best midfield car, though, it is early to say that. Ferrari too, have made a step forward, especially in the power unit department as both cars were able to achieve points finishes, similar to their papaya orange rivals. The AlphaTauri car has looked stable and fast, but their true pace cannot be gauged due to Gasly’s incident which resulted in damage and Tsunoda’s starting position compromised due to qualifying.

The same can be said about both the Aston Martin and Alpine cars. Both teams did not have the best qualifying result, with only one of their cars reaching Q3. Race Pace remains a question mark too, as both teams exhibited good pace in the middle stints of the race but were unable to be consistent or reliability hampering their progress. Aston Martin admitted that the low rake (rake is the difference between the front and rear ride height of the car) cars getting disadvantaged the most from the new regulations.

Alfa Romeo have made a clear step forward as they just missed out on points. Thanks to the brand-new Ferrari power unit, straight line speed is not their weakness anymore. Williams look like they have made a step forward with the car, as raw pace suggests they are faster than Haas. It remains to be seen if they can challenge for the points in future. Haas have admitted that their car is underdeveloped, and that the final version will make an appearance at Imola in round 2.After that no upgrades will be introduced for the whole of 2021 as they have shifted their focus and resources on 2022.

Saturday Qualifying results were: