Race Review: Bahrain

With fans on the edge of their seats, Bahrain 2021 was an epic season opener which has set the season up to be a fantastic one. The Bahrain track is 5.412km (3.363 miles) long, with 15 turns and held its first Grand Prix in 2004.

The Saturday qualifying session resulted in Verstappen starting on pole, with Hamilton P2, Bottas P3, Leclerc P4, Gasly P5, Ricciardo P6, Norris P7, Sainz P8, Alonso P9, Stroll P10, Perez P11, Giovinazzi P12, Tsunoda P13, Räikkönen P14, Russell P15, Ocon P16, Latifi P17, Vettel P18, Schumacher P19 and Mazepin P20. However, the stewards determined that Vettel ignored a yellow flag in Q1, pushing him to the back row of the grid to start in P20.

Before the race even started, there was drama. Sergio Perez's electrical issue, which caused him to pull over, resulted in formation lap 2.0, with the Mexican starting the race from the pit lane. As a result, the race became 56 laps instead of the usual 57.

After lights out, sparks quite literally flew into the first turn, with the battle between Verstappen and Hamilton kicking off immediately. Leclerc managed to overtake Bottas with Gasly retaining his position and Norris overtaking his teammate Ricciardo. After a Mazepin crash in turn 3, the safety car was deployed, with racing restarting in lap 4.

The restart resulted in Norris and Ricciardo overtaking Gasly, however, the Australian clipped the front wing of the AlphaTauri, forcing Gasly to box for a new front wing. Schumacher, like his teammate, spun, however was able to stay in the race. Bottas took back P3 from Leclerc, with Norris also overtaking the Ferrari three laps further down the line.

Verstappen managed to keep Hamilton at bay until his first pit stop in lap 17, where Hamilton took and retained the lead for the rest of the race, having boxed in lap 13. This put the Mercedes 7 seconds ahead.

After a 21 lap fight between Sainz, Alonso and Vettel, Sainz was up in 8th. As usual, pit stops changed the orders around a few times, including a 10.9s stop from Bottas. Alonso retired from his first race back due to brake issues in lap 33 and Perez has also managed to claw his way back up to P7 by lap 40.

It was safe to say that it was not a good day for Sebastian Vettel. After a grid penalty from Q1, which came with three penalty points, he received a 10 second penalty and two penalty points for driving straight into the back of Esteban Ocon on lap 44. Both cars spun but we able to carry on racing.

At lap 52, the Williams of Latifi retired due to a suspected boost leak. After Gasly's coming together with Ricciardo in the first lap, there was sadly too much damage to the floor which affected the car's performance so much that the Frenchman retired during lap 53.

Despite the initial 7 second gap between Verstappen and Hamilton, the dutchman gave the Brit a run for his money; he managed to overtake on the 53rd lap however, race control instructed the Red Bull to give the Mercedes back the lead as Verstappen overtook from outside the track limits by running too wide. It was a nail biting final few laps with the cars constantly battling for first place. Hamilton was struggling with rear tyre grips, Verstappen was struggling with the dirty air and with a gap of 0.745 seconds, Hamilton took his 96th career win. Hamilton also set a new record for the most laps lead in F1 history, passing Michael Schumacher's record of 5,111.

You can watch the thrilling battle in the final few laps here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WGoYtYJXFw

The final results were as follows:

It was poll position for Hamilton, followed closely by Verstappen in 2nd. Bottas came in 3rd, Norris 4th, Perez 5th, Leclerc 6th, Ricciardo 7th, Sainz 8th, Tsunoda 9th, Stroll 10th, Räikkönnen 11th, Giovinazzi 12th, Ocon 13th, Russell 14th, Vettel 15th, Schumacher 16th, with Gasly, Latifi, Alonso and Mazepin not finishing the race. Fastest lap, went to Bottas, gaining an extra point in the championship.

Driver Of The Day: Perez

It has to go to Sergio Perez.

From starting in the pits, dead last, and fighting his way through the pack to finish P5, Perez proved his skills and talent as a driver. This is not the first time he has clawed his way back at Bahrain. In the Sakhir 2020 race, Perez worked his way from last to take his first ever poll position on the podium. He is thoroughly deserving of driver of the day.

An honourable mention must go to Yuki Tsunoda. In his debut race, the driver came in 9th, becoming the first Japanese racer to score points since 2012, having overtaken racing legends such as Räikkönnen, Vettel and his hero Alonso during the race. He is also the only F1 driver ever to have been born in the 21st Century...

Crash Of The Day: Mazepin

Crash of the day has to go to the Nikita Mazepin. The Russian rookie spun out on the first lap, lasting only 3 corners of his debut race and flying into the barrier. The driver has been given the nickname "Mazespin", having managed to spin three times across the racing weekend. To keep up with Mazepin's spinning antics, makes sure to head over to: www.whendidmazepinspin.com/.

Overtake Of The Day: Sainz vs Alonso vs Vettel

There many textbook overtakes from the drivers this race, however a particularly great set came from Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. A 21 lap race between Sainz, Alonso and Vettel resulted in Sainz going ahead of the two drivers. It started in the order of Vettel, Alonso then Sainz, with Alonso overtaking Vettel and then Sainz pulling out on Vettel and Alonso in succession, gaining two places. Vettel then overtook Alonso again. You can watch the exciting manoeuvres her

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0yiezif3iU

Biggest Heartbreak: Verstappen

This has to go to Verstappen. Despite his overtake being illegal, it was clear to see from the post race interviews that the situation frustrated him. He so nearly took victory and would have been first in the driving standings, a great achievement for the Dutchman and the Red Bull team after such a long battle with Hamilton.

Best Radio Comment: Norris

'Were the fireworks for me?" - Lando Norris as he crossed the line in P4, commenting on the fireworks that were set off as Hamilton won the race. This is yet another witty line from the British driver. With some wholesome team exchanges and funny comments, Formula 1 have put together some of the best team radios from the race, which you can watch here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsNJrhuMf5w

Race Takeaways

This was definitely an exciting season opener and a fabulous race. One of the most exhilarating takeaways is that it seems Red Bull are real competition for the Mercedes, something we have not seen in a while. The speed that the Red Bull car can produce is such an exciting prospect and ensures that fans everywhere can not wait to see the Mercedes and Red Bull battle play out across the season.

There is also a clear improvement by the Ferrari team. The car was able to battle for the top spots in both qualifying and the race which is something they were unable to do in the 2020 season. Leclerc himself noted over the team radio at the end of the race that 'it was a good improvement from last year'. The McLaren cars also seem like they have some serious pace on them which was demonstrated by Norris' P4.

However, the same can not be said of the Haas. It may be that their rookie drivers are not quite there yet with the car but Gunther Steiner is unlikely to be happy with the result. The speed doesn't seem to be there on the car and they do not look like they have made as much progress as other similar teams, like Williams, have.

But, this is only the first race of the season, the battle for the constructors and drivers championship is on; who knows what is going to happen - maybe we will see the Red Bull team back at the top?

Up next is Imola - stay tuned for the race review of the first Italian GP of the season in two weeks time!